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Friday Catblogging:
AI, Daily Bread, Technology, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 4.30.26: (Almost) Everyone Hates Data Centers. They Don’t Like AI Much, Either
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 52. Sunrise is 5:50 and sunset is 7:54 for 14 hours 4 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.6 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first President of the United States.
In Wisconsin, there are now over 50 data centers. This libertarian blogger has not opposed data centers; on the contrary, I’ve contended that they should be left up to each community without state interference. (See from 1.13.26: ‘I’d argue for as little state regulation as possible, leaving counties and cities with the choice of whether they’d prefer a data center in their community. The rush to build data centers may not last, and the centers may take markedly different shapes from one proposal to another.’)
My view, however, is a minority view1 on the topic. The latest Marquette Law School Poll, in a nationwide survey, included questions about data centers and artificial intelligence. The results are clear:
A substantial majority (69%) of adults say the costs of data centers outweigh their benefits, while 30% say the benefits are greater. This represents an increase in skepticism about data centers since January, when 62% saw costs as greater than benefits and 37% said benefits are greater.
This opposition is bipartisan, with 62% of Republicans, 76% of Democrats, and 73% of independents saying the costs are greater than the benefits. This opinion increased across each partisan group. In January, 53% of Republicans, 70% of Democrats, and 65% of independents saw costs greater than benefits.
Doubts over the costs of data centers are only slightly related to income, education, age, or region of the country. Liberals are more likely to say the costs outweigh the benefits than are conservatives, but majorities of all ideological groups think the costs are greater.
See Marquette Law School Poll survey, April 23, 2026.
The Marquette Poll observes a relationship between opposition to data centers and dislike of artificial intelligence:
Views of data centers are strongly related to views of artificial intelligence. Seventy percent of adults say the development of AI is a bad thing for society, and 30% say it is a good thing. Of those who think AI is a good thing, 62% say the benefits outweigh the costs of data centers. Among those who say AI is a bad thing, 83% say the costs outweigh the benefits.
Even a majority of people who have used large language models in AI programs think artificial intelligence is bad for society:
Those who say they have used an AI app in the last month are less negative about the effect of AI on society than are non-AI users, although majorities of both AI users, 60%, and non-users, 85%, say AI is a bad thing for society.
That’s quite something: believing data centers are bad, believing artificial intelligence is bad, and believing artificial intelligence is harmful for society even while using it. The latter is like a man who insists air travel is environmentally destructive yet flies regularly.
And yet, and yet, if many people and many communities don’t want data centers, they should be free to reject those centers. Better, morally and practically, to neither force communities to accept nor force to them to reject data centers through statewide or national regulations.
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- A minority view: A position held by a smaller number of people within a larger group. A person should know when he is in the majority or minority. On the issue of data centers, I’m in the minority. On so many issues beyond data centers, Whitewater’s special-interest men, for example, would do well to ponder their narrow position within the broader community. Falsely believing that one is in the majority because he collects ten like-minded people in a city of fifteen thousand is nothing more than a self-serving delusion. ↩︎
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): Claims of Legacy, a Particular Species of Democrat, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, ‘What Ails, What Heals’ Reviewed, and Outcome Driven Argumentation.
Best use of a monarch? — King Charles III feeds chickens:
Congress, Courts, Daily Bread, Law, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 4.29.26: Wisconsin Congressional Redistricting Is Off the Table for 2026 Election
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 52. Sunrise is 5:51 and sunset is 7:53 for 14 hours 2 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 4 PM.
On this day in 1945, American soldiers liberate the Dachau concentration camp.
Yesterday’s post (Candidates Should Live in Their Districts Before Running for Office) discussed residency for candidates running for Wisconsin’s First Congressional District (in which most of the City of Whitewater is located). Today’s post addresses a related topic: the second of two separate three-judge panels has declined to rule on a challenge to the boundaries of Wisconsin’s congressional districts. Shawn Johnson reports that
The order issued Tuesday is the second in the past month dismissing challenges to the state’s congressional districts, which currently give Republicans a 6-2 edge.
The case was brought by the liberal firm Law Forward on behalf of a group called Wisconsin Business Leaders for Democracy. It argues Wisconsin’s congressional map is an “anti-competitive gerrymander,” designed to entrench incumbent candidates at the expense of voters.
In a 13-page ruling, Dane County Judge David Conway, Marathon County Judge Michael Moran and Portage County Judge Patricia Baker wrote that only the Wisconsin Supreme Court could decide to overturn a map on the grounds that it was too partisan.
