At Tuesday’s Common Council meeting, there was a brief presentation from two board members of Downtown Whitewater (DTWW), with others from that group also in attendance. In the life of a small town, success of merchants matters greatly. (I’m opposed to pitting local independent merchants against local chain stores, but I very much support local…
179 search results for "Great Recession"
City, Development, Economy, Local Government, Poverty
Assessing the Poverty Data for Our Area
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
On Friday, I posted on child poverty in our area. The Great Recession took a toll on many cities, but undeniably so in ours: from 2007 to 2011, the number of children aged 5 to 17 in families in poverty rose from 9.89 to 17.9%. The number nearly doubled. Beyond that group, state measures classify an…
City, Poverty
Poverty in Our Area
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, for children aged 5 to 17 in families in poverty, rate as a percentage of all children that age: Delavan-Darien Edgerton Elkhorn Area Fort Atkinson Jefferson Milton Whitewater Area 2007 10.98 7.10 11.60 7.01 8.05 5.4 9.89 2008 11.90 8.22 15.28 8.78…
City, Government Spending
The City of Whitewater’s 2013 Draft Budget (Tax Incremental Financing)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
What’s tax incremental financing? It’s the creation of a tax district where a municipality spends public funds for improvements in roads, etc., to encourage private investment in that blighted area. The hoped-for revenue from that additional – incremental – new private investment goes to pay for the municipal spending on roads, etc. It’s an if-you-build-it-they-will-come…
City, Government Spending, Local Government
The City of Whitewater’s 2013 Draft Budget (Overview)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
It’s budget season for the City of Whitewater, running into November, and in this post I’ll offer a few overview remarks. Subsequent posts will consider aspects of the budget in greater detail. The City of Whitewater’s Budget, not Whitewater, Wisconsin’s Budget. A bit of perspective — something lacking in past years — is in order.…
Recent Tweets
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
City
Whitewater’s 2.7.12 Common Council Meeting
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Update: links fixed. Whitewater’s Common Council met last night, and here are assorted observations on the meeting. Scads of Objectives. Whitewater’s city manager lists 133 major city objectives, of which 85.7% were ‘completed or achieved.’ What should one say? It would have been better to achieve a few meaningful goals, than to list over a…
America
Underestimating America’s Influence: Why America’s Not in Decline
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s been much talk, from generation to generation about the rise of the next global power to supplant America. The Soviet Union (yes, for many, this once seemed certain), Japan, and now China: in each instance, an insistence that America is in decline. (For a post that addresses myths about China, see Overestimating China’s influence: ‘Five myths about China’s power’.) At the New Republic,…
City, Poverty
Whitewater’s Decade of Child Poverty
by JOHN ADAMS •
The only way to make an ill person truly and permanently better is to see her condition for what it is; genuine recovery requires an honest diagnosis. Despite my doubts about their program, I respect Roosevelt’s New Dealers’ for their willingness to call a problem a problem. If they had lived to see contemporary Whitewater,…
City, Economy, Government Spending
On Whitewater, Wisconsin’s 2012 Municipal Budget
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s mid-November, and on schedule, Whitewater (pop. 14,622) has a budget for 2012. There’s some good in this year’s result, but other challenges lie ahead. (A pdf copy of the budget is available online. For my remarks on the 2011 budget, see Whitewater, Wisconsin’s Next Municipal Budget.) A few remarks on the ‘12 budget: With…
Economy
The Mortgage Meltdown, Robo-Signing, and Foreclosures
by JOHN ADAMS •
Over at Freedom Watch, Judge Napolitano and his panel discuss an expanding robo-signing scandal (along with the separate topic of the IMF’s insatiable need for more money). I’ve written often about the recession, but seldom about the mortgage meltdown. Like many lay people, I thought that the recession would be deep, and that recovery would…
Press
Press Series: Part One (Why Newspapers?)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Like millions of others, I grew up in a newspaper-reading family. A family would have several papers, morning or afternoon, at a time when afternoon dailies were still common (and commonly profitable). One read almost every part of the paper, and the names of reporters, editors, and publishers were well-known to readers. So one would…
City, Development
Whitewater’s Downtown
by JOHN ADAMS •
Walworthy County Today has a story online from Kevin Hoffman about downtown revitalization in small towns. Whitewater is part of that story. See, Communities work to revitalize downtown despite challenges. Challenges there have been. The Great Recession took a toll everywhere in America, and 2007-2009 are among the worst years in American economic history. And…
Uncategorized
Top 400 Charities See Billions Less In Donations, Biggest Percentage Drop Ever Recorded
by JOHN ADAMS •
A new ranking of the nations 400 biggest charities shows donations dropped by 11 percent overall last year as the Great Recession ended – the worst decline in 20 years since the Chronicle of Philanthropy began keeping a tally. See, Top 400 Charities See Billions Less In Donations, Biggest Percentage Drop Ever Recorded.