miles2go

They're listening at City Hall (or at least reading)

2008-08-15T17:32:00.002-05:00

I got this e-mail from the city's transportation director, Chris Strong, (with a cc to his new boss, City Manager Mark Rohloff):

Dear Mr. Maguire,
I read your blog entry about the new pedestrian/bicycle flashers at Congress Avenue and Arboretum Drive/Summit Avenue, along with some of the comments that have been posted. I wanted to give you some background that hopefully helps to explain the city's approach.

First, we had considered designing the system to permit crossings on both the west and east sides of Arboretum/Summit. However, since there is no sidewalk on the west side of Summit Avenue (south of Congress), we thought it was better to encourage crossings on the east side of the intersection. Moreover, adding the push button on the west side of Arboretum (north of Congress) would have resulted in significant additional cost due to the need to trench under the road.

Second, you expressed concern over pedestrians and bicyclists having a "false impression" of safety. By state statute (346.24), bicyclists and pedestrians have the right-of-way in the crosswalk. Unfortunately, many drivers do not observe that. We want to use the least intrusive means necessary to encourage drivers to obey the statute. We plan to monitor the effectiveness of this system over the next few weeks. If the system does not seem to be effective, we have some ideas about other approaches we can try.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Thanks,
-Chris

Here's my response:

Dear Chris:

Thanks for your note. I appreciate your willingness to take the time to explain your thinking.

I have to say, though, that when it comes to safety I'm not sure that using the "least intrusive" method is necessarily the right approach.

I avoid that intersection, whether biking, walking, jogging or driving, as much as I can because it is so dangerous, and I suspect that the main reason it doesn't show up in accident statistics as a dangerous intersection is that lots of other people avoid using it as well.

Westbound motorists wing around from Algoma/High and accelerate to get into position so they end up in the lane they want to be in after crossing the bridge. Eastbound drivers come racing down from the bridge, again jockeying to be in the correct lane(s) as they pass the Public Museum.

I don't mean this comment to be flippant at all, but I really think you should turn the signs away from motorists and direct them to bikers/pedestrians with the warning that they should look for another place to get across the street.

In all seriousness, I would love to know more about how you plan to monitor the effectiveness of the lights. I mean you could say that they are effective because I haven't been hit by a car (although I am still in my office at the moment).

But as far as I can tell, nobody has seemed to notice the lights.

Some OPD enforcement of the speed limit and/or pedestrian right-of-way law might help!

Thanks again!

Miles

Making a bad situation worse

2008-08-13T08:42:00.002-05:00

In an apparent attempt to kill all of the pedestrians and cyclists who use the Wiouwash Trail where it crosses Congress Avenue (just kidding), the city has installed user-activated flashing lights at the intersection.

Why is this a bad idea?

The main reason is that it gives those on foot or on wheel the false impression that drivers will pay more attention to the pedestrian cross walks than they do when the lights are not flashing when in fact the lights have no apparent effect.

I tested this twice yesterday.

On my first test, drivers heading eastbound did not slow down at all. One driver in a pickup truck swerved around me as I crossed the street and cursed me as he went by at a speed well above the posted limited.

On my second test, a driver heading west slowed down but only after I waved my arm to point out the flashing light overhead.

Another problem with the installation is that lights are on the wrong side of Arboretum/Summit. In other words trail users heading southbound have to cross over to the east side of Arboretum to activate the light while northbound users have to cross to the west side of Summit. (Southbound users following normal right-of-way rules would be on the west side of the street.)

Once again, the notion that the city cares about the safety of trail users is cast in serious doubt.

Sewer story

2008-08-13T08:37:00.003-05:00

The Northwestern reports this morning that the city has nothing to fear from sewer claims since the city "has a regular sewer maintenance program in place, undergoes inspection and repairs [sic] and provides timely reports to it's [sic] insurance carriers on the status of it's sewage system."

Maybe, maybe not.

It seems to me that the big flaw in this argument is that the city has known, or should have known, that the sewer system is compromised because the city fails to enforce its own rules against illegal hookups.

Thus many of these basement backups over the last couple of years have been preventable.

Sounds like negligence to me.

My guess is that some smart lawyer can take that to the bank, and all of us taxpayers to the cleaners.

RIP: Jacques (the Shock)

2008-07-18T10:02:00.003-05:00

It's hard to describe in words the death of the family pet.

We called him Jacques (named after the French philosopher Maritain), and we had him for 14 years.

He had slowed considerably in recent months, and so we knew this was coming.

In many ways, he was the classic bad dog: tipping over the kitchen garbage, barking at the neighbors, sneaking out an open gate every chance he got, stealing Christmas chocolate.

But he had that canine way of charming, soothing, comforting.

He could always make you feel better, which is why we called him "Prozac on paws."

Barack Who's Sane Obama

2008-06-17T11:02:00.001-05:00

I was in New York City last week and spotted a street vendor selling T-shirts with that slogan.

Nonprofit journalism 1, ABC News 0 (or maybe -1)

2008-05-23T16:50:00.003-05:00

Here's a message from Mother Jones magazine:

Friends, we need your help getting credit where it's due: Yesterday, ABC reported an "exclusive" video about anti-Muslim McCain backer Reverend Rod Parsley. Only problem? MoJo showed that video two weeks ago. Here's where you can stand up for scrappy independent investigative reporting and help mainstream media do the right thing: Email this newsletter, our original video, and the whole sordid backstory to three people who should know what happened. If enough people stand up for MoJo today, we might get an on-air apology.

Here's the story.

Which local hospital is best?

2008-05-21T12:40:00.003-05:00

As reported in the Journal Sentinel today, the federal government is starting to promote a Web site that allows for comparisons between hospitals on such things as medical procedures and patient care.

You can search by county and compare Mercy, Aurora and Theda Clark here in Winnebago.

Just eyeballing things, it looks like Aurora ranks a little higher in most categories than Mercy, although there is one whole category where Aurora has no data.

OSAB V--Can you hear me now?

2008-05-13T11:43:00.000-05:00

An alert reader pointed this one out to me.

Non-Oshkosh Twin

Oshkosh Twin

He's baaaack!!!

2008-05-11T21:05:00.002-05:00

I was just tooling around the Northwestern's new Web site and discovered that Stew Rieckman is making a comeback in the local blogosphere with his Everyday Editor blog.

As he explains, his first try at this did not end well, and so you have to give him credit for coming back into the fray.

My guess is that it will soon be one of the most widely read local blogs in Oshkosh.

'Rich people, God bless us'

2008-05-01T07:49:00.002-05:00

One of the most revealing moments from Hillary Clinton's appearance on the O'Reilly Factor comes just before the 2 minute mark in this clip.

Tough to pass over Fitzpatrick

2008-04-29T07:06:00.003-05:00

It's going to be tough for the Common Council to pass over Acting City Manager John Fitzpatrick now that he and 45 others are official candidates for the manager's post.

He's a hard-working, low-key kind of guy who obviously knows and cares about the city. Of course, in the current environment, those qualities could actually work against him, if the Council thinks it needs an outsider to come in and shake things up.

The case of Richard "Résumé" Wells could be instructive. He's a finalist, again, for a bigger job in another state. This time it looks like he just might get it.

Without question, Wells has worked enormously hard to move the campus forward. But his leaving would come at a time when many of the balls he has gotten up in the air could be starting to come down: Funding for a new academic building is still incomplete, neighbors of the expanding (but unfinished) Oshkosh Sports Complex are still fuming, efforts to overhaul the general education program and to provide greater accountability about educational outcomes to the public are taking shape but are a long way from fruition.

(There's also a demographic time bomb about to go off, as this year's high school graduation class will be the largest of the "echo-boom," meaning that the number of "college-age" students in the state will drop to sharply lower levels for the next decade or so.)

Wells has earned the nickname "Résumé," and a fair amount of resentment among long-time staff, because it often appears that the initiatives he undertakes are for the benefit of improving his résumé as opposed to dealing with fundamental problems on campus.

Sometimes those two goals converge, but not always.

Is this the kind of leader the city needs? I think you could make an argument either way. Someone who uses the city as a steppingstone to a bigger paycheck somewhere else would undoubtedly pour a lot of energy into the position. But just as likely that person would be leaving before the job is done.

On the other hand, someone who is in it for the long haul will likely be someone who is resistant to "the fierce urgency of now," to use one of this presidential season's favorite phrases.

My advice to the Council: Don't forget that it's always possible to make a bad situation worse.

OSAB IV

2008-04-24T13:37:00.003-05:00

I know that this is one that a lot of people have been thinking about ever since I started the Oshkosh Separated at Birth series.

Oshkosh Twin

Non-Oshkosh Twin

STOP PRESS: MAGUIRE, RIECKMAN AGREE ON SOMETHING

2008-04-20T12:04:00.002-05:00

You have to give some props to the Oshkosh Common Council on this--its decision to make it easier to amend its agenda after it's been published has brought Stew Rieckman and me into alignment on one thing.

Public Notice

2008-04-18T10:12:00.002-05:00

Now that the Common Council has given itself permission to sneak things on to the agenda by waiting until after it's been published and distributed, wouldn't it be a good idea for the city to decide that it will make an extra effort to get the word out when new items are added?

Given Internet technology, how hard would that be? Here are my suggestions:

1. Dedicate a section of the city's homepage to highlighting late additions to the Council agenda.
2. Set up an e-mail notification list so that anyone who wants to be notified can be notified.
3. Commit to sending new items to local Web sites that follow Oshkosh government, including this one, the Oshblog, the Northwestern, Eye on Oshkosh, My Two Cents, etc.

Disorganizational meeting

2008-04-16T07:10:00.003-05:00

Did I read this right?

The Northwestern reports this morning that the newly seated Common Council has decided that it can amend its agenda by adding new items just 36 hours before it meets.

That's a great way to make sure that citizens don't see things coming.

Those who voted for this change were the Towers Two, Esslinger, McHugh and Palmeri.

OSAB III: A reader writes...

2008-04-15T13:07:00.003-05:00

A helpful reader sent in this startling example, this further proof, that many of our fellow Oshkoshians are just one half (or less) of a larger phenomenon, a twin separated at birth. (I'm told there may even be triplets among us.)

It gives me the willies just thinking about what this all means. The person you see on Main Street could be cosmically, but secretly, linked to someone who is actively changing the world, even recharting the course of the universe.

Oshkosh Twin

Non-Oshkosh Twin

Spring plantings (and what the Council needs to grow)

2008-04-13T12:18:00.005-05:00

Springtime, and things are started to pop up out of the ground, things like "For Sale" signs.

There are now three (at least) on River Mill Road, which translates into almost 10 percent of all the houses in the neighborhood being on the market. Is it coincidence that the "For Sale" signs have popped up following the forced sidewalkification program that the Oshkosh Common Council imposed on us last year?

Could be.

Doubt it.

(The house at the top of this post belongs to a certain former mayor, who is now retired and who may have many reasons for wanting to move.)

The sidewalks are clearly here to stay, even if some of the neighborhood residents (aka taxpayers) are just as clearly not. So there's no need to debate their merits.

What is left to debate is the performance of the Oshkosh Common Council. As I noted last August, the central task before the Council can be easily described:

What needs to happen is that the city has to find a way to enlarge its tax base. Plain and simple. Everything else is just a distraction.

It ain't sidewalks. It ain't smoking. It's taxing cottonwood trees (only kidding).

Granted--enlarging the tax base isn't a trivial task. If it were easy to do, it would have already been done.

But appointing an economic development commission or hiring a new city manager and offloading the task to someone else won't work either.

The Council was elected to provide the city with leadership. A first step is to define clearly the desired outcome, and the second step is to establish benchmarks and intermediate goals. The third step is to start working in that direction.

Here's a small example. Last week the Council agreed to let the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh use its name to raise some money for work at the "Oshkosh Sports Complex."

What didn't come up during the discussion, however, was the tax-exempt status of the property. Should it remain so? Does part of the university's current "payment in lieu of taxes" cover the stadium complex? Honestly, I don't know.

But it seems to me that if the Council really understood the importance of the one issue before it that will ultimately make all the difference in the world (growing the city's tax base), then it would have made sure that the question of getting some property tax revenue out of this project would have been front and center.

In case anyone misses the point, growth of the tax base is critical for two reasons. The most important one is that the city's tax base has been badly eroded (after accounting for inflation) by the loss of manufacturing. The result is more of a burden shifted to individuals. The second reason is that the only way for the city to provide the kinds of services that the community wants and needs is to continue to increase revenues, if for no other reason than to keep up with inflation.

Property tax revenues are a function of two things, the tax rate and the tax base. If you can boost the latter, you can cut the former.

Budget advisory committee

2008-04-12T10:30:00.005-05:00

Yes, I am all for the idea of citizen-journalists, but I think the idea of "citizen- government officials" may be taking the whole "pro-am" concept too far.

It seems to me that one of the reasons the school district hasn't gotten very far with its facilities plan is that someone got the bright idea that the best way to deal with a difficult issue is to "get everyone involved" by forming lots of teams and committees to debate and discuss.

That's not a bad concept, unless it becomes an excuse for elected and appointed officials to dodge the tough decisions. They were, after all, elected or appointed to make tough decisions.

Now it turns out that the Common Council will consider a proposal from Tony Palmeri to form a "Citizen Led Budget Committee." See details here and Tony's discussion here.

