On Proposed skate park location moves to council
Posted on April 7 at 9:32 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
The skatepark would be an asset to the community and the kids need it. But the skatepark is a prime example of the ineptitude of our City Council over the last several years.
Think of all the time that's been wasted, both for citizens and staff! First the Council had a group of volunteer citizens study several potential sites for the skatepark in depth. After the commission considered all options, it recommended Lions Park. The Council didn't like Lions. The Council could have referred the matter back to the commission for additional study, but instead the Council chose to announce Palmer Park as the site. This approach caused the chair of the committee to resign immediately, and who could blame him since he and the rest of his group of volunteers spent countless hours studying many sites only to have the Council reject its recommendation with less than an hour's deliberation? To give the council some credit, at at least the skatepark group finally had a site so they could start toward their goal of raising money for the park. But the group then proceeded to raise only $26,000 in five years (this is roughly $14 per day). So now, on that track record, the the City Council has instructed staff (not volunteers) to spend time looking at all these other sites again! Why? This story doesn't give the council's reason. But it can't be because the council is convinced that this group can raise the money if only a different site is picked, because no one could ever say that a Palmer Park site hurt their fundraising efforts. (By the way, is there even a nonprofit group like Youth Hockey, YMCA, Youth Soccer, Youth Baseball/Softball involved here? Or is it just a group of private people represented by Mr. Streich? Maybe part of the problem is lack of leadership on the skatepark side.) So the council's reason for going back on a decision the council made in 2005 is a mystery. Maybe people who didn't like the Palmer location kept objecting until a new council decided the earlier council was wrong to pick Palmer Park in the first place. But this indecision is just more of the same from the council and is almost worse than the continuing indecision on sidewalk policy. The wasted time and effort is just astonishing.
By the way, one thing makes this even more incredible. When the group trying to raise funds for the ice arena recently came back to the Council to ask that alternate sites be considered (because donors were asking about sites other than the south side), the City Council said "we decided this already" and refused to have City staff study alternate sites! Even though the ice arena project would cost millions more than the skatepark and even though group raising money for the ice arena has already raised a lot more than the skatepark group, with more than $600,000 committed toward an ice arena already! This is the same council that is having staff look at new sites for the skatepark!
On Cullen won’t run again for Janesville School Board
Posted on November 12 at 7:28 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Janesville owes a huge debt of gratitude to Tim Cullen for his contributions to the School Board over the past few years. He was a straight shooter on the issues, wasn't afraid to require the administration to be accountable to the board, and watched out for the taxpayer. Thanks, Tim, for your service.
Posted on September 13 at 10:21 a.m. ( Suggest removal )
The Tony Bennett show was a one-time shot and it was a fundraiser. It's a shame that some people generalize from that one show that happened 5 years ago because it seems like every show at JPAC is between $10 and $20 or so. People forget that the vast majority of the shows at JPAC are produced by nonprofit arts groups in the community (Beloit Janesville Symphony, Janesville Little Theater, Spotlight on Kids, etc.) that can't spend thousands of dollars on advertising. That said, I don't agree that the shows at JPAC aren't promoted -- it seems to me JPAC and the groups that perform there promote the shows as much as they can and do a very good job of getting the word out. I know for sure that JPAC runs a weekly ad in the Kicks section of the Gazette to promote upcoming shows because I see it every week. I also know JPAC has a zipper sign in front of JPAC that is constantly flashing upcoming shows because I've driven by it. I know JPAC sends out monthly email messages to promote the next month's shows because I'm on that list -- and anyone who has an internet connection can also get on the list for free. I also see posters at various businesses around town promoting the shows and the user groups promote their shows in many different ways -- often with stories in the Gazette and on the radio. There aren't TV ads but those are really expensive. It's not fair to JPAC or the user groups for someone to come on here to call JPAC shows expensive when they aren't (especially when you think of what it costs to go to a live performance out of town) and then for the same person to say that JPAC doesn't do a good job promoting shows when they learn that JPAC is not expensive. If you haven't been paying attention, don't blame JPAC or the user groups -- just start paying attention! Good things are going on at JPAC and if you've been missing it, it's time to check it out and get down there!