“While plaintiffs have constructed a detailed theory to support their claims, this panel does not write on a blank slate when it comes to the use of partisan considerations in redistricting,” the judges wrote. “Until the Supreme Court says otherwise, Plaintiffs’ claims are non-justiciable and non-cognizable under Wisconsin law.”
In a statement after the decision, Law Forward attorney Doug Poland promised to appeal to the state Supreme Court.
“This is the first anti-competitive gerrymandering case ever filed in Wisconsin courts, and it deserves to be heard,” Poland said. “We believe that the circuit court was wrong in concluding that anti-competitive gerrymandering is ‘functionally equivalent’ to partisan gerrymandering. They are different claims, based on different evidence, that target different ways of manipulating representation to the detriment of voters.”
See Shawn Johnson, Second judicial panel rejects challenge to Wisconsin congressional map (‘The ruling leaves in place Wisconsin’s current map, which gives Republicans a 6-2 advantage in the state’s US House delegation’), Wisconsin Public Radio, April 28, 2026.
The rulings from these two circuit court panels are not surprises. It was asking much, too much, of these panels to adopt and apply a new standard to redress the past gerrymandering of Wisconsin’s congressional districts. (It was asking even more than too much, so to speak, to expect that a decision could be handed down in 2026, as the plaintiffs in one of the cases expected.)
If there is a judicial determination, then it will come from the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and it will apply no sooner than the 2028 congressional elections.
Redressing past wrongs should only be done in the right way. The right way here, if there is to be one, requires the considered judgment of Wisconsin’s highest court delivered after unhurried deliberation.
Previously: Wisconsin Supreme Court Appoints Redistricting Panels and Plaintiffs in Wisconsin Congressional Redistricting Cases Propose Different Timelines.
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): Claims of Legacy, a Particular Species of Democrat, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, ‘What Ails, What Heals’ Reviewed, and Outcome Driven Argumentation.
JPL Tests Next-Generation Electric Thruster:
City, Congress, Daily Bread, Elections, First Congressional District
Daily Bread for 4.28.26: Candidates Should Live in Their Districts Before Running for Office
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 62. Sunrise is 5:53 and sunset is 7:52 for 13 hours 59 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 90.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 5 PM.
On this day in 1947, Thor Heyerdahl and five crewmates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to demonstrate that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.
Embedded above is a map of Wisconsin’s 1st Congressional District. The Walworth County portion of Whitewater is within the district. (The Jefferson County portion of Whitewater is in Wisconsin’s 5th Congressional District.)
The incumbent representative for the 1st District is GOP Congressman Bryan Steil. Several Democrats have been running in the August primary for the district (among them Miguel Aranda of Whitewater), and now there’s another — Peter Burgelis.
If readers in the district haven’t heard of Burgelis, that’s understandable, because he’s Milwaukee Alderman Peter Burgelis:
Milwaukee alderman Peter Burgelis is launching a campaign for Congress to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil, who immediately made his residency outside the district an issue in the race.
Burgelis was elected to the Milwaukee Common Council in 2024 and represents District 11, which roughly borders Greenfield and West Allis.
See Hope Karnopp, Milwaukee alderman Peter Burgelis launches run to unseat Bryan Steil, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 26, 2026.
One doesn’t have to be a cartographer to see that Milwaukee is not within the 1st Congressional District.
There’s no reason to doubt that Burgelis has represented his Milwaukee constituents well; the obvious objection is that his current constituents are in Milwaukee.
In this regard, Burgelis is like GOP Assemblyman Scott Johnson, who ran in 2024 for the 43rd Assembly District while living elsewhere. Johnson’s carpetbagging was objectionable then, as Burgelis’s is now. See In the 43rd District Race, Scott Johnson’s Disqualifying Situation.
Over at the Wisconsin Examiner, Erik Gunn has reporting on how Burgelis was recruited:
Burgelis said he was first approached a few months ago, by “a number of people,” including former Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate.
[…]
Asked about his role in recruiting Burgelis, Tate said in an email message, “Peter asked me about running a while back and I encouraged him to do so. He’s a hard worker, a good progressive, and we need a strong candidate to take on Steil. I don’t have any other color or the like to add.”
Burgelis said his review of past election results gave him confidence that the seat could be flipped to the Democrats.
