Dan Finley's surprise exit
Dan Finley, the Waukesha County executive who once had visions of being governor, says he is leaving political life for good to become the head of the troubled Milwaukee Public Museum, the Journal Sentinel reports.
It is a shocker, although former Lt. Gov. Margaret Farrow tells the Journal Sentinel that Finley has been saying for some time that he wanted to do something else with his life.
The task he's taking on is certainly a challenge and a total change of direction. I can only speculate about what happened to cause him to lose his appetite for politics. But many people will understand the desire to have one more, totally different career from the one they've had into their middle years. That may be the simple explanation for Finley, who says he hopes this will be the job he retires from.
The political bug may still have infected the Finley household, however. His wife says she may run for county exec. Story. And Jessica McBride/Bucher is already beating the drums for a Jenifer Finley candidacy on her blog. She mentions Mary Bono and Elizabeth Dole as role models, but Hillary Clinton doesn't make the list.
posted by xoff @ 8:18 AM
14 comments
14 Comments:
Waukesha's loss is the Museum's gain,
And for Dan - - car commuter woe.
Ironic that he could have ridden the train,
If not for his light-rail veto.
jim rowen
Yes, sure - little choo-choo Johnny Appleseed's train would have been so efficient for Waukesha County communters. Too bad Dan couldn't get the Zoo interchange fixed earlier - now that would have really helped his ride into the city.
To the above Anonymous writer: Light rail planned when Finley vetoed it would have been running now and would definitely have helped commuters from Waukesha and others riding there from Milwaukee.
The Zoo interchange rebuilding won't be done untl 2020, give or take three of four years, and even if Doyle moved it up, 2013 is the earliest.
Why are people in
Waukesha so scared of a modern, quiet train ride to work? People in rich suburbs from Dallas to Denver to San Diego - - not to mention in cities around the world - - take light-rail or modern trolleys by the tens of millions each year and love it.
Light rail would have been a multi-million dollar fiasco. The bus works just fine for those who are interested in mass-transit.
Perhaps you haven’t noticed but this isn’t Dallas or San Diego. This is Milwaukee. It wouldn’t have been worth the per-rider cost here. The market could never have supported the accursed idea. It would have been cheaper to give people cab rides. Tens of millions in Milwaukee is a costly fantasy.
Even worse – while you claim that this would have benefited Waukesha County – that claim is little more than a pipe-dream. A rail based system would never have adjusted itself to the demographic shifts in the county.
People don’t want to be trapped in an inflexible system that forces them to drive to a specific location, park and wait for their ride and then rely on the same system to get home. Rain, sleet and snow make that very inconvenient.
We like our cars and we like to drive. Put the money into the system we actually use – give us decent freeways. As for the Zoo interchange - 2013 is 7 years earlier than 2020. What's your point?
Tens of million riders was a multi-city summary number, not for Milwaukee. Read more carefully.
Light rail is being built in cities smaller than Milwaukee, like St. Louis and Kansas City. It's defeatist to say things won't work here. Talk to any person under 35 who moves here from another city, and their number-one complaint is that there is no train to get to work, or to get from Water St. to Brady St. Without passenger rail for city dwellers and commuters alike, Milwaukee will never be a real city. The same people who are moaning about the loss of the House of Blues and a city identity have to know that a rail system is ten times more important to big city status.
What underlies the irrational fear of rail transportation in Milwaukee is the talk radio/white population's prejudice against sitting next to minority riders. Be honest.
And how well is that freeway system working for you, hey? Anyone who thinks adding a lane is going to significantly reduce congestions has smoked too much weed.
If you love your car so much, enjoy sitting in it during our snowy winters or motionless five miles away from the predictable truck rollovers or tailgating collisions, because that's what contributes to traffic delays.
Are you serious? Prejudice is the reason light rail is unpopular? Give me a break. We fear it because we cannot afford it and it would never serve enough people to be of any value.
The bus works just fine. I have never heard anyone complain about the lack of a train for their commute. Never! I have heard lots of out of towners complaining about the lack of parking, but we know why that is, don't we?
Yes, weed must be involved. Extra lanes would never help - yikes. I really don't mind a little bit of a wait on the freeway, it is far better than waiting at a trainstop.
Milwaukee is going to become less and less important for workers in the Greater Milwaukee area. It already has. Jobs are moving out of the city. Putting light rail into the mix isn't going to change that.
To the anti-light rail commuter guy: I'll bet you don't ride the bus. You're the kind of guy who thinks the bus is fine for everyone else beneath him. I'll be thinking of you when gas hits $3 a gallon and you're idling away in a gas hog in the Marquette.
I think mass transit is great for anyone who wishes to use it. It does not fit into most peoples lifestyle or needs.
If you are an attorney who has to meet with clients all over town on various days or go to court in any number of counties, how does mass transit help you?
If you are in sales and have to be able to deal with customers in the greater metropolitan area – how does mass transit help you?
How about a bank manager working with branches all over town?
The reasons mass transit does not work for people are many. We are not all government employees stuck in a cubicle for the day or going to work to drive around in a government issued vehicle.
