Kolton's ideas, thoughts and opinions

10 Oct

Parking Continues to Dominant Common Council

A crowd of people showed up to Whitewater’s Oct. 3 common council meeting to protest an ordinance that would allow the city to rescind the status of landmarks, but it was the university’s parking changes that made the most noise.

For the second common council meeting in a row it was the University of Wisconsin Whitewater’s decision to remove parking meters on the city owned Prince and Prairie Streets that was the main focus of the meeting. Chancellor Beverly Kopper, Vice Chancellor of Administrative Affairs Grace Crickett and Police Services Chief Matthew Kiederlen were all in attendance to defend the university’s decision.

Kopper made a short statement to the council to introduce the university’s defense to the changes, but most of the talking was done by Kiederlen.

The University of Wisconsin Whitewater and the city of Whitewater signed a Memorandum of Understanding in June 2012, that stated the university could charge for parking on the two streets and in exchange they paid the city $40,000 per year. Members of the council, especially Ald. James Allen, have called the parking enforcement a “double taxation” with the university charging patrons to park on city streets.

Over the summer the university switched the parking stalls on the two streets from meter parking to pass parking. The council questioned whether or not the university was allowed to make these changes without consulting the city first.

Kiederlen read the MOU during the council meeting to argue that the university did have the right.

“The city will not be responsible for any parking enforcement for the university-leased spaces,” Kiederlen said. “We decided that we could make these changes.”

Ald. Stephanie Goettl (District 5) said the biggest problem with the new changes is the lack of handicap parking on the two streets. Under current law if a vehicle has a disability license plate they are allowed to use meter parking without fear of being ticketed, but since the removal of the meters there are significantly fewer handicapped stalls available. In a school like UW-Whitewater that is so focused on being handicap accessible it’s an odd change to make.

Kopper, Kiederlen and Crickett also defended the university’s decision to raise all parking prices. The price of parking tickets, day passes and the yearly pass all went up for the 2017 fall semester. Goettl said it was an “unreasonable” increase. The university argued that all these changes were made to make parking more self-sustaining.

“Parking needs to be self-sustaining.” Crickett said.  “Even prior to me coming here – I’ve been here two months – the campus was working on moving to a self-sustaining model so we can direct resources to student success, to student housing, to other infrastructure.”

Goettl also asked the university trio if the increase to the ticket prices was needed. Later she asked what the expected impact of the increased tickets would be and what the university expected to make in parking ticket revenue.

“In a perfect world we don’t look at fines as a revenue source.” Kiederlen responded. “In a perfect parking situation we would never even have to ticket.”

The council brought up other problems that have raised since the changes have gone into effect. Such as neighboring streets and the lot at Starin Park being constantly filled now to decreased spaces.

“Maybe it’s coincidental, but Franklin Street used to have almost no university parking on it,” Ald. Lynn Binnie (District 4) said. “Now, probably a third of that street is routinely parked on. Even more than that, the lot in Starin Park adjacent to Starin Road is filled, or very close to filled.”

The university did not have an answer to the parking problems on the neighboring streets. The university also stated they would negotiate a new MOU with the city, or, if the city wanted to, they would give parking regulation on Prince and Prairie Street back to the city.

Landmarks

The other major point of the council meeting was the ordinance that allowed the City of Whitewater to rescind the status of a landmark for any reason. The ordinance died on the floor because it did not have a second council back the measure.

The ordinance, proposed by Ald. Chris Grady (District 3), met backlash as a crowd of about 20 Whitewater citizens stood outside of the Municipal Building holding signs saying things like “save our landmarks” and “what’s wrong with landmarks”. The crowd piled into the council meeting and left happy as the ordinance did not receive a second backer.

Grady made his case, stating that people had been “misinformed” when it came to the ordinance. He stated that the goal was to make sure the city of Whitewater would not be forced to pay for the replacement of a landmark if for some reason it was destroyed.

Goettl refuted Grady’s point saying that if this was the goal of the ordinance he needs to change the wording and make it state that the city could only rescind the landmark status in case of a disaster.

Most of those protesting the new ordinance left the meeting after it did not receive a second backer.

Budget

During the council meeting City Manager Cameron Clapper went through his proposed changes to the city budget.

The proposed budget is at $9,174,846 which is about $30,000 less than 2017. Internal revenues and taxes account for 87 percent of revenues. Administration and public safety account for 53 percent of expenditures.

City transfers have been reduced by about $50,000. This will effect things like the city cable station, parking permit fees, trail funds and state parks. The city of Whitewater receives extra shared revenue from the state of Wisconsin because of the power plant in town, but those extra funds are being reduced each year as the plant reduces in value, the city will receive $40,000 less in 2018 than it did in 2017 due to this depreciation.

