Wisconsin’s new deal with Foxconn will reduce the cost to state taxpayers, but local governments have already spent vast sums on a project that will not – by Foxconn’s own belated admission – come close to what was originally, and ludicrously, promised. Bruce Murphy writes of The True Costs of New Foxconn Deal: the true cost…
Politics
City, Culture, Education, Local Government, Politics, School District, University, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Limits of Local Politics
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the final post in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. Earlier posts at FREE WHITEWATER have addressed the limits of local politics in the community: local public (or powerful private) institutions have a limited power of action (with harmful actions likely to be more immediate than helpful ones). It’s certain that a…
City, Coronavirus, Culture, Education, Politics, School District, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: Majoritarianism
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the tenth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. The contested April school board election has now come to a close. An animating concern of many parents was that the Whitewater public school should not have suspended face-to-face instruction for as long as it did, and that, in doing so, the…
Babbittry, Bad Ideas, Blogging, Boosterism, City, Confidence Schemes, Coronavirus, Culture, Local Government, Mendacity, Politics, School District, Special Interests, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: Marketing
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the ninth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. Through all the difficult events of the last two decades (a Great Recession, an opioid epidemic, economic stagnation, creeping nativism, a pandemic, a pandemic recession), Old Whitewater has responded with the same question: how can we market the town to others? If…
Blogging, City, Coronavirus, Local Government, Politics, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021 — COVID-19: Skepticism and Rhetoric
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Local Government, Politics, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Common Council
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the seventh in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. Whitewater has a seven-person person city council with an appointed city manager to run the daily affairs of the town. Two of the council seats are at-large, and the other five members are from aldermanic districts. While the city manager acts in…
City, Culture, Democrats, Local Government, Politics, School District, University, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Subcultural City
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the sixth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. There’s no politically predominant group in Whitewater. Strictly speaking, a subculture implies a dominant culture, but it’s less dramatic to describe Whitewater as several subcultures than as balkanized. One might call the city multicultural, but that term often implies an acceptance of…
City, Local Government, Politics, School District, University, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Campus
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the fifth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. Whitewater, Wisconsin is a small town where about half the residents are university students. Town-Gown conflicts here aren’t the most in all North America, but they’re not the least, either. The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater is beset with challenges apart from politics: long-term structural…
City, Local Government, Politics, School District, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The City’s Few Progressives
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the fourth in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. The largest political gathering in Whitewater in 2020 was a rally for racial justice in Whitewater following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. Hundreds attended. It was not, however, an allowedly progressive event – the small local group Whitewater Unites Lives invited…
City, Local Government, Politics, School District, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The City’s Center-Left
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the third in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. There’s a joke that a Democrat told me at the turn of the century about Democrats in Whitewater: “Do you know who’s the head of the Whitewater Democrats? No? Well, neither do we.” Those days are long past. The Great Recession (‘07-‘09),…
City, Local Government, Politics, School District, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: The Kinds of Conservatives in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the second in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. There are three principal kinds of conservatives in Whitewater. There are more kinds than this, of course, as there are many kinds of cats within the family Felidae; it’s enough for now to focus on the most common species within that family.…
City, Local Government, Politics, School District, Whitewater's Local Politics 2021
Whitewater’s Local Politics 2021: Unofficial Spring Election Results
by JOHN ADAMS •
This is the first in a series on Whitewater’s local politics of 2021. One begins with two reminders: I endorsed no one in any local races, and suggested that for some – but not for those watching carefully – the results were likely to be a surprise. (They should not have been a surprise.) Today’s post…
America, History, Politics, U.S. Senate
The Filibuster: How one small rule change in 1806 started it all
by JOHN ADAMS •
Local Government, Politics, School District
6 Asides Before the Local Spring Elections in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS •
Assorted remarks on local politics before next week’s local election —- Spring. While one might normally prefer fall, spring is notably welcome this year. It has been, for so many, a difficult year. Some of us have come through it well (as we have from the Great Recession, opioid epidemic, and economic stagnation), but our…