Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Great Historic Find, Revealed Only Here: Carl's

Faithful readers of Waxing America know we bring you critically acclaimed stories, keen analysis and otherwise obscure but culturally informative knowledge that you would never get at Daily Kos or the Huffington Post.

Through dedicated scholarship and the good fortune on checking pictures from the Facebook group Jeffrey Manor, Chicago Il. Memories of Growing Up In Jeffrey Manor we bring you this priceless and impossible to duplicate photograph from the collection of Arnold L. Stern, the original Carl's:

While stuffy politicians and yuppies argue over preserving lake views, and upper east side swells swoon over some Frank Lloyd Wright design, we ordinary folk recognize historical places when we see them.

Sadly, age and the dyes of the 1960's no longer provide accurate portrayal of the garish reds but you get the point.

The relocated Carl's can be found conveniently located at 83rd and Jeffrey.

When I wrote A Chicago Hot Dog Review for Madison Worth Your Time...

I know my hot dogs; I have eaten them for almost sixty years. I ate them on the south side, west side, and north sides of Chicago. I ate them in the suburbs and in the ball parks. (No Chicago ball park ever served a real Chicago hot dog.) I ate them at Fluky's, Stash's, Big Herm's (he had only one good arm), Little Herm's (two good arms), a dozen places on Dempster or off of Western, more on Damen*, and all over Stoney Island. (The best was next to the Avalon Theater.) And I have a heart by-pass to prove it.

 Eddie Omens wrote in about this sanctuary near the Avalon Theater:

Carl's.....in the 50s......Very small place... warm steamy...The old guy ( it was Carl) who made the hotdogs wore glasses that were always so steamed up, I don't know how he could see to put the stuff on the hot dogs....He lined them up on a piece of wood that had door handles to keep the steamed buns in the correct position to dress them.....wrapped in paper and a bunch of fries.....25 cents each.....Oh yes A nehi....Orange drink.....I wish I had a couple now....Eddie Omens in San Diego

 

For those who need more imagery: More Chicago Hot Dogs - The Pickle and Mushy Buns (Ugh)

 

Madison High Speed Rail Station - Airport, East Wash or downtown-UW campus?

With all of the discussion about high speed rail between Madison and Milwaukee, I missed the report which identified the best place to locate the local station.

I know there is lot of discussion about the Dane County Regional Airport. I also caught the suggestion that there be an alternative or additional stop at the tracks across East Washington and First Street.

I assume that airport station has three advantages:

1. It facilitates the train moving on to the Twin Cities by not diverting it downtown.
2. It gets the rail passengers to their connecting flights out of Madison.
3. The high speed rail passengers can then shift to a local rail system which is already moving passengers from downtown Madison/UW campus to the airport.

That is good if that is the best scenario given the needs of the high speed rail passengers.

I curious as to what the passengers want. Can someone direct me the study which shows the destination for the majority of passengers and surveys of the needs of potential passengers?

How realistic is it that the train will proceed to the Twin Cities in the decade after the Madison-Milwaukee route is completed?

Are the high speed rail passengers going to use the airport?

How realistic is the local rail system to downtown Madison for the airport?

Super Bowl Ads for Ten Year Olds

Charles Barkley needs a brand new bag and Danica Patrick should not quit her day job.

I saw about three quarters of the Super Bowl which means I probably saw about three quarters of the ads. I believe it was the third Super Bowl I watched in the past fifteen years.

Come on, what gives? These ads were written by thirteen year olds for ten year olds. The humor was non-existent, the originality sucked and the weak and boring special effects were overshadowed by the horrible scripts.

If she wanted to, Betty White could single-handed put Doritos, Coke, Kia, Go Daddy and the rest of them out of business in less than one football season.

I hope the estate of Dr. Suess sues both Taco Bell and Barkley.

Paul Ryan for President

On election night 1994, I was sitting in the bar at the Inn on the Park with buddy Ron Domini watching the election returns. The networks reported that young George W. Bush upset Ann Richards in the Texas gubernatorial race. I turned to Ron, and said, "We have to defeat these guys now. They take an election like this and then next thing you know they are a viable candidate for President."

When Paul Ryan slipped in to Congress though Wisconsin's First Congressional District, the writing was on the wall. Since the Democrats success in 2008, Ryan carefully positioned himself as a viable candidate for 2012, if not 2016.