Getting citizen input is fine, although I can't say the Council necessarily has a great track record in paying heed to citizen input. And it's not like there are necessarily any hidden financial geniuses out there who are going to step forward.

Providing a forum for citizens to talk about the issue is no substitute for government officials taking the lead, and sticking their necks out, on what is by all accounts going to be a pretty messy situation.

Layoffs of city employees appear to be baked in the cake at this point, as well as cuts in city services.

Council members are going to have to deal with tough trade-offs, but that's why we're paying them "the big bucks." (Small joke.)

OSAB II: Back for more

2008-04-12T09:52:00.003-05:00

Since Alex Hummel blew his cover as one of the first Oshkosh Separated at Birth Twins, it's time to move on to our second set.

Oshkosh Twin

Non-Oshkosh Twin

Am I right? Or am I right?

Oshkosh: Separated at Birth

2008-04-11T11:14:00.005-05:00

Welcome to OSAB, a new feature of this blog, which will appear on an occasional basis.

I don't know about you, but ever since I moved to Oshkosh last century I have noticed an eerie similarity between certain local personages and much more famous figures from many different walks of life. This has led me to believe that they are identical twins who were separated at birth, with one of the twins left behind here in Oshkosh (or perhaps sent here later in life for safe keeping).

To test this theory I will begin posting from time to time photos of Oshkoshians who appear to have been separated at birth from their better known twin. Your job, gentle reader, will be to identify the two individuals (and also to nominate more people for this feature).

Here is the first set:

Oshkosh Twin

Non-Oshkosh Twin

A call for citizen copy editors

2008-04-10T07:25:00.005-05:00

The Northwestern needs you.

Someone has posted a comment on the Northwestern's lead story about a cily error in the headline that goes across the top of the page.

Hey, look, we all make mysteaks.

There's something called "Pulaski's Law": It's trying to do too much.

I think that's what Gannett is asking its employees to do, and sooner or later the strains are going to show.

And it's not that Gannett isn't earning money hand over fist or that it doesn't have money to invest in the important things, like executive bonuses.

Gordon, say it ain't so

2008-04-09T07:47:00.002-05:00

I ran into Gordon Hintz at the Common Council meeting, and although I didn't say anything to him I thought he looked well, like the the life of being a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly suited him.

To my horror this morning, however, I learned that he has become a Republican. It says so right here in the Northwestern:

State Rep. Gordon Hintz, R-Oshkosh, nominated the group for the award it received Tuesday night.

I guess that explains why he is looking so hale and hearty.

Can Barack Obama save journalism?

2008-04-08T21:08:00.002-05:00

This is not as silly a question as it may seem.

Whoever wins the election in the fall, although my guess is that it will be Obama, the fact is that he has already shaken the established order in American politics by showing that a publicly funded campaign is a real possibility.

Instead of taking money from PACs and lobbyists, Obama has shown that it is possible to raise money, and big money, using the Internet to connect with ordinary citizens.

In all the fuss about whether Hillary will drop out or not, this extremely important point has not gotten nearly the attention it deserves. This is a whole new way of doing the people's business.

Clearly a lot of it has to do with Obama's charisma and star power, but an awful lot has to do with Internet technology. He has blazed a trail that others may follow.

I'm hoping that one of those others is the institution of American journalism.

There's a fascinating discussion occurring over here, a blog/forum sponsored by the Encyclopedia Britannica people.

In a nutshell, here's the problem: Newspaper readers are moving to the Internet, but the use of advertising revenues to subsidize news gathering doesn't work on the Internet because a) Internet advertising is relatively cheap and b)the Internet allows advertisers to stop advertising altogether and find other ways (i.e. the Web) to connect with customers.

Don't take my word for it; read Jay Rosen's analysis.

If you invest in or work at a traditional newspaper company, this is terrible news--especially because of the inevitability of it all. Believe me, there is no turning back on this one.

But if you have long been troubled by the fact that it is corporate America that subsidizes the news business and uses it to advance its agenda, this is not necessarily a bad thing ... so long as we can find someone else to cover the cost of news gathering.

Here's where the Obama thing comes in.

He has shown that it IS possible to turn away from the traditional way of funding a campaign by asking for corporate donations. Instead it is possible to get citizens to cover the costs.

Similarly journalists need to realize that losing the old subsidy system could be the best thing that ever happened to them ... so long as they can develop the mechanisms to tap ordinary citizens for support.

If politicians can do it, I'm pretty confident that reporters can, too.

City getting snowed by lazy landlords

2008-04-08T20:35:00.002-05:00

The city fielded a record number of complaints about unshoveled sidewalks this winter and is looking to overhaul its policies on clearing the way when property owners fail to do it themselves.

But in one incident involving a university neighborhood, the city chose to look the other way and let residents slip and slide on the ice.

David Patek, the public works director, discussed the situation during Tuesday's Council meeting. He said he does not have a final count but that the number of complaints about unshoveled snow could be about 2,000 for the past winter season.

Patek will be recommending changes in city policy, including higher fees, once his department has completed its analysis.

Currently the city fields complaints about unshoveled walks and then sends a contractor to clean up the snow and ice. The property owner gets billed for the cost of snow removal.

But Patek thinks the city's fee is too low. "People are taking advantage of us," he said. The city is unable to get snow removed right away, which allows property owners to wait through four or five snowstorms before the city contractor arrives, he explained.

The property owner may have to pay "$50 for five storms'" worth of snow, Patek said, which is cheaper than paying to have the snow removed after each storm. For property owners, "that's money ahead."

Landlords are some of the worse offenders. "We had one case where we had complaints from handicapped renters," Patek said.

But in another case involving a campus area neighborhood, the city decided not to take action. "Everyone had an inch of ice. We had to let them go," he said. "We knew people had done the best they could."

Pull-it-sir!

2008-04-08T07:16:00.003-05:00

The Washington Post's huge haul of Pulitzers yesterday raises anew the question of the importance of newspapers, or lack thereof. To be sure, the paper was recognized for its coverage of major stories, and some of that coverage would likely have not happened, or at least not have happened on the same scale, absent an institution like the Post.

On the other hand, Dick Cheney is still vice president, war veterans continue to get poor treatment and shootings will likely continue on college campuses.

For any institution to be successful, it has to matter. Do newspapers matter? I think they do, but they don't matter as much as they used to, or as much as they would like to.

Here on the local scene we are about to see an example of how a newspaper can matter, as the Common Council seems set to change its ways in the handling of "member statements," some of which seem to have morphed from simple bloviating into something resembling decision making.

Thanks to complaints by Stew Rieckman of the Northwestern, it appears the Council is going to try to hew a little closer to the law. That's a good thing.

But newspapers need to do a lot more if they want to return to their former central role. They need both to go in deeper into stories and come out stronger.

That's probably something that won't be done for much longer using the current forms of organization and business models for newspaper companies.

Some people think the necessary changes will come through further experimentation. But the truth is that experimentation is hard, in part because it always includes the possibility (likelihood) of failure.

Blogging yourself to death

2008-04-06T09:14:00.002-05:00

The New York Times, in one of its classic "trend stories," reports today on the phenomenon of bloggers blogging themselves to death.

Hmmm.

One of my favorite educational bloggers, Mindy McAdams of the University of Florida, blogged on Friday about the way in which groups aligned with traditional media tend to overlook the positives associated with Web journalism.

(I believe she survived that post and is still alive.)

It's certainly true that the mainstream media have a financial interest in minimizing and marginalizing independent Internet publishers. For example the CEO of craigslist complained last year about the way his site is covered.

Q: How do you feel about your own media coverage? I see that Craigslist often gets reported on as the de facto way of picking up prostitutes.

JIM: We’ve been hearing increasingly from newspaper reporters who confide that they are only allowed to write negative stories about Craigslist these days, because we’re viewed as competition by their newspaper’s business managers. And, obviously, sex sells papers, more so than stories about finding a used couch, so while we do follow our media coverage, most of our attention is devoted to direct feedback from our users.

Too much of anything can be a bad thing, and I'm sure the same is true of blogging. It is really easy to start and really, really hard to do well over a sustained period of time.

The only thing I'm (pretty) sure of is that we are still too new to this Internet thing to see where it's all going to end up.

This death-by-blogging trend makes me wonder if Gannett will have to rethink its plans for new Web sites for all its papers. As described here, one of the things the Northwestern will soon allow you to do is create your own blog on its site.

Will Gannett be legally liable for the death of one of its public bloggers?

Inquiring minds will want to know.

Missing dog (updated)

2008-04-04T07:13:00.004-05:00

I just got a note from the highest levels of the Northwestern that its database (not it's database) has been fixed and that domestic animals have returned to River Mill Road.

Hooray!!!

The following is my original post.

My dog has gone missing.

In fact all of the dogs and cats on River Mill Road are gone. They must have been run over by all of those cars that go whizzing through the neighborhood.

(Fortunately Jacques is only missing from the Northwestern's new pet database.)

Actually you can find him if you search on his name. But he's not there if you search by address.

Ah, the wonders of technology!

Who's polluting in Oshkosh?

2008-04-03T15:58:00.002-05:00

The EPA published its annual update to the Toxic Release Inventory about a month ago.

The good news is that the trend for the last two decades is downward, but there is still a goodly amount of pollution released in Oshkosh.

To see a list of the city's polluters, from 2006, go here.

Newspaper blogs

2008-04-03T09:40:00.002-05:00

A new study from Ball State University suggests that newspaper blogs on political issues are largely a waste of time.

But I suspect that it's really too soon to tell. Some newspapers blogs are certainly better than others. I particularly like Dan Froomkin at the WaPo, although one could argue that what he does is more an "online column" than a blog. It has attributes of both.

A good question that is raised by the Ball State researchers is whether salaried journalists at newspapers would be better off using their time to do something other than blogging, perhaps such as reporting.

Are professional journalists really better at this?

2008-03-19T13:54:00.002-05:00

For the last several years there has been a running debate about the merits of citizen journalism vs. the MSM vs. the possibility of doing "pro-am" reporting.

The release of Hillary Clinton's White House records today provides an interesting test case since they are available over the Internet.

Who will make the most startling discovery?
Who will do it first?
Who will be able to make sense of the massive data dump?

My guess is that it will be The Washington Post or The New York Times that will do the best job of aggregating the data and presenting it in some interactive format.

But I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the most interesting find comes from the journalistic margin.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2008-03-16T11:47:00.003-05:00

Years ago a writer named Frederic Kelly immortalized his Uncle Robert in the pages of The Baltimore Sun with a column called "Robert's Rule," which gave some valuable tips on how to celebrate the saint's feast sensibly. Out of respect of the copyright law, I can't post the entire article (although I am sorely tempted), but here are some of the highlights.

My Uncle Robert says the difference between a rich man who drinks and a poor man who drinks is the rich man becomes an alcoholic and the poor man winds up a drunk.

My Aunt Kate says if anybody would know, my Uncle Robert would. He has poured enough alcohol down his throat in his time to qualify for both positions.

But he has class, my Uncle Robert has, class and a fine Irish wit. Even my Aunt Kate acknowledges that.

She used to complain about his drinking until he told he did not like to drink, it was just something to do while he was getting drunk. Then, when she asked him why he always came home half-drunk, he said it was probably because he ran out of money.

Anyway my Uncle Robert loves St. Patrick’s Day. He considers it one of God’s gifts to mankind and he celebrates it with near-religious fervor. He starts drinking early in the morning and does not stop until he sees the snakes St. Patrick chased out of Ireland twining themselves around the chandelier.

Based on years of experience, Uncle Robert supposedly wrote a book called Robert’s Rules of Order: Social Tips for St. Patrick’s Day Partygoers (Or How to Have a Good Time and Still Get Invited Back Again Next Year).

Drinking, like dress, is a matter of choice. Vodka, Irish, gin and bourbon are always appropriate. Green beer, of course, is traditional and one of the most festive St. Patrick’s Day drinks is a shot of whiskey followed by a glass of beer (or you can reverse it). Later on you can do your mixing in a vase or a crab pot.

However, do not mix beer with gin. Do not mix it with orange juice, either, in the belief that you making some sort of statement about human rights. Remember, too, if you are drinking wine, use a glass. Never drink straight from the bottle unless you see your hostess doing so first.

In the event a buffet is served, use a plate. Be sure that you are sitting down before you put the plate on your lap. If you forget, quietly push it under a chair with your foot.

Perhaps the most important thing to know is when and how to leave.

Finally, there are several ways to tell when the party is over. The considerate guest, the guest who would be invited back next year, learns to recognize them.

It is time to slip away when the police arrive, or when a delegation of neighbors offers to burn the house down. Another sure sign is when the host sees you and recoils in terror.

Leave as quietly as possible. Do not look back. Do not offer to pay for any damage. That can be done nicely in a note the next day. And at the same time, you can inquire about anything you happen to be missing—hats, coats, shoes, eyeglasses, watches, loved ones.

If you recognize yourself (or a younger version of yourself) in this column, don't forget to raise a glass to Uncle Robert. If you fail to see the humor in this, don't bother letting me know.

You read it here first

2008-03-10T17:20:00.003-05:00

As fallout from the mortgage crisis continues to roil the economy, you have to wonder how long it will take the Obama campaign to pin the blame on former Co-President Hillary Clinton.

Apparently politicians, and the Washington media, are afflicted with a short memory.

It's not that hard to draw a line from the subprime mess back to December 1999, when President Bill Clinton signed banking deregulation into law.

