Friday, December 13, 2013

The Diversion Of Water Diversion

You can't escape the fact that Waukesha's troubled proposal to pipe Lake Michigan water from Oak Creek's water utility, with a return flow to the Racine harbor and lake via the Root River contains some regional geographic elements, but little that addresses larger regional issues.

As if water, with its growth and quality-of-life benefits, was or should be disconnected from broader matters and opportunities - - transportation, education, housing, recreation, and the like - - but that's the small-picture focus that has the attention of policy-makers:
*  As the water planning unfolded, GOP legislative leaders shut down regional transit authorites, and bus links to suburban job centers have been severed. History, here.
*  Even the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter train that was principally designed to serve suburbanites and better connect the SE Wisconsin region with N. Illinois was blocked by non-Milwaukee officials as part of their desire to end regional transit planning.
*  And now the the relatively-isolationist counties around Milwaukee want nothing to do with a new NBA arena downtown or other Milwaukee cultural or entertainment options already open to all.
No wonder the region is limping along: it's repeatedly shot itself in the foot, or, more accurately, been wounded by non-Milwaukeeans with narrow, anti-urban agendas.
If regional cooperation through regional growth and inclusion are truly the goals, it's self-defeating to pretend that water is separate from other public services, but as things stand now, the Waukesha water diversion is also a diversion from genuine regional growth.

Posted also at Purple Wisconsin.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

If YOU build it, I still won't come.

Bill Kurtz said...

For all the talk that Milwaukee is the "next Detroit," this kind of action by outlying counties and the state is exactly the sort of thing that helped strangle Detroit.

Anonymous said...

What the Bucks are asking is contrary to liberal thinking.

The Bucks would use taxpayers money (not offensive to a liberal) to build a $700 million arena. The majority of the ticket buyers would be corporations because of the cost of the sport. The jobs created are not family supporting and the patrons will be a very small fraction of Milwaukee residents.

Other than temporary construction jobs, is this really beneficial to Milwaukee residents?

It's a really bad use of my suburban tax dollars. It will do nothing to turn Milwaukee around. My tax tax dollars are already wasted on MPS.

You start talking about how to improve educational outcome in Milwaukee and you'll get my attention real fast.

zombie rotten mcdonald said...

The underlying racism is appalling.

Anonymous said...

Really Zombie?

Seriously?

Well doesn't your comments expose the truth about you. There's not one damn thing in my post that implies innuendo of race.

Your race baiting excuse for MPS failures has worn out it's welcome. It really gives the progressive cause a negative philosophy that turns people off. Quite carping, bigot.

Unknown said...

I'm always amused how people blog attackers (Anonymous to Zombie) can't spell and don't know grammar and proper usage. I count at least 7 mistakes in his/her short entry.

Must have gone to a suburban school, did you, Anonymous?