Madison Needs Jobs

Posted December 27, 2010 by meisen
Categories: Development, Labor, Politics, TheDailyPage.com/Isthmus
Tags: , , ,

In this column for Isthmus, I argue that the  tough times for public-employee unions  means tough times for Madison and Dane County unless the community makes itself more welcoming to business expansion.

Among the points I make are:

… economic development should be front and center in next spring’s mayoral and county executive elections. The candidates need to be grilled on their philosophy and proposals.

Yes, philosophy. Much of Madison’s problem is attitudinal. For a whole host of venerable liberal reasons, Madison can be hellish on business.

The problem, says business consultant Kay Plantes, is that too many Madisonians don’t connect the dots. “They don’t see the unintended consequences” of their good intentions.

Give a proposed business expansion the third degree in terms of a lengthy and costly review, and the firm may head to the suburbs with its jobs.

“That’s why we’ve ended up with so much urban sprawl,” says Plantes. “It’s bad for transportation, it’s bad for the environment, and it’s very bad for the Madison school district.”

To read more, please go here.

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Targets On Their Backs

Posted December 21, 2010 by meisen
Categories: Labor, TheDailyPage.com/Isthmus
Tags: , , , , , ,

I examined the plight of  public employee unions in two earlier stories. In this Isthmus cover piece, I take a wider and deeper look at their problems.

The story begins:

In September, before the Chazen Museum of Art began stashing some of its collection to make room for construction, I stopped in to see John Steuart Curry’s iconic paintings of the Midwestern countryside. The half-dozen paintings, largely executed during Curry’s groundbreaking tenure as artist in residence at the UW-Madison College of Agriculture (from 1936 to 1946), include his portrait of ag dean Chris Lauriths Christensen striding through an experimental cornfield, tie flapping in the wind. It’s a stunning painting.Christensen’s face radiates determination and purpose. Clearly, he was a man on a mission, bringing university research and government help to Wisconsin farmers battered by the Great Depression.

And what great help it was. The ag school scored one breakthrough after another to enhance dairy and other farming — everything from vitamin D activation, to bull semen preservation, to fostering farmer-controlled cooperatives.

By this time, Fighting Bob La Follette and other Progressive leaders had transformed state government, regulating highhanded railroads, replacing the crony system with the nonpartisan civil service, setting a minimum wage, establishing worker’s compensation, instituting progressive taxation and embracing “The Wisconsin Idea,” where university professors would bring their knowledge to the four corners of the state.

Seventy years later, a remarkable turnaround has occurred. Government isn’t seen as a savior of the recession-battered citizenry. Instead, government itself has been defined as the problem, and public employees find themselves portrayed as villains for what is deemed to be their recession-proof jobs, Cadillac health insurance and gold-plated pensions.

To read more, please go here.

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Taking Aim At Labor Law

Posted December 16, 2010 by meisen
Categories: Labor, Milwaukee Magazine, Politics
Tags: , ,

With the earth seemingly crumbling beneath them, public employee unions are reeling. This post for Milwaukee Magazine sums up the surprising views of two guys associated with the Democrats and labor–John Matthews and Mordecai Lee.

The story begins:

Even as Governor-elect Scott Walker and his triumphant fellow Republicans are promising to get tough on Wisconsin’s public employees, some liberals are also raising questions as to whether the rules for public unions should change.

Former Democratic lawmaker Mordecai Lee and veteran Madison teachers’ union leader John Matthews are among those who, well before the November election, had been arguing for major changes in Wisconsin labor law – changes that could lead to more strikes and turmoil. They made their remarks in response to questions from Milwaukee Magazine.

Lee, a quotable favorite of Wisconsin media, is a professor of governmental affairs at UW-Milwaukee. He believes public employees shouldn’t have collective bargaining rights because of their ability, he says, to manipulate elected officials through political endorsements and campaign contributions.

“You have legislators, mayors, county executives, supervisors – all of them subverted by labor’s political relationships,” he says.

