Changes at Five Points

Changes are underway at Five Points. Quite simply I have become bored with this website in its current format.  Its just to easy to look at the soundoff, find a stupid comment, and call the person who wrote it a moron.  Its like shooting fish in a barrel to criticize the actions of the Waukesha Common Council.  In looking back, there is a certain sameness to a lot of the postings…take 2-3 items in the Freeman and comment on them.  I want to do something to differentiate this from other blogs.  Spring City Chronicle does an excellent job of reviewing local happenings and providing commentary and I feel like I was kind of doing the same thing albiet with a slightly different (i.e more liberal) approach.

So within the next couple of weeks you will see a change into something with more substantial (and probably less frequent) postings.  I will probbaly set up an archive site with the old postings because I want to start off with a blank slate.   The only posting I will probably keep will be the Five Questions with Jeff Barta of the Nice Ash Cigar Bar because that is exactly the type of posting I want to do; interviews and articles about Waukesha (though I will no longer limit myself to 5 questions).

The site will try to take a more positive approach as well.  Its easy to look at something the City does and say its stupid, what I want to do is try and shed some light on the positive things happening in the City.  That’s not saying that there won’t be postings that are critical of things, it will just be done in a slightly different manner.  The posts will read more like an editorial rather than a couple of sentences.

The focus will be on the City of Waukesha, with an emphasis on the downtown area.  I hope to have more interviews with downtown business owners, policy makers, and news makers.  I also want some guest editorials, columns,  and maybe some point/counterpoint columns.  One of the issues I want to do that with is bars downtown.  I have pretty much supported new bars opening downtown with the caveat that they must be nice bars.  However I don’t live down there do I don’t have to deal with the negative effects like some of the people who read this blog.   I would like to maybe get the perspective of someone who supports more bars and the perspective of someone who doesn’t (I actually think the answer lies somewhere in the middle).

I’d like to get people talking about the issues facing Waukesha.  Most people don’t go to Common Council or Plan Commission meetings where a lot of these issues are discussed, so this may provide another forum for that type of healthy debate.

I would also like have this site serve as an additional means of promoting Waukesha events, particularly the ones downtown.  I would like to establish links to websites/MySpace pages for the bands and musicians that perform downtown.  I would like to add more reviews of Waukesha restaurants, Civic Theater Productions, concerts, etc.  Another thing I want to do is Farmers Market reports/updates.

So bear with me over the next week or so while the new site is under construction.  Also feel free to e-mail me with any comments, suggestions, or if you want to write a guest column on the site.

Is it Sunday yet?

Packermania is borderline hysteria.  Last night I had DVR’d the news because we were watching something else.  We fast-forwarded through all of the Packer news and Packer tie-ins to the weather report.   I think it took us less than 5 minutes to watch the rest of the newscast.  Look, I love the Packers as much or maybe more than the average fan but I don’t care about all of this superficial crap.  I don’t care the Eli Manning likes Seinfield and now the Green Bay stations won’t air any Seinfeld while the Giants are in town.  During Michael Strahan’s press conference he reminded people that”they do have Seinfeld on DVD, you know.” I don’t care about the shoveling, the weather, that Charles Woodson didn’t originally want to come here, what Favre eats before games, or anything else.  I just want kickoff to come and watch some Packer football.

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Mayor Nelson finally has his blog up and running.  His first post is about JanBoree.  I will be out of town tomorrow and part of Sunday so I will miss most of it.  I would have liked the pub crawl.

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Its crappy attitudes like this that makes me glad we have a strong art community and a mayor who appreciates public art even though people may not like it.  Brookfield Mayor Jeff Speaker is opposed to displaying a sculpture where a lot of people may see it.  His exact quote from the Journal story was “Am I for public art? Yes, I am, It’s just that I didn’t support it being right front and center because there may be a few people who do not appreciate it.” Typical suburban thinking…lets make everything as vanilla as possible as to not offend anyone. You tell me what is more offensive; the sculpture shown in the article or an ugly gas station?  The sculpture or another boring fast food restaurant?  Speaker goes on to say “roadways might not be the place for art, saying they could become traffic distractions. Parks and greenway trails might be better sites, he said”  What is more distracting, public art or mile after mile of ugly cluttered signage along Bluemound Road or Capitol Drive?

I think that public art should be displayed so that more people can see it not fewer.   That is why I like the “guitar sculpture” that was erected in downtown Waukehsa.

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If karma truly exists, I’ll bet this man will eventually suffer a real heart attack at some restaurant where he has pulled this scam and nobody will blink an eye.

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Andrew Ruggeri has decided to keep his namesake “Ruggeri’s” open in Delafield afterall.  He originally was going to close it but worked out a good deal with the new owner of the building.  This is definitely a good thing because it will help draw more people to Rugerri’s Black Trumpet in Waukesha.  Now you may be asking how would a restaurant in Delafield help a restaurant in Downtown Waukesha?  The answer is brand loyalty.  People who go to Ruggeri’s and enjoy it are more likely to make a trip to Waukesha to check out his other restaurant.  I eat out somewhat often (though not as much as I used to) and brand loyalty means a lot to me.  I really enjoyed Fishbones in Delafield so when I heard the owner had a new restaurant called Zin, I couldn’t wait to try it.  Same goes for several other restaurant groups in the area like Bartolotta’s and NStars (Harry’s Bar and Grill, The Knick, and North Shore Bistro).  If you like one of their restaurants there is a greater chance you will check out their other places.  I foresee the same thing happening with Ruggeri’s and the Black Trumpet.