“The residency thing, I think, is certainly something that a GOP campaign ad is going to harp on in November and October,” Burgelis told the Examiner. “But right now, the goal for Democrats is to get the best candidates through the primary.”
See Erik Gunn, Milwaukee alder enters 1st CD race to challenge Steil, frustrating another Democrat’s backers, Wisconsin Examiner, April 28, 2026.
(Mike Tate was the chairman of Wisconsin Democrats from 2009 to 2015, the period immediately before and during Wisconsin Republicans’ political rise under Scott Walker.)
There’s a way for Burgelis to get ahead of the ‘residency thing’ long before the November election: he need only become a 1st District resident before the June 1 candidate filing deadline.
The district has many beautiful communities, the City of Whitewater first among them. It is not too much to ask candidates to live where they wish to serve before running. On the contrary, asking anything less would be asking too little of them.
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): Claims of Legacy, a Particular Species of Democrat, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, ‘What Ails, What Heals’ Reviewed, and Outcome Driven Argumentation.
Sumatran orangutan uses canopy bridge to cross a road in Indonesia:
Daily Bread, Economy, Employment
Daily Bread for 4.27.26: A Difficult Job Market Regrettably Gets Less Attention
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will see thunderstorms with a high of 66. Sunrise is 5:54 and sunset is 7:51 for 13 hours 57 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 83.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater School Board meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1978, John Ehrlichman, a former aide to President Nixon, is released from the Federal Correctional Institution, Safford, Arizona, after serving 18 months for Watergate-related crimes.
There’s solid evidence that we have a difficult job market, and there’s an obvious reason the difficult employment market gets less attention than concerns about prices.
First, the job market — new entrants to the workforce are in the toughest job market since COVID-19:
This year’s grads are trying to begin their careers in the toughest job market since the COVID-19 pandemic, which experts say has been driven by a broader slowdown in hiring.
Nicholas Jolly, a labor economist and associate professor of economics at Marquette University, said the labor market is “not nearly as hot” as it was in the years after the pandemic, which saw strong job growth as the economy reopened.
“We had a very tight labor market post-pandemic,” he said. “It’s now softened as markets have adjusted.”
Unemployment has remained low at 4.3 percent nationally in March and 3.4 percent in Wisconsin in February, the most recent months with available data. But the rate of job openings has been nearly cut in half since its peak in 2022.
“If the overall labor market is getting softer, it stands to reason that it’s going to get softer for entry-level jobs as well,” Jolly said.
See Joe Schulz, Wisconsin’s class of 2026 entering the workforce in the toughest job market since COVID-19 (‘Economists say AI isn’t yet a major factor in the tough entry-level job market’), April 27, 2026.
The contrast between concerns over a weak employment market and concerns over higher prices is evident. Polls consistently show respondents’ worries over higher prices (regardless of why those prices are higher) top respondents’ economic concerns. Here’s pollster and data analyst G. Elliott Morris on prices:
[P]eople still mostly just see high prices for things and get upset about that. And fair enough! My theory is that price levels account for much to most of the “puzzle” of why consumer sentiment is lower than you would predict based on the historical relationship between CPI, unemployment, the cost of money and etc.
See G. Elliott Morris, The mystery variable that explains stubbornly low consumer sentiment, Strength in Numbers, April 12, 2026.
Morris’s work shows that prices drive much of the sentiment about the economy’s direction.
Whether prices and inflation are the right economic focus is different from whether it’s a predictable, understandable focus. As a matter of overall sentiment, a difficult labor market is experienced most particularly by new labor force entrants, while higher prices are experienced by a greater number of Americans.
This does not suggest that a tough labor market matters less. A challenging labor market for new entrants may have worse economic consequences than a relatively low level of inflation, even if inflation is perceived as more significant.
The greater perception of inflation’s harm does explain, however, why there will be more attention (and lower consumer sentiment) about inflation than about a slow employment market.
And yet, and yet… both elevated inflation and a slow job market for new workers are signs of a poorly functioning economy.
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): Claims of Legacy, a Particular Species of Democrat, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, ‘What Ails, What Heals’ Reviewed, and Outcome Driven Argumentation.
Ships wait in the Strait of Hormuz as waterway remains blocked:
Music
Monday Music: Flea, Traffic Lights (feat. Thom Yorke)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Coffee, Comedy, Daily Bread, Drink, Food
Daily Bread for 4.26.26: Grading the Coffee Market
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 65. Sunrise is 5:56 and sunset is 7:50 for 13 hours 54 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 75.4 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1986, the Chernobyl disaster occurs near the (now-abandoned) industrial city of Pripyat in the Soviet Union.
