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5/2/2007
Appleton is in its adolescence?
What? Well that’s what the mayor said in last Sunday’s Post-Crescent. 150 years old this year, and still living with mom and dad. I don’t quite get that.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Appleton is a great place. Wonderful people. Schools that care. Lawrence University. The Performing Arts Center. The stunningly beautiful Fox River. A thirst for learning, a thirst for culture. And a thirst for the joy of small town life around which to raise your kids.
So why would anyone call us not quite grown up yet?
“We don’t know if we want to be big and grown up. Yet, we don’t know if we want to stay small…. I think the longer we can prolong our adolescence, the better off we will be – strive to be a bigger city, but at the same time maintain the small-town innocence.” Mayor Hanna, 4-29-07.
Here’s the deal. The mayor can call us a little twirp all he wants, but we’ve got big city problems. And you can “strive to be a bigger city” all you want, but as long as you prolong (or ignore) important problems, yeah, I guess you’re going to “prolong your adolescence” if that’s what you want to do. But it’s pretty simple. Sometimes what you’re prolonging is just a bunch of unsolved problems.
Time for another disclaimer: From what I know (having worked with most), Appleton is run by a great group of department heads, a competent bunch of employees and a caring Council. But mayor, some stuff just isn’t getting done. And that’s a problem.
- The water plant. Now, that’s a debacle that’s been playing out since 1997. Very costly mistakes that are slowly but surely getting fixed. Very costly fixes – and the extra money for fixes isn’t going to stop any time soon.
- The new police building. And finding a new police chief. Our interim police chief, hired for full time work, mind you, just took a part-time consulting job for the city of Neenah. What’s that all about? Capable and competent I’m sure, but aren’t I paying him to do a full time job?
- The two recent TIF-funded business failures. Well, one failure and one teetering on the precipice. That would be the Big Picture theater and Richmond Terrace. Partially taxpayer-funded projects whose problems aren’t the end of the world, but let’s just say it will take the city a while to get its money back.
- Fire stations. Is there any way for Appleton and Grand Chute to work together on the north side?
- How about a convention center? What’s with that project? It’s important. Not something to get stuck in puberty.
- The expansion of Appleton West. I’m just going to say that whole thing could have been handled better on the city’s end.
This stuff bugs me. There are just too many things being prolonged around here to be using a metaphor that’s just a little too close to home. Prolonging our adolescence. Geeez. Drop that one for sure before our great sesquicentennial celebration gets into high gear.
COMMENTS
Hi Jo UW Fox is in the city of Menasha, and we are happy to have such a great facility here.
Thanks Don. Hmmm - are you being parochial? Yes, you're in the City of Menasha (only a few short blocks away from me, in the City of Appleton) - and all in Appleton and for miles around appreciate UWFox. Talk about poor metaphors, I'm addressing City of Appleton government, but am including activities that apply to us all. I think you're right - I'll edit you out.... Thanks! JE
Don (Wed May 02 07:29:44 2007)
Great blog Jo. Thanks for raising my awareness. Appleton selects a new superintendent soon. Dave Schmidt is one of top three candidates, and the only candidate with superintendent experience. Reading the JS article you had on your site this morning we see that his current district is in financial trouble. I think we want a superintendent like Todd Gray who has successful financial and negotiating experience to run our district.
David (Wed May 02 08:08:21 2007)
I'm not a great one for reading the Post Crescent but your piece today makes me look forward to a mayoral election even more than for those reason I have learned about local government up til now. The mayor seems to be suffering from a new disease that has afflicted the US for some years now. It's called cranial rectosis (thanks to James Howard Kunstler for that one.)
Lon Ponschock (Wed May 02 12:34:27 2007)
1. I know that the Masons were a very early organization. I hope they will be included in the parade.
2. St. Paul Lutheran----downtown---has a great stained glass window presented by the Posaune (brass choir) in the early 1900's.
I hope that there will be some music concerts to commerate the celebration. We need to tell the early "pioneers" of Appleton----Well Done! We are not in our adolescence.
David (Wed May 02 13:02:16 2007)
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