Who’s jealous?
Re: “Civic envy” (12/5/2019): The only reason there’s ridership at all on the Hop in Milwaukee is because it’s free. So far, the Potawatomi tribe has been funding the operational costs of this economic disaster. City officials have not installed fare collecting equipment because studies show in other cities that have done so, ridership typically drops 20 to 40 percent. When the Potawatomi contract runs out, the Hop faces an operational deficit of up to $1.5 million per year. As of this writing, there is no interest in any other corporate sponsorship. Thankfully, the city is second guessing extending the Hop to the Fiserv for the Democratic Convention next summer. The fact that there is new development in the area because of the Hop is blatantly false. Most if not all of the development was in the works long before the Hop was built. I won’t even get into the costs of supporting a public market because we already know what that will cost here in Madison. Dave is like any other liberal…loves free stuff but has no clue on how to pay for it. Civic envy of Milwaukee, I don’t think so.
— Tom Stalowski, via email
Mayor Dave and I do not agree any more on several things. Though thought provoking, his civic rivalry seems more “what I would have done better if I were king” than an analysis of something substantial. What’s wrong with giving Milwaukee credit for accomplishments on their own merit? Dave pines for a place at the Milwaukee table, discounting our very different pace of things Madisonian. In my 50 years of Wisconsin life, after escaping NJ/NY megalopolis in 1970, I’ve seen this: Wisconsin has seven or eight city-states with their intrinsic challenges, cultures, and economies. While in agreement to be “Wisconsin” in government and commerce together, they really don’t give much credit to each other. This in my view is partly why we are not politically homogeneous. If there’s a rivalry between Milwaukee and Madison, then Fox Cities, Green Bay, central and northwest regions (for example) don’t even bother suiting up for that game.
— Paul Abramson, via email
Preserving history
Re: “A loopy idea” (11/27/2019): Cursive is a form of literacy which connects us in a very real way to others — whether it’s writing a thank you card, reading a birthday card, and being able to sign your own name to reading letters from soldiers in World War I, enjoying J.K. Rowling’s handwritten outline and notes for the Harry Potter books, and understanding all of the notes and edits in the draft version of the Declaration of Independence. If you can’t write it, you can’t read it and that makes access to hundreds of years of history and knowledge a privilege for those whose parents teach them cursive rather than making it a right guaranteed for all.
Furthermore, as a teacher I’ll offer the perspective that we all learn better when we write things down — when you have to actually process information and then commit it to paper. Students who take notes on laptops are simply transcribing — think about your own experience in meetings. When do you remember what was talked about?
— Sarah Marty, via Facebook
Correction: In the last issue of 2019, our film recap mistakenly said that filmmaker Julia Reichert is “Iowa-based.” She lives in Ohio.