Why This One Coffee Tasting Impacts the Price of Coffee:
Chapters:
0:00 The coffee grader in the NYSE
1:01 Grading the coffee
3:57 What the coffee in the NYSE represents
5:28 The coffee market
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): Claims of Legacy, a Particular Species of Democrat, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, ‘What Ails, What Heals’ Reviewed, and Outcome-Driven Opposition.
Meanwhile, at the Brooklyn Coffee Shop:
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This libertarian blogger is a coffee drinker and, if there were a Brooklyn Coffee Shop, I’d be sure to visit often. These Instagram Reels are part of a series with @winnie_thepooj as Thyme and @darrylgenejr as Cale. The series recently won a well-deserved Webby Award in the Video & Film, Comedy category.
Daily Bread, Gubernatorial Race 2026, Politics, Tommy Thompson, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 4.25.26: More Silly Speculation About Tommy Thompson
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny in the afternoon with a high of 65. Sunrise is 5:57 and sunset is 7:48 for 13 hours 51 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 66.2 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 404 BC, Admiral Lysander and King Pausanias of Sparta blockade Athens and bring the Second Peloponnesian War to a successful conclusion.
For reasons unknown to sensible people, every so often the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel will report on a possible Tommy Thompson run for governor this year. See Assessing Teasers and Speculation About Wisconsin Elections for 2026. Holy moly, the Journal Sentinel is back for more:
“U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany IS the only major Republican in the guv race but former GOP governor Tommy Thompson is still considering jumping in the race. And yes, Thompson would be 85 if he took office in January. That isn’t a hurdle to Thompson. He told me Thursday: “I know I could win, but I don’t know if I want to get involved.”
It hasn’t been unusual for Thompson to consider joining statewide races since he left the East Wing 25 years ago but there appears to be a bit more substance to the chatter this time. A poll popped up recently surveying potential voters’ thoughts on Thompson. Thompson told me he heard the results were “encouraging” for another Thompson candidacy but that he remains undecided about joining the race.”
See Molly Beck and Jessie Opoien, Will Tommy Thompson return with a run for governor? | Politics mailbag, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 24, 2026.
Here’s a better answer: It’s improbable that he’ll run, and it’s impossible that he’d win.
While it’s true that Tom Tiffany isn’t charismatic, hardly anyone other than the man Tommy Thompson sees each morning in the mirror is eager for a race with an octogenarian candidate.
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): Claims of Legacy, a Particular Species of Democrat, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, ‘What Ails, What Heals’ Reviewed, and Outcome-Driven Opposition.
Wildfires tear across northern Japan:
Daily Bread, Legislature, Politics, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 4.24.26: Wisconsin Capitol Departs from National Security Trends
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 67. Sunrise is 5:59 and sunset is 7:47 for 13 hours 48 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 55.7 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1916, Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organize a rescue for the crew of the sunken Endurance.
While ‘locked Capitol doors and more cash for security are the new normal after the Minnesota assassination,’ Wisconsin remains in the small minority of states without additional precautions:
Nearly a year after the assassination of a Minnesota legislative leader, lawmakers across the U.S. have worked to fortify security in state capitols and improve safeguards when officials are in their communities.
The changes have followed a rise in political violence nationwide that included the stunning assassination last June of Rep. Melissa Hortman, the top Democratic leader in the Minnesota House, and the September killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was speaking at a college in Utah.
In Minnesota, most doors at the state Capitol are now locked, and people entering must go through weapons detectors. People entering the visitors’ galleries to watch floor debates must go through a second set of detectors.
[…]
But some states have balked at making it harder to access the halls of power. Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican who knew Hortman, resisted efforts to install metal detectors in his state, saying he didn’t want to “fortify” the Capitol. Wisconsin’s is one of 11 state capitols that don’t have metal detectors, a state audit found.
See Steve Karnowski and Scott Bauer, Locked Capitol doors and more cash for security are the new normal after Minnesota assassination, Associated Press, April 24, 2026.
Doubtless — doubtless — in ordinary times of dispassionate political discussion one would prefer easy access to public buildings. These are not, however, ordinary times of dispassionate political discussion.
(These security measures elsewhere do not prevent public access to public spaces; they simply delay access slightly while scanning for weapons.)
Despite a preference for the least restrictive environment possible, Wisconsin’s decision to defy the security trends of nearly forty other states presents both practical and political calculations.
