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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.23.13

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Good morning.

We will have a blustery and chilly day, with a high of twenty-two, and wind gusts as high as thirty mph.

I’ve added two additional points to my reply to an editorial about Janesville’s transit bus. See, The Gazette‘s Laughable, Damage-Control Editorial. The program and the editorial defense of it are, both of them, of notably poor quality.

What if one drew the boundaries of states, as John Wesley Powell once suggested, by watersheds and not simply abritrary, straight lines? That’s the basis of a story from Community Builders entitled, The United (Watershed) States of America. John Lavey observes:

Which gets me to my “what if”: What if the Western states were formed around watershed as Powell envisioned? What would that look like and could we speculate on what that might mean for the functioning of modern communities? And since we’re going down that road, let’s ask another what if: What if all of the American states were based around principal watershed, from coast to coast – something even Powell didn’t consider.

Armed with an elementary understanding of GIS and various shapefiles, I set out to create such a map.

Here’s his watershed-boundary map (clicking produces a larger image):

Watershed_States_NoBorderlo
 

“Watershed states map of the United States of America (updated version). (If you want finer grain detail, which this map includes, click on the image to visit our flickr page) OR go to the new version I posted in Google Earth” by John Lavey

On this day in 1998, a settlement in Wisconsin:

1998 – Wisconsin Enters into Tobacco Settlement
On this date Wisconsin entered into the tobacco “Master Settlement Agreement.” Wisconsin was to receive $5.9 billion over 25 years from leading tobacco product manufacturers. [Source: Tobacco Control Resource Center for Wisconsin]

Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Local Government, Press

The Gazette‘s Laughable, Damage-Control Editorial

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There’s an editorial at the Gazette today (http://gazettextra.com/article/20131122/ARTICLES/131129885/1034) predictably praising continued funding for Janesville’s transit bus to Whitewater.  That there’s a bit of crowing in the editorial is unsurprising, but it’s more telling that it’s an error-prone essay that makes basic mistakes about Whitewater’s politics, and omits – perhaps intentionally – a description of the actual discussion that took place in Whitewater.

(See, for an accurate account, The Bus Discussion @ Council Last Night: A Fiasco by Any Definition.)

Update, 11.23.13: Advertising & Video.

Advertising: When the Gazette ran this editorial in favor of their city’s transit bus, why didn’t their editorialist disclose that the paper has benefited from advertisements for the bus? (It would have been easy enough to do: ‘Disclosure: Our newspaper has published advertisements for the ‘Innovation Express.’)

They didn’t bother.  It’s another example of that paper’s decline from a proper standard.  Here’s a screenshot of their website from earlier this year:

GazetteXtra1
 

Video:  The video of Tuesday’s session is now available, at https://vimeo.com/79914403, with the discussion of the bus taking place beginning @ 58:40. I am confident that those who watch the actual recording of the meeting will see that the Gazette’s editorial is an erroneous and misleading characterization of the discussion. 

Needless to say, Gazette readers in Janesville will never see the actual proceedings, and their editorialist knows as much.  This gives him the opportunity to spin and distort.  And yet, his is not an unlimited opportunity – the recording refutes his sugary characterization, as does my own thorough review of the session, and as does in large part the account from another newspaper, the Daily Union.

The Vote.   The Gazette‘s editorialist needs an editor —  the vote was 4-2, not 6-2 (Whitewater’s entire Council is only seven people).

The Background.  Greg Peck – or whoever wrote this editorial – knows utterly nothing about politics in Whitewater.

The Gazette suggests that a majority was enthusiastic for this idea.

In fact, Council member Jim Winship is a proud Whitewater supporter of the bus, but even Mr. Winship voiced occasional doubts about the situation. On the contrary, there was widespread Council concern about the last-minute fumbling from Janesville Transit’s Dave Mumma, ridership numbers, Generac’s declining contribution, and Mr. Mumma’s dodgy conflation of passenger ‘trips’ and actual riders.

Whitewater even decided to consider the bus project again in August 2014, rather than next November, precisely because of how little confidence anyone had about how the last two Janesville presentations in November have gone.

Council wanted more time as a consequence of less confidence.