 

Local Blogs: Flemming Property Update, The Beer Guy

Curt Otto has posted the site plan for the Target Development on Sunset. The site and sign plans confirm what many people have speculated; that Lowe’s is part of this proposal. While Lowe’s may be a bit more pricey than Home Depot, the stores are spotless, well organized, and have high quality stuff. I am very excited about this. The site plan also shows a grocery store. I don’t want to beg but please be a Sendik’s…please!!! pretty please!!! Ok if it’s not a Sendik’s, how about a Trader Joe’s. If its an Aldi, Sentry, or Pick n’ Save I may consider boycotting the whole development out of spite.

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If you like beer, I highly recommend reading Dave Richmond’s The Beer Guy Blog on Waukesha Now!. He is a wealth of information about beer from recommending beers to have with Thanksgiving to details about local tours, he has it covered.

Friday ramblings

I don’t know why in the hell someone would take a pay cut from their current salary of 155,000  and relocate from Massachusetts to Milwaukee to become the police chief of Milwaukee, but Edward Flynn accepted the job yesterday.  Good luck dude.  

Someone, in an almost incoherent tirade, takes another shot at Andrew Ruggeri in the Soundoff comparing his restaurant and hotel to some kind of circus parade float and then calls Waukesha “Nelsonville”.   Maybe there should be an IQ test for all soundoff commenters.

Spring City Chronicle lets us know that Panos Market is open on Sunset in the old PDQ building.  I will have to stop by this weekend to check it out.  I love their store downtown.  Its always impeccably clean and they have some of the best produce in town. 

The Historical Society is trying to get rid of a bunch of crap, like 2,500 toothpicks.  Why would you ever accept 2,500 toothpicks in the first place?  I have an idea:  after you see if any other places like the Civic Theatre need the stuff, have a rummage sale.  Let people come in and buy some if this junk and put the money towards the Les Paul exhibit.  Speaking of Mr. Paul, I still think the best route for fund-raising is to start asking musicians influenced by Les Paul for donations. 

The Christmas Parade is Sunday.  I don’t like parades but I do like basketball so I will be at the UWM Panthers-Northern Iowa game instead.  I suppose if I ever had kids I would have to start liking a lot of things that I don’t care for, like parades and soccer.

Hobo Springs now open

Sancho, the blogger who runs La Raza de Waukesha (and uses very large text) has started up a community driven blog called Hobo Springs where anyone who wants to post about Waukesha happenings can join in the fun.  Its a cool concept and so far it has been an interesting read. 

Comments on Wigderson’s Column in Yesterday’s Freeman

In his column in yesterday’s Freeman, James Wigderson puts forward this misconception that the City Administrator is some kind of overlord that has total control of the budget.  He claims “…the city will soon pick another unelected city administrator who will be responsible for formulating the city budget according to his or her philosophy without being accountable to the public.”  This couldn’t be further from the truth.  Sure the administrator is in charge of preparing an initial budget but its up to the Common Council and Mayor to provide direction.  If they want a zero percent increase in taxes, tell the administrator that is what you want.  If he/she comes back with a budget that doesn’t meet that goal, don’t approve it.  Send it back to the Administrator and tell them to cut things.    

The mayor should work hand in hand with the administrator in establishing a budget and if he doesn’t it’s not the fault of the administrator or the position of administrator, it’s the fault of the Mayor.  It sounds like Larry Nelson was very involved last year so I would assume he will continue to be involved.  Every person in the City has an alderman that represents them and every alderman has a vote on the budget.  That sounds like accountability to me.  This is how it works in every single City that has an administrator or city manager and it is a good thing because a lot of Mayors don’t know the first thing about how to draft a budget.  I would argue that there is a lot more wasteful spending in Cities where an elected Mayor drafts the budget than in Cities where an Administrator drafts it. 

Where I do agree with James is his support for the Common Council being able to fire the Administrator with a majority vote for cause.  The Administrator is in place to carry out the goals, objectives, and policies that the Mayor and Council wish to push forward.  If he/she doesn’t do that or conducts themselves in a manner which the Council sees as unacceptable, they should be able to terminate his or her employment.  The notion that they don’t want to tell the administrator that this may be the new standard for termination is underhanded and unfair to the candidates.  They should know up front what it will take to terminate them.

He also addresses the controversy over how the new City administrator will be hired.  I do think that the proposed process is a step in the right direction, however I think it needs tweaking.  It is good to have a small panel of people to interview the initial 33 or so candidates.  Having the entire Common Council peppering 33 candidates with all of their questions would be a complete joke and would easily stretch this thing out well past Nelson’s goal of announcing the final candidate at the Oct 3 meeting.   Here is what I would do:

1. Each alderman would submit a list of some of the questions they think should be asked.  The panel that Larry Nelson selected can then go through these and come up with a master list of questions with the understanding that they (the selection panel) can ask follow up questions of candidates even if they are not on the list. 

2. During the initial round of interviews all Council members must be allowed to be present, but should not be able to ask questions.  They should be there to listen and watch each candidate.  This should be done in closed session.

3. After the process has trimmed the list to a final 5 or 6 candidates, they should be interviewed by the full Common Council.  I think that it should be broadcast on TV and the public should be invited to attend.   Each interview should have a set period of time with an opportunity to extend that time frame by no more than 5 minutes if they deem it necessary.   After this each Council member should list their top 1 or 2 candidates and why they feel that person is the best candidate. 

4. The panel selected by Nelson should then review the interviews, look at what the other Council members said, and make their final decision and recommend that the full Council hire that person.