But, oops, there's a problem with this argument--Barack has raised almost as much money from commercial banks as Hillary has.

But, then again, he wasn't around when the law was changed in a way to allow/encourage banks to extend subprime loans and to expand their mortgage business. It was also during the Clinton administration, and under the "oversight" of Clinton appointees to federal banking agencies, that the derivatives business really took off.

Cutbacks at Northwestern?

2008-03-09T21:08:00.002-05:00

Gannett's cost cutting initiatives could lead to job reductions in its Wisconsin newspaper group, according to Gannett Blog.

Leads and lags, Babs, leads and lags

2008-03-02T09:18:00.003-06:00

Gloom has settled in over Oshkosh-Bloggerland. The evil Stew has stuffed the online edition of his newspaper into our mouths and silenced us. The hope of a new technology has failed us. Just as Neil Young recently remarked that "the time when music could change the world has passed," perhaps we have to acknowledge that the time when the Internet could change the world has passed.

Not.

Ron Hardy pronounced the Oshkosh blogs dead yesterday. But I have to say, in the words of recent campus visitor Stanley Crouch, that you must "beware of premature autopsies."

Wynton Marsalis will tell you that the rhythm is the most important part of jazz, and in a larger sense the truth is that timing is all.

Right now we are in a bit of an ebb, but I don't think that the Internet alternative to corporate media is over. Sometimes what we have been doing has been a leader and sometimes a laggard. Sometimes we have been ahead of the curve, sometimes behind. But that is just the way things go. The blogs can rise again.

The present online moment in Oshkosh may belong to the Northwestern, but that is not something that will last indefinitely. (If you want to see how things are really going inside Gannett-land, you should follow this blog.)

In any case, I wouldn't blame (or credit, depending on your POV) Northwestern Executive Editor Stew Rieckman for the slowdown in Oshkosh-Bloggerland. There are a lot of other factors are work, not least the shift of OCAT into Oshkosh Community Media. I mean, Web streaming of public meetings--how cool is that?

I always thought that one of the biggest challenges in creating a blog culture in Oshkosh was simply that this is a conservative community that lacks savvy, including technological savvy. But as the inevitability of the Internet finally laps upon the shores of the Fox Valley, aided and abetted by the Northwestern I might add, then the blog moment may return.

I say "may" not "will" because there are other factors that have to be considered. The key question is whether the act of blogging can have an impact on local government.

Right now we have amazingly unresponsive government bodies in the form of the Common Council and the Board of Education. They are both pretty good at going through the motions of pretending to listen, but in terms of actual results, there is not much to see.

The city manager got the boot, and it appears the school supe plans to light out for some other territory. But the Council and the school board just seem to go on forever, unwilling or unable to deal with the problems before them (although pretty good at cranking up their PR machines).

It's important to remember, though, that change is always in the wind, and there may be some changes yet to come.

Is there an echo out there?

2008-02-27T13:01:00.004-06:00

The Northwestern's lead story today, carrying the byline of a staff reporter, remarkably has the same three opening paragraphs as an Associated Press story out of Madison.

As a member of the AP, the Northwestern has the right to use AP copy, but this seems to me to be crossing the line. By putting a staff byline on the story, the paper is telling its readers that the story in all essential details is its own. That's not the case here.

(The Post-Crescent also carries the AP story, but has it marked as an AP story.)

Tagged at the end of the Northwestern's story is a note that the AP "contributed" to the article. That seems to me backwards. It's more like the Northwestern contributed additional material to the AP story.

Claiming credit for another reporter's lead is a far cry from borrowing a bit of boilerplate language, not that either practice is considered acceptable. Keep in mind that the lead is the part of the story that reporters typically spend the most time coming up with. It's often quite personal.

Something similar happened recently with a front-page story in The New York Times. The Times is planning an editor's note to set the record straight.

Perhaps we will see some clarification from the Northwestern. Or perhaps not.

Why does this matter?

Journalists believe, and history has unfortunately taught us, that cutting one corner will often encourage the cutting of subsequent and larger corners. Jayson Blair and Jack Kelly could both have been stopped before they did so much damage to the field of journalism if someone had stopped them from cutting corners when they first started doing so.

A campus story from last week, one that I didn't see in the Northwestern, bears this out. Last week the student newspaper had to admit that it had caught one of its reporters fabricating quotes and other information for a Page One story.

As the editor noted, in a prominently displayed apology, the fabrication was the sequel to an earlier case of plagiarism, which was allowed to go unremarked upon.

It's always good to try to nip these things in the bud.

Payback for Pub Crawl?

2008-02-25T08:56:00.002-06:00

Today's Northwestern article makes me wonder who the anonymous complainers were about the alcohol served at Gallery Walk.

During last year's Pub Crawl controversy, more than one undergraduate pointed out to me the hypocrisy of local lights who were complaining about Pub Crawl while promoting other city events where the booze flows freely.

A figment of Wisconsin's imagination

2008-02-09T10:34:00.000-06:00

Local chocolate shops were highlighted in a tasty article in yesterday's New York Times.

The article talks about the rivalry between Oaks and Hughes and begins with these observations:

Oaks Candy Corner in Oshkosh is a chocolate mirage.

Its gingerbread exterior yields to an interior that in winter is as sugary warm as the inside of a circus peanut and in summer is as refreshing as a wax Coke bottle. It smells like caramel corn and cocoa butter rubbed into the floorboards with a pair of Red Wing boots. It’s the shop just around the corner in an unremittingly blue-collar part of an unremittingly blue-collar town. It shouldn’t still be there, but there it is.

If Oaks Candy is a mirage, then the Hughes Homaid Chocolate Shop, less than half a mile away, is a figment of Wisconsin’s imagination. An 80-year-old bungalow two blocks from Lake Winnebago, it has only a small neon sign to state its trade and a full-blown candy-making operation in its basement.

Thank you, Northwestern

2008-01-27T11:01:00.000-06:00

I was glad to read Crystal Lindell's follow-up piece on Tom Stephany's relationship with Sawdust Days. I was glad to see a precise explanation of his connection to the event:

He books the bands for the Cajun and Zydeco acts that perform at the Louwisiana Hot Sauce booth, helps recruit the historic recreationist camps and works closely with the group that organizes Sawdust Days.

But the article also raised some questions that should be answered:

1. Does Mr. Stephany receive any compensation for his work in booking bands? If not, the article should say that clearly.

2. If Mr. Stephany has this expertise in booking entertainment, why was he resistant to the idea that his department could book groups into the Leach Amphitheater? Perhaps the whole PMI situation could have been avoided? (Actually this is probably something that could be considered separately, but it is an interesting question.)

3. Does Mr. Stephany do his work for Sawdust Days on "company time" or on his own? Who, anyone, keeps track of this? I doubt very much that he punches a clock.

It may be appropriate for the parks director to help with a major parks user, but then again it may not. If he does this work as part of his regularly scheduled job duties, does he go the extra mile for other groups, too? Are there other city employees, perhaps his secretary, who also do work for Sawdust Days?

Still and all, the article is a step in the right direction toward greater transparency.

What is journalism for?

2008-01-13T09:34:00.000-06:00

Stew Rieckman has an interesting piece of advice for the Common Council in his column today:

Here's a suggestion that the seven members of the council might find illuminating. Ask your parks director what direct connection and personal interest he has in Sawdust Days. Then determine if he is an unbiased, objective steward of public parks and has the best interest of the neighborhood at heart. Here's a hint: The guy's hobby is Cajun and Zydeco music and hot sauce.

Why doesn't The Northwestern answer this question? I, for one, would sure like to know.

The paper's news story on Thursday about the Council's approval of this year's Sawdust Days permit had this tantalizing line:

City Parks Director Tom Stephany, who runs one of the activities at the event separate from his duties for the city, told councilors during the meeting that many of the neighbors' concerns had been addressed.

Inquiring minds would like to know (more) about what Mr. Stephany does for Sawdust Days.

It would also be interesting to know what Paul Esslinger's connection to Sawdust Days is prescisely. Here's another quote from Thursday's paper:

The seven-member council approved the permit with a 6-0 vote. Councilor Paul Esslinger voted present because the company he works for has a business relationship with Sawdust Days.

Why the lack of interest?

2008-01-03T10:13:00.000-06:00

So no one is running against the incumbents on the Oshkosh Common Council. What does that tell us about the state of local politics in our fair city?

I dunno.

I think there are a number of factors at work, ranging from a collective shift of attention to the 2008 presidential election to any number of personal factors in the lives of individual citizens.

Personally I have to admit that my interest in the doings of the Common Council has dropped off a lot in recent months. Part of that has to do with some research that I have been doing on nonprofit media. It's a large project that has taken a great deal of time away from my other pursuits.

I have also started to wonder just how much the Council can do. We know that one of its success stories from last year was sidewalks, a real concrete achievement.

On the other hand, waterfront development remains stalled, property values are falling, crime is rising, the Leach Amphitheater is coming up short of expectations and City Hall is seeing an exodus of experience while the manager's job is unfilled.

Some of these problems are not the Council's doing, but some are. And I, for one, am hard pressed to see where the Council, including the mayor, is having a positive impact.

But still: the trash gets picked up, snow gets pushed around, the street lights go on at dusk.

Maybe that's all we can really expect from local government.

Certainly there is a bloc of voters in town who believe that local government shouldn't do much more than provide basic services. Those voters will keep the likes of Paul Esslinger and Dennis McHugh in office.

Can city government be made to function at a higher level? I think (hope?) the answer is yes. But I can't say I see a path from here to there.

In the meantime I guess we will have to leave it to the private sector and the nonprofit sector to do what can be done to move the community forward.

Citizen Search Committee?

2007-12-13T07:25:00.001-06:00

When the university needs to fill an upper-level job, such as a program director or a dean, it forms a search committee drawn from across the campus community. Members serve without pay.

I wonder why something like that, a Citizen Search Committee, can't be put together to look for a new city manager.

This is not exactly an original idea, as others in the blogosphere have also suggested it, but I'm surprised that the idea hasn't gotten more traction since three of the Council members are university employees and well-acquainted with this process.

Let's face it--there's a huge mismatch between what the city wants in terms of a city manager and what it's willing to do for a new city manager, both in terms of compensation and in terms of providing backing and direction.

We can at least cut our losses by not spending a lot of money on a search firm.

One of the problems with this and past Councils is that it isn't creative enough in spending money. By that I mean that the city doesn't enter into contracts that have both incentives and penalties. We are good at giving things away but not so good at holding people accountable.

In this case, the Council, if it should decide to spend money on a search firm, should insist that the search firm pay back its fee if the new city manager doesn't last for, say, at least two years.

What kind of search firm would take on that kind of an assignment? Only one that would be willing to work very, very hard to earn its money.

Otherwise the city should save its money, and the Council should do its own legwork.

So what was the rush in bouncing Wollangk?

2007-11-08T07:35:00.000-06:00

The Northwestern is reporting today that Mayor Frank Tower now wants to cancel the search for an interim city manager.

What was the Council thinking when it rushed to have City Manager Richard Wollangk pushed out of office? Did it really think it would be that easy to replace him?

Or did it think that the city had cash rattling around in its bank account that couldn't be used for any better purpose than a fat severance package?

Can Oshkosh learn from Madison?

2007-10-31T07:22:00.000-05:00

While the local powers-that-be are busy condemning a group of college students who want to go out drinking downtown, they might want to check out what Madison did to curb its annual Halloween party.

Time magazine has the story. Here's the key quote:

This year, Madison is tapping into corporate America in the hopes of turning a civic black eye into something its Visitors and Conventions Bureau can boast about.

How about a little creative problem solving? Instead of running to the usual barricades.

Why sidewalks are not Green

2007-10-26T11:38:00.000-05:00

The New York Times today puts the finger on cement plants:

[M]aking cement means making pollution, in the form of carbon dioxide emissions. Cement plants account for 5 percent of global emissions of carbon dioxide, the main cause of global warming. Cement has no viable recycling potential; each new road, each new building needs new cement.

Green is good, except when it's not

2007-10-11T08:25:00.000-05:00

You have to love the irony of life in Oshkosh these days.

I write this as a backhoe and dump truck are starting to work their way through the neighborhood, tearing up grass to be replaced with heat-trapping, impermeable concrete.

The River Mill Road sidewalk work began in earnest yesterday, the same day that Frank Tower and Tony Palmeri were touting their devotion to the environment in the context of a new city policy that enshrines environmentally correct practices.

Don't you just love this quote from Palmeri:

Councilor Tony Palmeri said the document forces the government to think of the environmental consequences of public policy.

"It will force us to take on green policies that will not only save money but are also popular with citizens," he said.

It makes you wonder what the words "green policies," "save money" and "popular with citizens" mean to him.

It's convenient for politicians to have these pseudo-events that they can use to divert attention from their actual actions.

Text of Kraft's memo

2007-10-07T16:13:00.001-05:00

By request, here it is:

MEMORANDUM

DATE:

October 5, 2007

TO: Richard A. Wollangk, City Manager

FROM: Warren P. Kraft, City Attorney

SUBJECT: Construction Escrow Agreements/1 00 Block LLC

As it relates to the 100 Block development, the City's entry into a construction escrow agreement occurred because the developer's attorney requested that the City's TIF-supported development assistance grant be readily available to ensure the developer had proper lender financial support for the above project. The City of Appleton used this same approach with the Richmond Terrace project in that community. With a construction escrow agreement and account in place, a neutral third party (in this instance, Schmitt Title Company of Oshkosh) is given the fiduciary responsibility for the proper disbursement of funds to cover the project costs, i.e. the grant funds as well as the lender's funds.