Here’s how the editorialist describes Mr. Mumma after the vote: “Still, he sounded diplomatic Wednesday.”

Oh, brother – as though Mr. Mumma has reason to be anything other than feeling and appearing foolish.

Far from looking competent, Mr. Mumma embarrassed himself, his agency, Whitewater’s city manager, and just about anyone else nearby, after he unquestionably led everyone in Whitewater to believe just two weeks earlier that Generac would spend over $47,000 when they made no such promise.  (They’re really only funding $18,000 next year, and made clear funding will decline even more in subsequent years.)

Worse, Generac’s vice president of operations felt compelled to contradict openly the Janesville Neighborhood Services Director’s description of how the program even began. Funding documents from the State of Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation corroborate Generac’s account.

These so-called partners were at odds over expected funding and even a description of how the program began.

Battening on Unawareness.  Look, the Gazette‘s editorial craftily omits these vital facts from a Janesville readership that understandably doesn’t follow Whitewater’s politics.

It’s an all-is-well editorial. Janesville’s officials made a hash of this, but the Gazette would rather conceal some of the most important events of the meeting than tell its readers a hard truth: love or hate the bus, Janesville’s work on all this has been a stumbling mess.

Why the Gazette‘s in Decline.  I’d prefer papers that spoke truth to political power, but that way has slipped away – God, Himself, knows that Janesville now has little resembling that former, worthy model.

This is a paper that threw away its former willingness to question public officials for a politician-advertiser-press partnership when economic and journalistic decline left it with that unsavory option in a futile attempt to forestall yet further decline.

For it all, the Gazette‘s model only intensifies its problems.

Many of Janesville’s struggles come from a mediocre political class – and the Gazette‘s answer is to omit unfavorable truths rather than confront and overcome them.

That’s one reason that, sadly, Janesville’s near-future is unlikely to be better than her present, middling circumstances.

Business, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending

The New Address

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One reads a press release at Walworth County Today (http://walworthcountytoday.com/article/20131122/WC/131129921) about the relocation of an existing private business, iButtonLink, to the Innovation Center.

Here’s where they were:

Unknown

Here’s where they’ll be:

IMG_2834

That’s a nice upgrade, to taxpayer-funded accommodations. It’s also a different definition of private accomplishment, I’d say.

Poll, Weather

Friday Poll: Whitewater’s first accumulated snowfall in the 2013-14 season?

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Here’s a new, third-annual version for 2013-14 of a poll I’ve published since 2011.

When will Whitewater see her first appreciable snowfall? (Let’s say that an appreciable snowfall is at least one inch.) Comments are available, including for those outside the city who’d like to predict for their own communities.

My guess for Whitewater: December 4th.

What do you think?


Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.22.13

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Good morning.

We’ll have a good chance of morning snow today (no accumulation expected), with a high of thirty-five.

It’s the fiftieth anniversary of Pres. Kenendy’s assassination. Here’s how the New York Times reported the tragic events of that day:

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Dallas, Nov. 22–President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot and killed by an assassin today.

He died of a wound in the brain caused by a rifle bullet that was fired at him as he was riding through downtown Dallas in a motorcade.

Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was riding in the third car behind Mr. Kennedy’s, was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States 99 minutes after Mr. Kennedy’s death.

Mr. Johnson is 55 years old; Mr. Kennedy was 46.

Shortly after the assassination, Lee H. Oswald, who once defected to the Soviet Union and who has been active in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, was arrested by the Dallas police. Tonight he was accused of the killing.

Suspect Captured After Scuffle

Oswald, 24 years old, was also accused of slaying a policeman who had approached him in the street. Oswald was subdued after a scuffle with a second policeman in a nearby theater…

Here’s Puzzability‘s Friday puzzle:

This Week’s Game — November 18-22
First Editions
This week, we’re summarizing books in just one word. Each day’s answer is a book title whose initial letters spell a three- or four-letter word. The day’s clue includes information about the book and a clue to the word.
Example:
Joseph Heller novel about a professor who has a chance to be the first Jewish Secretary of State, if he can just get that bandanna out of his mouth
Answer:
Good as Gold (GAG)
What to Submit:
Submit the book title (as “Good as Gold” in the example) for your answer.
Friday, November 22
Patricia MacLachlan novel about an old West mail order bride’s little marital argument

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.21.13

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Good morning.

