FREE WHITEWATER

City, Development, Economy, Free Markets

What Does Driving into Whitewater from Highway 12 Suggest about the City?

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If a person saw what I described yesterday – a small sign, a ramshackle cluster of dull yellow motel buildings, a small cluster of private, single family homes, etc. – what should he reasonably conclude? First, he might see all of this as a failure of public development, a lack of sidewalks, street lights, directional signs, and other public improvements. If only Whitewater would spend more, then there would be more; public spending as an incentive to private property.

Alternatively, there might seem to be too few private homes, and someone might suggest to replace the old motel with another housing development. The theory goes like this: if more people lived here, our community would
have more money, so what we need to do is encourage private housing.

A third suggestion would look like the idea of more private homes. If only we had more, and more lucrative, businesses, our workers would earn more, and they could buy better homes, and shop for more goods in our retail stores, and also have more tax revenue.

Here are two useful, general principles: private growth is better than public spending, and public regulation and planning should exist only to establish the rules by which private growth and investment take place.
Public works, however, are more than planning: they are expenditures for supposed improvements in the place of private investment. There’s no exception to the truth that a public expenditure, for example, on boat dock prevents a private developer from building on that same space. They’re won’t be two docks, one on top of the other. Either a private dock was not built because it was not profitable, or the public dock was constructed at a lower level of efficiency when a private builder saw no value in competing.

In a small city, most public works outside of sewers, streets, or municipal buildings, are small – flags on lampposts, flower baskets (and ornamental birdhouses, chairs, and fish). They’re also usually ineffective and futile substitutes for new shops, stores, and factories. That’s why I quoted blogger James Lileks of the Bleat on the inadequacy of these public works gestures. (They may also come as private contributions from several businesses, but with likely the same results.)

City, Development, Economy, Free Markets

Arriving into the Whitewater from the West.

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It’s bracing to enter Whitewater from Highway 12: the initial sights are non-descript, with little to distinguish Whitewater from a smaller town. We are a city of fourteen thousand, with a university campus, but our problems become apparent when entering the city from the west. Here’s what a traveler would find, as conditions are now:

• A small sign indicating the direction along Highway 12 to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. So small, it might be the sign of the same size and type as that of a nearby creek, or roadway. It’s a small matter, but it says something of neglect that some, but not other, roadways prominently identify UWW.

• A cluster of decaying yellow motel buildings, with a cracked parking lot. Nothing says decline like an abandoned or ramshackle commercial property. It’s irrefutable evidence that there is no marketable, higher-value use for the property. An idiosyncratic owner might refuse an offer here or there, but most commercial property owners will sell for the right price. Unwillingness to deal in the market indicates either ignorance, sentimental attachment, or a soft market and declining market where sellers are unsatisfied with current offers (and hope for an upturn, or are aware that a current sale will result in a loss).


• A faded advertisement for McDonald’s painted on the side of a silo.

• A few new homes on a lot. The homes are variously modest or large, but the surrounding area is undeveloped and undistinguished. It’s neither developed with sidewalks and other commonplace improvements, nor possessing a true natural beauty, as wooded surrounding might.

• A Taco Bell and a Movie Theater.

• Beyond lies a large medical office, a lot for U-Haul trucks, an auto dealership, Mound Park Acres, and the community-famous, but unsightly, Hawk Bowl.

The question for someone thinking about Whitewater’s economic health is what this all means. Is it an invitation to public works (larger signs, sidewalks, tree-plantings, parks), evidence of a need for more private residences, or a need for more businesses (service, retail, light industrial)?

Next: What does the scene driving into Whitewater from Highway 12 suggest?

City, Development, Economy, Free Markets

Community Prosperity: Introduction

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We hear much about community development in Whitewater, now more than ever. We depend on our fellow residents; their success or failure affects us greatly. It was Aristotle who famously remarked that one who freely lives outside a city is either a beast or a god. Americans are not so convinced of town, let alone city, life as Aristotle — many of us spend happy moments in nature, beyond our small, beautiful town. (I cannot resist the temptation to note that Aristotle’s view would never apply to the City of Whitewater, where there are those within the city who behave as beasts, and yet think of themselves as gods.)

