When local government’s politicians and bureaucrats propose big projects, they should ask themselves: would we run on it? That is, would they run on a standalone vote for (or against) their proposal? The open secret of local politics is that I’d guess many – if not most – of the big projects proposed would fail…
188 search results for ""Innovation Center""
Business, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government
What’s an Entrepreneur?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I would think, and perhaps you would think, too, that an entrepreneur is a man or woman who runs a private business, bearing the risks and demands of his or her enterprise. For this reason, Americans are sympathetic to entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial efforts – we admire the creativity and effort of business men and women…
Corporate Welfare, Gluttony, Innovation Center/Tech Park
Innovation as a Fad
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Innovation is both a genuine development and a fad. In a free society, with unrestricted flows of information, capital, labor, and goods, it’s nearly inevitable that people will improve products and services in powerful, clever ways. Innovation – the word, the idea, etc. – is also a contemporary fad, the jargon of our…
CDA, City, Development, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government
About that iButtonLink Announcement…
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
An aspiring musician tells his friends that he performed to a standing-room-only crowd at Carnegie Hall. Needless to say, they’re impressed. “It’s great that your songs drew such attendance,” they observe. “Why, yes,” the musician replies, “it must have been my music, although I suppose the free tickets and fifty-dollar gift packages might have…
City
Review: Predictions for 2013
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Here’s my amateur version of the late William Safire’s long-standing tradition of offering annual predictions. The list for 2013: 1. In 2013, UW-Whitewater will win the following number of national sports championships: A. None B. One C. Two D. More than two Adams’s guess: D. More than two. I think three, making 2013 another very…
Business, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending
The New Address
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
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: Here’s where they’ll be: That’s a nice upgrade, to taxpayer-funded accommodations. It’s also a different definition of private accomplishment, I’d say.
City, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Government Spending, Planning
Discussion about the Bus, 3.20.12 to 11.5.13
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
I promised earlier a summary of principal arguments made about a (mostly) publicly-funded transit bus that benefits (mostly) one multi-billion-dollar corporation. Here’s that post, with a summary of points about the project at Whitewater’s Common Council sessions of 3.20.12, 11.20.12, and 11.5.13. For each date, I’ve included a link to a Vimeo page with a…
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.16.13 (Giant Squirrel Project Edition)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. Midweek in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of fifty-three, and winds from the west at 10 mph. Zoologists recently found something in the jungles of southeast Asia…a giant flying squirrel that puts our own local species to shame: Biswamoyopterus laoensis is a large flying squirrel that weighs 1.8 kg and measures…
City, Government Spending, Local Government, Planning
On the East Gate Project
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater’s administration proposes renovating the area on the east side of the city, through which commuters and visitors arrive in Whitewater. I’ve posted on the project before. (See, About that story on Whitewater’s East Gateway Proposal: What’s Missing?) A few remarks: 1. The design is undeniably beautiful. 2. It would have been better to include…
Government Spending, Local Government, Taxes/Taxation
Credibility on Spending
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s much to be said about fiscal policy in Whitewater, and plenty of time to say it. In my previous post, The Crazy-Wrong Argument on Taxes, I addressed the ludicrous & selfish argument that public grants (in this case, for needless parkland purchases) would have no tax impact. Of course they would. Now people are…
City, Local Government, Politics
The Candidates’ Forum
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Some of Whitewater’s political candidates – running for Common Council – attended a Saturday, 3.16.13 forum at city hall. It ran from ten to a bit after eleven. (Readers wishing statements from the candidates may visit lwvwhitewater.org.) Below are overall impressions from the event. I’ll write more later about topics raised between now and the…
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 2.13.13
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. It’s a mostly sunny day, with a high of thirty-seven, ahead for Whitewater. Whitewater’s Tech Park Board meets today at 8 AM. The agenda posted at the City of Whitewater website for that Tech Park Board meeting is unprofessional and sloppy at best, and legally deficient at worst. Here’s the full text: MEETING…
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Press Release, State Government
Press Release Tips for the WEDC
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Let’s assume you’re a troubled, controversial public-private hybrid agency in Wisconsin, like the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. While spending vast sums of public money, you decide to issue a press release announcing taxpayers’ your largesse. You must know – and hope residents of a small city don’t know — that you’re politically toxic, across the…
CDA, City, Economy, Gov. Walker, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government, Technology
The New Whitewater Start Up Grants (in Proper Perspective)
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority has been working on a seed capital fund (working on this fund for some time), and today the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has announced a $150,000 matching contribution to the CDA, and two grants – each in the amount of $10,000 – for entrepreneurs from that fund. The matching grant from…