Wednesday, May 16, 2012 |
Madison, WI: 55.0° F
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| CITIZEN DAVE: Thoughts and ideas about city building from Madison's former mayor |
 Citizen Dave: The costs of collegeWhy do we view a K-12 education as so important that we require it and offer it free of charge, but in an increasingly competitive world, we are making it harder to go beyond high school? When I came here to go to school at UW-Madison in 1979, my tuition was eight hundred and some dollars. >More   Citizen Dave: Win one for the gafferIt seems to be in the nature of Barack Obama to see all the nuances. He has a mind that seeks out the views of the other side, and he is constitutionally inclined toward compromise. These are admirable qualities in a human being. But sometimes you want a guy like Joe Biden. The Vice President has had a long career in politics marked by bluntness and blunders. He's the gaffer-in-chief. >More
 Citizen Dave: The Week in Review... Fake Dems, Salem Witch Trials, and mandatory steroids for the BrewersThere was big state political news this week. You know what I'm talking about. That's right. The Gladys Huber juggernaut. I hardly need to tell you, but The Gladys was the Fake Democratic candidate for governor and she sent shock waves through the political world by pulling down 0.7% of the primary vote for governor on Tuesday. >More  Citizen Dave: Don't stop texting at council meetingsThe State Journal has started an interesting discussion about the use of text messaging and emails between alders, staff and lobbyists during council meetings. In the interests of open government, here's what I think should be done about it: nothing. >More  Citizen Dave: Tom Barrett can do thisTom Barrett was on fire last night. Through virtually all of his political career, Barrett has suffered the bad rap of being a nice guy without sufficient "fire in the belly." The guy won tough races for State Assembly, State Senate, Congress, Milwaukee Mayor, and came close in two grueling previous campaigns for governor. Nobody achieves all that without copious amounts of energy and drive. >More  Citizen Dave: Prescriptions for better political discussion -- stop whining and turn off the screamersOn a historic primary election day, it's a good time to consider the nature of political discussion around here. There was a concern among a lot of Democrats that a gubernatorial recall primary would be bad for the party, but it turned out to be a pretty civil affair. In the end, the nominee will be better off for the ability to sharpen their message, and for having kept Scott Walker's attack machine more or less at bay for a few weeks. >More  Citizen Dave: Where's the discussion of urban policy?Unless you were Scott Walker, the Democratic debate on Friday night was a display of Wisconsin nice. The candidates stuck to the issues, and Walker and pretty much left each other alone. For those who were worried that a primary would result in a big split in the party, that's not happening. >More  Citizen Dave: The Week in Review... Walker prints money, Newt gets suspended, and, whatever you do, don't goThe big news reported this week is that Scott Walker will officially have more money than God in the recall election. As a matter of fact, God called Walker this week to see if he could spot Him a couple of bucks. >More  Citizen Dave: London mayor's personality might trump ideologyTo me, the most unforgivable trait in any public person is the lack of a sense of humor. People who can't find a way to laugh at the circumstances they find themselves in, or make fun of themselves, are in danger of losing perspective and over-reacting, or becoming obsessed with something trivial. In short, a sense of humor is a sign that you can see the forest for the trees. >More  Citizen Dave: Turkeys, deer and the meaning of huntingI got up before dawn on Sunday. Ate a donut. Drank some coffee. Put on camouflage pants, coat, gloves, and a hat. Found a fold-up stool and a turkey decoy. Grabbed my shotgun and knapsack with its thermos of hot coffee and Dianne's chocolate chips, a turkey call, and a few other odds and ends. And I headed up a hill in the dark to a spot on the other side of that ridge to sit and wait for a turkey. >More  Citizen Dave: Portland grapples with reality of chicken mortalityRepeal the onerous four hen rule now! This issue is coming to a backyard near you and the helpful folks in Portland, Oregon are showing us the way -- what to do with an urban chicken that is past her egg laying years? >More  Citizen Dave: Time for a new labor movement in WisconsinTony Blair brought the British labor movement ("Labour" to him) into the 21st century and successfully led his country for ten years. Until he got caught up in weapons of mass destruction and invasion of Iraq boondoggle, he was the face of "New Labour." We need something similar here. >More  Citizen Dave: The Week in Review, so dress for the gun, claim paternity for the boss, and stay out of the playoffsSometimes in the satire business you just luck out. All you need to do is quote from an actual news story and laughs roll out. You don't need to make up a thing. Such is the wonderful case with this week's report that Woolrich has announced a new line of "Elite Concealed Carry" wear. >More  Citizen Dave: Why not Oakland?I had breakfast last week with my nephew in Palo Alto. He's a young Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and he and his wife are about to start a family. Even though he does very well, he told me that there was no way they could afford a home anywhere near Palo Alto. >More  Citizen Dave: The Mifflin Street Block Party can be coolLet's start out with what should be an obvious truth. If there's any trouble at this year's Mifflin Street Block Party, it won't be the fault of the UW Dean of Students or the mayor or the police. The fault will be with the perpetrators. Look, if it helps, I'll take my share of the blame for last year's mess. >More  Citizen Dave: The San Francisco Giants' stadium worksI love baseball and baseball stadiums, so I try to visit them whenever I travel to a major league city. Last week, I was in San Francisco and took in a Giants game at AT&T Park. They lost to Philadelphia, which is too bad because I don't like the Phillies, but I didn't care all that much about the game. The park was beautiful, not so much for the stadium itself, but for its surroundings. >More  Citizen Dave: It's time to reform the airline industryLast week, I spent a good deal of cyber-ink