Now comes the Wisconsin Public Research Institute Revenge of the Nerd: Why Paul Ryan Could be Our Next President handicapping a Ryan presidential bid.

Actually it is not much different that what we have said here at Waxing America:

• Paul Ryan - Wisconsin's Stand Up Comic  -  Ryan is a johnny-come-lately to health care and a tool of the worst elements fo the heath insurance lobby.
• Paul Ryan: When Will You Look At the Facts About the Deficit?  Ryan makes exaggerated and false statements about the budget and the deficit.
• Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan: Medicare Assassin - he wants to destroy Medicare just as he intends to put Social Security in the hands of the private sector so his buddies can make outrageous transactional fees off the public.  Also: Paul Ryan: Alarmist or Fraud, or Both?
• Paul Ryan of Janesville is no Sarah Palin -It is that very private system he is defending that accounts for the expansive cost of American health care.

The difference between Ryan and the younger Bush is not their policies, but that Ryan is not as inept. Which is what makes him so dangerous.

Free Speech, Madison and UW Style: The Good and the Bad.

Today the University of Wisconsin Union Theater will host Ayaan Hirsi Ali as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series.

Originally she was rejected as a speaker -too controversial.

UW to host controversial author who rejects Islam

Students first voted against bringing Hirsi Ali because they didn't want to be seen as supporting her agenda, said Reid Tice, chair of the Distinguished Lecture Series committee. But when a scheduled speaker, sportswriter Rick Reilly, fell through, the committee reconsidered Hirsi Ali...

Hirsi Ali wrote the screenplay for "Submission," a short movie by Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh that criticized the treatment of women in Islamic society. In 2004, an extremist killed van Gogh in Amsterdam and left a death threat against Hirsi Ali pinned to his chest with a knife.

Hirsi Ali said she will focus her speech on the plight of women in Islam and the importance of talking about it, even though it can be risky.

It is sad and even frightening that students, or any one for that matter, would succumb to the notion that the right to speak is measured by the messenger being  timid, meek, and boring.

Fortunately there was an opportunity to revisit the issue and the right thing was done.

As a student I had the privilege to hear Hubert Humphrey and George Wallace, Joan Baez and Strom Thurmond, Eldridge Cleaver and Averell Harriman. The campus and the university community was served well by every one of them speaking and sharing their beliefs and thoughts, no matter how controversial, outdated, narrow-minded, or enlightening their speech.

On a sadder note, Isthmus reports that the city of Madison Parks Division instituted rules banning the staff speaking to journalists, council members or just about any one, A 'gag rule' at city parks

As Isthmus has reported (Watchdog, 1/22/09), Parks Superintendent Kevin Briski, upon taking over in June 2008, began requiring that all media inquiries be routed through Whitmore. He thinks this policy has worked out well: "It's helped facilitate efficient communication."

But clearly the new policy has struck fear in the hearts of some Parks employees. One person even asked not to be quoted saying s/he could not be quoted.

A few words of advice. No one is served well by limiting the speech of city staff. In fourteen years as mayor, our office had a very simple policy - make sure you know what you are talking about, and if you are unsure refer the matter to someone who does.

That was it. No gag rule. No lengthy talking points. I do not recall any disasters. There were a few embarrassing moments when a staff member said something and did not have all the information but nothing that would remotely justify a gag order.

As the President of the Madison Parks Commission, Bill Barker noted:

"The tradition of the city has always been transparency and open government. Anything that runs counter to that is not a good idea."

City council members are a different story but, not to worry,  no one will ever keep them quiet.

 

MIlwaukee - Madison Rail: An Ecumenical View

On Friday last, Rail as Religion, Rick Esenberg took issue with the statements of Rick Harnish, executive director of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association who said, "Currently, people are forced to drive, and that's the most expensive and least productive way to travel..."

Esenberg's point being that interurban travel between downtown Milwaukee and the Dane County Regional Airport made no sense since most passengers are interested in downtown Madison and the University of Wisconsin campus as a point of arrival and departure.

Esenberg, famously known for purchasing the Wisconsin Supreme Court, has a valid point.

The efficiency of the system is compromised when passengers need to inefficiently transfer to a taxi or city bus to reach their final destination.

