FREE WHITEWATER

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 2-17-10

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Good morning,

Whitewater, Wisconsin’s forecast calls for cloudy skies, with a high of thirty-one degrees

For circuit judge in the spring general election, it’s David Reddy and David Danz on the ballot. Walworth County voters won’t be able to say they don’t have different candidates from whom to pick.

In nearby Janesville, the Janesville Plan Commission recommends against chickens. On a 6-0 vote against, the planning commission voted against a hens-only ordinance to allow urban chickens.

I’m not surprised, and I have a theory about acceptance of urban chickens. Even though chickens are less trouble or risk than some dogs, there’s almost surely a class element involved in acceptance of urban chickens. Working class and farming communities seem biased against them, likely because it’s too much a reminder of their own origins. Upscale communities have none of this insecurity, and are more receptive to urban chickens.

It’s not planning based on risk or inconvenience that holds sway; it’s merely a social bias, of planners themselves, imposed on all the community.

In Wisconsin history on this date, the Wisconsin Historical Society recalls that in

2002 – Wisconsin Skater Takes Gold

On this date West Allis native Chris Witty won a gold medal in speed skating’s 1000 meter at the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games. She broke the world record with a time of 1:13.82, even though she was recovering from mononucleosis. Before Witty competed in ice staking, she was a professional bicyclist. [Source: US Olympic Team]

Public Meetings

Walworth County Genealogical Society Program on Elkhorn Family History Research

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The Walworth County Genealogical Society will feature Marshall and Priscilla Wren of Elkhorn in a program about the “Services Available at the Elkhorn Family History Research & Education Center.” The topics covered will be the many resources available on microfilm and microfiche, computer programs, foreign country research, immigration and passenger lists, how to access thousands of data bases on line through the Godfrey Memorial Library and information available at the Alexander Street Press.

The presentation will take place on Tuesday, March 2 at 1:00 PM, in the Community Centre, 826 E. Geneva Street, Delavan.

The Wrens are a husband and wife team that has been involved in genealogy for over 25 years. They were instrumental in the reopening of the Family History Center at the local Church of Jesus Christ-Latter Day Saints on Potter Road, Elkhorn.

The program and brief business meeting are open to the public free of charge but membership in the Walworth County Genealogical Society is encouraged so that people will have access to an informative newsletter and the opportunity to place free queries in the publication.

For additional information, please call the WCGS Vice President at 275-2426.

Economy, Free Markets, Libertarians

Libertarian Cato Institute Deservedly Named One of World’s Leading Think Tanks

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Congratulations to the Cato Institute, named one of the leading policy institutes in the world, following a major academic survey. Libertarians have reason for confidence in their views in any event, but the policy scholars at Cato are admirably advancing ideas for “individual liberty, free markets, and peace.”

Now you know, and I know, that rankings and awards should only follow real accomplishment, rather than speculatively precede it. The Cato Institute has genuinely earned this fine distinction, and its studies are the match of rival institutes around the world.

Cato’s work is available online.

See, Global Think Tank Rankings.

Cartoons & Comics, City, Dog X

The Debut of Dog X: On ‘Drink Specials’

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Here in our small city, among all the advocates for individual liberty and limited government, one in particular has observed quietly, pondering town politics. He’s a stalwart defender of personal freedom, free markets, and honest, open government.

He also enjoys a rawhide now and again — It’s my pleasure to introduce Dog X.

In this message, Dog X speaks about a proposal before Whitewater’s common council to ban drink specials.

Enjoy.

Link: From FREE WHITEWATER: Dog X On Drink Specials

Note: Dog X would like to remind readers that he always drinks responsibly, and strongly opposes those who drink and drive. more >>

City, Police, Press

Whitewater Chief Coan Interviews with Mankato [MN] Free Press

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Whitewater Police Chief Jim Coan is a candidate for the public safety director’s post in Mankato, Minnesota. I’ve written about his candidacy before, in Whitewater’s Police Chief and the Job in Mankato, MN.

The Mankato Free Press has published interviews with all four candidates for the job. The paper posed the same five questions to each candidate. The full interview is available at Whitewater chief has experience in diversity, budget crunches.

Yes, you read that right: Whitewater chief has experience in diversity, budget crunches. Here’s a screen shot of the Free Press story, to confirm that unexpected headline:

Seldom in the history of press interviews has one person committed so many acts both mediocre and mendacious as Coan has done in this story. He may well be one of the most shameless men in Wisconsin, in Minnesota, or anywhere else in America.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 2-16-10

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Good morning,

The Whitewater forecast calls for a chance of snow, and a high of thirty-one degrees.

In the City of Whitewater, there’s a Common Council meeting tonight, at 6:30 PM. The agenda for the meeting is available online.

