A New York Times View of Racine
A friend told me the other day that the city of Racine had gotten a nice little write up in the New York Times Newspaper a few weeks ago with an interview that Becker did along with some other city of Racine officials and various local businessmen.
I was interested to see what the Times had to say about our little city on the lake.I have been busy with work and all this last week so I didnt get a chance to dig very much but as I was checking out a few different local blogs this morning, I came across a post from "Realdebate" while talking about the Times write up (which I have included here in it's entirety) and then by digging in to the Times site on the 1st of July, I found the slideshow which I have also linked to below.
For the record, I think the mayor and the officials of this city are doing a fine job and that while Racine may have it's problems, there is a lot of good going on here.
There may be a full article somewhere on the Times site and if and when I find it I will post it, but I did find a nicely put together slide show that the Times did.
Photos with captions....very well done.Click on the link below to view the piece that the Times put together.(You may have to scroll down to the "Multimedia section" at the bottom left of the page when you click on the below link. Look for the title "A community coming to grips with change":
Business and Financial News - New York Times:
"Slide Show: A Community Coming to Grips With Change
The story of Racine, Wis., like that of the nation as a whole, is also the story of how a community comes to grips with the larger forces of globalization and technological change."
And "Realdebate's post about the story that the Times undertook which I have reprinted in it's entirety from Realdebate's blog:
Racine is going to be featured in the New York Times
This Sunday a smiling Mayor Gary Becker will be on the front of the business section of the New York Times.
The story is keyed on how Racine is adapting to the economy.
Seeing as unemployment is horrid and there is zero new industry in town, I'm really confused as to what exactly they are going to talk about, unless of course they talk about interpersonal relationships between city officials.
More likely Gary will blame unemployment issues on Paul Ryan while taking no personal responsibility himself.It should be an interesting read.I wonder if there is a classified story they could leak out of Racine?
posted by realdebate 2:45 PM 3 comments links to this post
Realdebate, I know we are all entitled to our opinions and though I do not agree with you on your opinions of our city as a whole (but I do tend to agree with most of your opinions on things such as Racine Unified things), I do agree that we need to do more in relation to crime and unemploymnet but I do feel that this mayor has done more for our city than any of the past administrations since I have lived in this city and that has been close to eight years. Though I am not involved in the local political scene here in town, I gather that all the "infighting" between people from the area has a deepseated past and I am sure that there will always be many differing opinions on how to best run this city....
A good tuesday to all....
posted by John @ 12:50 PM
3 Comments:
The point to the post John is painting a rosy picture glow about Racine is short-sided at best.
This community has HUGE problems with unemployment, education, violent crime, gangs, drugs, prostitution, should I go on?
To my recollection the article did not discuss any of that.
And that John, is the problem.
Our community leaders should be outraged about all of those problems and speaking out loudly and emphaticly against them. Instead we get lip service at the community outrage meetings whenever a kid gets shot. Then, it is back to business as usual.
Look at the schools John, their results are horrid. What do we hear from them MORE MONEY MORE MONEY MORE MONEY.
What we should hear from them... Our results are terrible, we are failing our children, here is what we suggest to FIX the problem. However, the answer is always more time, more money. Meanwhile another kid graduates who can not fill out a job application.
Pretending things are all rosy only helps add to the problem.
You'll excuse me if I pull my head out of the sand.
PS, it is not polite to ding the administrator.
But I can handle it.
I do agree with you that our
city
needs alot of work and that it is not a very "cohesive" administration...even those that are involved with the administration of the city tell me this.
But I think some of them are trying hard to fix things behind the scenes. I have a friend who works in that enviroment and that friend has said how hard it is to understand how the different "entities" in city hall can not seem to figure out how to make things run more smoothly and figure out the right steps to take. Certain individuals can not seem to even talk to one another without getting into arguments and the vibe within the many departments that are responsible for running things is very advasarial most of the time.
I understand all that you said in your comments and yes I agree with you on most if not all
of those things.
But there are people up in the city government who do care about our little jewel on the lake....those people are trying to make a difference and they are doing what they can with the recources they have. There are others though that cant seem to get anything right and most of the people in this city realize that as well.
I just wanted people to know that there are civil servants here im this town who are trying to make things better.
Didn't mean to ding you in the process of posting my last blog entry.
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