What is the Wauwastoa?
Wauwastoa is a partial and not-so-clever anagram of Wauwatosa. In ancient Greek architecture, the stoa was a covered walkway surrounding the public square in the center of the city from which one could observe or engage in the business, politics, art, and athletics that occurred there. I see this newsletter serving a similar role: as a place to observe and record what occurs in Wauwatosa's public square—its governance, its institutions, and its community.
It is said that in politics, critical thinking is an act of charity. And in a democracy, a critical and engaged citizenry is of immense public benefit. But because any one person has only a single vote no matter how informed he may be, there is little private gain to the individual in acquiring this knowledge himself, and despite the immense good it might provide the community, the engaged and well-versed citizen remains scarce.
In the past, of course, one fixed this market failure not by relying upon charity but by paying a journalist to cover the news. And so long as the newspaper could afford to pay these journalists from the advertising revenue it received, such a relationship was sustainable. But the internet has mostly destroyed newspaper advertising, and since 2004, over 1,800 local newspapers have closed in the United States. Wauwatosa's last local newspaper, The Wauwatosa News Times, ceased operations, I think, in 2007.
Local news in the City of Wauwatosa (pop. 48,000) is still covered: by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, once a week on Wednesday, via its 20-page (of which about half is ads) WestNOW insert that also includes news from Elm Grove (pop. 6,000) and Brookfield (pop. 38,000). And the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is under its own pressures. It was purchased by Gannet, owner of USA Today (Motto: “The Nation's Newspaper!”; Headquarters: McLean, VA) in 2016. It recently closed its physical printing press in Milwaukee.
Why Subscribe?
Advertising-based news isn't doing well, but subscription-based news has a chance of doing better. And that's what this is (or will be). Subscribing is free but full access to all content will eventually require a monthly subscription. In either case, you’ll receive news and analysis at least weekly in your inbox. My interests may expand or change over time, and I see this as an experiment. One that I will likely revise and adjust as I figure out what I am doing.
Who am I?
I don't know very much about local government, and I am not a professional journalist. I have only lived in Wauwatosa since 2020. But the nice thing about democracy is that it is good for ordinary citizens to be concerned and to have opinions about the communities they live in and the institutions that affect their lives even when they are not experts. I enjoy learning though, and I learn by writing.
Before I moved here, I worked for a public policy think tank in Los Angeles where a large portion of my research focused on labor, employment, and financial decision making. I spent two years between 2018 and 2020 getting to know and following a group of Uber and Lyft drivers in and around Los Angeles as they tried to find work, pay their bills, support their families, and realize their goals. You can read it here. I am also a former submarine officer in the Navy and have deployed overseas several times to various places in Africa, the Middle East, and the Western Pacific.
But more recently, I am someone interested in understanding how communities form and the institutions that hold them together and sustain them, and I think, in a hazy way, that is what I'm trying to do here.