The cities transportation budget has also been reduced.

The city will give its employees a 1.5 percent wage increase, but they will require city employees to pay a higher percentage of their health insurance. In 2017 employees paid 12 percent and that will increase to 15 percent.

The budget also calls for Whitewater to hire its human resources coordinator full-time instead of part-time. Even though the budget is lower than last year Clapper reminded its citizens that Whitewater’s property taxes are the lowest in the area of cities of comparable size.

The city also proposed a contract with a financial advisory service that would help the city plan long term.

This was just a proposed budget by Clapper and discussions will continue at the next couple council meetings.

In other news, during the open session Whitewater citizen and former UW-Whitewater professor Pam Zarinnia made a case that the crosswalk on Main Street in front of Anderson Library needs to be addressed. Zarinnia reminded the council that a student was killed on that crosswalk not too long ago, and she argued that the pedestrian crossing does not provide enough safety.

“We’re going to have another dead person not very long in the future.” Zarinnia said.

Zarinnia had a backer in Goettl who brought up the point that she was in a car accident at that cross walk because a car did not stop for a pedestrian. No action was able to be taken because this topic was not on the agenda. I have been told by multiple people that a person was hit in that crosswalk since Tuesday’s meeting, but was unable to confirm whether or not this was true.

07 Oct

Project Topic

 

I would like to take a look at how New Communication Technologies spreads political ideas. I think it would be fun to look at how and why things like gay marriage, legalization, and gun sales have grown in popularity with the growth of social media. I think it would also be fun to look at why people on both sides think that New Communication Tech helps their party and hurts the other party. I would like to interview both students and political science professors and see what they think about the topic. I am struggling on what I would use for photographs. I know I could get photos of meetings of the school democrats and republicans and photos of the professors that I interview, but other than that I am not sure what I would photograph. I could probably try and take photos of things like students on facebook political pages, but I’m not sure how I would do that without posing the picture.

 

Possible Sources

Professor- Eric Loepp is Political science professor who is relatively young. He could give his thoughts on the shift or changes caused by NCT.

Professor- Kate Ksobiech is a Health Communications professor here. Ksobiech works in the health communications department so she is not only aware on one of the biggest political debates at the moment, health care, but she is well versed in the role communication plays in it.

Group- UW-W College Republicans- I’ll contact try to meet leader

Group- UW-W College Democrats- Meet leader – I think it would be awesome to do an individual interview with the leader of both of the major political groups here on campus and see how they each think NCT is affecting the viewpoints of their fellow students.

I would like to interview a few regular students to get the perspective of an average Joe and how they think NCT is changing perceptions.

I would also like to try and interview a campaign leader for a large local campaign. I’m not sure if it is possible, but I will try to message via Twitter and email the campaign leader for a campaign like Tom Barrett and see how they tried to use NCT to increase their influence and reach.

21 Sep

NCT: Tuesday Class Discussion

In Tuesday’s class we discussed online media habits and what motivates those habits. Coming out of that discussion I found that when my classmates and I actually sat and thought about how much time we spent online we all had the same reaction. It was pretty crazy. We all felt that we spent around six hours or more a day online. Basically if we weren’t working or in class we were all online in some capacity. Whether it be playing video games online or watching YouTube videos. The common theme that all of us shared was that we went online to stay up to date. We all used the internet to gather news on politics, video games and almost everything in between. As a group none of us were big sharers so I can’t comment too much on what motivates everybody to go online other than to keep our friends and family who we are no longer connected to up to date on what is going on in our lives.

08 May

Finals Time at UW-Whitewater

08 May

Money In Politics

08 May

UW-Whitewater Tennis

08 May

National Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball Tournament

06 Mar

Hoop and Harm Podcast: Warhawk Basketball Update

13 Feb

Two Warhawks take full advantage of Senior Night

Senior Reilly Stewart (#3) led Warhawks with 11 points

Senior Reilly Stewart (#3) led Warhawks with 11 points

The 24th ranked UW-Whitewater women’s basketball defeated the UW-River Falls Falcons this Saturday on Senior Night. The Warhawks (19-4, 9-3 WIAC) snapped a two game losing streak with the 57-37 victory behind the strength of their defense, 27 forced turnovers, and the emotional boost they received from their two seniors, Reilly Stewart and Andrea Olsen.

Olsen, despite not being able to play due to an injury suffered in the preseason, made an impact before the game even started when she took over the mic and sang the Star-Spangled Banner to start the game. Warhawks head coach Keri Carollo thought Olsen’s performance carried over to the game.

