FREE WHITEWATER

193 search results for ""Innovation Center""

Two Topics from the Proposed City Budget

At last night’s Council session, City Manager Clapper mentioned two upcoming budget topics of particular interest: funding for Downtown Whitewater and for the Janesville Transit Bus.  The two items could not be more different: expenditures for Downtown Whitewater support local merchants, while the Janesville Bus supports a bumbling, dissembling Janesville bureaucrat’s ambition for his town…

Four Public Topics for the Fall

There are (at least) four predictable public policy topics in the Whitewater area between now and winter’s beginning on December 21st.  The City of Whitewater’s Proposed 2015 Budget.  It’s budget season in Whitewater.  The city’s proposed budget is now under consideration, at weekly meetings to stretch into November.  The Schools Referendum.  Outside and inside the…

The Bigger the Project, the Greater the Need for Substantive Justifications

It seems – to most people, I’d guess – that to say ‘the bigger the project, the greater the need for substantive justifications’ is simply reasonable and practical.  In almost all public efforts, municipalities, school districts, and other public bodies should Lead Substantively, and Support Fiscally.  The best way to win big is usually a…

How Conservatives Ruined Conservatism in Whitewater

There are plenty of conservatives in the City of Whitewater, a small rural town, that’s home to a medium-sized campus within the city limits, and is principally located in conservative Walworth County.  In many ways, this rural town should be mostly conservative, mostly Republican, campus notwithstanding.  After all, Walworth County is hardly a liberal place.…

Innovation as a Fad

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…

About that iButtonLink Announcement…

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…

Review: Predictions for 2013

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…

The New Address

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.

Discussion about the Bus, 3.20.12 to 11.5.13

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 for 10.16.13 (Giant Squirrel Project Edition)

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…

On the East Gate Project

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…