There are countless terms of art for efforts to improve a community: civic improvement, community development, pro-growth, fair growth, sustainable growth, etc. etc. A more comprehensive definition of community development may be found elsewhere. Many of these social and intellectual movements depend on some plan to limit or channel growth.

I will begin with a more basic idea, and branch out from there. I will exclude a discussion of the geography or natural characteristics of the city. They are generally fixed, not of our doing, and hardly a matter of credit or blame in a town of our size. What man-made things do you see when you walk about Whitewater? Other than personal property, you see principally one of three things: private residences, private businesses, or public works. Each is not exclusive of the others, but together they describe the practical artificial development of a city, including a small city like ours.

The occupants of our private residences may be owners or tenants. Our private businesses may be industrial, service, or retail. Our public works may include streets, utilities, parks, boat landings, public buildings, public housing, and any other developed public property.

When we think about our city, and walk about it in the days ahead, it’s worthwhile to ask: is what I see residential or commercial, public or private? They are not of the same value, generally, and are of shifting values as the proportions of each change.

I’ll leave this introduction with the following observation, from James Lileks, who wrote recently about the foolishness of superficial community beautification efforts in Minneapolis:

If you’ve ever visited one of those sad deindustrialized cities with a moribund core, you know how they tried to bring the downtown back: banners and trees. If not trees, then flower baskets hanging from ornamental light fixtures. But certainly banners. If you hang something from every block that says History District or Pennsylvania’s Culture: On the Grow or Home of the 2003 Upper West New York Jazz Festival people will come back.

But they don’t. I wince when I read about beautification programs, like this one. Downtown Minneapolis isn’t dead – but when they start talking banners and trees, I can hear the mortician rummaging through the drawers for the right shade of lipstick.

I wrote something similar, earlier: “Our economic development is less about a free market economy than about any number of empty municipal gestures. We could hang birdhouses, or painted chairs and wooden fish, from our lampposts forever and still businesses would close and go elsewhere.”

There’s more to Whitewater’s recent development than that, but sadly less than meets the eye.

More tomorrow.

City, Inbox Reader Mail

Inbox: Reader Mail

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This small website has been publishing for less than a month, but in that time it’s seen steady readership growth, and a fair amount of reader e-mail. I thought that I would take a moment to answer some of the questions that I’ve been asked. (As I publish pseudonymously, I ‘ll not publish the names of any readers.) Here are the paraphrases of questions that I’ve been asked, and my replies.

Q: Do you really live in Whitewater?
A: Yes, I am a long-time resident. I have been here long enough that, by any conventional reckoning, I have been here forever.

Q: Why do you want to embarrass/criticize the town?
A: Reform and growth begin with honesty, not whitewash and Potemkin villages. We have some great possibilities before us, but some of our fellow residents have been treated with outrageous cruelty and official indifference, lies, and excuses. All the birdhouses hanging from lampposts will not undo the damage that, for example, our police force has recently inflicted on hardworking people.

Q: You seem to ‘have it good,’ so why would you complain?
A: It’s no way to live, silent while others are injured. Thanks for noticing — I am citizen, resident, property owner, white, and educated. By the distorted view of some in this town, I should be contented, and quiet.

Q: What do you mean ‘toward a free and honest city?’ We’re free now.
A: We’re not the municipality and society that we should, could, and one day will, be. The lack of honesty takes a few forms: (1) officials disguise their real motivations, (2) use their offices to enforce ordinary regulations selectively, for friends and against enemies, (3) refuse to accept accountability for unconscionable or revolting actions, and (4) spread the message that this town belongs to a select, mostly town-bred group, not all residents.

Q: We’re growing, and you’re just ignoring our new construction.
A: The coming week’s posts will focus on an overview of development in Whitewater — some of it is positive, some not.

Q: What do you mean by ‘town elite?’
A: That’s a good question, because even in our small town, there’s more than one person who’s part of the town elite, or town faction. Many of them, in fact, would hardly be considered elite at all, but they do have a significant influence here. Some are established, white-collar long-term residents. They’ve either been here a longtime, or forever, except for time away at UW Madison or Marquette, perhaps. They’re established, if bit stodgy. Many consider themselves a true elite, but actually know little about the world outside, and are suspicious of change, and newcomers.