That is why there is an effort to locate a second Madison station closer to downtown and the isthmus, a detail overlooked by Esenberg.

When we look at successful interurban rail systems throughout the world, they have two things in common. First, they move people quickly, efficiently, and reliably between two distant points. Secondly, since most passengers do not have an arrival or departure point within a short distance of the terminal, the rail systems are complemented with an efficient local transit system, intra urban, designed to disperse passengers throughout the urban area.

Since Rick is such a fan of rail, "I have to confess that I kind of like trains..." I welcome him to the constructive dialog as to how we can make this system work in Milwaukee and Madison.

Baseball Hall of Fame Blows Another Call

Voting Andre Dawson into the Baseball Hall of Fame was the right call.  Putting a Montreal Expos cap on his official plaque: Fail.

Dawson wanted to commemorate his happy career as a Chicago Cub:

Dawson famously signed a blank free-agent contract with the Cubs during spring training of 1987. Cubs general manager Dallas Green filled in the contract with a modest $500,000 figure for the 1977 NL Rookie of the Year.

... "It was just a matter, for me, of going somewhere that I knew I would enjoy the game and be a little more respected from a management standpoint. I couldn't have picked a better place. I always loved daytime baseball and I always enjoyed playing in Wrigley Field."

Dawson had made it clear earlier this month...that he preferred going into the Hall of Fame on July 25 in Cooperstown, N.Y., as a Cub.

Class move, HoF.

- Barry Orton

The State of the State of Wisconsin and the United States

The right-wing chatter boxes continue to provide flawed analysis about the national and Wisconsin economy.

They ignore the fact that the U.S. economy was permanently and critically altered by NAFTA and other trade agreements that allowed $2.00 a day workers to replace American workers. They miss the point that a nation cannot engage in two wars at a cost of billions of dollars a week which do little to contribute to the productivity of the country.

When we look at the depth and breath of this depression, the worst economic crisis facing the nation since the 1930's, it is beyond fascination to see these extremists demanding the economy they destroyed be repaired in a year.

It took five years to come out of the Great Depression. That depression saw an expansion of jobs as the advent of World War II and American industrial might combined to right the greatest economy in the world.

The Republican banking crisis, the trade agreements pushed by the right and accepted by some Democrats, will take more than 12 or 18 months to fix.

It is time we come to recognize that 20% unemployment was avoided, that the majority of troubled financial institutions are now above water, and that depression did not cut deeper.

Growing Poverty in Madison Part II and Tim Cooley

In yesterday's post Growing Poverty in Madison Part I, I noted that to further soclal justice a municipality needs revenues.  Unfortunately, too many leaders, in and out of government, either fail to acknowledge that money, that is tax dollars, needs to be raised, or they address the problem by talking a good game but failing to fund the required investment in human capacity.

Yesterday, while I was posting about poverty, long time buddy at The Capital TImes, Dave Zweifel, knocked my socks off praising Tim Cooley. Questioning city’s process is a good thing

Frankly, although I disagree with some of his views, I find Tim Cooley to be a breath of fresh air. He was appointed economic development director by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz last January in an effort to assist businesses and developers to navigate the sometimes mysterious paths through city hall and, hopefully, attract new companies to locate here.

One public official who gets it is Tim Cooley. Cooley flatly states that to fund Madison's community programs a tax base is required - that means competitively attracting investment into Madison, not its suburbs.

Cooley was featured in a Wisconsin State Journal article last week, City's economic development director rattles cages in push for change

Since taking the $107,673 a year job, Cooley's pushed to make Madison more competitive, questioned the city's rigorous approval process and moved to loosen rules on public aid for businesses. He's mused about installing a city manager-style of government and downsizing the council, likened the use of Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) to playing poker, and offered radically different ideas for the redevelopment of the Edgewater hotel and neighboring property.

I may disagree with Cooley on the need for a city manager, but he is certainly in step with my feelings regarding the need to economically expand Madison. That is why I found it curious that some said,

"But he doesn't understand Madison's culture. He's not making an effort to balance what makes Madison special with economic development.”

What part of Madison culture does he not understand? That we are soft-spoken? That we resist new ideas? 

