For many years, Republicans have railed against Madison, and against Dane County, as bastions of dysfunctional liberalism. Indeed, this impulse has been strong even after the GOP gained control of both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office. Funny, though, that it’s Dane County – not the WOW counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee, or Washington – that’s…
Planning
City, Development, Economy, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Planning
What a Print Advertiser Means (and Doesn’t Mean)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
So, if one lives in Whitewater, he or she may find a shopper-advertiser in the mailbox, with ads from (mostly) out-of-city advertisers. Even if one omits the publisher’s own ads, and public service announcements, the ratio of out-of-city to Whitewater ads is something like 3 to 1. Indeed, the largest ad, on the front page,…
City, Demographics, Development, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Planning
The Planning of the Planning Commission’s Subcommittee
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater’s Planning Commission Subcommittee on Housing recently met on 1.17.18. They had single-family homes and rental properties on their minds. (The discussion is embedded below, and the city’s file is online.) One could have had this same housing discussion ten or fifteen years ago, and yet, and yet – here we are, ten or fifteen…
Architecture, City, Laws/Regulations, Planning
A Second Empire Bed & Breakfast
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Near the middle of college-town Whitewater, there’s a large Second Empire bed & breakfast that the owners are looking to sell. Whitewater’s Planning Commission, on 1.8.18 in the video clip above, had numerous questions for the prospective buyers. The request afterward met with rejection as a change in zoning & conditional use at Whitewater’s Planning…
City, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Planning, School District, Uncategorized
A Sign for Whitewater High School
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater Planning Commission – A High School Sign from John Adams on Vimeo. Anyone who thinks that small town politics is simple hasn’t watched small town politics. In the video above, the Whitewater Planning Commission took 28 minutes to approve conditions for the local high school to place an electronic sign on school property. (Whitewater…
City, Local Government, Planning, Politics
The Erosion of Political Norms (Part 2 in a Series)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Whitewater, as with other Wisconsin cities and towns, has a Planning Commission. Like some towns (but not others), Whitewater by practice places a member of one commission (let’s say, Parks & Rec) on another commission (let’s say, Planning): a representative of one commission to another. So a person might be appointed to serve on the…
City, Development, Local Government, Planning
Hotel Preliminaries
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater’s full-service grocery closed in 2015, and then the UW-Whitewater Foundation bought the property. (Premier Bank, successor to Commercial Bank, has a 5% interest in the property.) A developer from Minnesota, having been unsuccessful in a project near the center of town, now proposes purchasing the former grocery building & lot, and constructing a Fairfield…
America, Charity, City, Development, Economics, Economy, Holiday, Local Government, Planning, Politics
Reading and Reviewing
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There are two books I’m eager to review here at FW: Katherine Cramer’s Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker (2016) and Amy Goldstein’s Janesville: An American Story (4.18.17). Like many others, I’ve been awaiting Goldstein’s book for some time, knowing that significant works take time. For both books,…
China, Documentary, Film, Planning
The Legacy of China’s Family-Planning Rules
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The Party does more than blunder – what it touches, it injures & ruins: In the late 1970s and early ’80s, China implemented rigid family-planning measures to slow population growth—the most controversial of which was the one-child policy. In 2015, China announced that it would drop this rule. However, millions of second and third children…
City, Local Government, Planning
At Whitewater’s Planning Commission: ‘Have you heard any rumors about..?”
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s a brief discussion about a rumor that a new convenience store might come to small-town Whitewater that illustrates not only the problem of rumors, but others’ unwillingness to point out the problem of rumors. It’s the latter problem that is, in fact, the more serious one for Whitewater. First, I’ve transcribed the exchange from…
Planning, Science/Nature, Weather
The Plan to Drain the Mediterranean: Atlantropa
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
CDA, City, Development, Government Spending, Local Government, Planning
Demand
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Here’s a follow-on to yesterday’s post, Business Dependency in Whitewater. There’s a huge effort locally, from the Community Development Authority in particular, to spur growth through large, publicly-funded incentives. These addled few are like men who’ve heard the expression, ‘if you build it, he will come,’ but don’t understand when it applies and when it…
Business, City, Development, Economics, Economy, Health, Local Government, Planning, Politics, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Meetings & Motivations
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
Post 11 in a series. This is series about a proposed digester energy project for Whitewater, one that would rely on importing other cities’ unwanted waste into Whitewater for processing. A series like this is only indirectly about general wastewater upgrades, at whatever price. It’s about waste importation, and officials’ claims that importation would be clean…
Business, City, Government Spending, Health, Local Government, Marketing, Planning, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
First Vendor Presentation of 1.21.14 to Whitewater’s Common Council
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Post 8 in a series. First Vendor Presentation of 1.21.14 to Whitewater Common Council from John Adams on Vimeo. In this post, I’ll look at the first vendor presentation on the digester proposal to Whitewater’s Common Council. (Every question in this series has a unique number, assigned chronologically based on when it was asked. All…