The second principal group is blue collar, with high school or tech school educations, and works in supporting jobs, either for the city or in town businesses. They gain their influence through occasional favoritism in their municipal jobs, through selection as pushovers on municipal committees, or through any number of predominantly blue-collar social organizations. Among these groups are most police officers, municipal workers, clerks in many town businesses, and the volunteers of the Whitewater Fire Department. (The police and fire departments are blue collar organizations, and they think and behave like working class organizations. The fire department includes many working class residents who would otherwise have little status or authority except through membership in its fraternity.)

These two groups are not alike, except in the broad particulars that ultimately unite them: white, clannish, suspicious of others, ignorant of economics and business-standard practices, ill-disposed toward minorities, and determined that their views should prevail here perpetually.

Q: Do you work at the university?
A: No, I have no connection to UWW.

Q: Why don’t you leave?
A: This is my home as much as anyone’s home, and I will never leave. I have written truthfully about our city, and I have only begun to do so. I’ve had solid growth in readership (although some may not admit that they’re readers, which tells you how close-minded others in town are), and I will begin a significant publicity campaign beginning this fall. (At this rate, though, I may not need one.)

Q: It makes me feel better that someone understands how I feel. How can I thank you for what you’ve written?
A: You just did, although you owe me nothing. I’ll keep typing.

City, Development, Economy, Free Markets

Whitewater’s Economy

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I’ll write over the next few posts about the state of the economy in Whitewater. I mentioned economic problems as one of the challenges facing Whitewater when I wrote that

Our municipal government is narrow-minded, with a poor grasp of economics, and clings to burdensome regulations that make Whitewater unattractive to businesses. We gain housing, but lose industry: a recipe for perpetual second-class status. Our economic development is less about a free market economy than about any number of empty municipal gestures. We could hang birdhouses, or painted chairs and wooden fish, from our lampposts forever and still businesses would close and go elsewhere.

The recent completion of a roadway Bypass (could it have been any more aptly but ominously named than ‘bypass?’) around Whitewater diverts customers from our merchants. (A special note to every resident who looked forward to the competition of the Bypass to reduce traffic along Main Street: you got what you wanted, but lost traffic doesn’t put food on anyone’s table.)

I will consider the demographics and economic metrics of our city, as part of my analysis. Still and all, sometimes the best way to understand a community is to walk around and see what it looks like. That’s where I’ll begin, starting Monday.

City

The Smaller Pie

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Many years ago, I read an interview in which the now-disgraced Assembly Speaker, Scott Jensen, gave advice for those aspiring to politics. He said that one of the most important advantages for a politician was to be a third generation Wisconsin resident. He spoke both practically and approvingly: what he felt was necessary, and what he believed was right and proper. (Whatever he felt and believed, it did not keep him from abuse of his office, betrayal of the public trust, and a criminal conviction.)

Jensen was wrong to believe that long-term family history was right and proper for a politician. We have that advantage, but what does it say to our Mexican neighbors? Even if citizens, it says that they should wait nearly a century before playing a political role in our community. The three generations are of no advantage, because we have been here for that long, and still we have made a mess of the city. When Jensen — and those among us like him — asks others to wait, they really ask to be able to continue to make a mess of things for another hundred years.

I did not realize, in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and its Bill of Rights, that we were to be a people of hereditary succession, of ethnic entitlement. There has never been an hereditary elite that did not decline with each generation, and grow duller and more dissipated with each link in the family chain.
Look around: we are no exception. We insist on principal honor for ourselves, and bend rules to award ourselves the best prizes, while the community deteriorates.

(Go to a school program, and see that some of the best awards go to the academically-mediocre children of our long-standing townspeople, and ask yourself whether their parents really believe their children worthy. Why do they? Is it because the parents delude themselves into believing that their children are talented because they’re prize-winners, or because they don’t care about talent, but expect being an entrenched townsperson’s child is worthiness enough?)