Perhaps growing up on Madison's east side and graduating from East High School is the problem. That certainly makes him the exception rather than the rule in this town, where outsiders have held sway over government for forty years. Mea culpa.

Cooley is one of the few people who not only knows the balance but is prepared to make it work.

If this city wants to combat poverty it had better understand what Cooley is saying about the need to make Madison competitive with the rest of Dane County. Epic Systems Corporation is in Verona because of attitude as much as TIF policy. It should sicken every Madisonian to see that Madison-born company building a billion dollar campus fifteen miles from where it was founded and spent its first twenty years.

Imagine what those property tax revenues would do to combat poverty.

Growing Poverty In Madison - Part I

Last week Mike Ivey of The Capital Times reported Poor flock to city of Madison, not the 'burbs'

(nationally)....The number of poor grew by 25 percent in suburbs from 2000 to 2008-almost five times the growth rate in primary cities-making the suburbs home to the largest and fastest growing poor population in the country.

But the Madison metropolitan area bucked the trend. The poverty rate showed a significant increase in the city and no change in the suburbs over this time period.

The Brookings Institute report "The Suburbanization of Poverty: Trends in Metropolitan America, 2000 to 2008" only goes back to 2000, but this is a trend that began in the early 1980's, as poorer urban families searched for better homes, first in small to medium size cities like Madison, Albany and Harrisburg, PA, as well as the suburbs. The Promised Land, published in 1992, tells the story of black migration in America since the 1940's.

Their goal was not much different than that of their fellow middle and upper income migrants - seeking neighborhoods with employment, good schools and safe streets.

With this pattern of migration came problems. Many communities were unprepared for the increase in poverty. Housing designed for young 27 year old professionals could not accommodate the needs of low income families with children. School systems with limited budgets were challenged to educate kids with little or no pre-school guidance. Housing, counseling, and family enhancement programs were short staffed and underfunded.

Frankly, when you look at the challenge, it is surprising that Madison has done as well as it has. TThe challenge is that political ideology, ignorance, and funding issues all contribute to the problem:

• Liberals refuse to acknowledge that gangsters, extortionists, and drug dealers follow the impoverished families to Madison and a law enforcement response is required.
• Conservatives refuse to acknowledge that law enforcement is just one tool in combating crime and that without programming that empowers families, crime will prevail no matter how many police officers are sent to a neighborhood.
• Housing advocates refuse to acknowledge that no one is helped by continually adding to the supply of more low income housing if employment, child care, transportation, health care, and family enhancement programs are not developed at a comparable rate as the housing stock.
• The employment, child care, transportation, health care, and family enhancement programs are not effective if understaffed, poorly funded and uncoordinated.
• No matter how sincere the commitment, none of this works without government revenues and private sector participation. That means a tax base of businesses, particularly office buildings and retail, must be continually developed to provide the resources to fund effective programming.

Right Wing Radical Extremists Legislate from U.S. Supreme Court Bench

With the decision to throw out the legislated ban on corporate contributions to political campaigns, the fanatical right wing U.S. Court majority tore up the Constitution and legislated from the bench.

As any school child knows, the freedom of speech is not absolute. You cannot shout "Fire" in a crowded theater intending to create a panic or disturbance. Two mobsters cannot discuss the execution of their boss and get away with it, even if they do not kill him.  And you cannot go up to a stranger in a convincing manner and threaten to punch out his lights.

Every protected freedom has to pass a balancing test.

For over a century, from state houses to the U.S. Congress, there were laws limiting contributions to political campaigns, particularly by corporations.

In this one instance the five justices rewrote over a hundred years of legislation and prior judicial decisions, and with judicial activism that would make the Warren Court blush, plunged our nation into political chaos.

If there is a sliver lining in this dreary cloud, it will be the right wing pundits rationalizing that this is not conservative activism as regarding a  decision that even moderate Republicans despair.

The decision drips with hypocrisy.

The Democratic Party Nightmare and the 500 Pound Gorilla

When a  candidate loses an upset as Martha Coakley blew the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts, there is plenty of blame to go around. Assessing responsibility is fine sport. The winner and loser are both in search of blood.

For those of us who wish to learn from the experience, and use it for success in future elections, concentrating on the real source of the defeat is instructive.