“[An]Drea did a great job and really gave us that lift right at the start.” Coach Carollo said postgame.

Right after tip off the other senior, Reilly Stewart, picked up right were Olsen left off. Stewart scored eight points, registered two assists and hit two three pointers in the first quarter as the Warhawks took an 18-12 advantage. Stewart finished the game with a team-leading 11 points, three assists and two steals.

“That’s what seniors do, they step up and when you need them the most they can hit shots and get great defensive stops. I’m really proud of Reilly, she wasn’t feeling well today but she stepped up and got it done for us.” Coach Carollo talked about the difference Stewart made.

Fans were greeted by a sea of pink as they entered Saturday’s game because it wasn’t only for the seniors. It was also Play4Kay day. Play4Kay is an organization dedicated to raising funds to benefit women’s cancer research. The organization is named after former North Carolina State head women’s basketball coach Kay Yow, who passed away in 2009 after her third bout with breast cancer. All proceeds collected from ticket sales, t-shirt sales and raffle sales were donated to the organization and if you would like to donate you can click the link at the bottom of this article. UW-Whitewater also honored four cancer survivors at halftime.

Saturday’s game was very important for the Warhawks who were on a two-game skid entering the contest. During the two-game skid the Warhawks shot a combined 37-137 (27 %) from the field and lost the two games by a combined 38 points. The Warhawks played Saturday’s game with more effort and more intensity than the previous two and UWW-TV’s Adam Reed thought that had something to do with Senior Day.

“I think that the team definitely played for Reilly Stewart. She came out, had an awesome performance set the tone early and brought them home. It was obvious the team was playing with a lot more passion than they have in previous weeks.” Reed said postgame.

The Warhawks will return to action next Wednesday for a huge contest against the WIAC leading UW-Oshkosh Titans. The Titans (21-2, 11-1 WIAC) are ranked 14th in the nation and have a two-game lead on the Warhawks with two regular season games remaining.

 

[ Box Score ]
[ Donate to Play4Kay ]

 

28 Jan

My Online Habits

During the 2016 United States Presidential Election I found myself paying a lot more attention to national political news. What was the primary way I got my news? By scouring the internet on my phone and my laptop. My go to website for political news is actually, believe it or not, is YouTube. Other than political news, I also pay a lot of attention to sports news. I also get my sports news online from ESPN, Bleacher Report and YouTube.

When I am on YouTube I have three go-to YouTube channels for news. Those three channels are Secular Talk, Philip DeFranco and The Young Turks. Secular Talk is a daily hour plus long political talk show that is also available via podcast. In the show Kyle Kulinski, the host, goes over the big political stories every day. The Young Turks is pretty similar to Secular Talk, except they have multiple hosts. The main thing that draws me to these two channels is the independent nature of YouTube. Both of these channels have progressive views that mainly align with the Democratic Party, but because they are not funded by Democratic interests like NBC and CNN they still explore the flaws within “their party”. The final YouTube channel that I watch for news is the Philip DeFranco show. This show is a daily 10 minute news show that airs from Monday through Thursday. This show differs from the other two in the sense that it is not strictly a political program. DeFranco tells stories from Trump’s executive orders, to entertainment news and everything in between. One of my favorite parts about YouTube is a lot of creators will put links in the descriptions of their videos that allow you to verify their facts and sources so I know I’m not listening to fake news. My other use for YouTube in regards to politics is watching Seth Meyer’s Closer Look, Stephen Colbert’s monologues and the occasional CNN video.

As for my consumption of Sports News most of the time I’ll spot an article on Facebook and then I will read the article on ESPN or Bleacher Report. If I am ever hankering to read sports articles I will go to bleacherreport.com. I also use YouTube to consume sporting news. For example, I watch The Starters, a daily NBA talk show, on the NBA YouTube channel.

My main way I consume online news is by watching videos, but I am also open to reading articles and listening to podcasts. I think videos are such a solid way to grow a connection with your audience and especially on a website like YouTube where the creators can comment back and forth with their audience. I do not comment on videos very often. I very rarely use Google for news, but if I ever overhear somebody talking about a tragedy or breaking news I’ll google it and look for the most recent news. I do not have a Twitter, but I do occasionally use Facebook to find news stories.

I grew up in the small town of Belleville, Wisconsin. Not much happens in Belleville so I do not pay attention to my local hometown news. I do, however, occasionally read the Wisconsin State Journal and Madison is only 20 miles away from Belleville.

The internet has completely changed how I and everyone else consumes news and I think this change is mostly a positive. I appreciate this opportunity to look at what I enjoy in online presences because it’ll help me recognize what I need to show in my online journalistic personality.

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