Many Mexican-Americans live here, and our economy would collapse without them. (There are some of us who think we’d be fine following their departure, but I will address that error in another post. For now, a brief reply: those who believe that our city could prosper without its Mexican-American workforce are either ignorant or self-deluded.) All Whitewater depends on their labor, but many in Whitewater also resent their presence.

When we take the best for ourselves, to the imperious exclusion of others, we take from an ever staler, ever smaller pie.

Police

The Identity Theft Excuse

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The Whitewater police tell us, repeatedly, that the Star Packaging raid, and their former requests of motorists for Social Security numbers, were efforts to prevent identity theft. There are three reasons that Whitewater’s identity theft investigations are wolves in sheep’s clothing:

1. WPD identity theft investigations target groups where there are a disproportionate number of immigrants. (I know of no white collar, professional identity theft investigations in Whitewater, unless our police department has recently conjured one into existence.)
2. WPD’s award-winning, recently-honored, retiree Larry Meyer acknowledged under judicial examination that in his Star Packaging ‘identity theft’ investigation, the only names he selected for follow-up were Hispanic-sounding surnames. Previously, Meyer had been accused of harassing the Mexican-American workers at a local landscaping business (and is named in a lawsuit that the businessman filed).
3. Real identity theft — not the odd, distorted definition that the Whitewater police use — involves theft of consumer credit cards, access to bank accounts to pilfer funds, etc. Responsible departments do not apply identity theft the way it’s used in our small city, where it was a prelude to a call to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. That’s what the attorney for the owner of Star Packaging explained recently, as quoted in The Week:

“This is one of these situations in which the state is using a statute that, I think, probably wasn’t too much to be used in this fashion,” Glynn said. “The typical use of identity theft (law) is somebody getting a copy of someone else’s charge card and securing property or goods or services on the bases of using it. That’s what most people have in mind. They don’t have in mind someone getting a job that the other’s aren’t seeking.”

Truly responsible and truly professional police forces, unlike our police department, know that identity theft is a serious matter of consumer fraud, not an opening wedge to an immigration action. See, for example, the identity theft prevention websites of the UW Milwaukee Police, the Michigan State Police, New Jersey State Police, or the Police Chief magazine. They do not describe identity theft actions remotely like what Jim Coan has done in our city. (Note also, that Coan did not take the article in Police Chief magazine to heart, perhaps because he’s not a subscriber, or let his subscription lapse, or just skipped reading an issue here or there.)

That’s why I’ve previously described Coan this way:

I have been asked why Coan is an arch-apologist for just about any police conduct, when so many who listen to him find him unconvincing and overly-defensive of the Whitewater police. The answer is that he’s not speaking to persuade the whole town, or even a large part of it; his words are reassurance for a small, mostly town-bred, elite. They want — and expect — that he will never yield or admit fault on any significant matter. Second, his simple, ceaseless defense of the Whitewater force has the consequence of dissuading common, thoughtful residents from the hope of correcting the problems within the force, and of making it truly professional. Finally, Coan may believe — perhaps correctly, too — that if he repeats the same contentions long enough, others will believe them….Coan is a Mynah bird of excuses, rationalizations, and self-praise, of himself, and the Whitewater police.

Police

The Disappearing A.D.A.

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Larry Meyer, the retired Whitewater police investigator at the center of the controversial Star Packaging raid, was involved, also, in an investigation of a local businessman who’s now suing Meyer for harassment. Both of the businesses had significant numbers of Mexican workers.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line:

From The Week, January 24, 2007:
“A retired Whitewater police investigator destroyed evidence seized when executing a search warrant at a city business in 2005 and did not follow the advice of a Walworth County assistant district attorney, according to court documents. Larry Meyer admitted taking items from Stephen D. Cvicker’s business that were outside the scope of a search warrant and then destroyed them, according to a declaration by Assistant District Attorney Dennis Krueger….Krueger said he told Meyer to file an amended list with the clerk of courts to document everything taken and told him to return to Cvicker the seized items that were not evidence of crimes, according to Krueger’s declaration. Later that day, Krueger and Meyer talked again. “To my surprise and disbelief, (Meyer) advised me that I did not need to worry about this anymore because he destroyed the items taken that were outside the scope of the warrant,” Krueger wrote. The assistant district attorney was never allowed to examine what the items were.”

