After a few preliminary items, Whitewater’s 5/10/10 Planning Commission meeting considered Walmart’s proposal for a significant expansion at its present location. A video recording of the meeting is available at http://blip.tv/file/3624624. The agenda with a memo from Vandewalle & Associates about the Walmart expansion is available at Planning Commission Agenda & Attached Documents. The documents…
Planning
City, Development, Planning, Press
Whitewater’s Planning Commission Meeting from 5/10/10: Overview
by JOHN ADAMS •
On May 10th, Whitewater’s Planning Commission held a meeting at 6 p.m., with principal the topics being a possible expansion of our local Walmart, and an overlay to an existing residential zoning ordinance for the Starin Park neighborhood. Recording of the meeting — Here’s the video of the meeting, which I will be using for…
Charity, Development, Economy, Free Markets, Planning, Poverty, Press
Madison’s Isthmus: Janesville on the Brink
by JOHN ADAMS •
From Madison’s Isthmus, one reads a story about hardship in nearby Janesville, hardship that should be of concern to those in Whitewater, too. No matter how dire the conditions for Janesville now, I believe that an abandonment of virtually every aspect of commercial and business regulation, along with drastic reductions in government spending except principally…
City, Planning
How Long Does It Take a Whitewater, Wisconsin Bureaucrat to Screw in a Traffic Light?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Delay Blame-shifting Supposed, speedy solution Approval of supposed, speedy solution Bureaucrat’s comment immediately after approval of supposed, speedy solution. Delay Blame-shifting FREE WHITEWATER, February 17, 2010, from Traffic Lights and Limelights in a Small Town: Like many small towns, Whitewater, Wisconsin has one main thoroughfare through town, past our college campus, connecting the east and…
City, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Planning
Whitewater’s Innovation Center Groundbreaking
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve written before about Whitewater’s tech park and Innovation Center, and some of the coverage it’s received. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Innovation Center, held this Tuesday, is another opportunity to review officials’ flimsy claims. Statements at the event were sadly, but predictably, empty. Prior Posts. I’ve written about the Tech Park and Innovation Center…
City, Development, Free Markets, Planning
Visalia, California’s Sensible Choice in Favor of a Free Market
by JOHN ADAMS •
Visalia, California is far from Whitewater, Wisconsin. (It’s about 2100 miles by car, according to Google Maps.) Despite the distance, they recently confronted a question like one we in Whitewater once faced. In Whitewater, we once foolishly imposed a moratorium on residential apartments in our downtown; in Visalia, they considered and rejected a moratorium on…
City, Development, Free Markets, Government Spending, Laws/Regulations, Planning
A Bigger Walmart Proposed for Whitewater, Wisconsin
by JOHN ADAMS •
I wrote once about the Walmart, No. 1274, in Whitewater. (Walmart now uses a name without a hyphen in advertising. I’m guessing they consider it both simpler and more upscale than “Wal-Mart.”) I wrote about Walmart a while ago, and a lot has changed. Walmart now sells both beer and liquor, there’s no east side…
Free Markets, Government Spending, Laws/Regulations, Libertarians, Planning
Reason.tv – Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey: Privatize It (Episode 3)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s episode three of the Reason.tv series on saving Cleveland, and by implication lots of other cities, too. In this episode, viewers see how government doesn’t manage produce markets or golf courses very well. Should cities be in the business of running businesses ranging from convention centers to farmers markets? Selling off golf courses, contracting…
Free Markets, Laws/Regulations, Libertarians, Planning, Poverty
Reason.tv: Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey — The Decline of a Once-Great City
by JOHN ADAMS •
Reason.tv: Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey — The Decline of a Once-Great City Here’s the first full episode of Drew Carey’s series on Cleveland, and ways to revitalize the city. Sixty years ago, Cleveland was a booming city full of promise, opportunity, and people. Today, the city’s population is less half of what it…
Planning
Eminent Domain Abuse: Billionaires vs. Brooklyn’s Best Bar
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s true that libertarians believe that government solutions are less effective and productive than private ones. It’s also true that business sometimes colludes with government to pressure other businesses. It’s an unfair partnership by which some businesses take opportunities from others, all the while allowing government to claim that it supports business. Government favoring some…
City, Planning
Haste Makes Waste
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater’s City Manager, Kevin Brunner, trumpets what he considers a speedy advancement of a publicly-funded tech park for Whitewater. Brunner considers this a sign of accomplishment. He’s wrong, twice over. First, there’s less to Whitewater’s supposed accomplishments than meets the eye. Second, and even more important for our town, is the fundamental understanding among successful…
City, Planning
Carts Before Horses, and Presentations Before Buildings
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Planning, Press
On Whitewater’s “Advancing” Tech Park, Part 2
by JOHN ADAMS •
The first part of this topic appears separately, in the preceding post. In this post, I will consider more of Whitewater City Manager Brunner’s published remarks, from a February 8th story entitled, “Whitewater Tech Park advances; panels to study second building.” A Unique Design. Here’s Brunner, remarking on the building’s supposedly unique character: “We are…
City, Planning
On Whitewater’s “Advancing” Tech Park, Part 1
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Last Monday, over at the Daily Union, that paper published an online story entitled, “Whitewater Tech Park advances; panels to study second building.” The story is a solid example of Whitewater officials’ habit of stating the obvious, exaggerating their own achievements, and producing whatever airy speculation they can get into print. In the Daily Union,…