Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with rain and a high of 75. Sunrise is 5:25 and sunset 8:17 for 14h 51m 06s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 91.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Library Board meets at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1609, Shakespeare’s sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
On this day in 1863, after the unsuccessful assault on Vicksburg the previous day, Union forces regroup in front of the city. The 1st Wisconsin Light Artillery and the 8th, 11th, 18th, and 23rd Wisconsin Infantry regiments joined the 14th and 17th Infantries to prepare for the next attack. While these arrangements took place at Vicksburg, the 4th Wisconsin Infantry fought in a skirmish in Cheneyville, Louisiana.
Whitewater now has a new Common Council majority and a new Community Development Authority majority. A few remarks today about these new majorities; remarks will follow tomorrow about specific contentions from a few holdovers from yesteryear’s CDA.
First, the obvious: this libertarian blogger is not, and has never claimed to be, a development man. And yet, and yet, a person need not be a development man to see the difference in quality between the self-serving claims of a conniving clique and the genuine accomplishments of residents and development employees. (One doesn’t have to be a watchmaker to see the difference between a fine timepiece and a cheap knockoff that’s scarcely right twice a day.)
Whitewater is a town of many talented people, of many sharp people, of many capable people. Thousands upon thousands, truly. This isn’t true because I believe it; I believe it because it’s true. Our advanced American civilization is far more than the product of a few — we are the work of millions across centuries. Whitewater, in the same way, is far more than the product of a few — we are the work of thousands across generations.
Whitewater, after all, has a Common Council (lit., ‘belonging to, open to, or affecting the whole of a community’) and Community Development Authority (lit., ‘the people of a district or country considered collectively; society’).
Whitewater does not have a Special Interests’ Council, or a Few Businessmen’s Development Authority. These are public bodies of — and for — the whole community, not simply platitudinous men, self-dealers, self-promoters, and their operatives, catspaws, scoundrels, or sycophants.
Whitewater now has sincere, independent majorities on her Common Council and Community Development Authority. They and I will not always agree, but I and others owe these officials the acknowledgment that whatever disagreements we may have, they are disagreements with capable and independent men and women.
Left, center, right, whatever: first, one must have men and women who exercise their independent judgment on behalf of not fifteen, but all fifteen thousand in this beautiful city.
For tomorrow, particular remarks on the CDA meetings of 4.18.24 and 5.16.24.
For today and always, best wishes and support to those sincere and principled officials acting on behalf of all of our city.
Bison herd charges Yellowstone tourists:
Isn’t it charming how, for countless years, our town has been under the iron grip of landlords, especially one whose relative has perfected the art of voting against any new development that might dare to compete with their own rentals? Let’s not forget the ensemble of businesses and landlords paying a registered lobbyist each month to masquerade their self-serving interests as public policy. Both of these supposed leaders stonewall progress in the CDA.
For what feels like an eternity, these self-proclaimed guardians of our community have mansplained their way through CDA and council meetings, insisting they know best, all while presiding over a town that’s been in a steady decline on their watch. They have effectively pillaged our economy, houses (literally), and degraded our city’s structures, yet they have the audacity to stand around and gripe about issues like taxes, migration, and student enrollment, conveniently forgetting it was their failed policies that got us here.
Why should we continue to trust those who profit from extracting every last penny from those with the least, while telling us we don’t need more housing to compete with their decrepit empires? It’s simply their ego and fear of losing control that drives these self-centered and avaricious men.
Hopefully, this new majority will start prioritizing the needs of the entire community, not just a privileged few. It would be refreshing to live in a place where people aren’t subjected to the backlash, gaslighting, fear-mongering, and personal attacks from those who prefer to keep the community down rather than lift it up.
rental oligarch jr. is always looking out for his own bottom line