So one reads that a few of Whitewater’s town fathers, toadying to the WEDC’s public-relations machine, are crowing that the Innovation Center is part of GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK. Global? That’s not so much. One can easily show these striving WEDC public-relations men how to take something small and make it look really big. Behold, I…
274 search results for "innovation center"
Corporate Welfare, Development, Government Spending, WEDC
Another Holiday on the Calendar
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Oh dearie me, having been thinking these months about Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, somehow GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK slipped my mind. How, truly, could one forget a week-long celebration of white-collar tech startups? Perhaps a lifetime of celebrating both religious and national holidays, and the actual accomplishments of ordinary people who have overcome harrowing obstacles, has…
City, Local Government
Two Topics from the Proposed City Budget
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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…
City, Local Government
Four Public Topics for the Fall
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
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…
Business, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Uncategorized, WEDC
WEDC Claims Success by Writing Off Bad Loans
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Wisconsin has had years of embarrassments from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, of economic manipulation, of picking supposed winners as though party hacks would know better than markets. It was a method bound to disappoint. These smarmy men at the WEDC have been trying to show progress on the millions of bad loans they’ve made.…
City, Local Government, School District
The Bigger the Project, the Greater the Need for Substantive Justifications
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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…
City, Politics
How Conservatives Ruined Conservatism in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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.…
Corporate Welfare, Government Spending, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Local Government
Would They Run On It?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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…
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…
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…