Matthews is the dean of Madison labor leaders with 43 years in the cause. He is equally provocative, wanting to legalize public-employee strikes and toss out the landmark mediation – arbitration law that brought labor peace to Wisconsin schools and local governments after the stormy illegal strikes of the 1960s and 70s.

Matthews is fed up with arbitrators settling contracts. “I’d rather have our fights on the street,” he says. “We’ll go and block school entrances. We’ll tell people they shouldn’t be taking our jobs.”

To read more, please go here.

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Eating Locally In Eau Claire

Posted December 15, 2010 by meisen
Categories: Organic Farming/Local Food, The Progressive
Tags: , , , ,

On occasion, I write about good news. That’s what took me to Eau Claire earlier this year to chronicle the rise of the local-food movement in western Wisconsin for The Progressive magazine.

I was impressed.  Sacred Heart Hospital has pioneered the use  of locally grown food in its dining operation and is recognized as a national leader.

Here’s how the story begins:

HOSPITAL FOOD: THE VERY term conjures up the most bland and unappetizing images. But that’s changing in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, population 65,000. Sacred Heart, the smaller of Eau Claire’s two hospitals, has committed to spending 10 percent of its food budget on tasty local produce and meat.

By big-city standards, this does not amount to much—about $200,000 a year. But cracking the institutional market is one of the trickier challenges facing food system reformers, and this 334-bed hospital in western Wisconsin is showing the way.

By its nature, institutional food service is cost conscious and lends itself to the efficient, standardized approach of mass production. If you have hundreds, if not thousands, to feed daily, purveyors like Sysco, Aramark, and Sodexo are experts at delivering food product in the perfect portion size.

“We were used to placing an order and having everything come in the door exactly how we wanted it,” says Rick Beckler, Sacred Heart’s director of hospitality services. “We didn’t have a clue where it was produced or who grew it. We didn’t know even what continent it came from.”

Sacred Heart’s kitchen now serves greens from Pam Herdrich’s Flower Farm south of Eau Claire, meatloaf made of hamburger from Vic and Mary Price’s Out to Pasture Beef in Fall Creek, chicken from Eileen McCutchen’s Angel Acres in Mason, pork from Jim and Alison Deutsch’s Family Farm near Osseo, and lots of other locally sourced items.

To read more, including the Deutsch family’s  inspiring story, go here. Note that Sacred Heart recently increased its  purchase of local food to 15% of its total food budget.

HOSPITAL FOOD: THE VERY term conjures up the most bland and unappetizing images. But that’s changing in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, population 65,000. Sacred Heart, the smaller of Eau Claire’s two hospitals, has committed to spending 10 percent of its food budget on tasty local produce and meat. By big-city standards, this does not amount to much—about $200,000 a year. But cracking the institutional market is one of the trickier challenges facing food system reformers, and this 334-bed hospital in western Wisconsin is showing the way.

By its nature, institutional food service is cost conscious and lends itself to the efficient, standardized approach of mass production. If you have hundreds, if not thousands, to feed daily, purveyors like Sysco, Aramark, and Sodexo are experts at delivering food product in the perfect portion size.

“We were used to placing an order and having everything come in the door exactly how we wanted it,” says Rick Beckler, Sacred Heart’s director of hospitality services. “We didn’t have a clue where it was produced or who grew it. We didn’t know even what continent it came from.”

<a href=’http://www.progressive.org/adserver/www/delivery/ck.php?n=aca0f3e5&cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE’ target=’_blank’><img src=’http://www.progressive.org/adserver/www/delivery/avw.php?zoneid=1&cb=INSERT_RANDOM_NUMBER_HERE&n=aca0f3e5′ border=’0′ alt=” /></a>

Sacred Heart’s kitchen now serves greens from Pam Herdrich’s Flower Farm south of Eau Claire, meatloaf made of hamburger from Vic and Mary Price’s Out to Pasture Beef in Fall Creek, chicken from Eileen McCutchen’s Angel Acres in Mason, pork from Jim and Alison Deutsch’s Family Farm near Osseo, and lots of other locally sourced items.

