I just shake my head every time I think about this ridiculous squandering of years and money — what could have been had Milwaukee’s leadership not succumb to their own lack of vision and blithering suburban talk radio haters. How provincial we must look to any semi-sophisticated city. Time to get over finish line here. As the recent assessment of Milwaukee’s urban core revealed (to no surprise), this system will be critical to future growth. It’s one piece within a larger system that will attract and retain the bright minds that leave for this lifestyle elsewhere every single spring.

Travelers actually prefer predictable routing (aka “inflexibility”). Look at Amtrak’s ridership between Milwaukee and Chicago compared to Greyhound. People overwhelmingly choose Amtrak even though Greyhound is cheaper, runs about as often, and is “flexible”.

Another failure of “flexibility” is Milwaukee’s downtown rubber-tire trolleys. After years of existence, they have never caught on, despite (or because of) continuous route changes.

Unlike rubber-tire trolleys, modern streetcars have attracted both passengers and development everywhere they’ve been tried.

But the paper editorialized a couple times on the need to restrict recalls, I think that got more attention, making them look inconsistent should they have endorsed Barrett. I’m not defending the paper, by the way, merely trying to explain an issue that’s gotten a good deal of discussion.

It had the choice of holding itself to its promise last year that it never would endorse anyone in a recall.

You surprise me for not noting that there were more than two options for the JS.

The JS, of course, does not surprise me in its refusal to keep its promises, its kowtowing to corporate bigshots, its own polarizing effect. It likes Walker, after all, for the same reasons.

Day by day, we are getting closer to that point when people will be saying, “do you recall the Journal Sentinel? Do you remember when we had a newspaper here?”