It’s primary election day in Walworth County, and the county has a race for circuit judge. The Gazette offers a story on the four candidates, entitled “Primary to reduce judge field to two in Walworth County.” Elsewhere, the Wisconsin State Journal‘s Dee Hall asks “Is the stage set for judicial elections to become more partisan in Wisconsin?” Her story is about the 4th District Court of Appeals, but the answer to that question will likely be the same for other judicial levels.

In our school district, there’s a principal-for-day program, where movers and shakers get to follow our district’s principals around. One seldom picks an ordinary parent for a task like this; it’s usually a big fish from our small pond. This year, City Manager Brunner will shadow Whitewater High School’s principal.

I don’t know if Brunner will be teaching any classes. He’d be qualified, if only the curriculum included Techniques of Municipal Distraction (entry level and advanced course), Exaggeration as a Way of Life, or How to Spend Eleven Million to Pad a Résumé to Get a New Job. (The Music Parents’ already sponsored a concert, so it’s too late for City Manager: The Musical!)

The Wisconsin Historical Society reports that on this day in 1808

1808 – Lysander Cutler [Was] Born

On this date Lysander Cutler was born in Worcester County, Mass. Cutler moved to Milwaukee in 1856. In July, 1861, he was commissioned Colonel of the 6th Wisconsin Infantry. He was appointed Brigadier General in November, 1862, and Major General in August, 1864. He participated in the battles of Gainesville, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and in the Wilderness campaign. He was wounded at Gainesville, Frederickburg, and Weldon Road.

City, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Planning, Press

On Whitewater’s “Advancing” Tech Park, Part 2

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The first part of this topic appears separately, in the preceding post. In this post, I will consider more of Whitewater City Manager Brunner’s published remarks, from a February 8th story entitled, “Whitewater Tech Park advances; panels to study second building.”

A Unique Design. Here’s Brunner, remarking on the building’s supposedly unique character:

“We are excited about the building, too, because it will be unique in design and meeting environmental standards of the LEED program.”

Here Brunner exaggerates, shamelessly. The Innovation Center will be an office building in a city of many such buildings, in a country that has — wait for it — millions of buildings. (For national statistics on commercial office space, see the 2010 Statistical Abstract: Commercial Buildings, from the Census Bureau.)

As long ago as 2003, America had over four million office buildings! Four million, six-hundred sixty-five thousand, actually! Odds that this one’s unique in design: a good portion of four million to one.

There’s no reason to pretend that we’re building Châtres, but that’s Brunner’s (all-too-common) inclination.

Even as early as 2003, using the federal data to which I have linked above, hundreds of thousands of office buildings in America were about the same size as the planned Innovation Center. That’s not unique, that’s commonplace.

What of the unique design that Brunner trumpets? In neither aesthetics nor in so-called respect for the environment does this forty-thousand square foot building deserve praise.

Looking at an artist’s illustration of the building, it’s not different in appearance from countless other modern office buildings, and less impressive than many.

The Innovation Center won’t even be the largest building in Whitewater. The recently completed Hyland Hall, at 180,000 square feet, will remain over four times as large:

At 180,000 square feet, Hyland Hall is more than twice the size of the former business building and boasts 50 percent more classroom space. It includes 34 flat and tiered classrooms, three computer labs, two 150-seat lecture halls, one seminar room and four student project rooms.

Even if one finds anything of the Innovation Center’s design exceptional or unique, one should keep in mind that it’s that way through public money, not private initiative.

Environmental impact. What of the sustainability & environmental regard to which Brunner makes mention? I support private initiatives such as the Nature Conservancy, because I believe in the conservation of natural resources. One should be skeptical, though, of claims for how ‘green’ something is. Those who care about the environment should not be deceived by a possible Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) designation for the Innovation Center.

That’s because constructing an office building like this is so destructive to the environment, that pretending the LEED designation mitigates the harm is like contending that band aids and aspirin mitigate for the loss of a limb.

LEED certification doesn’t mean buildings don’t cause significant environmental stress. They do. An assessment from the National Trust for Historical Preservation, entitled “Sustainability by the Numbers,” found that it “takes a lot of energy to construct a building – for example, building a 50,000 square foot commercial building requires the same amount of energy needed to drive a car 20,000 miles a year for 730 years.”

That’s for a building not much bigger than the planned Innovation Center.

I would surely favor reduced regulation and taxation to spur private construction of homes and offices. I think that, on balance, it’s good for society. I’m not simple-minded enough, though, to pretend that offices can be made good for the environment. They can’t. Constructing an office building will always be an environmentally destructive act, and is about as far from green as one can get. I’m realistic about the choices.

Let me help Whitewater’s city manager and his ilk see the difference between office buildings and green living. Let’s look at two pictures. On top is a photo of plants and flowers from Whitewater, and on the bottom is an artist’s illustration of the Innovation Center:

The one on top is ‘green,’ and the one on the bottom is ‘brown.’