We’ll have a one-third chance of rain today with a high of forty-five.

On this day in 1783, a balloon flight over Paris:

615px-Montgolfier_brothers_flight
 

‘The first manned hot-air balloon, designed by the Montgolfier brothers, takes off from the Bois de Boulogne, Paris, on November 21, 1783’ via Wikipedia

French physician Jean-François Pilatre de Rozier and François Laurent, the marquis d’ Arlandes, make the first untethered hot-air balloon flight, flying 5.5 miles over Paris in about 25 minutes. Their cloth balloon was crafted by French papermaking brothers Jacques-Étienne and Joseph-Michel Montgolfier, inventors of the world’s first successful hot-air balloons.

Here’s Puzzability‘s entry for today:

This Week’s Game — November 18-22
First Editions
This week, we’re summarizing books in just one word. Each day’s answer is a book title whose initial letters spell a three- or four-letter word. The day’s clue includes information about the book and a clue to the word.
Example:
Joseph Heller novel about a professor who has a chance to be the first Jewish Secretary of State, if he can just get that bandanna out of his mouth
Answer:
Good as Gold (GAG)
What to Submit:
Submit the book title (as “Good as Gold” in the example) for your answer.
Thursday, November 21
Yann Martel novel in which the end of a lifesaving raft is cut off

City, New Whitewater

Believe in Whitewater

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It was Gov. Romney, I think, whose presidential campaign slogan was ‘Believe in America.’  I’m not a Republican (I’m Libertarian), but I did like the slogan.  America is worth believing in.  

I believe in Whitewater, too.  Not how she’s been depicted, entirely, but how she truly is, and in the good things that lie ahead for us, here.  Our city, now and in the years ahead, offers and will offer so much to so many.

Consider the Council session last night – the vote over the bus did not go my way, as a vote.  And yet, and yet, it very much went a good way as a discussion – the level of discourse among Council is far better than even a few years ago.  The quality of reasoning matters fundamentally.  

That’s a real gain – it’s not enough to say ‘I want this,’ or ‘I want that’ – there should be meaningful explanations of why one believes something.  We have that sort of discussion a bit more each year.  

Watch a Council discussion on video from a few years ago and compare it with one more recently – we are developing a better politics.  Better than we had, and also likely better than other towns nearby.  Not Left or Right, simply better.  There’s a good distance to go, but we can clear that distance if only we’d keep pushing harder.  

There’s every now reason to keep working for that higher standard. I know I’ll do my level best – there’s no better place to be.

(I’d guess that Janesville’s visiting officials really don’t see that we expect more of officials here than is probably expected of them in their own city. The gap between that city’s officials and our representatives is notable; we’ve a higher standard.)

We don’t have to settle and I don’t think we will.

City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Local Government, Planning

The Bus Discussion @ Council Last Night: A Fiasco by Any Definition

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Update, 2 PM: A reader wrote today, asking why I seem relatively unconcerned about this vote (as a practical matter). That’s my omission: in the discussion last night, it’s clear that Generac plans to reduce funding in the future. Advocates of this project will have to find other corporate sponsors and make it work with the existing transportation management. The first is hard; the second is even harder. No one who voted for this project will have any personal ability to get more money for it, and all will have to rely on existing management from Janesville. They’ve only postponed the inevitable.

There are times when simply listening to advocates talk about a program undermines its long-term value.  Last night, during the discussion of Janesville Transit’s bus to Whitewater, was one of those times.  In the end, Common Council reduced funding from the request (but, as a someone commenting noted), funded even over what this year’s funding was.  

Still, given the choice between supporting or opposing a mediocre project, I’d rather oppose on principle than accede on supposed expediency  

There was, really, much confirmation through the discussion that the whole project has descended into a shambles, a mediocre and incompetently run effort.  There’s value in seeing that – this is what happens when a project begins with too little foresight, and is trusted to dodgy data and fumbling bureaucrats.    

There’s not the slightest chance that I’d change my position on this project after last night’s discussion – on the contrary – one may be at least grateful to stand far away from a gaggle of mediocre bureaucrats who are flacking this proposal.