From the Janesville Gazette, June 7, 2007:
“Assistant Walworth County District Attorney Dennis Krueger submitted his resignation May 31. His last day is June 22….In March, Krueger went on “personal leave,” but his voicemail carried a message saying his extension was no longer in use. Neither he, nor his boss, District Attorney Phil Koss, will comment on the reason for the absence.
About two months before Krueger’s leave, he had filed an affidavit in a federal civil case supporting a man’s harassment case against retired Whitewater investigator Larry Meyer. Koss said the absence had nothing to do with Krueger’s involvement in the case.”

City, Police, Press

Coan on Star Packaging from the WPD Newsletter, Volume 48

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The Star Packaging raid offers insight into how Whitewater Police Chief Jim Coan presents his police force to the community, and as a consequence, the message he sends to his team. No action of Coan’s force has been as justly controversial as the Star Packaging raid, and at each stage his statements underlie an unwillingness to admit mistakes.

I have been asked why Coan is an arch-apologist for just about any police conduct, when so many who listen to him find him unconvincing and overly-defensive of the Whitewater police. The answer is that he’s not speaking to persuade the whole town, or even a large part of it; his words are reassurance for a small, mostly town-bred, elite. They want – and expect – that he will never yield or admit fault on any significant matter. Second, his simple, ceaseless defense of the Whitewater force has the consequence of dissuading common, thoughtful residents from the hope of correcting the problems within the force, and of making it truly professional. Finally, Coan may believe – perhaps correctly, too – that if he repeats the same contentions long enough, others will believe them.

There are two recorded sources of Coan’s comments on Star Packaging: published news accounts, and Coan’s editorial in the Whitewater Police Department Newsletter, Volume 48. (For now, I will only offer remarks on Coan’s ‘Police-Community Relations’ editorial in volume 48. It’s the medium most favorable to Coan, giving him every benefit of the doubt: it’s his newsletter, and he can write freely. If there’s a foolish statement in the WPD Newsletter, Coan can’t contend a reporter tricked or misquoted him, for example. The newsletter is available at the City of Whitewater website.)

I will list Coan’s remarks, and thereafter my comments.

Coan from WPD Newsletter, Volume 48, on Press Criticism:

I believe that our Department has been unfairly criticized and much maligned since the arrests made at Star Packaging last August. Accusations of racial profiling, bigotry, and bias-based enforcement persist in quotes provided to the media by certain people from both within and outside of our local Hispanic community.

Adams replies:
This is Coan’s opening paragraph from his editorial on “Police-Community Relations,” and it reveals much — much that’s disturbing — about Coan’s role as police chief. First, it’s a self-pitying opening. The raid caused tension in the Hispanic community in Whitewater, where families were removed from the community, but Coan’s first thoughts are about how his officers have been unfairly criticized and much maligned. Rather than open from a position of strength and reconciliation, Coan opens from one of weakness and accusation; he complains about how mere words have hurt him, and his officers. If they’re brave, and noble, and warriors, or whatever else he’s written about his force, then why would a few stories in the Week or Janesville Gazette matter?

Second, why smear the Hispanic community by writing that “certain people from both within and outside of our local Hispanic community?” Why not just write “local community?” Here’s one reasonable interpretation: Coan thinks that he wouldn’t have a problem if Hispanics and their defenders would just shut up. Coan doesn’t accept responsibility for mishandling any aspect of the raid; it’s all the fault of Hispanics and their defenders, here and beyond, who are talking and supposedly lying to the press.

I am neither Hispanic nor a defender of the Hispanic community, however Coan defines it. I am citizen, resident, and property owner, with a family ancestry on this continent stretching far back. I object to Coan’s view, but not because I am part of the Hispanic community; I object because his ceaseless apologia destroys the possibility of accountability. If this were baseball, Coan wouldn’t just be players’ manager, he’d be a weak players’ manager.

Coan from WPD Newsletter, Volume 48, on Deportation:

As you know, it was the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency that took into custody the illegal and/or undocumented workers at Star Packaging. Some of those taken into custody were deported, some incarcerated on separate charges, and some are awaiting hearings. All were provided due process and protection under the law.