My pleasure, I’m sure.

City, Planning

On Whitewater’s “Advancing” Tech Park, Part 1

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Last Monday, over at the Daily Union, that paper published an online story entitled, “Whitewater Tech Park advances; panels to study second building.” The story is a solid example of Whitewater officials’ habit of stating the obvious, exaggerating their own achievements, and producing whatever airy speculation they can get into print. In the Daily Union, Whitewater’s officials have found a home where they receive unquestioning acceptance for puffery, distortions, and dodgy claims.

Advancing. One learns that the tech park is advancing. Too funny — no one thought otherwise. With millions of dollars in federal taxpayer money, and millions more in municipal public debt, how could the park not advance? Millions upon millions were sure to amount to something. No one — no one sensible — has seriously doubted that the park’s Innovation Center would be built. I have always assumed that the Tech Park Board would get its park and building — it’s whether it would be worth the cost to the community.

See, from Predictions for Whitewater, Wisconsin 2010:

2. A new Innovation Center will, during the year, produce
A. Cold Fusion
B. the Flux Capacitor
C. More press and publicity than actual benefit
D. More actual benefit than press and publicity

Never did I assume that mere completion of a building could be at issue. If there’s a worry about completion of a building or two, I’d be stunned.

Obvious, really, to set the bar so low — a building or two with millions in public money.

Overwhelming. One learns that there’s overwhelming demand for space in the park, so much that a second building might — might — be necessary: “…investigating a second building due to overwhelming interest in the park.” There’s no mention of the origin of this demand, of course — just the vague reassurance that it’s “overwhelming.”

I can’t tell what overwhelming means, and the story doesn’t bother to quantify or describe that demand. It’s as though writing as much will beguile readers into believing as much. That only works with gullible or foolish people.

The surprise is that more tenants are not yet announced — many more tenants. Others — taxpayers — have paid for all this, and one could expect that a private business or two might enjoy some corporate welfare at federal and city taxpayers’ expense. As it is, it’s not even a private business that’s the anchor tenant; it’s a
taxpayer-funded agency that’s occupying one-quarter of this
publicly-funded building.

For more on CESA 2’s unsuitability as an anchor tenant, see On the Innovation Center’s Anchor Tenant.

For a response to the idea that CESA 2’s size elsewhere benefits Whitewater, see On the Innovation Center’s Anchor Tenant, Part 2.

(Note: The February 8th story merely repeats the unchallenged and silly implication that CESA 2’s service in other places benefits Whitewater. There’s a change, however — downward — in the number of reported employees that CESA 2 will have at the building. Unlike a previous story the DU published on January 19th, in which the city claimed up to 50 CESA 2 employees would work at the building, the number has now changed downward to match what CESA 2’s own administrator has estimated, at 30 employees.)

A Strategic Plan: How to Sell the Lots? Here’s what Whitewater City manager Kevin Brunner had to say about the park:

“On the heels of the first anchor tenant at Tech Park, the board is already talking about additional buildings,” he said. “We need to develop a strategic plan and determine how we are going to sell the lots, or are we going to lease the lots in the park. We are
certainly seeing a lot of interest in the park; that is very encouraging. The board wants to be very pro-active in pushing this forward.”

Oh my, oh my. These gentlemen have their millions, from others who worked for that money, but they’ve not even figured out whether to sell or lease the lots. A serious and responsible person would be ashamed to talk this way — having received a grant from public funds, and issued debt as bonds, the city manager now acknowledges that it’s time to develop a strategic plan for the park.

I’d say it was time even before now.

I am sure city manager Brunner is being honest about this much, however embarrassing it is — no one would lie about being this cavalier.

The Accomplishments at the Friday, February 5th Tech Park Board Meeting. Brunner’s worst critic is not a common blogger, but his own shallow remarks. Consider the story’s account of the February 5th board meeting:

He [Brunner] said the main thing accomplished Friday, besides signage, was setting the Innovation Center groundbreaking.

“We will be getting everything ready for that, on top of some ‘housekeeping’ that still needs to be done,” Brunner said.

Laughable, to be talking about groundbreaking, again, after an earlier groundbreaking at the park, in September. All this money, that other people earned, and that others will have to pay back — and Brunner’s excited about a show, theater, a ceremony, whatever. The main thing accomplished — besides signage, of all things! — was to talk about the groundbreaking.

About that signage, one finds that “the board voted unanimously to approve a 5.4-foot signage for the Tech Park, which will have the park’s logo and will likely have solar-powered lighting….” A sign with the park’s logo! Solar power? Amazing!

Will there ever be a time that the City of Whitewater’s leaders place substance over style?

Next: On Whitewater’s “Advancing” Tech Park, Part 2.