On Trouble plagues bars that cater to growing minority population
Posted on August 3 at 10 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
This is deja vu all over again. Janesville history shows that regardless of who the patrons of a bar may be -- black, white, young, old, country, hip hop, whatever -- any bar that generates a lot more police calls than the average bar is asking for scrutiny from the police, and it's good that the police are taking a closer look at this place. People have short memories but Quotes was way out of control when it opened and it was owned by the wife of an assistant district attorney at the time. The police and ALAC cracked down and Denise Carpenter was personally ticketed -- twice (go check CCAP). And Quotes didn't really clean up its act with a dress code or security cameras until after a fight left one of its patrons in a coma with a brain injury just outside the back door and the police and ALAC were really breathing down Quotes' neck. The whole event caused the owner's husband to lose his job as an assistant DA. So when Quotes' owner says she "soon learned" about crowd control, remember that "soon" was only after someone almost died on her doorstep and her husband lost his job.
Now Corvinas is Quotes all over again. A new bar owner with no clue is running a bar with huge numbers of police calls showing the bar is out of control (plus, show me any bar owner who puts a metal detector at the door, says she "needs the place packed" on weekends, but says she can't stop the DJ's music because she's afraid of a riot, and I'll show you a bar owner who has no control of her place). The dangerous thing about this bar is that as long as the owner thinks there's no problem as long as there are no arrests inside, it means she's going to push all the trouble outside. One stabbing incident is already linked to this place. Let's hope it won't take something worse than that before this owner gets a clue.
On Court is too long at Craig’s new gym
Posted on June 20 at 12:55 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
I find it very hard to believe that no one from Craig or the school district approved the layout at Craig before paint was ever applied.
On Our critics are often uninformed
Posted on June 18 at 6:25 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Let's see. The Gazette thinks anonymous critics of the GAZETTE "have no idea what they're talking about and thus don't wish to put their names behind the uninformed opinions." Yet, twice a week, the Gazette specifically invites critics of EVERYONE ELSE to "Sound Off" anonymously, even though those people sure could be described as having "no idea what they're talking about and thus don't wish to put their names behind the uninformed opinions."
I don't see how the Gazette opinion editor can complain about anonymous critics for so long as Sound Off runs.
Posted on May 14 at 12:38 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
The ice arena has been an important recreational facility for more than 30 years, but it is obviously past its useful life. It looks like the Youth Hockey group and the City Council have the right idea. Rather than put $1.2 Million into the existing facility (which has only one sheet of ice and is in a less-than-ideal location), we should take the same $1.2 Million and build a new ice arena in a better location. Any place near the Youth Sports Complex or the HWY 11 bypass would be ideal because the arena could attract users from outside the City. Talk about not making investments into our community when times are tough is short-sighted. The facility could be built cheaper now because contractors are hungry, and Janesville needs to keep investing in itself if it really wants to emerge healthy from the GM fallout.
On Odd Fellows to host Fourth of July celebration
Posted on February 13 at 1:35 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Great! Thanks to the Odd Fellows for picking this up. Let's hope they keep it at the Sports Complex.
On Board to look at Studer Group surveys
Posted on October 27 at 1:12 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
These survey results are going to be interesting. First, if this survey was done in the spring, why is the public and school board only finding out (from the school district administration and Gazette) about the results now? What's the explanation? If the results are bad for the administration, did the administration sit on the results? Two of the 5 bullet points at the end of the story relate to dissatisfaction with Tom Evert, and in one of those bullet points, the author speculates as to why there is dissatisfaction with Evert among staff. But what is the basis for the speculation? Weren't the surveys designed to identify and control for bias? Did Studer Group offer the opinion that criticism of Evert was biased because of negotiations? If not, isn't the opposite speculation equally valid, that district employees answered the surveys without any bias whatsoever and just genuinely think that Evert is not performing as well as he should?
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On My kid’s been arrested! Tips for what to do next
Posted on August 31 at 8:54 p.m. ( Suggest removal )
Defense lawyers get a bad rap but the defense lawyers in this article are the only ones who gave good, unbiased advice. If you get arrested yourself and think you're suspected of some crime, are you going to talk without a lawyer? Doubt it. Why would you have a different standard for your kid? Some say "the kid deserves whatever comes of it" but I'd guess 99% of the parents out there would rather give out their own discipline, or at least know what the penalties could be before just saying let the system do what it will. Is it really news that law enforcement officers want kids to talk? Or that a former prosecutor who represents the Janesville School District thinks kids should talk? Of course they do! If officers are talking to your kid, they have their reasons. If those reasons are already enough to arrest your kid before they start talking to your kid, they are going to arrest your kid anyway, and the only reason they are talking to him/her is to get a confession to lock up the case. You gain nothing by talking. And if the reasons for questioning your kid aren't enough to arrest your kid in the first place, then the police are looking for a confession so that they'll then have enough to arrest. Again, you gain nothing by talking. The defense lawyers are right and any kid reading this article should only listen to them.