Business will not locate downtown if city leaders make it inhospitable to the automobile. Mass transit is not the answer to Milwaukee’s future. It is a component, but it is in no way a make-or-break component.
Light rail would have offered a few people a few routes. It would not have made Milwaukee better and it would not have done any good for Milwaukee’s economic future.
Try as you may, this issue is not about class or standing in life. Mass transit is an answer for some people, but not everyone or even the majority of people.
Why must you make this some kind of class issue? Is this what happens when you run out of reasoned arguments?
What the anti-rali anonymous doesn't understand is that a rail system provides a choice for people. For visitors and residents, whether they have cars or not. Rail stations spur economic investment in housing shops, services. Right now, the city of milwaukee does not have a balance between access for cars and motorists and parking, and transit users' options. The bus serves some people. A rail system would connect, as it does in St. Louis with half of Milwaukee's population, a stadium, universities, the downtown business district, a convention center, and the airport. Taxpayers support the road system, with user fees (the gas tax) but also with state and local funding for repairs and plowing that comes from all taxpayers, whether or not they drive. The non-driving resident should get equivilent service through another choice.
We cannot afford the roads we have. Why should we pour money into a fixed-rail system? It does not serve very many people and as for tourists, we don't have many of them either. Cabs work great for tourists. I do not see them hobbling on to light-rail for a night out to dinner. Rail works poorly for destination travelers.
As for economic development – big deal. You get a few dozen Starbucks built next to the rail stations.
The St. Louis system cost $500+ million to build and they continue to pour money into it. It costs the taxpayers $130,000,000 per year to cart around 50,000 riders every day. At $2,600 per rider, it is hardly a good deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah – we subsidize roads too. In theory we use our fuel-tax money for it (although Doyle and the legislature has been using that money for schools). At least people WANT TO USE the roads.
So, on top of roads that we cannot afford (politicians are calling for toll roads now), a bus system that we are always struggling to subsidize (they are cutting back routes now), you want to add a massively expensive fixed rail system?
Oh yeah, and an Amtrak route that nobody wants to pay for and the Metra which we just created a new tax for – light rail too? Come on.
Oh and speaking of the St. Louis system – it opened in 1994 and reached it’s peak usage in 1998, then began a decline in total riders. Of course, politicians decided to throw more money at it by expanding it in hopes of increasing ridership and to justify the boondoggle. The result? Ridership per route mile (which takes into consideration that more routes means more riders) is down 51% from 1998 to 2004.
Of course the freeways are even more crowded - more people use them now then did in 1994. So what did St. Louis accomplish? Nothing. They wasted hundreds of millions of dollars to demonstrate that light rail has a very limited public benefit. In the meantime, more people are in their cars filling up the roads that they cannot expand because they are too busy dumping money into light rail.
LIGHT RAIL DOES NOT WORK.
There is an important difference between buses and rail, which some of the posters don't seem to get. Buses get stuck in traffic just like cars and trucks (duh!), while rail -- well, runs on rails.
To the anti-rail anonymous:
Your use of words like "hobbling" and "cart around" shows who you think uses rail transportation. And your elitism.
And your ignorance: Rail in cities, whether light or trolleys, is a perfect destination system for people going out to dinner. Have you ever used the Metro in DC. Sure: it's 'heavy' rail, but it is used by countless shoppers, people on business schedules, visitors, and it's considered cool to use.
And it helps keep cars off already-crowded streets.
Plenty of US and foreign cities work on that very model, and the most expensive real estate there is within walking distance of the stations. You sneer at coffee shops: where there are coffee shops, there are customers. Who also are looking for book stores, dry cleaners, clothing stores, jewelry stores and every other mainstreet retail and commercial address.
Your wording gives you away. You think rail is for older people, or those who are impaired.
You should go to Dallas or Denver or Portland (and yes, now even in the Twin Cities, thanks to Jesse Ventura) and see all those people with briefcases and shopping bags from fine stores getting on and off the train. And using the system for multiple trips, even if they have that lawyer-schedule you say is such a big problem.
Like these lawyers like being caught in traffic jams, or getting a flat, or in a fender-bender, or not finding parking (even the lots get full, dude).
Sounds to me like you don't get out into the real world enough. Probably losing too much time in traffic.
Milwaukee is not metro DC or Dallas, Portland or the Twin Cities. Milwaukee is not even close to a booming metropolis. Light rail will not make anything better here. All you would accomplish is driving up taxes even higher and pushing more people out of the city.
Despite your feeble rant, it doesn’t fit most people’s lives. Especially for the metro commuters who fit in grocery shopping, picking up kids and just about any other errand into their commute. As for the theoretical lawyer – do you really think that s/he would take light rail to a depot in Waukesha and then grab a bus (or two) to get to the courthouse or to a client location? Come on. You are in denial.
Traffic is usually a minor inconvenience compared to tying your daily commute to rail stations and busses to make up the service gaps.
Supporters of light rail can pretend all they want to but this is real-life with huge costs. Clicking your heals together three-times and saying “if you build it they will come” will not help the system justify its public costs and it will do absolutely nothing to attract people back to the city. On the contrary, the tax burden of sustaining the system would make the problems even worse for Milwaukee.
LIGHT RAIL WILL NOT WORK HERE
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