Press

What’s Wrong with PBS, NPR, Etc.?

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One month ago, I wrote about launching a fictitious candidacy for one of the non-existent congressional districts to which the federal government had laughably claimed to have distributed stimulus funds. See, Press Release: John Adams to Run for Wisconsin’s 55th Congressional District.

In my campaign platform, I was critical of the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. Here’s what I wrote:

5. PBS. It’s just got to go. NPR, too. NPR must be the third-biggest cause of traffic accidents, after drunks and deer. How can anyone stay awake to those soporific tones? The end of NPR would be like an espresso shot for the nation.

Few things I have written have drawn more consternation among my readers than teasing about PBS and NPR. (Many of the seemingly controversial posts I publish are nothing of the kind; outside of a few lemmings, most people see that Whitewater officials’ grandiose statements are false, often absurdly so. That’s not surprising — mediocre and self-serving efforts produce mediocre and ridiculous results.)

But PBS and NPR, unlike municipal bureaucrats, have real fans and diehard supporters.

So, what’s not to like about PBS and NPR? First, two quick comments, about content and style. I don’t care that PBS and NPR lean left-of-center. They’re one voice among many, and their politics don’t bother me. Second, of course, I really don’t care if their announcers adopt a soporific tone.

My concern is simply that government should not subsidize broadcast networks, or newspapers, except for limited, exceptional purposes (newspapers for service members, or broadcasts as a part of foreign policy, like Radio Free Europe or the Voice of America).

Government should not be a news publisher, and virtually all people — and all sensible ones — understand that politicians should not be publishers. There are no sensible people who believe, for example, that Bill Clinton should — or could — simultaneously serve fairly as president of the United States and editor-in-chief of the Washington Post.

PBS and NPR may go on as they wish; I just wouldn’t fund them from public coffers. (I know that federal funding amounts to a minority share of NPR’s budget.) For more information, see the fiscal year 2008 NPR financial statement.

Even small amounts may prove tempting, and exclusively private funding removes even the possibility of government persuasion through subsidy.

By the way, I do, in my own way, support NPR, and those who speak on its behalf should consider supporting it with private contributions.

One way to support public radio is through donations. Alternatively, as in my case, one may do so through private subscription to a service that carries NPR programming. I subscribe to Sirius radio, and one of that service’s channels is NPR.

Re-transmission on private networks, for a fee, is just one of the many private arrangements by which NPR and PBS can make their way in the world, free of any intoxicating government subsidies.

Press Release

Walworth County Genealogical Society Program on Elkhorn Family History Research & Education

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I received the following press release that I am happy to post —

The Walworth County Genealogical Society will feature Marshall and Priscilla Wren of Elkhorn in a program about the “Services Available at the Elkhorn Family History Research & Education Center.” The topics covered will be the many resources available on microfilm and microfiche, computer programs, foreign country research, immigration and passenger lists, how to access thousands of data bases on line through the Godfrey Memorial Library and information available at the Alexander Street Press.

The presentation will take place on Tuesday, March 2 at 1:00 PM, in the Community Centre, 826 E. Geneva Street, Delavan.

The Wrens are a husband and wife team that has been involved in genealogy for over 25 years. They were instrumental in the reopening of the Family History Center at the local Church of Jesus Christ-Latter Day Saints on Potter Road, Elkhorn.

The program and brief business meeting are open to the public free of charge but membership in the Walworth County Genealogical Society is encouraged so that people will have access to an informative newsletter and the opportunity to place free queries in the publication.

For additional information, please call the WCGS Vice President at 275-2426.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 2-15-10

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Good morning,

The today’s forecast for Whitewater calls for a chance of light snow, of little or no accumulation, and a high of twenty-six degrees.

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Sheridan’s still trying to explain his travel expense accounting. See, Sheridan offers details on some of his travel. Sheridan’s already had to reimburse Wisconsin for double-billing for a trip to California. See, Sheridan reimburses state for California trip, also attended by loan lobbyist.

Meanwhile, the State of Wisconsin has reached a six-figure settlement with a payday lender following a complaint alleging that lender “Arrowhead’s loan contracts violated certain provisions of the Wisconsin Consumer Act.” See, Wis. announces class settlement with payday lender.

Sheridan’s dating of a payday loan industry lobbyist while his caucus drafted legislation to regulate the payday loan industry seems to have played no role in the settlement with Arrowhead; Sheridan’s likely been otherwise occupied.

On this Presidents’ Day, there’s a story at Wired about three presidents with an interest in technology. In a story entitled, Tech Presidents: George, Tom, and Abe, “Wired.com marks Presidents Day weekend with brief vignettes of three of our techiest presidents: Washington steered national policy toward an embrace of science, Jefferson made a significant contribution to paleontology, and Lincoln devised and patented a gimmick for lifting stranded boats.”