blasting United Airlines. The company is one of the most incompetent, least customer focused big organizations in the world. But in fairness, as bad as United is, it's only the worst part of a horrible industry. So, rather than just complaining about it, I gave some thought (for what it's worth, and that's not much) to how flying could be improved. >More  Citizen Dave: The Crown Vic experienceDianne and I rented a car in Palo Alto to travel from the home of some family members to a conference in Monterey where I was giving a presentation. Avis presented us with a beautiful, light blue Crown Victoria. >More  Citizen Dave: And hell is called UnitedI was a bad mayor. I was a bad husband. I knowingly ate way too much of the bad kind of cholesterol. As a result, when I died, I went to hell. And hell is United Airlines. >More  Citizen Dave: Bag check with UnitedThere is no more forlorn place on earth than the lost baggage podium at an airport. First you wait with growing angst as one bag after another pops out of the shoot onto the baggage carousel, and the crowd around you steadily dwindles to just a handful of lonely losers. >More  Citizen Dave: Who knew? The government sank the Titanic!Every morning I intend to read the Wall Street Journal, but I never get around to it. By the time I'm done with the State Journal and the New York Times, there's just never time to go find out what's going on with the capitalists. But we're visiting some family this weekend, and this family subscribes to that paper, so I picked it up to see how the world is viewed from the point of view of rich people. >More  Citizen Dave: The Week in Review... I am a CanadianI was in Canada last week on spring break. Good-looking young people with well-toned abs go south where they have the excuse to take off their clothes. I am 53 years old. I wanted to go someplace where I needed a sweater. >More  Citizen Dave: Toronto gives pause about regionalismOver my spring break, I visited Toronto on my way to and from a speech in nearby Hamilton, Ontario. While there I learned some things about Toronto's experience with "amalgamation" that gives me cause to rethink my support for regional governance. >More  Citizen Dave: Toronto mixes old and newEvery city has some design imprint that tells you something about its history and attitude. Chicago builds big and bold and takes chances. New York is more practical and focused on functionality. Madison, sadly, often designs by committee and gets the blandness that comes with it. >More  Citizen Dave: Idea of the week... use Madison College culinary school as catalyst for a public marketOne thing you get to do when you visit different cities is eat. And these days, anybody who doesn't get the explosion of interest in food doesn't get cities. That's why Madison College's idea to move their culinary school back downtown is such a great idea, and it's why we should think about that block as a location for a new city public market. >More  Citizen Dave: Stalking Jane JacobsOver spring break, I took a whirlwind tour of cities. Dianne and I went to New York to visit some friends, to and from Toronto when I gave a speech to a transportation conference in Hamilton, Ontario, and finally, Chicago's northwest suburbs... mostly by mistake. It turned out to be something of a Jane Jacobs tour. >More  Citizen Dave: Lower levels on Lake Mendota for healthier lakesQuick question: What's more important to you -- the health of our lakes, or the ability of lakeshore property owners to get their big power boats closer to their homes? If you think that isn't a tough moral dilemma than you're not the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources or Dane County. >More  Citizen Dave: A year gone byIt was exactly a year ago today that I lost an election. I could feel it happening. My friends Larry Martin and Mike Blumenfeld and my wife Dianne and I had spent four days in a nonstop race around the city. We stopped at coffee shops, bars, bowling allies, all kinds of community events, senior lunch programs, and so on. At every stop, I encountered lots of people who were still undecided, even on Election Day itself. >More  Citizen Dave: Tom Barrett's recall election entry good for WisconsinI have long held the view that a primary would be good for whoever becomes the Democratic nominee in the recall of Governor Scott Walker. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has now given us that primary. >More  Citizen Dave: The appeal of Ron PaulThree thousand people showed up on the Memorial Union Terrace the other day and it wasn't just to enjoy the sunny weather and a beer. They were there to hear GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul and most of them were young. What's going on here? >More  Citizen Dave: The Week in Review... How dare Obama care?The big news of the week was the three days of arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court over the new health care system dubbed "Obamacare" by its opponents. We know that this term is a slam because anytime you put a person's name together with the word "care," it means that they are communists, perhaps socialists, or maybe even Unitarians. >More  Citizen Dave: Chicago, Madison, and the excitement of building ideasWhen I was mayor, I loved to build stuff. We rebuilt streets, we built, two fire stations and a state of the art police training center, we built new bike paths, we rebuilt libraries and improved parks, we built the city's first pool (thanks to the Goodmans), and we rebuilt a whole new neighborhood on Allied Drive. And we planned to build more. >More  Citizen Dave: Structure is the answer to the Mifflin Street Block PartyMadison Police Chief Noble Wray may have been just speaking his mind when he told the news media recently that he hoped the Mifflin Street Block Party would soon be a thing of the past. It's not an unreasonable position for the chief to take. >More  Citizen Dave: Dan Nerad has been good for MadisonI wasn't surprised when Dan Nerad announced yesterday that he wouldn't go for another contract as Madison schools superintendent. He was pretty chewed up. I understand why -- Madison values education more than anything. >More  Citizen Dave: Repeal the castle doctrine before Barney Fife kills againWe have Barney Fifes running around virtually everywhere in America, but there's no Sheriff Taylor to keep them in check. They're carrying high-powered weapons, locked and loaded. And they're killing innocent people. >More
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