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1/15/2007
News follow-ups: Appleton West, Kagen at the White House
It’s well past time for an exchange of ideas about the proposed Appleton West sports complex, as I've mentioned in previous commentaries. Finally, the Mayor has acknowledged that indeed a forum for questions is needed – and he’s asked the public to send in those questions. So here are mine, posed a month ago in FoxPolitics articles of December 12th and 19th, questions I’ve discussed with a school board member and members of the City Plan Commission.
• Are alternative sites being considered and/or have they been? Has the school board expressed interest in any site that might not involve the destruction of homes, such as Wisconsin and Badger or any area west of Wilson school? What are any safety concerns of a remote site and how can they be satisfied?
• Where will folks park if a new football field were built adjacent to West?
• How might the Banta Bowl be made into a permanent situation? (What a great place for high school football!)
• What needs to be done, short of a new sports complex, for current track and field facilities to be adequate for sports team practices and physical education classes?
• I’d be interested in a discussion about the value of existing housing stock in a community and under what circumstances it should be destroyed.
• Is the school district ready and willing to use the powers of Eminent Domain?
• What does it look like when you weigh the loss of affordable housing and tax base with the impact of a major sports complex? What is the tax levy impact to the city, county and school district?
• What fundraising hoops might the school district require before asking the city to rezone?
I just e-mailed these questions directly to the mayor. (Will he be talking to the school district? How is he planning on getting responses to folks?) I’ll let you know if, when and how they get answered.
Representative Kagen (FoxPolitics, 1/9/07)
Is it a rumor?
Representative Kagen has responded (via a few news outlets) to The Scene’s account of the new congressman’s account of a night at the White House. (More today in Gannett papers.) In all cases I’ve seen, Dr. Kagen’s responses were pretty short and sweet. WTAQ’s Jerry Bader sent me the two news clips the ‘TAQ news team was able to gather last Thursday morning. Representative Kagen’s voice was measured and professional, kind of midway between conversational and reading a text.
“I would say it this way – that my wife and I were very thrilled to have the opportunity to have our picture taken with the President and Laura Bush; and at no time were we disrespectful to one another.”
and…
“I would say that we enjoyed our evening together, and the President was humorous, so was the Vice President, so was Karl Rove, and so was I.”
And of course, we’ve seen strong denials of the disrespectful incident by the White House. Ok, it was probably a little polite joking and kidding, and then the Representative embellished the story, sitting around the table with a group of political soulmates. My hope is that the congressman learned a few public relations lessons. We all must work with Dr. Kagen for the next two years - and that’s got to be the bottom line.
COMMENTS
We all must work with Dr. Kagen for the next two years - and that’s got to be the bottom line.
A little mockery never hurt anyone - especially the guys we hire to work for us in D.C. Also a good reminder that with all these tubes and internet things running around you really need to watch what you say.
Brian (Mon Jan 15 15:36:11 2007)
I heard this posed on WHBY in the last day or two and it got me curious... why isn't The Scene releasing this supposed tape recording they have of the Kagen incident? If you have the evidence of what you're writing, and the media at large is questioning the incident, and the White House and Kagen are denying it, why wouldn't The Scene release the tape? I'm not passing judgment on Kagen on this whole debacle, especially if the publisher of the article is withholding their source evidence of the incident from the public.
Personally, I didn't see it as all that newsworthy, but it did give all those bitter conservative talk show hosts a lot of cannon fodder. I have to hand it to The Scene, though. This was the perfect opportunity for them to exploit to drum up a lot of name recognition for their little supermarket paper.
Editor's Note: Scene writer Jim Lundstrom is an experienced, respected journalist. In addition, I talked to a participant of the "Peace" meeting and the Scene's account of the goings-on was not disputed. Additional participants were interviewed by other local media and again, the goings-on were not disputed. JE
Mark (Tue Jan 16 01:16:36 2007)
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