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Join Downtown Whitewater’s August Downtown Cleanup, Saturday, August 24th from 8 AM to Noon

Here’s your chance to be part of a group that’s keeping Whitewater beautiful — Join Downtown Whitewater for its August Downtown Cleanup to welcome UWW students and their families back to town When: Saturday, August 24th from 8 am to Noon. Where: Meet at Discover Whitewater (150 West Main Street). We’ll be sweeping the streets…

A Review of Whitewater’s Economy is Like Peeling an Artichoke

Artichokes, of course, symbolize the idea of multi-layered things, of peeling back an exterior to discover an interior truth. Whitewater’s economy is like that – one needs to peel away layer upon layer of happy-talk headlines to address the truth of our present condition. (In a way, the only indubitable success those headlines assure is…

Choosing Whitewater

At Whitewater’s last meeting of Common Council, on 2.21.13, there was a discussion about the choosewhitewater.org website, a promotional portal for Whitewater. (The site has been around for a while, slowly adding content or links.) It’s labeled as a joint effort of the city, school district, and university, but it’s easy to see that the…

Scenes from Whitewater’s 2013 Polar Plunge® for Special Olympics

On February 16, 2013, Whitewater held her annual Polar Plunge® for Special Olympics. On a day with wind chills scarcely above zero, and water of only thirty-six degrees, hundreds of volunteers and donors raised tens of thousands for the Special Olympics of Wisconsin. There’s no greater measure of a community than its charity. Below are…

Restaurant Reviews

I’ve started reviewing restaurants, in the city and nearby, with the first review to be published next week (as part of a Wednesday feature). It’s a longstanding project, about which I’ve been thinking for over a year. (To the readers who’ve encouraged me: thank you, kindly.) We’ve a small but growing restaurant culture here in…

Which Homeowners for Whitewater?

The preceding post, Who Should Live in Whitewater?, was about immigration. Here’s a second question, a bit more specific: which homeowners for Whitewater? One hears repeatedly that out city could use more families with children. I don’t disagree: it would help our public schools to have a stable, or growing, school-age population. Here’s where I…

Why Williamsburg, Brooklyn?

I’ve written before about Williamsburg, a neighborhood within Brooklyn. (See, TNIW, The Williamsburg Neighborhood in Brooklyn, and The Pickleback.) It’s not because Whitewater will one-day look like just like that neighborhood. There are at least two reasons Williamsburg is relevant. First, that neighborhood shows how very different ethnicities (Italian, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Hasidic) can live…

Horses and Automobiles, Contemporaneously

For thousands of years humanity used horses as a major means of travel and transport. There were other kinds of locomotion during that long span, but until the automobile horses were a dominant part of rural and urban travel throughout much of the world. The first automobiles, considered from the perspective of horses (that is,…

Common Council Session of 12.18.12: Backyard Chickens

Here’s my fourth post on last night’s meeting. Approved unanimously, and waived from a second reading, Whitewater now has a backyard chicken ordinance. Not just an ordinance, but a fine, model one of which we should be proud. This is a good idea, that’s come to Whitewater through the hard work of a thoughtful resident.…

A Model Ordinance

These last few months, beginning in September, Whitewater’s Planning Commission has heard, and subsequently considered, a proposal for an urban (backyard) chicken ordinance. The proposal is not mine; I have been a mere observer of this effort. One may write about a topic, but only after months of careful observation, as in this case. I…