Adams replies:
It’s hard to overstate how disgraceful and weak-kneed these words are. Coan’s now-retired detective, Larry Meyer, likely called ICE. Coan wants to absolve his force of responsibility by saying that although his force called ICE, they are not responsible for the consequences of the call. These are the words of a follower, not a leader. Coan lags behind his men, calling out to them the soothing words they want to hear. Here’s the truth, from ICE: “We went to assist the Whitewater police,” said Gail Montenegro a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Chicago. “They asked us to assist in anticipation of encountering illegal aliens, and we did that.” (See, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 1, 2007, page B1.)

By the way, even months after the raid, Coan continues to heap praise on Larry Meyer, as May 18th’s Police Day ceremony demonstrated.

Coan from WPD Newsletter, Volume 48, on Extreme Confidence:

I am extremely confident that the members of our Department do not engage in racial profiling, bigotry, or bias-based enforcement. We have instituted too many checks and balances for that to happen anyway. More importantly, I believe in the integrity of our officers. We are a highly professional law enforcement agency that is comprised of very compassionate, exceedingly dedicated, well trained, and highly ethical men and women.

Adams replies:
Coan’s not just confident; he’s extremely confident. His officers aren’t just dedicated; they’re exceedingly dedicated. He’s so confident, that he knows, in advance, that no one in his force could ever commit “racial profiling, bigotry, or bias-based enforcement.” It’s not just unlikely to Coan; it’s his extreme confidence that it does not happen, and cannot happen. That’s not a police force; it’s a group of saints he must be describing. (If Coan says they’re like saints, I’ll respond that he falsely sanctifies worldly things and people.)

Notice, though, how Coan’s rush to defend his men is illogical. He tells us that he’s extremely confident that bias does not happen, but simultaneously declares that he has checks and balances in place to prevent it. No doubt, Coan would declare that the additional checks and balances are so that he can be extremely, extremely confident. Checks and balances, however, may not stop a racist action; they might prevent it from its full impact. Coan conflates two situations: where an officer commits a racist act like bias-based enforcement (he says no, not possible) and where checks and balances prevent the consequences of bias-based racial harm (which only applies when their is racism, but the checks, etc. prevent its impact on a person or community).

No one except the most abject apologist would believe that there cannot be bias-based enforcement in Whitewater, or that checks and balances could prevent it at a traffic stop late at night. Who would act as check and balance against a police officer at 2 a.m., in an isolated part of town? No one; it’s just a delusion to believe that it can’t happen.

This reveals Coan’s clear failure a manager, but great success as a cheerleader. Once a manager excludes the possibility that misconduct can happen, he sends the signal that he has no expectation of holding associates accountable for what he has already declared is an impossibility.

Coan from WPD Newsletter, Volume 48, on the ACLU:

Although the ACLU has made inquiries into the nature of the Star Packaging investigation, no charges have been brought. Nor has anyone come forward with specific complaints or examples of profiling or bias enforcement by members of our Department.

Adams replies:
After Coan’s blanket defense of his department — having already declared that there cannot be problems — why would anyone come forward? What would be the point; Coan’s already made up his mind, for goodness’ sake. He’s like the early 1960s sheriff of a small southern town — very much like, actually — declaring that since no black residents have complained about police misconduct, there must not be any.

As for the ACLU, well, that’s merely Coan battening on the ignorance of his officers. It’s possible to be a critic of Coan’s weak, self-congratulatory police force, and a critic of the ACLU, too. I am a perfect example. By Coan’s lights, I should probably be a supporter of him, and his force: citizen, resident, property owner, white. (By the way, would someone tell Coan that ‘Caucasian’ is an anachronism like ‘Negro?’) I could not, however, align myself with empty boosterism, weak leadership, and seemingly endless rationalizations, from this chief of police.

The toughest critics of Coan’s force that I have ever met in town are white, and moderate or conservative. The Star Packaging raid was a mess for the city, and Coan will, and can, do nothing to reform his praise-needy force. Coan’s problem doesn’t lie with supposedly out-spoken Hispanics, or the ACLU. It’s that Coan is a Mynah bird of excuses, rationalizations, and self-praise, of himself, and the Whitewater police.

