One reads that Whitewater now has an option, for most of the city, of grocery delivery from nearby cities. As it is, Whitewater has a Walmart, but no stand-alone, full-service grocery. Private delivery service is a benefit to the community. It’s better to have more grocery options than fewer.
These are private enterprises providing private delivery services. Government, including Whitewater’s Community Development Authority, has spent years and millions on large public projects (an ‘Innovation Center,’ profitless tech startups, etc.), and for it Whitewater has only grown poorer as a low-income community. A decade of letting the leaders of the local business league (the self-described ‘Greater Whitewater’ Committee) run the CDA like a low-rent club hasn’t improved the best measure of economic development: gains in individual and household incomes.
Market manipulation means fewer markets.
Whitewater’s slipped far, and she needs something wholly different to address her condition: Waiting for Whitewater’s Dorothy Day.
See also A Candid Admission from the Whitewater CDA, Whitewater & Walworth County’s Working Poor, 2020 ALICE® Report, Reported Family Poverty in Whitewater Increased Over the Last Decade.
Yes, it’s definitely better to have grocery delivery than nothing. But totally right that getting to this point is a sign of weakness/incompetence for a long time.
Isn’t the big takeaway here that at this point charity seems more practical for Whitewater than development projects? If you look around that is probably a practical perspective. The reality speaks for itself. At the university the baseline is probably zero growth and budget cuts. That it is where we we will be for 2-3 years at minimum. If people start staying away then it will be worse. It’s honest to point to a charity focus no matter how much people want rosy scenarios.
Yes. The short and medium terms will be difficult for Whitewater. One might once have been more optimistic about the near term, but this now seems a realistic assessment. Prescriptions should address actual maladies; the local government-development model has done nothing of the kind. On the contrary, the patient’s condition is now worse.
You aren’t getting a puppy for Christmas but you can have this used stuffed dog instead. it’s better than nothing but no way it’s a great substitute. weird how they think it’s some great achievement.