Uppity Wisconsin

Water Panel Weak On Specifics

The Politics of Water. Thursday, May 21.

A panel ensconced by the Public Policy Forum in a Wauwatosa hotel, was strong on the language of cooperation, happy about the International Water Compact, and true believers in the new "work together" mood of our nation.

Michael Murphy,  Alderman from Milwaukee, spoke of the issues on which Milwaukee would like cooperation: affordable housing, transit, and economic development of distressed areas. What he might have added is some conceptual material - how all of these things work together in a healthy city. Unfortunately he did not bring to the table The Now Issue: why it is that Transit, today as they spoke, could be the most effective signal of cooperation from Waukesha (County and City). Nor did he suggest, and reasonably he could have, why Milwaukee officials are looking to a private, international water corporation for serious money after being rebuffed on many fronts in Madison over school funding, dedicated transit funding that brings federal dollars, and health care costs.

Waukesha County GOP legislative leaders act out, and act badly, when a bi-partisan water conservation measure doesn't go their way in the State Senate.

Since one of their major complaints is that the measure jeopardizes their sense of sovereignty, perhaps they should consider seceding from Wisconsin, and setting up the 51st state, Exceptionalonia, just for special people.  

Wisconsin business leaders keep undermining the Great Lakes Compact, since it hasn't been written solely with their narrow interests in mind.

Public citizens they are not, as Yoda might phrase it.

Details here.

Two years ago this December, the Great Lakes governors and Canadian premiers met in Milwaukee and agreed to a Compact to manage the Great Lakes. Two years later, Wisconsin doesn't even have a draft bill on the table,

And in December of 2006, Wisconsin's Attorney General warned state agencies like the DNR that it could not approve a diversion of Great Lakes water to a city like New Berlin or Waukesha without the approval of all the other Great Lakes states, according to a federal law.

The DNR is dismissive of the opinion, and major media in the state will not report it.

So here's more information about both the legislative and media failures to protect the Great Lakes. Some legacy for Wisconsin.

The state wants to spend more than $20 million on an bells-and-whistles interstate interchange in rural western Waukesha County - - as access to an upscale mega-shopping mall that might not be built.

 Details here.

Residents in two southeastern Wisconsin counties are beginning a legal process to force the Department of Natural Resources to do its job when it comes to protecting precious lakes, streams and underground waters.

Interestingly, the Madison law firm of Lawton & Cates that has been engaged by the residents and two associations of lakefront property owners in relatively conservative counties - - Waukesha and Walworth - - has hired former Democratic Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager.

And Lautenschlager spoke out not long ago against the DNR's inaction on environmental issues.

 Details here. 

So I was stunned by the “Milwaukee sucks” column written by a former editor of the Waukesha Freeman, and run by that newspaper on its editorial page this week.

(The paper will no doubt say it does not share his opinion but does not censor its columnists, but it shares the responsibility for the drivel it publishes. If the Freeman doesn’t agree, it should say so in an editorial.)

It’s ironic that the vitriolic column comes at a time when surrounding suburban counties are making nice with Milwaukee County and even referring to themselves as Milwaukee 7, and running a Choose Milwaukee campaign.

It makes sense to do that. People outside of Wisconsin have actually heard of Milwaukee, for one thing.

One of the more astonishing dynamics in southeastern Wisconsin arises in Waukesha, where opinion-makers want Milwaukee resources - - land for freeways, water for development - - but are perfectly able to trash Milwaukee in print without seeing anything hypocritical or inconsistent or flat-out counterproductive when doing it.

If it were up to me, I'd throw this virulently anti-Milwaukee op-ed in The Waukesha Freeman, referenced here, back in the face of every politician, business leader, editorial writer or everyday citizen in Waukesha County when they came looking to Milwaukee for resources. 

Everytime.

It being the first day of spring, I've tied together the land rush in southeastern Wisconsin, the quest for diversions of Lake Michigan water to W. Waukesha County, and the disappearance of more than two-thirds of 20 species of American birds.

I'm not saying it's all Waukesha's fault, but there's national context for what's happening in southeastern Wisconsin, and vice-versa.

Details here.

Right-wing Milwaukee radio talk show host Mark Belling is know for on-air rants about situations where he is uncomfortable around other people.

It's part of the reason he hates crowded malls and breast-feeding moms and public transit - - those other humans are just too darn close - - and underlies his preference for lecturing a faceless audience about the human condition from the isolation of locked radio or TV studios.

Belling authors a weekly column for The Freeman, a Waukesha Daily, and in his latest written meanderings, tells us why he can't stand movie theaters.

This is the heart of Mark's problem, he tells us:

"I haven’t been to a movie in five years. Between people talking, kicking the back of my chair, babies crying and having to wade through 19 minutes of ads and trailers and atrocious sound systems, I’ve given up. I wait three months and watch the movie on pay-per-view."

Kinda sad.