Category: News

Report on Transform Rockford Vision Rally 2014

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Last night was the much-anticipated Transform Rockford Vision Rally, held at the Coronado PAC. From the reports I saw online, the event drew over 1,400 attendees.  To recap what has been going on, Transform  Rockford has a 6 step process for changing the greater Rockford area. The stages are: 1) Analysis and case for change: Alignment on why 2) Develop the vision: Articulate our future 3) Define the strategy: Show the path to our vision   4) Develop the implementation plan: Assignment of work 5) Implement Initiatives & Measure: Achieve our vision 6) Review and Update: Update to Reflect Process/Change…

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Reviving the Rust Belt: What’s the Answer?

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Last Thursday I attended an event hosted by Transform Rockford which was part of their Community Learning series. At this event there were two economists from the Chicago Fed who spoke about a recent study they conducted on cities in the “rust belt” or, the postindustrial Northeast and Midwest regions. The goal of this study, the Industrial Cities Initiative (ICI), is to “identify policies and programs that promote (or inhibit) economic growth and vitality in industrial cities.” While Rockford was not included in this study, the results are of relevance to this city which, like cities across the Midwest, has grappled…

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The Problem of Property

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There’s been a lot of controversy about the Bundy Ranch situation, and like basically every other high-profile news event, there’s an awful lot of hype associated with it. I’ve been following the story, but I haven’t dug into all the details. However, this article from the Mises Institute is a thought-provoking exploration of property rights in the West. While the 19th century “Wild West” was in some ways an excellent example of anarcho-capitalism, this freedom was eventually overshadowed by the federal government’s intrusion into the West and its claim on much of the land. Just as one could point to the…

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Transform Rockford: Consensus or Compromise?

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After my previous posts about the Transform Rockford movement, I’ve been asked about the organization’s process to create consensus during their visioning sessions. To recap what I previously explained…at the meeting I attended, we were asked to write down the top 10 things we would like to see in Rockford’s future. Then the attendees were split into groups of 5 people to narrow down their own vision statements into 5 statements for each group. I was going to try to explain the details of the process, but it is confusing unless you actually do it. The process goes, generally speaking, like this: your…

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Thoughts on Transform Rockford

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After attending the last Transform Rockford community visioning session last night, I wrote a post describing the event. For the sake of brevity (or my feeble attempt at it) I didn’t really give much commentary on the organization itself. I am never short on opinions, so I know my readers would be disappointed if they didn’t get to hear my views on Transform Rockford.  As an introduction, I’ll admit I went to this meeting with much skepticism. I didn’t want to actually make a judgement without attending at least one event, but I was cynical, to say the least. The event turned out to…

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Reflections on the Debate

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To preface this, I enjoyed live blogging the debate last night! Here’s my live blog post if you want to look at it. It was so much fun that I’m looking for another event to live blog, so let me know if you have any suggestions! In hindsight, I think it would have been helpful to give more details as to what was actually happening, to better contextualize the statements. But it was a good first attempt! What the live blogging did for me was capture my thoughts as I had them, so today I can just run through my comments…

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Creation vs. Evolution Debate: Tonight!

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For those who haven’t heard, Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis will be debating Bill Nye the Science Guy tonight. You can read more here. Note: When I give a name and colon afterwards, I’m loosely quoting the general statements of the presenters. If it is an exact quote, I’ll put it in quotation marks. My own side comments are either addressed to a specific presenter or put in parenthesis. [liveblog]    If all goes according to plan, I will attempt live-blogging the debate, so check this post tonight for updates. I am bit disappointed the whole event will last only 2.5…

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Review of Austrian Scholars Conference 2012

This was my first time attending ASC. Since I won’t be able to attend Mises U this year, I decided to try ASC instead. I really liked it. Why? As appropriate for an Austrian Scholars Conference, it was more scholarly than Mises U. For instance, at almost every meal during the event, everyone at the table would end up talking about economics, philosophy, politics, etc…in some kind of serious way. I don’t remember this happening at Mises U, although maybe I just didn’t sit at the right tables. 🙂 I felt like I was getting the inside scoop on everything…

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