Generac’s Role.  Generac certainly bears a responsibility for each dollar of public money that subsidizes its private business.  No one stuffed tax money in that company’s pockets – they took subsidies from state and federal and local public sources to advance their private corporate interests.  That’s needless and wrong.

Oops! Generac’s Not Paying $47,830, They’re Only Paying $18,000.  Hard to believe, but true – the financial documents that Janesville’s Dave Mumma gave Whitewater only two weeks ago were unconfirmed, speculative junk: turns out Generac wasn’t agreeing to $47,830 for the next year, they were agreeing to only $18,000 (yes, really).

Tim Hearden, vice president of operations for Generac, told Council last night that:

Generac never committed to any forty-seven-thousand-dollar number. That I certainly can tell you.

So, how did that larger figure come about?

Wait for it – that wasn’t from pledges of support or commitments at all – it was just a list of unconfirmed cost breakdowns.  Needless to say, that’s not how that higher figure was presented at the last Council meeting.  

Generac hadn’t agreed – Janesville’s transit director just left Whitewater to assume that they had.    

Hard to believe, but true.

The Origin of the Program.  Oddly, Generac’s corporate representative and public officials are at odds over how this program even started.  That’s both strange and revealing – in a successful program, the participants would be rushing to claim credit.  Not here.    

Public officials claim this was all Generac’s idea, but Generac’s vice president of operations flatly disputes those claims. 

Last night, Janesville’s Jennifer Petruzzello, Neighborhood Services Director (and supervisor of Dave Mumma) contended that

Two years ago, the City of Janesville was approached by Generac and the City of Whitewater regarding the possibility of a regional transit system…”

(Video not yet online). 

But that’s not what Generac’s Tim Hearden, vice president of operations for Generac, recalls:

This was not a Generac approaching Janesville like we heard earlier, the Janesville Transit Department, along with the City of Whitewater, approached Generac, saying that they had tried to do this bus service for quite a few years and were looking for some seed sponsorship to be able to start a program that they thought was beneficial to these geographically distant communities…

(Video not yet online). 

So, who’s right?  Was this Generac’s idea, or Whitewater’s?  That is, where did this bad idea originate?

Although I believe that Generac should pay far more for this program than they are paying, a review of State of Wisconsin Supplemental Rural Transportation Assistance Program documents fundamentally corroborates Generac’s account. 

As early as 2009, Dave Mumma was listed as project applicant and recipient for a STRAP grant:

Conduct a feasibility study for: 1) establishing commuter service between Janesville, Milton, and Whitewater and the rural areas in between these areas, 2) establishing an internal transit service within Milton, and 3) reviewing and upgrading the shared-ride taxi service in Whitewter [sic].

Again, Mumma received  another grant for 2010:

Establish commuter service between Janesville, Milton and Whitewater to address the lack of public transportation available in the corridor. At this time only citizens with private vehicles can travel to these destinations for education, employment, health care, shopping, community services and access to the regional transportation network.

Generac’s hiring needs didn’t begin until November 2011 (see, http://gazettextra.com/news/2011/nov/30/300-positions-open-generac/).

I’ve no water to carry for Generac – and think they should pay for all they receive – but this looks like an ongoing Janesville transportation scheme in search of a justification. 

That matters, because it says that Janesville’s Mumma had years of public money to plan this project and still made a hash of it.  

Going Forward.  A few suggestions: 

1. Council decided last night to consider this issue again in August, not next November.  That makes sense – waiting to the last minute makes careful consideration too difficult.  

2.  After years of presentations before our Council – and years of trying to make this program work – it’s clear that Janesville’s Dave Mumma is fundamentally unable to make this a success.

The more he speaks, the worse the case for the bus becomes.  

3. For City Manager Clapper – One hopes the best for your career here, and a key to success is avoiding these supposed partners from Janesville who are credibility- and competency-challenged. No one in Whitewater owes these out-of-town bureaucrats their mediocrity.  

We can do better than they’re doing, on much better projects than this ramshackle one (that’s an understatement). 

Overall, though, the bus discussion is what one might call a teachable moment – what not do do, how not to plan, and how important it is to turn away from yesterday’s lack of good sense.