City, Police, Press

Journal Sentinel on Star Packaging Raid

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On May 1st, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a thoughtful, informative story on the Star Packaging raid. Georgia Pabst wrote the story, running on page B1, of the paper.

Here are some nuggets from that story, that may not have been printed in local papers, with my comments following:

1. From City Councilman Maxwell Taylor, aged 20:

I was shocked because I didn’t see a bust of this proportion coming,” said Common Council member Maxwell Taylor, 20, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. “It was real unfortunate because some of my Hispanic constituents were almost afraid to gather because of fears about what the police would do about immigration.”
But Taylor believes the police did the right thing.
“If people are in this country illegally, then they have to go back,” he said. “I think this sends a message to other business owners in town.”

John Adams:
If Taylor thought that anyone in the Whitewater Police Department was going to tell a twenty-year old anything about the raid, he’s kidding himself. A seat on Council means little from their point of view. By the way, if your constituents are afraid to come outside and gather to meet you, then maybe it has something to do with your opinion that some Hispanics “have to go back.” They may not be citizens, and they may not speak English well, but for goodness’ sake is it not obvious that they can put two and two together better than Taylor?

2. From Marilyn Kienbaum, City Council President, aged 80:

Council member Marilyn Kenbaum [sic], 80, worried about the fallout from the raid.
“I didn’t think it was handled right,” she said. “Some (of the workers) had children. It was a real hardship.”
She said the food pantry she runs got busy after the raid because “people who had been working all of a sudden weren’t.”

John Adams:
Sixty years produces a greater compassion from Kienbaum than Taylor. She’s right, of course — they had families and children. Kienbaum thinks about the full consequences; Taylor’s so young all he understands is a simple, crudely applied rule. I’ll wait sixty years, and see if he thinks it’s all that simple when he’s eighty.

3. Larry Meyer and the Whitewater Police Started this Action:

“We went to assist the Whitewater police,” said Gail Montenegro a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Chicago. “They asked us to assist in anticipation of encountering illegal aliens, and we did that.”

John Adams:
If someone in the Whitewater Police Department tries to tell you that it was not their operation, that it was basically an immigration matter, remind him or her that Immigration and Customs Enforcement disputes the WPD story.

4. Whitewater Police Wanted Our Social Security Numbers?

Police also agreed to stop asking motorists pulled over on traffic violations for Social Security numbers. Although it was meant as a way for the city to collect unpaid fines, it was viewed by Latinos as immigration related, he [Police Chief Coan] said.

John Adams:
They’re not serious, are they? We Wisconsinites have always prided ourselves on respecting the privacy of others. Many Wisconsinites will balk at giving a phone number or Social Security Number on a contract of sale! Why would anyone ever think that we’d give it easily at a traffic stop? Have you ever known anyone who was asked for a Social Security Number at a traffic stop? I’ll write separately on the Identity Theft Excuse in another post. For now, a few questions about SSNs at traffic stops: (1) how long were the Whitewater Police asking for these numbers, (2) how many people at traffic stops did they ask, (3) how many of those people they asked in Whitewater were white? If you doubt that Social Security Numbers likely were requested disproportionately from Hispanics, then you doubt the presence of the nose on your face.

City, Free Markets

Open Letter: “White, Non-Minority?”

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UPDATE, 6-4-07
I received a reply from the Community Development Authority to my open letter, and the reply related that the CDA website is in transition. There will always be some positive achievements from the past that should be continued, but other perspectives and legacies should be relegated only to distant memory.

Rome was not built in a day, I wish the CDA much success in its efforts to promote development and progress in Whitewater, and look forward to the new website.

To the City Manager of Whitewater, Wisconsin

Good evening, Mr. Brunner

I am a long-standing resident of Whitewater, Wisconsin, having lived in the city for more years than I can easily remember. I am also a blogger, and publisher of the FREEWHITEWATER.COM website, a blog dedicated to reform in our beautiful, but troubled, city. I write under the pseudonym JOHN ADAMS; anonymous commentary on matters in the public interest is a part of the American political tradition, and my very small efforts follow in the footsteps of larger-than-life Americans, who acted to improve their communities, and benefit their neighbors.