An issue arose over an e-mail exchange in which Director of Planning Services Darryn Burich and I reviewed and discussed the terms of this particular agreement, which has been reported locally as my recommendation for secrecy. While the particular paragraphs come in the context of a fuller exchange of issues related to the agreement, the particular paragraphs (which have not been fully published) read in their entirety:

(Darryn:) Page 11, Article X, Budget Section. The last sentence states that from time to time we can examine the records upon reasonable notice and at the developer's offices. I am wondering if we should not be sent all cost records regarding the project as they are incurred or expended for our own record keeping purposes.

(Warren:) Open records law causes a problem. Anything you collect as part of your supervisory role is generally subject to public inspection. All we need to have are costs related to TIF expenses, which form our 250/0 commitment. If HUD requires more because of CDBG funding, we need to accommodate that, but no more than necessary.

That discourse, which could have been worded better, reportedly, and improperly so, has been converted into a recommendation for a secrecy requirement for all construction costs, when the above-quoted paragraph indicates that the City's 250lb TIF commitment should be subject to public inspection, unless any HUD requirements imposed greater detail. It was a legal and proper commentary, because it was based on the then-current appellate

Richard A. Wollangk
October 5, 2007
Page 2

court rulings concerning records in the hands of third parties. Otherwise, it would have been unethical not to provide this legal information. However, earlier this year, the Court of Appeals reinterpreted and reapplied its past decisions to h old that certain records kept by third parties are generally subject to public inspection, in the same manner as the public records law applies to record keeping authorities such as the City of Oshkosh. In that light, I have requested permission from the parties to the 100 Block LLC foreclosure and receivership litigation to consent, via e-mail on Monday which read:

I ask for your consent to enable Schmitt Title Company to release to the City the records it accumulated in carrying out the obligations as escrow agent for the construction project covered by the agreement between the City and the 100 BLOCK LLC. I confirmed this afternoon with Mike Skoglind of Schmitt Title that the records remain in tact. It would appear that the Court of Appeals recent published decision in WIREdata, Inc. v. Village of Sussex, 298 Wis.2d 743, 729 N.W.2d 757 Wis.App.,2007., would support this release anyway.

The attorneys and the receiver have responded affirmatively and at this writing, we will make arrangements with Schmitt Title to accomplish this task.

Reviewing with Atty. Gempeler this week the use of such construction escrow agreements, he emphasized there are two primary purposes: firstly, developers are assured that the public money is in place to support the project because the money is deposited into escrow at the time of closing. The developer needs the municipal dollar commitment in order to obtain the construction loan. For the lender, which provides funding, it also removes the risk that a future councilor board will change its mind and withhold public funds if the monies remain in the municipal treasury.

Secondly and for the municipality's protection, the local government is assured that grant funds are used for the intended purposes (in this situation, for the TIF-related costs) because the agreement details what costs are TIF-supported expenditures. That is consistent with the municipality's fiduciary responsibility to ensure that public money is spent appropriately for public purposes. In the Richmond Terrace project, also represented by Atty. Gempeler (who previously served as the Madison city attorney and represented the City of Madison on its redevelopment projects), the attorney said the City of Appleton was required to spend TIF dollars upfront for environmental remediation of the former Zwicker Knitting Mill. The City of Appleton reserved the same right of review that
the City of Oshkosh retained in the 100 Block agreement.

Additionally this week, I reviewed with the RDA's legal counsel for drafting development agreements, Atty. Rebecca Speckhard of Quarles and Brady in Milwaukee. She agreed with Atty. Gempeler that construction escrow agreements are very typical when funds are

Richard A. Wollangk
October 5, 2007
Page 3

received from various sources and a neutral third party is designated to disburse the money. In the 100 Block development case, the agreement established the criteria by which Schmitt Title Company could pay expenses. There is no further need for any approval provided the requisite criteria are met. The developer requests payment, the title company reviews the submission to ensure there is a sufficient level of documentation to support the request and makes the payment. She said the lender typically requires this arrangement and agreed that it is fairly customary to put all the funds into the same place.

Both attorneys indicated that this is similar to the private homeowner whose lender may require using an escrow agent in the construction of one's own house.

In a typical construction escrow agreement approach, records remain with the title company and as noted above, at the time of the then-prevailing public records law, would not be considered subject to public inspection. However, the inte nt behind this approach (which was the first time the City invested multi-million dollars into a project), according to Atty. Gempeler, was to satisfy the developer's and lender's desire to ensure that the City's funds are timely available to the developer and that the TIF-dollars were properly expended for public purposes according to the agreement. Under the 2007 WIREdata, Inc., decision, the public records question should no longer arise.

Please advise if you have any questions. Thank you very much.

Kraft says he was misquoted

2007-10-06T08:18:00.000-05:00

City Attorney Warren Kraft sent a memo yesterday in which he makes the case that last weekend's story in the Northwestern about shielding the spending of public money from public view was quite incorrect.

The Northwestern published these paragraphs:

Documents obtained by The Northwestern show City Attorney Warren Kraft argued for project developer Ben Ganther to keep the lone set of financial records detailing how a $2.2 million city development assistance grant to 100 Block LLC was spent. Putting the records in Ganther's hands, Kraft wrote in e-mail messages to city staff, would shield the financial records from public review.

A Northwestern review also found the contract is the lone case where Oshkosh officials agreed to block public access to records of how city money was being spent on a taxpayer-backed project.

But Kraft, who says he was only following the since re-interpreted law as he understood it at the time, provides the full text of what he said about the records.

He made it clear that the public funds would be subject to public review.

Kraft wrote: "All we need to have are costs related to TIF expenses...." What he was shielding was the way the private parties involved were spending their own money.

Kraft also notes that the Court of Appeals no longer condones this practice and ruled earlier this year that all funds in a situation like this do have to be open to public review.

The parties to the receivership have agreed to make the records available, Kraft writes in his memo.

I can't say that I think that Kraft is exactly a legal genius, and I think a lot of the advice he gives to the Council is questionable.

But, this time at least, he seems to have been the target of unfair criticism.

We'll see what the Northwestern has to say about this.

Here's the link to Kraft's memo.

Dysfunction Junction

2007-08-05T09:45:00.000-05:00

Twice in the last five days city emergency crews have been out on River Mill Road working in the dark to repair underground utilities. Their appearance, which I hadn't seen at all in the previous 10 years, comes a few weeks after city workers dug up parts of many lawns while "upgrading" water valves in preparation for the unwanted sidewalks that we will soon be getting.

I guess it could just be a coincidence that the emergency repairs were required after the city set out to make some improvements. But I can't help but see these incidents as emblematic of how our local government operates--and a warning that it's always possible to make a bad situation worse.

Consider the Common Council and its deliberations of what to do about the city manager. A former mayor, the Northwestern and numerous individuals have already registered their amazement about how things have unfolded, with a duly elected Council member, Bryan Bain, disqualified somehow from taking part. What in the world is going on?

Well one theory holds that City Attorney Warren Kraft has rigged the process in favor of his boss the city manager by recommending a lawyer who would find a way to derail any effort to get rid of Richard Wollangk.

Another theory, or part of the same theory referenced above, is that one or more Council members are having second thoughts about the wisdom of firing the city manager. Whatever his deficiencies, he has done what he was told to do. It's really the fault of this and previous Councils for not doing a better job of articulating what he needs to do and making him do it.

The city staffers who have drawn the ire of Council members are some of the department heads. If Wollangk were to agree to dump a couple of them, then he might garner enough support to hang on. (With Bain out of the voting picture for the moment, a tie vote is a likely outcome, and that would keep Wollangk in his post.)

There aren't good alternatives here. Give Wollangk his walking papers, and watch city initiatives and planning grind to a halt just in time for budget season. A national search for a successor (and nasty arguments about paying more money to attract a more dynamic personality) would waste some more time and help keep redevelopment efforts from moving ahead.

Or the Council could take a deep breath and emerge from its secret sessions to announce that the city doesn't need new faces at City Hall, just new attitudes. (From the recent sidewalk discussion, we know that a majority of Council members has the ability to keep straight faces while talking nonsense out of both sides of their mouths. So don't doubt that this could happen.)

Clearly what the Common Council needs to do next is ... change the subject. Maybe it could identify some more streets without sidewalks and make that the focus of attention.

Is a new form of government needed, maybe an elected mayor with veto power or one who presides over a group of alderpersons elected ward by ward? I don't really think so.

What needs to happen is that the city has to find a way to enlarge its tax base. Plain and simple. Everything else is just a distraction.

It ain't sidewalks. It ain't smoking. It's taxing cottonwood trees (only kidding).

Granted--enlarging the tax base isn't a trivial task. If it were easy to do, it would have already been done.

But appointing an economic development commission or hiring a new city manager and offloading the task to someone else won't work either.

The Council was elected to provide the city with leadership. A first step is to define clearly the desired outcome, and the second step is to establish benchmarks and intermediate goals. The third step is to start working in that direction.

Time's a-wasting, here in Dysfunction Junction.

Wollangk in the woodshed

2007-07-22T10:47:00.000-05:00

City Manager Richard Wollangk's latest weekly newsletter starts out the way it usually does, with an obvious and upbeat observation about how delightful things are here in Oshkosh on the Water. Four pages later, there is this curt statement about what is planned at the end of Tuesday's Common Council meeting:

"Following the Workshop [on the Convention Center], Council Member McHugh has requested an Executive Session to discuss the performance of the City Manager."

Hold on to your wallets, Oshkosh, because whatever happens next is going to be expensive.

Option No. 1, which could be the most expensive, would be for the city manager to get a stern talking to from unhappy Council members and would elicit a promise to do better. In other words, there would be no substantive change at City Hall. The reason that this would be the most expensive option is simply that the city can no longer afford to continue with the status quo.

It's the Fox River that gave Oshkosh its start, and if there is anything that will keep Oshkosh from sliding into obscurity it is a bustling, redeveloped waterfront. Unfortunately the efforts to date to rebuild the city's core have been spectacularly unsuccessful. The Leach, 100 N. Main, the convention center--all of them are at the very least underperforming. (Opera House Square is nice, but it's not doing anything to contribute to the city's revenue picture.) And the Marion Road parcel has been lying fallow for way too long.

What the city seems good at is taking property off of the tax rolls; what it's not very good at is turning such land back into revenue producing real estate.

Option No. 2, which could be expensive for other reasons, would be an abrupt "regime change." Some experienced Council watchers say there are already five votes (at least) to fire Wollangk and expect those votes to be cast Tuesday night (or in the near future).

The reason that this would be expensive is that if the Council does not proceed carefully and with appropriate legal advice it is likely to have a lawsuit and/or a messy settlement on its hands. For all his flaws, Wollangk has been careful to involve the Council at critical times, albeit minimally and sometimes obscurely.

Don't forget: He DID alert Mayor Tower to the 100 N. Main foreclosure situation before the vote on the Waterfront project.

Option No. 3 is really any number of specific scenarios about what to do next. But all of them will involve spending more money.

If we accept the argument that the status quo isn't working and the argument that a new kind of leadership is needed at City Hall, someone will have to make the argument to taxpayers that they are going to have to pony up some more money to attract the kind of executive talent that can push the city's redevelopment efforts forward.

I just came back from a trip to the East Coast, and one of the places I stopped was my hometown, Baltimore. Like Oshkosh, Baltimore was built because of its access to water, and unlike Oshkosh Baltimore has turned its waterfront assets into a bustling center of tourism, business and convention activity.

It's called the Inner Harbor, and it seems to just keep on growing. I remember when it was mostly tumbledown wharves and empty streets. An awful lot of the credit for the transformation has to go to one man, William Donald Schaefer, who as mayor of Baltimore and then governor and later comptroller of the state of Maryland, spent years making his vision of a redeveloped waterfront become a reality.

Along the way, be bumped a lot of shoulders, bruised a lot of egos, took a lot of criticism and threw a lot (a whole lot) of temper tantrums.

If fixing Oshkosh's problems were easy, it would already be done. But that's not the case.

Redeveloping the city is going to take someone like Schaefer: focused, unafraid of controversy, supremely self-confident, someone who is also smart, energetic and capable of turning on the charm when necessary.

The person in Oshkosh who comes the closest to matching that description is Richard Wells, the chancellor at UW Oshkosh. There are many things on which he and I disagree, but I have to concede that he is moving the university forward in the face of the same kind of complacency and the fear of change that have bogged down the city's redevelopment efforts.

The problems for Oshkosh in getting someone like Wells are twofold: sticker shock and culture shock.

Wells is currently making about 70 percent more than the Oshkosh city manager and came here as the result of a national search. Will Oshkosh voters be willing to go along with a national search for a new city manager and be willing to underwrite the cost of attracting top talent?

The culture shock will hit the Common Council particularly hard. If they are unhappy with Dick Wollangk's performance, wait until they are trying to deal with a big-ego city manager who not only keeps them in the dark about what is really going on but has the savvy to develop, and use, an independent power base.

Business as usual

2007-07-15T11:31:00.000-05:00

I saw this post over on Council Member Tony Palmeri's blog. I couldn't resist commenting on the irony.

It sure looks like business as usual was applied to the River Mill Road sidewalk issue. Here's how Tony described "business as usual."

*Limited public input
*Limited public buy-in
*Questionable financing and/or planning

According to Tony, "Challenging or putting an end to business as usual (BAU) was one of the main themes of the campaign season, and pretty much every candidate said that BAU was unacceptable."

It doesn't seem to have worked out that way in my neighborhood. And that makes it hard for me to see how this Council will deal with the bigger issues before them, such as the Waterfront and 100 North Main.

Time to talk about something else

2007-07-02T15:01:00.001-05:00

Don't you think?

Sidewalks, safety and good governance

2007-06-18T21:03:00.001-05:00

I wanted to understand why Mayor Frank Tower voted the way he did to order sidewalks for River Mill Road so I sent him an e-mail last week. In case you missed it, he cast the decisive vote on the issue.

The way I see it, there were three plausible explanations for his vote:

A) A concern for making the Wiouwash Trail safer and more inviting.
B) A belief that River Mill was a case of city ordinances being applied inconsistently.
C) A desire to try to get Paul Esslinger "inside the tent" and maybe to pick up a chit that could be used at a later date. (No specific quid pro quo, mind you, and therefore no illegal logrolling.)

Here's what Frank said in response to my question:

I believe, similar to Tony, that sidewalks and curb and gutter are part of what city streets need to have to be used by everyone. My decision to vote to make the sidewalks part of the 2007 project list was driven by the connection to the trail system. As I expressed at the meeting, I would have also voted for them to be installed in 2008; however, Bryan's suggestion would have potentially put their installation out to 2010.

Before I go on, let me explain that the photo at the top of the post is a picture of where the Wiouwash Trail crosses Congress, just south of the River Mill Road neighborhood.

Take note of three things: 1) There are sidewalks and 2) There is a lot of high-speed traffic and 3) There is no traffic signal or speed bump or other control available to slow the traffic down.

Many of us who live in the area and who use the trail on a regular basis think that this intersection is an accident waiting to happen. A couple of us have even asked the city to do something about it.

The answer so far: fuhgedaboudit!

Instead the Common Council decided to give us sidewalks in our neighborhood, where there is virtually no traffic.

Council Member Bryan Bain had tried get the Council to focus on the true safety issue on the trail, this intersection, but as Mayor Tower's e-mail explains, it would be more important to put sidewalks where there is no safey issue right away rather than to take the time to address the existing safety issue, which is complicated by the fact that this is a busy thoroughfare and pretty close to one of the Fox River bridges.

So I sent a followup e-mail,asking him about the unaddressed safety issues, specifically parts of the trail that have no sidewalk or that have sidewalk on just one side of the street. If safety was the priority, then I wanted to know when these other parts of the trail would get some attention.

His response struck me as lukewarm:

I'm going to work with the council and staff, per Bryan and Jess's thoughts during the meeting, to do what we can to get them addressed in the 2008 program.

Note that there is no commitment to addressing the issue, just a "do what we can" kind of kiss off.

I was watching the replay of the Council discussion on OCAT over the weekend, and I really got a kick out of seeing Bob Cornell take the microphone. As you may recall, Bob ran for Council earlier this year and didn't make the cut.

But he wanted to remind those who were elected that all of the candidates were singing the same tune during the campaign--about how important it is to listen to citizens and allow them to have some input. He said this as a majority of the Council was making it clear that they had no intention of paying any heed to the citizens who had just come before them.

One citizen suggestion was to stripe a bike/pedestrian lane through the neighborhood. Another was to put sidewalk on just one side of the street. A third was to take some time to think this issue through.

But the "rich folk" of River Mill got the same answer as before: fuhgedaboudit!

Make no mistake, sidewalks will not be a deciding issue in any future elections. I think most of the people on River Mill Road vote, but there aren't that many of us.

But what will be a deciding issue is how our elected officials go about making decisions and communicating their reasoning with citizens.

If the Council members who said they were concerned about safety on the Wiouwash Trail are truly concerned about safety on the Wiouwash Trail they can do something about it by doing something about the intersection of Congress and Arboretum. Heck, if they actually did something about that crossing, I think most River Mill residents would forget about the sidewalks.

Another test of the good intentions and attention to detail of the Council members will come when the Council votes to approve the minutes of last week's meeting. There's a glaring factual error (kind of revisionist history) in the official copy of the sidewalk ordinance that was mailed out to residents/taxpayers/voters who live on River Mill Road.

Will any member of the Council catch the mistake? Will anyone bother to fix it?

From blogger to Timeser

2007-06-13T11:33:00.000-05:00

A brand-new college grad just got hired as a reporter at The New York Times. This kind of thing is nearly unheard of among major metropolitan newspapers.

But this cub reporter is no rookie. He made a name for himself as a blogger, writing something called TVNewser (and breaking lots of news) while still an undergrad in suburban Baltimore.

More local classifieds

2007-06-12T09:40:00.000-05:00

Facebook has added an Oshkosh "Marketplace," joining craigslist as a player in the local classifieds market.

Dumbing down

2007-06-07T10:25:00.000-05:00

Wisconsin prides itself on its commitment to K-12 education, but a disturbing new report from the U.S. Department of Education suggests that we may be fooling ourselves about how good a job we are doing.

The report compares how well students are doing according to state standards with how well they are doing according to national standards.

For example, based on 2005 data, 83 percent of Wisconsin fourth graders are proficient in reading. But according to a national definition of reading proficiency, only 33 meet the standard. See complete comparisons here.

The safety issue

2007-05-29T21:47:00.000-05:00

This is where the whole safety/walking-trail/smart-growth argument breaks down. This is Marine Drive where it intersects with Westwind Road. It's where the WIOUWASH Trail will take you if you start off at, say, River Mill Road.

Notice the jogger. Notice the vehicles. Notice the lack of sidewalks.

Here is the sign that tells you where to go to pick up the trail if you are heading along Westwind back toward the city.

Yes, that is a truck terminal on Marine Drive. No, there are no sidewalks. (And, yes, parts of the trail here are outside the city limits, but according to the city's election map all of the areas pictured here are inside the city.)

If the idea is that low-traffic, low-density River Mill Road needs sidewalks to ensure the safety of people using a walking trail, then why aren't we in a rush to have sidewalks where trail users have to pass through an industrial area?

Some serious bikers prefer to use Algoma Boulevard, as opposed to the trail, because the surface is better and there is less congestion. It gets dicey in places, up close to 41, and sidewalks would be welcome there.

So as much as I would like to believe that the River Mill sidewalk issue is all about safety and walking trails and smart growth, the evidence is problematic.

Let's address those things (safety and walking trails and smart growth), but let's do it in a systematic and thoughtful way.

Sidewalk snapshots

2007-05-26T06:51:00.000-05:00

I was out enjoying the weather on my bicycle the other day and came across some specimens of unfinished sidewalk business here in Oshkosh. For those of you who continue to believe that low-traffic, low-density River Mill Road needs to be the next priority for sidewalk construction and that the targeting of River Mill is based only on objective considerations, here are some points of reference. The top picture is the Lakeside Harbour Marina over on Campbell.

This next one is farther south on Campbell.

If you go north and head up Bauman, you can find more examples of missing sidewalks.

This is another marina without a sidewalk.

These are some relatively new houses on Bauman. If memory serves, there had to be a special act by the Common Council to allow these structures to go up since I think they needed some of the city right-of-way. But apparently the Council didn't see a need for sidewalks.

Here is place where the Council should really be upset. I mean the nerve of the property owner to ignore the sidewalk ordinance! The property owner: City of Oshkosh. (That's who owns the park on the left.)

In case you aren't familiar with this part of the city, here's a map.

Sidewalks Rule!!!

2007-05-25T15:04:00.000-05:00

All journalists wonder what really matters to readers. If we knew for sure, we would know what to write about. We could focus our attention on the "sweet spot" of reader interest and glory in the knowledge that we were meeting the needs of the readers' right to know.

The usual candidates for what readers want to read about are things like sex, celebrity, glamor, sports, money, careers.

Who woulda figgered sidewalks? Not me, that's for sure. But here are the statistics for this site over the last four weeks.

(BTW, the date of the first post on sidewalks was May 10. It apparently took a couple of days for people to notice.)

The future of news, part 52,407

2007-05-24T14:32:00.000-05:00

Adrian Holovaty is quitting The Washington Post to set up a Web company "that focuses on making local news and information useful."

He just won a $1.1 million grant for a project "to create, test and release open-source software that links databases to allow citizens of a large city to learn (and act on) civic information about their neighborhood or block."

He said his goal is to "create an easy way to answer the question, ‘What’s happening around me?’”

Holovaty is a rare breed, a journalist by training who actually knows how to write computer code. His best known project is chicagocrime.org, but he has done several innovative projects for the Post as well.

By going open source, he is going against the grain of for profit publishers and depending on how easily transported his code turns out to be, he could end up doing a lot to energize the citizen media movement.

Back on the one-term track

2007-05-24T07:14:00.000-05:00

Four years ago my father died after cancer cells had taken up residence in his brain, lung and prostate. A few months later, a favorite brother-in-law died after a particularly long and cruel battle with lung cancer.

The sad fact is that cancer is an all-too-common disease. Its ubiquity, however, also means that it is a widely used metaphor. Like it or not, it is part of everyday speech.

Now come Paul Esslinger and Tony Palmeri, outraged that someone has dared to use the c-metaphor in describing one of Paul's personality traits.

The outrage stems from Paul's personal experience with cancer, which has not only affected him but also his parents. (Paul and Tony are also upset that no one had picked up on or commented on the connection between the metaphor and Paul's medical condition.)

I'm sorry that Paul has cancer, and I'm happy for him that his health appears now to be good.

But the truth is that the rules change when you venture into public life. If you were royalty, I suppose you could demand that certain words not be used in your presence.

But in a democracy, elected officials are there to serve the voters. As a servant of the people, you have to put up with what they say about you.

In a democracy, the people are the sovereigns. And so when an elected official uses terms like "conniption" and "hissy fits" to describe citizen concerns, then that official is well one the way to a one-term career in office.

Avoiding One-Termism

2007-05-22T10:32:00.000-05:00

Some (otherwise) gentle readers of this blog have complained that I have been too harsh on first-term Council Member Tony Palmeri. It has been suggested that I am threatening him with political ruin over the issue of sidewalks on River Mill Road.

I would like to set the record straight.

First of all, it's a romantic notion but a bit of a stretch to think that an individual citizen, armed only with a keyboard and a shaky digital camera, has that much power.

Second of all, Tony and I actually agree on the substance of the issue. There SHOULD be sidewalks on River Mill Road. We disagree on timing, and on what I perceive as uncomely coziness among Council members.

Third of all, I had (and have) great hopes for Tony as an elected official. I appreciate the skeptical views he has expressed over the years about official decisions and decision making. Now that he is on the Council I hope that his energy and insights can be used to prod local government into being more responsive and more effective.

But having said something nice, I'm going to say something that may be perceived as particularly cruel because I am going to make a comparison that will likely sting.

My two words of warning are these: Meredith Scheuermann.

Meredith was elected to the Council because she said all the right things. She was going to be hard working and caring and able to bring her sharp-penciled business perspective to bear on the city's budget and operating issues.

Didn't happen. Her deeds did not match her words. She served one term.

Will the same fate befall Tony?

Well, here's what he had to say during the election campaign about the Common Council (in response to a question from the Northwestern's editorial board):

Community leadership requires working with citizens at the grassroots level to get their concerns addressed and needs met. Citizens in our community working on neighborhood improvement, poverty, housing, open government and other issues typically do not view our Common Council as part of the solution. Rather, the Council is seen as part of the problem because it is perceived as paying too much attention to favored special interests and not enough to the average citizen who pays the bills.

Whose concerns and needs are being addressed and met by fast-tracking sidewalks in the River Mill Road neighborhood? Whose interests are being advanced here? How is Tony demonstrating a concern for the "average citizen who pays the bills"?

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: It's abusive for elected officials to use their powers to settle personal grudges.

The Northwestern also asked Tony what "specific impact" his two-year term would bring. Here's what he said:

[C]itizens will know that there is at least one person on the Council demanding the highest standards of performance and accountability from all city officials.

I hope that turns out to be true.

Not in contention at Cannes

2007-05-18T16:05:00.000-05:00

This is a little film clip I put together this afternoon in an effort to demonstrate that there are some places that need sidewalks before the River Mill Road neighborhood gets one.

It won't win any awards, but maybe it will help us get past the rhetoric.

One-Term Tony

2007-05-10T07:29:00.000-05:00

That's what they're calling newly elected Council Member Tony Palmeri over on River Mill Road after his performance at Tuesday's Council meeting. At that session Tony made the case for pushing ahead with sidewalks in the River Mill subdivision on the grounds that it's a safety issue and a way to make the city more "walkable," while perhaps evening the score by sticking it to the "wealthy."

We'll roll some tape here in a a minute, but first let me offer this full disclosure. I am one of those "wealthy" homeowners on River Mill Road. I have lived there for almost 10 years, and I've always thought it a little odd that we didn't have sidewalks. If the Council decides to impose sidewalks on the neighborhood, I won't oppose it, although I will question the motives and priorities of those who insist upon moving this extremely low traffic street ahead of major roads elsewhere in the city.

