Requests For Expression

by 3rd Way



Even after taking my love for the tuning fork proposal into account I am still pleased with the stance Chris Abele is taking against the fat sculpture commission the county was contemplating. Awarding a three quarter of a million dollar commission to a small team for a single work is a terrible idea during tough times for local labor. I love a government that makes grand expenditures on artistic amenities, but such amenities should be utilitarian and targeted to employ local labor and talent.

The county should spend the sculpture money by accepting proposals from local artists and designers and awarding commissions based on proposals artistic merits, benefit to community and ability to employee local labor and talent.

A series of artfully designed benches sprinkled along the lakefront that could serve as both playthings for skateboarders and resting spots for walkers would be great. A series of inspired bus shelters aligned down one of the city's busy thoroughfares could greatly enhance a neighborhood. A multi-flight urban exercise/observation stair tower with an awesome long slide down would be a landmark worth erecting. A cleverly designed renovation project to a County Park owned structure converting it to leasable space able to house a small establishment like the Alterra by the lake or the Northpoint burger place could turn a building maintenance liability into a revenue generating asset. Carving up a parking lot sea of asphalt with imaginative ribbons of runoff absorbing plantings would be a good thing.

Giving out seven $100K projects to local teams of aspiring artists would be far more beneficial to the city than one big chunk going to a single team of established art professionals. Seven $100K creative construction projects would help keep locals employed and make our community a more desirable place to reside.

I am sure that if the county sent out a “Request For Artistic Expression” other hungry locals would come up with better ideas for projects that would improve Milwaukee while providing a little boost to local construction firms and the art/design communities. Abele could probably even find donors willing to put up matching funds. Turn the thing into a yearly competition à la the Marcus Prize and within a few years Milwaukee would be a more interesting and vibrant place.

I've never seen Chris Abele so animated

by folkbum

I was at a community meeting organized by the Wisconsin Alliance for Excellent Schools, the state PTA, and probably a bunch of other people. I will try to have a better write-up of the thing tomorrow, but I wanted to quickly get one things posted.

Chris Abele, candidate for Milwaukee County Executive, was not on the speakers' list, but showed up as a community member interested in the issue of the day, which was adequate funding of schools, something notably absent in the budget presented this week by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. The facts as presented by a DPI representative--not, you know, some hippie or wild partisan--are pretty dire. Despite Walker's claims that his "tools" will make up for cuts in the revenue cap, schools are still looking at huge deficits. (Milwaukee, for example, is $74m in the hole here; even wealthy Nicolet is looking at up to a $4m hole that can't be made up in property taxes.) I'm getting off track, here, but you can probably imagine why.

Abele spoke for about a minute and a half after being invited to. In all the times I've seen him, I've never seem him speak with the kind of passion and enthusiasm he did today. "Education is an everybody issue," Abele said, explaining why someone running for a county post bothered with this meeting. And he was clear that many things about what Walker's budget does to schools cannot be morally justified, noting in particular the removal of accountability measures at voucher schools. (Another person I talked to emphasized that Milwaukee taxpayers will get whammied this year as the ~8000 private-school students who currently don't qualify for a voucher start taking state money, too.)

Abele mentioned that he'd been talking to local leaders, including Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, about the devastation the Walker budget will cause, Abele's voice rising, his feet fair bouncing with anger and frustration, he said, "I will drive with you to Madison, and demand a better way every day!"

There are a lot of people I know who aren't sure about Abele, about where he comes from and why he's running. But it's clear that he's on the side of goodness and light here, not to mention the side of our children.

Sykes Twits Off

by folkbum

There was a time, not that long ago, when Milwaukee radio showman Charlie Sykes embraced the mantle of "alternative media," dubbing himself "the blogfather" of local conservative blogger/typists and maligning any political figure who shunned the blogs and talk radio in favor of the "mainstream media" as foolish and out of touch.

("Alternative media" of course being a relative term: If you can get through that post linked above, one, have a cookie or something, that was hard work; and two, you'll see why I resent Sykes's attempts to bogart the non-MSM label for himself.)