A practical (humane) calculation: Wisconsinites, however unique in many ways, are not so different from their fellow Americans that a few might not be inclined in character toward violent action. Seeing that state populations across America are mostly alike, and that there has been violence elsewhere one might sensibly decide to add security in Wisconsin as other state legislatures have done. The cost of the measures would be small against a possible loss of life.
A political calculation: Even if a legislator were not worried for himself — or even most people — he might still conclude that in the (unlikely) event of violence toward anyone for lack of security measures prevalent elsewhere, he and his caucus would be, rightly, blamed for inaction. The cost of the measures would be small against the political criticism.
Odd (although perhaps not so odd for him) that Speaker Vos has not made either calculation in favor of additional safety measures in politically turbulent times.
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): Claims of Legacy, a Particular Species of Democrat, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, ‘What Ails, What Heals’ Reviewed, and Outcome Driven Opposition.
This robot can beat you (and pros) at table tennis:
Cats, Science/Nature
Friday Catblogging: The Black Serval
by JOHN ADAMS •
City, Film
Film: Tuesday, April 28, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, Marty Supreme
by JOHN ADAMS •
Tuesday, April 28 at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Marty Supreme @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Period Drama/Comedy/Sports
Rated R (language, violence) 2 hours, 29 minutes (2025)
1952: 23 year–old Marty Mauser (Timothée Chalamet) struggles and strives to be the world champion best table tennis player. His obstacles: his mother (Fran Drescher), his pregnant girlfriend, an affair with an older woman (Gwyneth Paltrow), and the current Japanese best player in the world. 9 Oscar nominations including Best Film and Actor (Chalamet); Winner: Golden Globe Best Actor.
One can find more information about Marty Supreme at the Internet Movie Database.
Business, City, Daily Bread, Development, Employment, Local Government
Daily Bread for 4.23.26: Council Approves Sale of Business Park Lots for Summerset Marine
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 78. Sunrise is 6:00 and sunset is 7:46 for 13 hours 46 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 43.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1985, Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months.
Development takes both commercial and residential forms, and on Tuesday, April 21, the Whitewater Common Council unanimously approved an offer from Lifetime Manufacturing, LLC (d/b/a Summerset Marine Construction) to purchase business park lots for a new 150,000 square-foot facility, representing about $15 million dollars in assessed value when completed. The facility would bring 90 jobs initially and about another 60 jobs within several years.
(Summerset now operates in multiple buildings outside the city, and would consolidate their operations within Whitewater.)
The Council’s discussion of the sale to Summerset is embedded above. This sale benefits both Summerset and Whitewater — it is, as all good deals are, beneficial to both parties.
It’s good news for Whitewater.
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): Claims of Legacy, a Particular Species of Democrat, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, ‘What Ails, What Heals’ Reviewed, and Outcome Driven Opposition.
Boston Marathon runners help another runner who collapsed finish the race:
Daily Bread, Open Government, UW System, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 4.22.26: The UW Regents’ Category Error on Open Government
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 6:02 and sunset is 7:45 for 13 hours 43 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 33 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Comprehensive Plan Advisory Work Group meets at 4 PM.
On this day in 1970, the first Earth Day is celebrated.
What if someone said ‘This contract is legally sound, but is it gluten-free?‘ We’d know right away that the person asking about gluten had committed a category error, as the category of thinking about a contract’s sufficiency does not include consideration of the proteins found in cereal grains. A confusion like that, however rare, is easily noticed.
There’s another kind of category error that’s more common: misunderstanding different natures of private and public entities. Someone might say, for example, that public universities should have the same secrecy rights as private corporations because both are merely ‘organizations.’
When justifying the dismissal of Jay Rothman, here’s how Regent Timothy Nixon explained the System’s position:
Nixon said the way Rothman’s departure was handled, including the rejected offer that he retire or resign, is similar to what is done for CEOs of large corporations.
“This is no different than moving on to a new quarterback, no matter what you thought of the previous quarterback and what they did,” Nixon said.
See Scott Bauer, Universities of Wisconsin regents cite disputes over AI and other topics in president’s firing, Associated Press, April 9, 2026.
One doesn’t have to hold a brief for Rothman (as this libertarian blogger does not) to see that Nixon conflates private and public entities in his analogy. The Universities of Wisconsin are neither a large corporation nor a private NFL team, but rather a publicly-established, publicly-funded educational system. The Regents do not represent in their roles as regents either large corporations or football teams (however they might wish to see themselves that way).