Here's Tony's reasoning:

Here's what's wrong with Tony's reasoning:

1. It's true that there are some very large houses on River Mill Road, but the idea that we're all a bunch of fat cats is just plain wrong. More of us are employed by UW Oshkosh than by any other single employer, and there are more college professors in the neighborhood than any other occupational title. So unless Tony has gone over to the Republican side and decided that UW professors (including some who make less than he does) must by definition be "wealthy," he is wrong to refer to this issue as one that fits the haves vs. have-nots paradigm.

2. Sidewalks will not have any effect on the walkability of the neighborhood or of the city. On almost every day of the year, I walk (or bicycle) to work. My daughters walked (or bicycled) to their elementary and middle schools for years. People come from outside the neighborhood to walk on River Mill Road, which is laid out like the loop at the end of a lasso. They come because this low-density neighborhood is already highly walkable. There is hardly any traffic here, and the road is so wide that even when a car comes by there is plenty of room for all. And these River Mill walkers are not people who are on their way to the Wiouwash Trail. These are people who simply take a loop through the neighborhood.

3. This is not a smart growth issue, for the same reasons as explained in Point No. 2. Sidewalks on River Mill Road will not have an effect on how future development in or near the city will proceed. There isn't any developable land for several miles north of River Mill Road. The open land immediately adjacent to our neighborhood is already occupied--it's called a cemetery.

4. The fact that the Wiouwash Trail runs through the neighborhood is not particularly relevant. First of all it isn't necessary to access the trail from River Mill Road--lots of people cut through the cemetery to get there. Other people drive into the neighborhood and park their cars up and down River Mill Road to gain access to the trailhead. And so unless the Council is planning to demolish some houses to build a parking lot at the mouth of the trail, many trail users will still have to walk or ride their bicycles on at least a portion of River Mill Road to get to the trail. That's what they do now--and without incident. The largest group of people to travel the length of River Mill Road to get to the trail are track athletes from UW Oshkosh. They run in large packs, and I seriously doubt that they would use the sidewalk even if it were built.

Some more Tony Talk:

This snippet shows why Tony could be vulnerable in a future election. You have to wonder why he felt it was necessary to make a drive-by inspection of the neighborhood to justify his position. Oshkosh is a small town, and as I said many of the residents of River Mill Road are his university colleagues. If he wanted a feel for the neighborhood, he could have come by and/or talked to us.

But deciding that we need sidewalks after spending 30 or 40 seconds driving down our street doesn't suggest the depth of analysis or concern for citizens that I think a lot of us were expecting from Tony.

To be sure there are some real safety issues that the Council could address. One of the biggest problems is that more and more people walk their dogs on the trail without keeping them on a leash, violating both city and county ordinances. Dogs chase cyclists and joggers all the time--so much so that I more often ride my bike for recreational purposes on city streets, where it is safer. And if the Council really cares about making the city walkable, it would do a better job of making sure that sidewalks along city property (such as the Oshkosh Public Museum) are promptly shoveled and de-iced after a storm. (I won't go into the way city snow plows treat River Mill Road like a racetrack, spraying snow and slush ahead and around them as they speed through the neighborhood.)

When all is said and done, River Mill residents will go along with the sidewalks. But we will also be wondering why the Council decided this low-speed road through a low-density neighborhood needed to have sidewalks right away.

That's not really true. We already know that for all the posturing about safety and walkability and past Council votes, the real reason is political. The Palmeri-Esslinger-McHugh axis wants to flex some muscle. And for whatever reason, Mayor Tower and Council Member Bain are so far going along.

There's an easy solution here, but it remains to be seen whether it will be chosen.

The solution is to put River Mill Road on the list of streets to be upgraded with sidewalks, but fix the streets that really need it first. When our time comes, the residents of River Mill Road will pay for our sidewalks.

But if the Council insists upon "ordering in" the neighborhood for the current year, then a lot of us are going to be wondering about the motives and good sense of our Council members.

During the April elections, Council Members Palmeri and Bain picked up a good number of votes in Ward 2, and Mayor Tower easily bested Council Member Esslinger. Paul doesn't have anything to lose by pushing this proposal, but some others might.

What's worse?

2007-04-18T06:58:00.000-05:00

That UW-O was willing to sell out its students?

Or that it asked so little for them?

The Northwestern reports today that the school got less than $10,000 on loan volume of $4 million.

VandeHei's vision: Niche journalism

2007-04-14T08:14:00.000-05:00

Oshkosh boy made good was in Madison this week to talk about his new venture.

I think his vision of niche Web sites replacing general interest newspapers makes sense on a national level, but I don't know how it applies locally.

In some ways what he is saying is consistent with Gannett's strategy, as we see the general interest product, the daily newspaper, shrink while reporters and editors work on magazines, videos and other vehicles.

But I'm not convinced that this is a viable long-term strategy or that it is healthy for the community. The value of Gannett's niche products is highly dependent on the value of the general interest product, its ability to hold the general interest.

In other words, I think this is a phase that will be overtaken, although I wouldn't venture a guess as to when.

The fact is that Washington is one of the richest communities in the world with an intense interest in news and information. What works there may or may not work elsewhere.

Strong-arming student journalists

2007-04-07T17:04:00.000-05:00

The Northwestern quotes UW Oshkosh Vice Chancellor of Students Affairs Petra Roter as saying she was “very proud” of student editors for the way they handled complaints about their April Fool’s edition.

It would be nice if we could be proud of the way university administrators acted during this episode, which resulted in the editors yanking the edition off the Internet (although it lingers through the Google cache function) and publishing an apology to those whom it offended.

The editors were summoned to a meeting in the chancellor’s office last Wednesday after a complaint from a nontraditional student set off an amplifying storm of complaints, mostly from faculty members, which threatened to swamp e-mail inboxes all over campus. The meeting included Roter, Chancellor Richard Wells and the university’s recently hired image keeper, Jeanette DeDiemar.

It turns out that the university’s Journalism Department was also invited to sit in on the meeting, but the invitation was declined. (Although I am an associate professor in the department, I didn’t learn about the invitation until Friday afternoon. ’Nother story.)

Instead of not taking part, the department should have spoken up for the students and told the higher level administrators that whatever they wanted to accomplish they could have done so without resorting to strong-arm tactics and trying to bully the students in a semi-public forum.

The April Fool’s edition was clearly not the A-T’s brightest shining moment. Inadvertently the staff’s parodies and satires ended up offending some of the very people whose causes it was attempting to advance and whose causes it regularly takes up. (There’s nothing wrong with a newspaper offending people, but it’s better to do it in a controlled, purposeful way.)

Wells, and others on campus, say that they wanted to turn the incident into a “teachable moment.” I am sure that they did, but they should think twice about what lessons they were teaching.

If they think the message they sent was about the importance of creating a welcoming campus climate for all, they are mistaken. From all this mess, a lot of students cannot help but see just how little their teachers think of them—and I don’t think that will make them feel very welcome.

(If UW-O was so concerned about being welcoming, where was the outcry when Akosua Nyo Agryiriwah, a 46-year-old member of the Voices of Africa, was busted in her room in Gruenhagen Hall last month? The UP really knows how to put out the welcome mat.)

One thing that the administration did very successfully was deflect the important criticisms about various university policies that were in the April Fool’s issue, which included satirical and unflattering portraits of Roter and Wells.

Let’s face it: We have a chancellor who appears to be perpetually in pursuit of a better job all the while insisting that he loves Oshkosh and thinks the rest of us should do more to make it a great university. This point was parodied in an article about Wells taking a job at Taco John’s.

Another satirical article and one that got a lot of blood boiling on campus used the mannered speech of rap artists and was interpreted as stereotyping and belittling black people. The intent, however, was to point out that the university simply does not put its money where its mouth is.

We say we value things like diversity and academic excellence, but look what we raise money to construct—a new playing field at the football stadium, a parking ramp and a student wellness center. I think if we really care about diversity and academic excellence we would spend some money addressing the structural factors that inhibit our ability to reach our stated goals. (Yes, I know planning is under way for a new academic building, but that process is highly contingent on attracting local funds and is clearly a lower priority for the administration.)

Another parodic article that drew the ire of some was focused on the Women’s Center. I suppose you could, if you worked at it, declare this an attack on feminism. But shouldn’t we be more concerned with the way that we continue to fill high level academic and administrative posts with middle-age white males?

In the university’s largest college, the College of Letters and Science, the newly appointed dean and his two associate deans are white males. Their immediate boss is the provost, also a middle-age white male. Above the provost is Wells, also a you-know-what.

The fact is that making real substantive change on a college campus is hard work. It requires energy, money, motivation and heart. What’s a lot easier is cranking up a PR machine that constructs an image of a positive, progressive campus.

There are indications that what really set the administration off was a concern that the A-T’s April Fool’s issue would damage the university’s slowly improving reputation. The board of regents will be in town for a two-day meeting next week, and I guess there was a worry that unless the A-T was put in its place there might be some lingering embarrassment.

My main criticism of the A-T in all this that it has not adequately covered the controversy. The staff owes it to itself and to the campus to provide a full airing of the controversy, including student reaction, faculty reaction and administration reaction.

And if that airing were to appear on a day when the regents are in town, all the better.

More complaints

2007-03-28T08:44:00.000-05:00

The complaints choir phenomenon continues to grow.

Back in November Tony Palmeri suggested we do something similar in Oshkosh. I couldn't agree more.

I don't think they did this on purpose, but....

2007-03-11T11:45:00.000-05:00

Have you had a chance to look at the Northwestern's online video interviews with Oshkosh mayoral candidates Frank Tower and Paul Esslinger? They contain some not-so-subtle background messages:

* A vote for Tower is a vote for a sunny future for Oshkosh.

* A vote for Esslinger is a vote for a future in a frozen hell.

Note two things about the background in the videos. First of all are the differing weather conditions: sunny in Tower's, overcast in Esslinger's.

Then note how the depth of field has been changed, so that in Tower's video the downtown streetscape appears to be close to the candidate. In Esslinger's video, downtown is more of an empty expanse, far removed from the candidate.

It's no secret that the Northwestern is not a fan of Esslinger's, but I don't think that this is a foray into subliminal manipulation. I think the problem is a result of text-oriented journalists getting involved with the tools of visual communication and not paying enough attention to the things that we can safely ignore when we're just interviewing and writing: ambient light, focal length, etc.

I have to believe that video interviews will only become more important in future elections, and there is word of warning to candidates in this example:

Make sure you know what's being filmed in the background and that your background is the same (or very similar) to that of your competitors.

Happy St. Patrick's Week!

2007-03-11T09:53:00.001-05:00

This is the family recipe for Irish soda bread. I'm publishing it here in part because it currently exists on a yellowed, torn scrap of paper ripped out of a reporter's notebook 25 years ago and every year I spend a frantic few minutes flipping through cookbooks until I find it. I thought it should be in a safe place.

4 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 T caraway seeds
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t salt
3/4 cup oil
1 cup raisins
1 cup buttermilk

Mix the above with a spoon and then knead briefly. Place in a greased 9-inch pie pan, and spread evenly.

Use a knife to cut a "Sign of the Cross" into the surface, marking four quadrants in the round loaf.

Bake for 60 minutes in a 350-degree oven, or until a straw tester comes out clean.

There are some variations. First of all you can use powdered buttermilk if you don't have the real thing.

Variation No. 1: Substitute one cup whole wheat flour.
Variation No. 2: Substitute chocolate chips for the raisins.
Variation No. 3: Substitute a tablespoon of bacon drippings for an equal amount of the oil.
Variation No. 4: Mix and match any of the above alternatives.

March 4th

2007-03-04T17:38:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the only day in the English language in the imperative mode.

Does this mean I have to be nice now?

2007-02-25T12:05:00.000-06:00

In announcing the commencement of the Northwestern's "Community Newsroom" today, Stew Rieckman graciously acknowledged the work of the Oshkosh Community News Network in pioneering the concept.

I appreciate that, and I wish the Northwestern success in this endeavor. Starting from scratch and relying purely on volunteers (as well as subject to withering criticism from a local columnist who will here go unnamed), OCNN has not been able to pull this kind of thing off. But that doesn't mean that the idea isn't worthwhile or that the Northwestern, with its deep community roots and deep pockets, won't be able to make this work.

If the Community Newsroom functions as envisioned, Oshkosh will benefit, although it will also mean that OCNN may have to strike off in other directions. Using the power of print as well as online publication, the Northwestern can deliver an audience that OCNN has not been able to, and frankly cannot hope to. That's OK. We've always said that we were meant to serve as a laboratory for new approaches to journalism, and there are plenty of other experiments to try.

But the Northwestern will encounter challenges that may make it difficult to keep the Community Newsroom going. One is simply that there is a shortage of motivated, competent writers in this or any other community.

What we found out at OCNN is that we built it, but they did not come. So the Community Newsroom is an effort that is going to take some nurturing.

The contributors that keep coming back may, at some point, question whether they are getting full value for their efforts, or they may decide that this free promotional vehicle makes paid advertising less attractive. In either case, the challenge for the Northwestern--and it's a challenge faced by newspapers across the country--is how to manage its way down from extremely high profit margins while still delivering enough value to stand out in a media-saturated landscape.

The CEO of craigslist made some interesting observations about the newspaper industry this past week, including this:

"Journalism as practiced at newspapers has been hurt by an excess of money over the years as you've seen newspapers bought and sold and consolidated into large chains run by corporate managers to maximise profit, and increasingly over decades have resorted to running wire stories, putting an ever-greater proportion of advertising into their newspapers and shying away from writing hard-hitting stories about corruption in high places."