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Union Blues

Posted December 8, 2010 by meisen
Categories: Labor, Milwaukee Magazine, Politics
Tags: , , , , ,

Since the summer I’ve been thinking a lot about the diminished status of  public employees and their unions. This Endgame column, published in mid-November in the December issue of Milwaukee Magazine, is the first piece I wrote on  the troubled prospects for organized labor.

The column begins:

Too bad a ball-peen hammer wasn’t handy. If so, leaders of the embattled Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association might have walloped themselves over the head. Instead, they did something even more self-destructive, suing Milwaukee Public Schools for Viagra coverage of its members.

Union president Mike Langyel gamely defends the suit, saying Viagra is used to treat a bona fide medical problem. But even liberal supporters winced at the timing.

Here was a financially strapped school system struggling with an anticipated layoff of almost 500 teachers, and the clueless union was demanding insurance coverage of a sexual aid that could cost taxpayers more than $700,000 a year.

To read more, go here.

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When The Solution Is A Problem

Posted November 9, 2010 by meisen
Categories: Development, Music, TheDailyPage.com/Isthmus
Tags: , , , , ,

Wow, it’s hard to see a good outcome to the city’s predicament with the failing Overture  Center of the Arts.  The bail-out plan is mightily attractive, and it’s being pushed by a lot of sincere  (and influential) people. The problem is that its adoption will come at the expense of  more innovative thinking on managing Dane County’s regional facilities in the 21st century.

I explain what’s at stake in a recent column for Isthmus. It begins:

When pianist Olga Kern began playing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s season opener a few Fridays ago, the first gentle notes hung in the air. I could hear the faint hum of the piano wires vibrating from her pedal work.

What marvelous acoustics Overture Hall has! What a gorgeous place to hear the symphony and the Madison Opera. And what a horrible situation the Overture Center for the Arts finds itself in.

A week earlier, cold to the issue, I parachuted into the last meeting of the Overture Ad Hoc Committee. I heard the rumbling unease in which the committee recommended that the city buy the arts complex for $1 from its private nonprofit owner.

So many unanswered questions, so much uncertainty, and the city is supposed to wrap up this deal before Jan. 1?

Holy cow! I turned to a veteran city official and (with apologies to Jon Stewart) told him: “This is the clusterf#@k of the arts.”

You can read more here.

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In Memory Of A Friend Who Knew The Blues

Posted October 25, 2010 by meisen
Categories: Music

My buddy Clark Anderson died on  Sept. 19, 2010, of cancer.  Our friendship dates back  to the late 60’s and early ‘70s  when we were bad boys together in Kenosha.  When I married in 1977, Clark’s band played at the reception.  When we’ve gotten together in recent years, music was usually the reason.

I write a yearly roundup of my favorite shows for Isthmus, and  Clark was often there at my side.  A marvelous songwriter and a sweetly wicked slide guitarist, he gave me a musician’s appreciation of gifted players like  Derek Trucks, Luther Dickinson, Sonny Landreth and  others. I grow teary at the thought of Clark’s absence from my life.

Here is the start of a brief biographical sketch I wrote for a website honoring his music.

Clark was known by his friends as a longtime childcare giver (at Red Caboose Day Care Center in Madison, Wis.) and as the founder of the Wisconsin Childcare Union District 65. He touched many lives in many ways.

Whether providing loving childcare, savvy advice on childcare policy or a strong voice representing underpaid childcare workers, Clark was the go-to guy in Madison.

What Clark’s many admirers may not realize was that he lived another life — as a lover of the blues and as a musician for more than 40 years. This website is an overdue effort to shine a light on Clark Paul Anderson, the singer, songwriter and slide guitarist….

To read more and to hear Clark’s  music, go here.

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The Contortionists On The Train

Posted September 15, 2010 by meisen
Categories: Development, Politics, TheDailyPage.com/Isthmus

Both the proposed  Madison-Milwaukee train line and the Dane County commuter rail  project are close calls, but in this Isthmus column I argue both are worthy of support.