Our city of fourteen thousand seeks growth, progress, and civic improvement. It is easier said than done, however. We are beset by attitudes and opinions that recall another, less pleasant era. A description of my fair-minded purposes and concerns about our city may be found elsewhere on my website. For tonight, I wanted to write to you about a matter that I wrote about previously on FREEWHITEWATER.COM, and about which I emailed the Community Development Authority (with no reply being received).

Here’s what I wrote, a few days ago:

I believe strongly in growth for Whitewater, and in the the importance of attracting new businesses to our city.

The Whitewater Community Development Authority is part of that effort. Here is how the Community Development authority describes itself, from its website:

The Whitewater CDA is a Housing and Community Development Authority formed in 1983 by the City of Whitewater under Wisconsin State Statute 66.1335. It has a seven-member board appointed by the Common Council, and two full-time employees. Although technically a part of the city government, the CDA operates with a great deal of autonomy. Major decisions by the CDA Board must be ratified by the Common Council.

To attract businesses to our city, it makes sense to post information about Whitewater on a website, so that prospective business owners can learn more about our community. So far, so good.

What’s more than a bit troubling is how they describe our potential workforce, on the Community Development page entitled, “Work Force.” Here’s what it says, as of this evening, May 31st:

Our workforce is listed as “white, non-minority 95%.”

I have a few quick questions:

1. Why would the Community Development Authority describe our workforce as “white, non-minority” when the law itself forbids hiring based on racial preference?

2. Who are “non-minorities?” Would Jews, or Mormons, for example, be considered minorities?

3. If the goal were diversity in hiring, why not directly mention by group those who are “non-white, minority” rather than emphasize whites, and leave others out by express exclusion?

4. Who actually wrote this description of our workforce?

5. From the point of view of the free market, why would race matter? Education, or experience in previous jobs, of course. But race?

I can find no similar statistics (‘white, non-minority’) listed for neighboring Fort Atkinson’s website, and that’s unsurprising: the Whitewater Community Development description of our workforce speaks for itself, and its authors, and none too well.

That’s what I wrote then, and I find our Community Development Authority’s description of our workforce no less puzzling now. You must know, as I do, that the description appears to hold out the idea of a “white, non-minority” workforce as a positive thing. No dissembling could contest the point: the point of each characteristic of the workforce listed is meant to be appealing to incoming businesses. (The defense that it’s just a straightforward description is false and disingenuous — a childlike excuse, nothing more.)

When the Community Development Authority posted these words on its website, did no one bother to challenge what they assuredly mean? Will no one change them now? If not, then any reasonable person will conclude that we are a community that considers being white, and a ‘non-minority’ a better, more desirable trait. I do not share that belief, and our deepest American principles do not, either.

Now I am a citizen, resident, and property owner, with an ancestry that goes far back on this continent. If race, ethnicity, ancestry, and background compelled one’s destiny, then I would have remained — however wrongly — aligned with this town’s small, insular elite. Yet, now I find, one cannot be wholly committed to the values of this country, and do one’s best for this beautiful city, and not call out for reform. It is far better to write what I write, and be where I am, than wrongly to believe that one race is preferable for businesses over another.

Here’s your chance to make a small difference, quite easily. You may explain convincingly the Community Development Authority’s Work Force webpage, and justify it, and then I’ll be proved wrong. Alternatively, and far more likely, you may act to persuade others to change an odious description. You will not have changed the world, but you’ll have started to change a few minds about the difference a description makes.

Best regards,

JOHN ADAMS

Beautiful Whitewater, City

Beautiful Whitewater: Our Skate Park

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Whitewater, Wisconsin is a place of natural and artificial beauty — what we have inherited from nature, and what we have made. One of our recent additions, just beyond our Old Armory, along the Whitewater Creek, is a skate park.

It’s popular; so much so, that it was part of a recent film on our cable access channel about skaters from across the country coming to visit our skate park, and others nearby.

I happily offer some photos of the park. (I took these pictures early in the morning, before the skaters arrived.)

The skate park was a great idea, and it shows that we can can create and maintain useful, contemporary public parks for the community.