But it should not, of course, come as a surprise that when it suits him, Sykes is happy to use an opponent's association with bloggers and alternative media to attack, as he did by putting the twit in twitter yesterday:



Yes, at the fundraiser for Jason Haas's county supervisor campaign Wednesday, a lot of Jason's friends were there, including me and ZeeDub and capper (whose actual twitternym is @Cog_Dis)--and Chris Abele, whom I had not previously met in person. And I talked with him! As did a dozen or so other people I saw who don't, as far as I and apparently Abele's campaign know, have blogs or even the twitter. But some might! Mostly, though, they were Regular Milwaukee Folk who were trying to get involved in the local election-y stuff. Sykes doesn't even live in Milwaukee County; not only do I live here, I live in the district Jason's trying to get elected to represent!

So I am not sure what Sykes hopes to accomplish with his tweet there, especially since he never bothered to complain about, for example, Ron Johnson at "Drinking Right" with those paragons of media excrescence excellence, the afore-mentioned conservative blogger/typists that are his "blogchildren."

Actually, I am pretty sure: Sykes is simply scared that finally Milwaukee County is free from being run by a Sykes toady--and that auxiliary toady Jeff Stone will sink like one come the election, and now he is desperately scraping for any foothold he can.

Politi"Fact": science, women's health, and basic public services now "partisan"

by folkbum

I am supporting Jim Sullivan for Milwaukee County Executive, though this is not the way I planned to announce it (not that my endorsement carries any real weight anymore, if it ever did). I say that because the following post is in part a defense of Chris Abele, and I don't want anyone to think I am doing this out of some kind of blind partisan loyalty.

I'm doing this because the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's franchise of the PolitiFact brand is at war with truth and with public employees and letting that bias get in the way, repeatedly, of any semblance of fairness on related issues.

Today they examine Abele's claim to be non-partisan. Abele said, "I’ve worked with Republicans, Democrats and anyone who has good ideas to find solutions. And I’ve fought for our shared values without being an ideologue or a partisan." And it's true--Abele has a history of playing well with members of this community on all sides of the aisle to make Milwaukee a better place to live and work.

He's a Democrat, no doubt, and has a history of supporting Dems financially (including, ironically, Jim Sullivan). But identifying with one party is not the only criterion for being labeled partisan, and certainly doesn't prove Abele's an ideologue.

But, oh, does PolitiFact try hard to make it so! Despite a lot of fevered rhetoric, when they start citing specifics, the needle moves toward true: the bulk of his charitable money goes to arts or no-brainer efforts like fighting cancer. His announced positions on County issues are hard-right (and this is part of why I don't support him)--gutting employee contracts, ignoring the public will on a parks/transit sales tax, and more. I personally have problems with his support of for-profit education enterprises and a mayoral takeover of MPS.

But here's what really pisses me off about the story: In trying to decide what's "progressive" or "liberal" or ideologically "left" or whathaveyou, they offer this kind of BS (my emphasis):

[Abele's family foundation] has funded progressive social causes such as Planned Parenthood, homeless prevention, global warming, alternative energy and the Wisconsin Citizen Action Fund, the sister organization of group representing a coalition of labor and social justice causes. [. . . S]ome of Abele’s rhetoric seems designed to reassure progressives--suggesting we can protect services even in the county’s time of fiscal peril.

Yes, you're reading that right: PolitiFact is here suggesting that such things as scientific truth (global warming and alternative energy), women's health, helping the homeless, and providing basic public services like parks and transit are "progressive" now. Unbelievable! Science is not a party, the homeless are not a political movement, taking care of each other is not ideological.

It is remarkable to me how far off kilter our political discourse has become that a self-appointed arbiter of truth, like Politi"Fact," can not only ascribe a partisan orientation to such things, but then use that to call a complicated and inscrutable figure like Abele a liar.

Added: xoff sees other problems with PolitiFact today.