My hope, frankly, is that the Northwestern's corporate owners come to the conclusion that their continued focus on excessive profits is ultimately so detrimental to journalism's public-service mission that this emphasis has to be abandoned.

(And perhaps pigs will fly.)

But the main thing is that I think the Northwestern is making a sincere effort to open up its pages to the community and to cede some of the control that journalists have long cherished. In some ways this is inevitable, but the Northwestern should be commended for being willing to undertake this change.

As my former boss Arnaud de Borchgrave once said, in his farewell speech at The Washington Times: "Change is always hard--even when it is from worse to better."

Was the Northwestern at the Boone speech?

2007-02-22T09:17:00.000-06:00

The Northwestern reports today that Herman Boone, the high school football coach played by Denzel Washington in "Remember the Titans," focused his UW Oshkosh speech on the movie.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Many in the audience were drifting off as Boone spoke at length about the importance of Black History Month and said relatively little about the film.

Boone used a Q&A after his prepared remarks to talk about the movie, and that's where he really connected with the audience.

He went into detail into about where the movie deviated from history, provided heartfelt advice about the importance of conveying high expectations for a student who said she hoped to be a coach some day and completely charmed the crowd with his humor and insights.

One possibility is that this is a case where a newspaper produces what is really an advance story, perhaps based on a telephone interview, and then tries to pass it off as eyewitness news.

On the subject of coaching, Boone said that it was important to balance critical words with comforting gestures. After tearing a player apart, he wouldn't let the player leave withuout a hug.

At the end of his presentation, it was announced that Boone would stay behind to meet individually with members of the audience--and provide one of his trademark hugs.

Almost immediately dozens of people lined up to take him up on his offer.

Another problem with the article is that it seeks to put Boone in the same company as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This is really a stretch (and demeaning to the civil rights movement).

King, we should remember, was not merely subjected to slurs and vandalism. Nor did he live to see his dreams achieved.

He was murdered for his beliefs and his courage.

No. 1 or 0-1?

2007-02-20T20:46:00.000-06:00

The Wisconsin Badgers didn't have much time to enjoy their status at the top of the basketball rankings. Since attaining that position, they are now winless.

Gannett looking for talent (and free content)

2007-02-17T08:37:00.000-06:00

Gannett is looking for young talent to help it develop its new multi-platform news gathering operations. It will apparently have a job opening in Green Bay for some lucky person. Read more here.

I also see the Northwestern has modified its navigation bars this morning and is no longer soliciting help with its investigations. Instead it is asking community members to submit announcements and calendar items (the way Oshkosh News has been doing for the last couple of years).

I hope the Northwestern is successful with this. Everything that the paper does to encourage the local community to make greater use of the Internet will benefit alternative sites like Oshkosh News. Because of OCNN's low-cost position and nonprofit orientation, even a little spillover could help a lot.

YouTube election predictions

2007-02-14T13:07:00.000-06:00

Since there are no local election polls in Oshkosh, we political watchers can grab onto anything we want to make predictions about who will make it through next week's primary election.

We can, literally, put our finger to the wind and try to feel what the forecast is, or we can, electronically, navigate the Web and see whose video is getting the most play over on YouTube, where introductory statements were posted by the Oshkosh Community News Network as a public service. (Council candidates are here, and school board candidates are here.)

Based on this ridiculously flimsy evidence, I am prepared to make the following predictions (although I wouldn't put money on any of them).

In the Council race, the results will be:

Bryan Bain, 29.5%
Jessica King, 15.9%
Tony Palmeri, 15.9%
Meredith Scheuermann, 13.6%
Bob Cornell, 9.1%
Kent Monte, 9.1%
Mark Nielsen, 6.8%

There are no real surprises here. If we assume that name recognition is the most important factor at this stage of the game, it stands to reason that newcomer Mark Nielsen wouldn't make the cut.

In the board race, the results will be:

Dan Becker, 36.5%
Michelle Monte, 24.7%
Karen Bowen, 21.2%
John Daggett, 9.4%
Teresa Thiel, 8.2%

Here I have a little more trouble. I just can't see John Daggett making it into the general election. But, lord knows, I have been wrong before.

Google: friend or foe

2007-02-13T16:46:00.000-06:00

The Journal Sentinel seems to think friend.

Belgian newspapers say foe.

Uncle Walter warns on media ownership

2007-02-09T11:29:00.000-06:00

Walter Cronkite, once named the most trusted public figure in the country, warns that media companies are threatening American democracy.

Northwestern editors: bullies or just sloppy?

2007-02-06T07:28:00.000-06:00

One of the enduring questions for all of us who are exposed to the Northwestern is whether the brain trust over at State and Waugoo consists of the small-minded or simply the sloppy.

The latest person to ask this question is the president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, Tim Lyke, who came down on the side of sloppy, as well as sensational and irresponsible.

Tim is also the head of one of the Northwestern's competitors, the Ripon Commonwealth Press, and he seems to think that the Northwestern may have been slanting its coverage to hurt his paper's parent firm, the company that was responsible for printing Social Security numbers on state tax returns that were to be distributed through the mail.

Here is Tim's letter to the editor, published in Monday's Northwestern:

Headline, editing failed to explain printer's error
I was disappointed to read the headline, "Printing company attempted cover up," in the Feb. 2 Northwestern.

As a co-owner of Ripon Printers and president of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, I appreciate the story was local and so needed to be told. What I deplore, however, was the fact that one of your editors decided to cut the AP wire story before it explained the alleged "attempted cover up." Only nine of the story's 22 paragraphs were published.

Had you shared the rest of the story with your readers, they would have understood that my brother, president of Ripon Printers, did not ask anyone to bury the story. Instead, as the story reports beginning at the point your editor decided to excise: "Company President Andy Lyke said he only wanted the press to wait a few days before reporting it to reduce the risk of identity theft."

The press has every right and responsibility to print the news, and to do so expeditiously. But to use "cover up" in a headline and then fail to publish the accused's good intentions at minimizing harm to victims seems sloppy, sensational and irresponsible.

Thanks for your consideration.

Tim Lyke Ripon

You have to wonder which of the Northwestern's editors was responsible for this. This looks like real "old-time" newspapering, in the Wilbur Storey tradition. (One of Storey's more memorable tricks was to run an obituary of a political enemy just before an election in hopes of discouraging voters from casting their votes for the still very alive candidate that his paper opposed.)

I find it hard to believe that professional journalists would continue to engage in such antics, but the alternative explanation doesn't make me feel much better. Here is the Northwestern, with a profit margin fatter than that of Exxon Mobil, and yet it can't afford to hire a couple of extra copy editors?

(OK, I don't really know the Northwestern's profit margin. I'm just going by what its parent company reported, an operating margin of 25.25 percent. By contrast, poor Exxon had an operating margin of 18.48 percent.)

Editing community columnists

2007-02-04T12:57:00.000-06:00

The Northwestern is to be commended for its use of community columnists to expand the conversation in Oshkosh. It was a good idea when the Oshkosh Community News Network started promoting citizen journalism back in 2003, and it's good to see the local paper abandon its previous opposition to the concept.

One of the things that newspapers can do, at least in theory, is provide superior editing for these amateur journalists, as opposed to what a community blog might be able to do.

Or maybe not.

Paying for citizen journalism

2007-01-23T14:33:00.000-06:00

The new politico.com Web site is offering to pay citizen journalists $100 for stories "about local political disputes, trends and ideas that you believe should be on the national radar."

Nobody is going to get rich at that rate, but some compensation is better than no compensation.

Mob journalism

2007-01-21T16:06:00.000-06:00

The Northwestern, like the rest of the Gannett chain, is embarking on an experiment in what's called "crowdsourcing," a fancy term for what might also be called mob journalism.

Like all experiments, this one should be interesting to watch. The basic idea might be a good one, but that doesn't mean it won't blow up in your face.

Over the last couple of days, the Northwestern has been getting some blowback for its effort to get the community to help the newspaper investigate the case of the local 13-year-old who was allegedly locked up in her attic four two years.

Here's what one person wrote in response:

I am asking the people of Oshkosh to just stop! I know that the Northwestern has asked you to help investigate, but that is not our job. We pay taxes to have the people that know what they are doing to do this job! Let them do it! The criminal report shows that the parents are not trying to hide the fact that they have committed this crime. There are holes in the story, but that is what the investigators get paid to do, investigate. Stop the speculation and craziness!

And another:

“Help us investigate” ??????

Why is this forum appropriate to investigate? If you know anything notify the proper AUTHORITIES!!!!

From reading all the other posts it cracks me up that everyone seems to be the expert in this situation. I was not there, I don’t know the family, I was not there in December when the Grandma was cited, I’m not a member of the School district or a teacher at Grace Lutheran Church, I’m not a neighbor in that neighborhood, I wasn’t at the hospital when they took their daughter there, and I wasn’t there when police interviewed the parents once they were in custody……where YOU? So just as I we would only be guessing what happened….and if you’re basing your information just off of what the newspaper says you have another problem.

In this day and age many things happen around us that are wrong, illegal, dangerous, and should be stopped. Likewise today is very different than ten, twenty, and fifty years ago. How many of us know our neighbors or ask them over for dinner or a cook out? Where do your neighbors work? Is their family in the area? What do they like to do in their free time? How many parents know who their kids play with and what kid of family your kids friends are like? What do their parents do? Where do they work? Times have changed. We no longer have the time or even care to know the people around us….OK maybe a few of us do….

With that being said unless you are personally involved in this crime who are we to judge what was or wasn’t done? I too have many questions, but I know in this forum they will never be answered.

This still developing story has a rough parallel in the case of Shawn Hornbeck, the Missouri boy who was missing for years but living in plain sight of his neighbors, who for some reason never were bothered enough about the incongruities to notify police.

The New York Times opted to investigate this situation the old-fashioned way: by sending a reporter door to door to get the story.

In cases like these, where criminal charges have been filed, there are limits to what a newspaper can safely publish. If it goes much beyond what is in the public record in trying to verify what exactly happened in that house, it is straying into very dangerous legal waters.

What a difference almost two years makes

2006-12-18T13:50:00.000-06:00

It was back on Feb. 13, 2005, that Stew Rieckman, executive editor of the Oshkosh Northwestern, derided the Oshkosh Community News Network as the "Oshkosh Participatory Journalism Experimental Free Press of The Future."

On Sunday we learned that the Northwestern intends to supplant OCNN with NCNN: the Northwestern Community News Network.

I'm not sure how to react.

On the one hand, I think the Northwestern/Gannett has the resources to pull off what OCNN was not able to do. And I think there can be some good that comes of that.

On the other hand, I don't think this is the highest and best use of the resources of the biggest newspaper company in the country.

Participatory journalism as a grassroots movement by groups and individuals who are not satisfied with the status quo makes sense to me. Participatory journalism as a cash machine by companies with stockholders who are not satisfied with their profit levels is a different kind of a thing.

I think one of the goals of all alternative media, including blogs and independent Web sites, is to goad the mainstream media into doing more, into being more accurate and yet also more ambitious in reporting the news. I can't say I see that happening here.

In any case we are now in a new phase. We'll see if this one lasts for more than two years.

Nicely done video from the Northwestern

2006-12-16T11:21:00.000-06:00

The Northwestern publishes some of its first video on its Web site today.

It's well done.

You can question the choice of prep sports as the focus of this technology, and I'm not crazy about the format, Windows Media Player.

But the possibilities are very interesting, and if local advertisers can be sold on sponsoring such videos (in a way that doesn't drive away users), newspaper Web sites may have a way forward.

Stay tuned.

Gannett threatens reporters union

2006-12-14T07:50:00.000-06:00

In Indianapolis, the company apparently wants its editorial workers to write advertisements that look like news articles, what are called "advertorials."

If it doesn't get the answer it wants from the Newspaper Guild, Gannett says it will take work away from union members and prevent them from working on its new "Information Center."

This doesn't have a direct effect in Oshkosh, since the Northwestern's newsroom is not unionized. But it's scary that Gannett doesn't see the danger in blurring the line between news and advertising.

Or maybe it's just scary that Gannett no longer sees the need to pretend to respect the line between news and advertising.

The future of news (part 342)

2006-12-13T08:30:00.000-06:00

In about six months or so, we will know a lot more about the future of news. By that time there should be early returns from some of the experiments that are getting under way in the news biz.

From Washington comes news that the Web startup headed by two former Washington Post political reporters has a new name and some new hires. The new hires include Roger Simon, a very amusing and insightful political reporter who passed through the newsroom at The Baltimore Sun when I was there a couple of decades ago. I didn't know him personally, but I remember that many of his columns were laugh-out-loud funny even when they were taking on serious topics.

The new name for the Web site is "thepolitico.com." And the question I have is whether there are enough people with enough interest in politics to keep the site going. I doubt it.

In my view political coverage is the core of journalism. But it is only the core, and not enough to build an audience around. That's one of the reasons why newspapers have diversified into so many other things, froms sports to comics to cooking to nightlife, etc. A great newspaper is great in part because it attracts readers for a few of these things and then shifts their attention to others.

At thepolitico, the test that will be carried out over the next six months or so is whether a Web site devoted primarily to politics can attract enough readers and advertisers to sustain itself. Can the contributors to the site make politics interesting enough (and simple enough) for ordinary readers to get hooked?