Because the Regents act in the name of the public (and as regents can act in no other way), the public has a right to see how major decisions are made. This right includes notice from the public institution (not merely a leak from one of its employees) explaining adequately beforehand major institutional changes.
While it’s true that ordinary personnel changes need not be justified, this was no ordinary personnel change. There should be a presumption of openness in matters with highly placed public leaders like the System’s president. Reporting about Rothman’s possible dismissal from his public position before the Regents took action opened the door to greater candor in the moment, not simply afterward. (As a practical matter, this dismissal was handled too defensively.)
In any event, after-the-fact announcements and justifications fall short of the transparency a public institution requires. (Indeed, a private institution need not make any announcement about a leader’s dismissal save whatever stockholders might find sufficient.)
That Rothman could be dismissed is not in question; that he should have been dismissed is a matter on which others may ruminate.
That this dismissal was handled in violation of principles of transparency (and awkwardly as a matter of simple public relations) is clear.
See also The Secretive Effort to Force the UW President Out of His Job.
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): Claims of Legacy, a Particular Species of Democrat, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, ‘What Ails, What Heals’ Reviewed, and Outcome Driven Opposition.
Hot-air balloon with 13 people lands in California back yard:
City, Daily Bread, Development, Economics, Free Markets, Housing
Daily Bread for 4.21.26: A Bit About Markets and Dynamism
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 71. Sunrise is 6:03 and sunset is 7:44 for 13 hours 41 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 22 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater Forward Design Workshop Open House is open from 4:30-6:30 PM and the Whitewater Common Council meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 753 BC, Romulus is traditionally said to have founded Rome.
Last night, a clear majority of the Whitewater Common Council voted to support the Stonehaven development project to bring fourteen owner-occupied, single-family homes to Whitewater. This libertarian blogger supported the proposal. See The Stonehaven Single-Family Home Project Merits Support.
A city that has had an inadequate single-family home market (despite a desire for single-family homes) is a poorly functioning market. That’s disappointing, yet if one does not acknowledge the disappointment, one cannot address it. Of course, one would prefer that these market desires be fulfilled only through the private market. For Whitewater, however, one quickly sees the gap between need or desire and effective demand. See Affordability Discussions Define a Key Component of Economic Demand.
Whitewater, through government policies over the last generation (principally, but not exclusively, through zoning liberalization) improved opportunities for student-rental operators, but made no similarly vigorous effort in the last decade to advance single-family residences. Past policymakers favored some properties over others. Liberalization for some residences, for example, was only reasonable with commensurate liberalization (or support of some kind) for other types of housing. Instead, for new residential construction these recent years, it’s been not here, not there, not this, not that.
(Indeed, those who now tout their private-sector accomplishments might wish to remember that it was the presence of a publicly–funded university that fueled those accomplishments.)
It’s simply false to say that past economic activity in Whitewater occurred in a wholly free market of purely private transactions. Standing pat on uneven ground leaves this community tilting to one side — insisting on the same way forever leaves Whitewater with a distorted market. ‘The same way forever’ is characteristic of stagnant communities; ‘the same way forever’ preserves past misjudgments.
What free markets achieve (especially if uninhibited) is a dynamic, spontaneous order. They are by their nature creative, often surprisingly so. They offer within this city thousands of interactions between people each day, unregulated and unmediated.
What, then, to do when government-favored activity in one sector (student-rental properties) has regrettably crowded out and limited possibilities for another vital sector (single-family homes or other kinds of rental property)? In conditions of past market distortion, Whitewater will have to make her way as best she can to reform and then bolster opportunities for a less slanted market. Those who don’t want this now, shouldn’t have advanced so much of only that then.
Stonehaven is a creative solution that will begin to redress past imbalances.
There’s something telling and surprising when a few residents (mostly the same few) contend that they’ve never heard of solutions like this. Perhaps they haven’t, but then Whitewater is more than the same few people, and Wisconsin is more than the same few people, and America is more than the same few people. We are a dynamic and creative society. All around us, one finds our society’s ingenuity, if only one would look.
It is through necessitated creativity now that Whitewater will find her way to a more balanced residential market.
This was a sound, solid decision for our city.
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): The Regents, Claims of Legacy, a Particular Species of Democrat, a Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, ‘What Ails, What Heals’ Reviewed, and Outcome Driven Opposition.
Feisty house cat faces two bears: