Months ago, someone told me about a Janesville School District plan to charge teenage students from China and east Asia to live and attend classes in Janesville’s schools. I thought it was a joke. It took quite a bit to convince me that, actually, there was a nascent plan like this. It’s hard to…
Planning
City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Local Government, Planning
The Bus Discussion @ Council Last Night: A Fiasco by Any Definition
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Update, 2 PM: A reader wrote today, asking why I seem relatively unconcerned about this vote (as a practical matter). That’s my omission: in the discussion last night, it’s clear that Generac plans to reduce funding in the future. Advocates of this project will have to find other corporate sponsors and make it work with…
City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Government Spending, Planning
Discussion about the Bus, 3.20.12 to 11.5.13
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I promised earlier a summary of principal arguments made about a (mostly) publicly-funded transit bus that benefits (mostly) one multi-billion-dollar corporation. Here’s that post, with a summary of points about the project at Whitewater’s Common Council sessions of 3.20.12, 11.20.12, and 11.5.13. For each date, I’ve included a link to a Vimeo page with a…
Business, City, Free Markets, Good Ideas, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, New Whitewater, Planning
The Planning Commission Meeting for 11.11.13
by JOHN ADAMS • • 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, Economy, Free Markets, Hip & Prosperous, Laws/Regulations, Local Government, Planning
Why Plan?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
All people make plans for the future, even if that should be no farther ahead than for later the same day. Why specifically, though, should government plan? Every city has plans for development, plans for budgeting, and many (as we do in Whitewater) have a public commission with lawful authority to approve or reject certain…
City, Planning
Whitewater’s Planning Commission Meeting for 10.14.13
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater’s Planning Commission met for its monthly meeting last night, with three principal topics (items 4, 5, and 6 on the agenda): 4. Hold a public hearing for consideration of a conditional use permit (for expansion to include wholesale alcohol operation) for CC Property Development LLC., Christ Christon to have a brewery and tap room at…
City, Local Government, Planning, Police
Zoning Debates Are Often Just a Distraction from Failed Criminal Enforcement Strategies
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Here’s the third post in a trilogy about residential housing in Whitewater. For the first two posts, see, Old Whitewater Dreams of a Student Rez and The University’s Role in Town-Gown Issues. Recap: (1) pointing to the northwest corner of the city for student rentals without actual, additional housing in that area is an empty solution, and (2) the university’s planned…
Planning
“It Didn’t Have to Be This Way”
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City, Planning, University
The University’s Role in Town-Gown Issues
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Yesterday, I posted on housing density in the city, and the push to move sudent housing to the northwestern part of Whitewater. See, Old Whitewater Dreams of a Student Rez. A recap: the plan won’t work because (1) student housing is widespread in the center of the city by voluntary choice that cannot be undone and…
City, Local Government, Planning
Old Whitewater Dreams of a Student Rez
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Old Whitewater – an outlook rather than an age, a group rather than an individual – is having the hardest time adjusting to a changing city. All these years, and all their many political champions, and still they’ve not solved even a single major problem facing the city. Residential harmony between town and gown is one those problems,…
City, Development, Economy, Laws/Regulations, Planning, Zoning
No Resolution
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There was a Planning Commission meeting last night, and the principal topic was a proposal to extend a zoning overlay on North Fremont from the existing overlay in the Starin Park neighborhood (those few streets to the west of Fremont, and between Main and Starin). The zoning overlay would prohibit more than two unrelated persons…
Beautiful Whitewater, City, Development, Good Ideas, Hip & Prosperous, New Whitewater, Planning
Tidying the Town
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
A new school year begins, and thousands of students on whom the economy of this city depends are returning to Whitewater. Volunteers, as they’ve done previously, will help tidy up the town. These volunteers have, I think, held similar clean-up efforts in June and July. It’s a fine idea. (I’ve not been part of those…
Business, CDA, City, CRT, Development, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Planning
Yet Another Exercise in Standards Beneath Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
It should be a universal truth that Whitewater and Wisconsin deserve a far higher standard of diligence and review than whatever our CDA chairman believes his “gut” tells him would be good for our city and nearby area. In fact, that kind of intestinally-based level of judgment has failed this city time and again, and…
City, Development, Government Spending, Local Government, New Whitewater, Planning, Politics, Taxes/Taxation
A Review of Whitewater’s Economy is Like Peeling an Artichoke
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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…