As I said, I am skeptical. On the other hand, there are enormous sums of money at stake in Washington, and traditional political reporting does not do a very good job of illuminating this situation. If thepolitico becomes a truly authoritative source of exclusive insights about politics, then I can imagine a scenario where it becomes the place to be for corporations and other interest groups that want to use the site to speak to the political elite. In that case, there could be a goodly flow of advertising.

But the problem with that scenario is that special interest groups would prefer to do their speaking out of the public limelight, and so I'm not sure that will pan out.

It's also possible that thepolitico will find a way to generate exclusive information from database analysis that it could sell to subscribers, using the Web site, and newspaper and TV appearances mostly for promotional purposes. Could happen. But I remain doubtful.

One extremely important advantage for thepolitico is that it will not be saddled with the legacy costs of print distribution. At the same time, it will face an infinite number of competitors on the Web.

Meanwhile back in Oshkosh, the Northwestern has revealed the names of those competing to become community columnists. They are:

Mary O. Ross

Kelly Schwegl – former Merrill Middle School principal, active Propel Oshkosh member

Dani Stolley – Also of Propel; UWO Foundation employee

Courtney Lasky – Also of Propel

Kevin McGee – UWO economy professor and former Oshkosh Common Councilor.

Wendy Falk – A North High School English teacher and advisor of the NorthStar, the student newspaper; participant in Northwestern forums.

Mary Hiles – worked as a scriptwriter for American Family Insurance and writer/editor at UW-Madison's Center for Health Sciences, 17 years was director of publications for UW-Oshkosh, wrote the Oshkosh Sesquicentennial Musical: "The Fountain of Life," has a PH.D. in literature/Renaissance drama…

Robert Meyer– A regular letter writer

Karl Stein – Omro resident

David Hayford – former finance column writer for the Business News of Green Bay; regular letter to the editor contributor.

Nancy Leipzig – V.P. of business development for Clarity Care.

Bob Knudsen –Manager of The Magnet, former college radio show host

Donna Lohry – A Winnebago County Board supervisor

Marc White – A drum teacher/muscian from Oshkosh; regular letter to the editor contributor and participant in Northwestern forums

John Lemberger – UW O professor in the college of education and human services; regular letter to the editor contributor.

Polly Briley – former columnist, political activist, former Assembly candidate.

No knock on any of these folks, but why would you pay money to read something that you could hear from them over a beer at your favorite local eatery? (Of course, many people are not going to pay money to read their columns, because they will be freely available on the Web.)

And what will make their columns anything more than extended letters to the editor?

Where will the Northwestern's new-found determination to be "hyperlocal" take us?

We'll know more in six months.

Who owns the Oshkosh Northwestern?

2006-12-08T08:02:00.000-06:00

I don't mean: Who owns the company? I mean: Who owns the name?

It turns out that the name Oshkosh Northwestern is not owned here in Oshkosh, and it isn't owned in McClean, Va., either, which is the headquarters address of Gannett Co. Inc., the country's largest newspaper owner and the parent of the Northwestern.

No, the owner of the Oshkosh Northwestern name is Media West - GMP Inc., a firm that is based in Reno, Nev. According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Media West applied for a trademark on the name in 2003 and got the trademark a year later.

So why does a Nevada company own the name of our local newspaper? From all appearances, it's part of Gannett's strategy to avoid paying corporate income taxes.

Here's a comment that appeared in Forbes magazine a couple of years ago:

While editorials in Gannett Co.'s flagship USA Today criticize corporate tax breaks, the nation's largest newspaper publisher has cut its effective state tax rate over eight years by a third, adding maybe 10 cents to 2004 per-share earnings of $4.92. One ploy: Gannett set up Media West, a subsidiary in state-corporation-tax-free Nevada that, federal trademark records show, owns names of dozens of Gannett properties nationwide. Gannett doesn't deny its papers pay Media West "royalties" to use their logos, cutting taxable income in their higher-tax home states.

All of this makes an interesting backdrop for today's editorial in the Northwestern complaining about how average taxpayers are hurt by unfair corporate tax strategies.

One would have to be very cynical, even more cynical than I, to think that Gannett has developed a strategy to get it both ways--make populist pleas in the newspaper as a way of attracting readers and then burn those same customers by using fancy tax schemes to maximize profits.

Or maybe not....

At least students know what to do about plagiarism

2006-12-07T11:04:00.000-06:00

Student journalists reacted swiftly to the discovery last week that a top editor at the Badger Herald had engaged in plagiarism. The incident was thoroughly investigated, and the editor got a swift boot.

This contrasts sharply with the way UW Oshkosh handled plagiarism at its Writing Center a few years back.

A-T getting lots of attention

2006-12-04T21:26:00.000-06:00

The Advance-Titan was cited today in a couple of media blogs, including Romenesko, probably the single most widely read Web site amoung U.S. journalists.

The article drawing so much attention featured Jim VandeHei and his plans to move from print to cyberspace.

WaPo reports on Gannett changes

2006-12-04T08:33:00.000-06:00

The recent changes we've seen at the Northwestern are part of a national shift at Gannett properties. As to be expected with experiments, the initial results are uneven.

See what The Washington Post says here.

Mojos at the No'Wo

2006-11-30T08:19:00.000-06:00

Alex Hummel reports today on Gannett's efforts to turn members of the staff of the Northwestern into "mojos," a term the company uses to describe "mobile journalists who carry digital cameras, MP3 recorders and wireless laptops." Read more about Gannett's strategy here.

This can be a great thing (and by selling video sponsorships, newspapers can develop a healthy new revenue stream). But, to be frank, using all of this technology is time-consuming, and preparing multi-media reports can get in the way of reporters doing their reporting.

It seems to me that Gannett is making a bet that people don't really care that much about hard news and will be content to be amused by moving images and sounds coming to them through their PCs. I wish I had hard evidence to refute that view. But I don't. Gannett may be right.

A lot of newspapers have taken an "eat your broccoli" approach to covering policy issues: "You may not care about the terms of these contract settlements, but you should and so we are going to cover them in mind-numbing detail."

I don't think this approach is optimal, either. But the truth is the American people need to be better informed, not less so.

And newspapers shouldn't let the demands (and dazzling new possibilities) of 24/7 Web publishing distract them from the task of covering the small, but important, details of local government.

A case in point: the No'Wo gets around to reporting today the terms of the city's contract settlement with the police. The news of this settlement was "broken" online more than a week ago by City Manager Richard Wollangk in his weekly newsletter. Since then it's been discussed in various parts of the local blogosphere.

It seems to me that the newspaper should have reported this information in the time frame before it came to the Council for review and approval. That way more citizens would have had a chance to think about it and express their views.

Honestly, I don't know the real reason why the paper let this story go until now (although I have some guesses). Maybe it had nothing to do with the Internet.

All I'm saying is that newspapers are going in the wrong direction if they start spending more time with their techno-toys than they do on the basics of reporting: reading documents, chatting up sources and watching the world around them.

For sale: homepage

2006-11-29T11:16:00.000-06:00

Some newspapers make you look at ads before you see some particular content, but Gannett's Wisconsin newspapers are going a step further and making you look at an ad before you even get to the homepage.

Some would question the ethics of this.

I would question the strategy behind it. It may make sense in the short-term to monetize Web traffic this way, but there's a big risk of turning eyeballs away by making them look at this first (or making them clip to skip it).

Oshkosh perspective on Iraq

2006-11-29T08:28:00.000-06:00

Doug Zellmer provides a "grunt's eye view" of the situation in Iraq in today's Northwestern, based on e-mail exchanges and conversations with friends and family of local soldiers serving near Baghdad.

It's fascinating to think about what's going through the minds of those in and associated with the 1157 Transportation Co. while the president is travelling through the region and trying to buck up the Iraqi government leadership.

Our culture of lies

2006-11-28T16:17:00.000-06:00

In The Nation, Eric Alterman examines the problems the media have in dealing with the Bush administration's contempt for the truth, most recently exemplified in the president's explanation for why he dissembled about his plans to replace Don Rumsfeld at the Pentagon:

"I didn't want to inject a major decision about this war in the final days of a campaign. And so the only way to answer that question, and to get you on to another question, was to give you that answer."

But it isn't only Bush. Deception is ingrained in the culture. When we're not busy fooling each other, we're busy fooling ourselves.

Extreme Makeover Continues @ ODN

2006-11-26T11:36:00.000-06:00

We read today that the Oshkosh Northwestern wants to dump its national columnists for local ones.

Is this a good thing? A couple of years ago the editors there would have said it was a terrible idea, an abdication of professional standards, a surefire way of polluting political discourse.

But things change, not least the economics of newspapering. A couple of weeks ago Gannett, the parent company of the Northwestern, reported a 2 percent decline in newspaper advertising revenues for the month of October. Classified revenues (the traditional cash cow) at community papers were down even more.

So the Northwestern stands to save a few bucks by switching away from syndicated writers to local ones, who presumably will agree to be paid with a byline and a head shot in the paper.

But I think there is more to the paper's motivation than purely a monetary one, since this move really won't be much of a savings given what syndicated columnists are paid per publication.

I think the paper's editors have come to the conclusion that their future is in citizen journalism, and only partly because of the economic imperatives. According to Alex Hummel:

As the newspaper evolves and becomes a higher-tech Swiss army knife of information, one low-tech thing becomes clearer and clearer.

The Oshkosh Northwestern is ultimately your paper.

Folks running the show just make sure everyone gets a fair say, inside and online.

Is this a good thing?

Well, I think it's a step in the right direction. But where that step will lead is anyone's guess. (A question I have for Alex is what will the paper do if/when its community contributors start actively [OK, more actively] campaigning for office? Are the forums for "community conversation" or electioneering? Should the paper care?)

In the long run, I think local papers like the Northwestern are going to end up being like credit unions, owned by their customers, who have a say in determining costs, revenues and strategic direction.

But as much as I like credit unions, few of them provide as robust a range of products and services as a full-service bank. We need more.

The newspaper has a special role to play beyond encouraging discussion. It needs to be a watchdog and a critic (and sometimes a cheerleader). This distinctive public service role is what gives it its privileged standing in the community.

At the moment, there is a fair amount of local news that is getting broken in other media outlets (mostly the blogosphere but also shows like Eye on Oshkosh) . Someone who wants to be fully informed about what is going on in Oshkosh cannot rely solely on the local paper.

A lot of the changes at the Northwestern are for the better, but I think a price is being paid in terms of a reduction in bread-and-butter news coverage.

To make its transformation to citizen journalism work, the Northwestern needs to find the right balance between the citizen part and the journalism part.

VandeHei leaves the Post for Web site

2006-11-20T16:35:00.000-06:00

Jim VandeHei, a product of Lourdes High School and UW-O, is leaving his high-profile perch as a top national political reporter at The Washington Post to join a new Web site.

But he isn't leaving print behind completely. He will be one of the top staffers at a new Capitol Hill newsletter.

His work will also be featured on CBS.

I guess this is the multimedia future of journalism.

Shirley Brabender Mattox is bowing out

2006-11-17T11:21:00.000-06:00

That's what I read on Kent Monte's "city discussion board." Kent has been doing a good job of keeping up with the city's budget deliberations, and I thank him for that.

He and his wife, Michelle, are emerging as the top political reporters in the Oshkosh blogosphere. Read Michelle's take on Dan Becker's school board announcement here.

Community news ownership

2006-11-13T08:13:00.000-06:00

Writing in the Los Angeles Times about the ongoing turmoil in the news industry, Harry B. Chandler looks at the idea of community ownership:

Another sports ownership example worth contemplating is community ownership, like that of the Green Bay Packers football team. Article I of its bylaws states, "This association shall be a community project, intended to promote community welfare … its purposes shall be exclusively charitable." Sound appealing? If 20% of Times readers invest $1,000, it could work. I'll write the first check for the Los Angeles Times Community Owners LLC.

This is very similar to the vision of the Oshkosh Community News Network.

Calling all CJs

2006-11-06T10:06:00.000-06:00

Here is a list of things that citizen journalists can do to cover tomorrow's elections.

British site to pay citizen journalists

2006-11-05T21:51:00.000-06:00

That's what it says here.

Gannett wants an Oshkosh Community News Network

2006-11-05T12:58:00.000-06:00

Last week Gannett announced its vision for the future of news and newspapers.

It sounds an awful lot like what we have been trying to do here at Oshkosh News for the last two years, namely to harness digital tools and the "wisdom of crowds" to cover the news.

All I can say is that it sounds good on paper, but the execution is likely to be a challenge.

One problem for traditionally trained journalists is that this approachs means ceding a lot of control to the "great unwashed."

But always, always, always the real problem is economics. Unless you are Google, the Internet is not a place where news companies can expect to earn the kinds of returns that have been available in print (or on the airwaves).

Gannett can hope to rely on content from citizens, but that material is likely to arrive irregularly and be of uneven quality. (One Gannett paper had to shut down its version of the Oshconversation because the commenting got so far out of hand.)

My prediction is that eventually news organizations will have to find some way to provide financial incentives to contributors as a way of creating a manageable flow of information. Those incentives won't necessarily be in the way of direct payments, but there will have to be tangible rewards.

There is going to have to be a major change in thinking about how to do journalism, both among full-time working journalists and certainly among those of us who are supposed to be training the next generation of journalists.