There are myriad of causes that led to over 50% of the Bay State voters electing Republican Scott Brown to fill the Senate seat vacated by the death of Ted Kennedy, but the most significant one, the 500 pound gorilla that trumped all others, was that Coakley was a horrible candidate and blew the campaign.

There are other reasons that contributed to the defeat, but if the Democrats focus on them they will be unprepared for next fall's congressional elections:

• Spending - this is one of the two issues that contributed to the Republican victory. Unfortunately for the Democrats, not all of the benefits of the economic stimulus plan are documented.
• Health care - the real victim here. This was a contributing factor but not decisive. Tragically, Coakley's campaign took down more than her and presented every Democrat with a interminable nightmare.
• The White House - declining Obama favorability numbers did not help Coakley, but the real villain was the failure to read the election and get Coakley off her butt. The White House had more at stake than Coakley - health care reform versus her career.
• Tea Baggers, Limbaugh, - There is no question that the constant barrage and pounding took its toll, but it only works against a weak or marginal candidate.

The good news is that the Democrats need not abandon their principles or health care reform. This election should root out their complacency and return them to the vigorous campaigning of 2008.

The bad news is that the Republicans are inspired; they can now take the Democrats off their game plan, and fund raising will flourish.

Every few years we hear the pundits declare that one political party or the other is dead and gone. Fortunately for both Republicans and Democrats, they have each other.

Kindergarten: Early Childhood Development or Baby Sitting?

The first kindergarten was founded in the United States in Watertown, Wisconsin in 1856 by Margarethe Meyer Schurz.

The first comprehensive municipal program of certification and training for child care schools was started in Madison in 1974.

Over the years, depending upon the nature of the program or the organizational structure, we might refer to the instruction of children five years and younger as early childhood development, day care, or kindergarten.

No matter what the title, we can be proud of the decision of the Madison Metropolitan School District Board's decision to institute kindergarten for four years old as a success. Madison schools to begin 4K in 2011-2012

The Madison school board on Monday deadlocked 3-3 on approving a four-year-old kindergarten program for 2010-11, but voted 5-1 to implement it for the following school year...

...Seventy percent of Wisconsin school districts already have four-year-old kindergarten, touted by supporters as a way to give all students, regardless of income, a preschool experience that better prepares them for success in elementary school and beyond.

While much progress was made in the past century and a half in understanding the importance of early childhood development and success later in life, there are still the skeptics. The documentation of the success is irrefutable.

When we invest wisely in children and families, the next generation will pay that back through a lifetime of productivity and responsible citizenship.

Opponents to the program have three arguments, two of which are pure nonsense. We hear that the early educational training does not work and that kindergarten is no more than baby sitting.

Come on, say what you really mean - "I do not want to pay for the program no matter how effective."

Running for Public Office? Better Public Administration?

No.

Yes.

Earthquake: The Big One Can Happen Here...And It Will

On Tuesday when the earthquake struck Haiti, the History Channel was airing a show about earthquakes, specifically the Earthquake in the Heartland

The 1811-1812 New Madrid Earthquakes (centered in southeast Missouri) rank as some of North America's most catastrophic natural disasters. Stretching more than 160 miles, a system of earthquake faults lurks beneath the Mississippi River basin, loaded and ready to erupt. And it's happened before... But it wasn't just one event. Multiple shocks were experienced over the next three months--the largest caused the Mississippi to flow backwards. No earthquake sequence has lasted so long, produced so many shocks, nor created such astonishing phenomena on land and water. The New Madrid Fault remains a seismically active area and experts expect a repeat. The only question is when...

Tragically when it occurs, those areas likely to be hit the hardest will remain unprepared.  In recent years, new construction from St. Louis to Memphis, the largest urban areas in the fault area, has improved standards, but as we have seen all over the world, infrastructure failure is inevitable.

Add to that the break down in communications that plagues every disaster from the recent tragedy in Haiti to hurricane Katrina or the systems failures between governmental agencies in thwarting the terrorist attack Christmas Day, and we will not minimize the horrid outcome.

Ironically, here in the United States, unlike Haiti or Indonesia, we have the resources, both financial and organizational to contain the consequences of these natural disasters.

But we need to keep taxes down, even if the long range costs justify preparedness.

The irony is that much of the investment in infrastructure, health systems, and communications will serve us well year inand year out, not just when the big one hits.