New Whitewater

New Media, New Whitewater, Press, University

The Dark, Futile Dream

by JOHN ADAMS • 02/25/2015 • 1 Comment

UW-Whitewater is searching for a new chancellor, and so there’s a search committee, and a search consultant to guide that committee’s work. The consultant is Dr. Jessica Kozloff, the former president of a small, undistinguished college in Pennsylvania. (The UW System schools are, each of them, more competitive and developed than the one Dr. Kozloff…

City, Culture, Local Government, New Whitewater, Politics, School District, University

Whitewater’s Near Future Depends on What Year It Is Now

by JOHN ADAMS • 01/28/2015 • Comments

I’ve written that a New Whitewater is inevitable, that we have passed The End of The Beginning, and are now in a Middle Time between one way of life and another. When these changes will be wholly manifest depends on where we are in time, now, so to speak: ’35, ’55, or ’65. If we…

City, Culture, New Whitewater, Politics

The Absence of Equilibrium

by JOHN ADAMS • 12/29/2014 • Comments

Later this week, I’ll check to see how I did on my predictions for 2014, and make some new ones for 2015. The week of January 6th, I’ll elaborate on themes from the predictions for 2015. Here’s an observation, however, that I think describes Whitewater’s politics and culture, generally: there is an absence of equilibrium,…

Beautiful Whitewater, City, New Whitewater

Causes and Monuments

by JOHN ADAMS • 12/15/2014 • Comments

Early one morning, while you’re in a coffee shop, a woman walks through the door, orders an Americano, and sits down at your table. She sips ever so tentatively, while poring over a local newspaper. She turns to you and asks, “Do you know how I could leave my mark on this community?” You’re not…

Education, New Whitewater, School District

Whitewater Educational Referendum Post 3: An Invitation

by JOHN ADAMS • 10/29/2014 • 6 Comments

Like so many others in Whitewater, I am a believer in both proper schooling and lifelong learning. My father and uncle first introduced me to campus life when I was still a small boy. Years later, I had the pleasure of their visits to campus when I was a student. On those visits, my father…

City, Good Ideas, New Whitewater, Open Government

‘Best Practices, Fair Treatment, Transparency’

by JOHN ADAMS • 04/30/2014 • Comments

Writing about the city requires reading the public documents of local government, even if one chooses not to write about what one’s read. Reading and observing come well before writing. Daily observation inclines an observer not to the immediate, but the distant – one takes a longer view of things. Along the way,…

City, Local Government, New Whitewater, Open Government, Politics

Could the Koch Brothers Dominate Whitewater’s Politics?

by JOHN ADAMS • 04/28/2014 • 2 Comments

Assume for a moment that Charles and David Koch decided to use their vast billions to dominate Whitewater’s local politics. They’d spend whatever they had, under this hypothetical, to put their hand-picked candidates in office, for advertising, public relations, goodwill community events, and lobbying to get their way in elections, appointments, and in pressuring local…

City, Liberty, New Whitewater

Why Whitewater?

by JOHN ADAMS • 03/12/2014 • Comments

This post is the third of a trilogy about Whitewater. Months ago, I posted the first two of this series. (See, How Many Rights for Whitewater? and What Standards for Whitewater?). Those earlier posts may be summarized simply: Of rights — All of America, and all of Wisconsin, for all of Whitewater. Of standards — The…

City, Corporate Welfare, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, New Whitewater

The Middle Time

by JOHN ADAMS • 03/04/2014 • 3 Comments

While Whitewater is in a time of transition, from one way of life to a more diverse and prosperous one, she is only at the ‘end of the beginning’ of that transition. It’s a middle time now, and if one were to think of this as chess, one would say we’re in the middle…

New Media, New Whitewater, Politics, Press

What the ‘Shock of Inclusion’ Means Locally

by JOHN ADAMS • 01/10/2014 • Comments

I posted yesterday on Clay Shirky’s Shock of Inclusion and New Roles for News in the Fabric of Society, published in 2010 and just as relevant today. His essay isn’t about local media especially, but his observations are useful to assess both local news and politics. Shirky writes about the collapse of a pipeline…

City, New Whitewater

Believe in Whitewater

by JOHN ADAMS • 11/20/2013 • Comments

It was Gov. Romney, I think, whose presidential campaign slogan was ‘Believe in America.’ I’m not a Republican (I’m Libertarian), but I did like the slogan. America is worth believing in. I believe in Whitewater, too. Not how she’s been depicted, entirely, but how she truly is, and in the good things that lie…

Business, City, Free Markets, Good Ideas, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, New Whitewater, Planning

The Planning Commission Meeting for 11.11.13

by JOHN ADAMS • 11/12/2013 • 1 Comment

Whitewater’s Planning Commission met last night, and among the topics was consideration of re-zoning and a conditional use permit for Casual Joe’s, a new restaurant, tavern, and distillery to operate at 319 W. James Street (at the site of a long-unused commercial building, the former Fort Auto Body). On 4-3 votes, a majority of…

Business, City, Development, Free Markets, Hip & Prosperous, New Whitewater

Whitewater’s Common Council Meeting for 10.15.13 (Downtown Whitewater and Whitewater’s Merchant Class)

by JOHN ADAMS • 10/16/2013 • Comments

Municipal funding for local business groups, including Downtown Whitewater, Inc., lies ahead. I’ll not discuss those line items today. Instead, I’ll offer a simple observation about local merchants. Whitewater has spent too much time and money on failed big-ticket, white-collar projects and too little time on her local, merchant class. I’ve no particular interest in favoring local retailers over national…

Beautiful Whitewater, City, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, New Whitewater, Open Government

What Standards for Whitewater?

by JOHN ADAMS • 08/22/2013 • Comments

This post is a companion to one from yesterday on rights, entitled, How Many Rights for Whitewater? Whitewater is a place of great natural beauty, hundreds of years of indigenous and settled living, and a quaint, small-town scene. If residents of Whitewater should have the same rights as those elsewhere in Wisconsin and America –…