Here’s how the column begins:

Local politics, lately, are kind of like a funhouse mirror. Everything is weirdly distorted.

Take the recent push to force a commuter rail referendum on the November ballot. Advocates say the public must vote on whether to impose a half-cent sales tax for transit purposes. Fair enough, but just one problem:

How can you have a meaningful vote on a plan that doesn’t exist yet?

Well, you can’t. But that’s probably the point. Those advocates — including my friend the blogger David Blaska — seem to fear a real referendum on a fully spelled out transit plan. My theory: They’re afraid they’ll lose….

For more. please go here.

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Wanted: Mayoral Candidates

Posted August 10, 2010 by meisen
Categories: Development, Politics, TheDailyPage.com/Isthmus

Madison has been blessed with so many assets–from great physical beauty to a huge built-in employment base of public employees–that the city’s charmed life seems as preordained as the morning sun.

In this opinion column for Isthmus, I suggest that darker times may be around the corner, and that we need a mayor who is up to the challenge. The column begins:

You have to like Dave Cieslewicz as mayor.

He seems almost the perfect fit for a progressive-minded city filled with gently graying baby boomers. He’s funny in a self-deprecating way. He’s calm and reassuring when he speaks to civic groups. He knows the city’s history. He extols its quirkiness. He bikes a lot. He’s green-minded. And, like everyone else in Madison, he’s an amateur urban planner.

He sounds perfect, but for a nagging concern: Dave Cieslewicz seems to play the role of mayor better than he performs its duties.

It’s not that he lacks accomplishments. But after he’s logged nearly eight years in office, I’m prompted to ask the Peggy Lee question: “Is that all there is?”

For more, go here.

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The War Not At Home

Posted August 8, 2010 by meisen
Categories: Education, Politics, TheDailyPage.com/Isthmus

It’s odd–no, disturbing–that the  United States can be involved in two wars, and so few Americans are touched by it. How can this be healthy for a democratic society?

My Isthmus column from  almost three years ago (featured  the other day at the alternative newspaper site) makes the case for a draft and national service.  The headline– “Madison’s military problem: It isn’t Army recruiting, but our attitude towards serving”–sums up my concerns .

The column begins:

Monday, Nov. 5, [2007,] wasn’t a good day for the U.S. military in Madison.

Over at the Doyle administration building, anti-war activists were lobbying the Madison school board to remove Army recruitment signs from high school sports stadiums.

Critics say the ads mislead impressionable young people and support unconscionable war-making. I have a problem with that.

I’m at a loss to understand how a sign asking, “Are you Army strong?” and giving a recruiter’s phone number represents a threat to young people. On a list of the top 2,000 baleful media images thrust before kids — have you seen the American Apparel ads pitched to teenage girls? — this ranks maybe 1,834th.

Over at East High, meanwhile, the military’s estrangement from the good people of Madison was in even starker relief.

Roughly 70 parents and students turned out for a “junior night” look at post-graduation prospects for college, technical school, and yes, the military. Not one participant stopped by the military recruitment table, Sgt. Frederick Hutchison of the Marines and Machinist Mate Michael Pflanzer of the Navy told me….

For more, go here.

Over at the Doyle administration building, anti-war activists were lobbying the Madison school board to remove Army recruitment signs from high school sports stadiums.

Critics say the ads mislead impressionable young people and support unconscionable war-making. I have a problem with that.

I’m at a loss to understand how a sign asking, “Are you Army strong?” and giving a recruiter’s phone number represents a threat to young people. On a list of the top 2,000 baleful media images thrust before kids — have you seen the American Apparel ads pitched to teenage girls? — this ranks maybe 1,834th.

Over at East High, meanwhile, the military’s estrangement from the good people of Madison was in even starker relief.

Roughly 70 parents and students turned out for a “junior night” look at post-graduation prospects for college, technical school, and yes, the military. Not one participant stopped by the military recruitment table, Sgt. Frederick Hutchison of the Marines and Machinist Mate Michael Pflanzer of the Navy told me.

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