Madison Media Digest: Extreme Weather, Racial Disparity, Public Spaces

Here's what we were reading while sheltering from the weather (until the Internet went out, anyway). 

Extreme weather

Dane County spent the week dealing with extreme weather, including tornadoes on Tuesday and Wednesday. Verona’s County View School sustained a direct hit, and the Verona Press reports the school suffered multi-million damages. Blogger Deke Rivers at Caffeinated Politics has some pictures of damage from Madison’s East Side. The Willy Street Blog says residents near Orton Park want to repurpose some of the downed trees into natural play structures, asking that the city slow removal of trees.

UW-Madison was spared Tuesday, but hit hard by Wednesday’s storms that knocked out many information services on the campus (including Madison Commons). Meanwhile, State Journal editorial cartoonist Phil Hands sought to forestall at least one line of argument related to the wild weather. The Madtown Traffic Blog has some background on the emergency sirens that you may or may not have heard. Those more localized changes are actually part of policy sought by the county, which wants to use proximity rather city boundary in emergency response.

Racial Disparities

Cap Times editor Paul Fanlund introduced the newspaper’s website on Racial Disparties, "Together Apart." The website takes a multi-faceted view of race relations in the city, both historical and current. PBS reported on racial disparity in Madison, this week. The newspaper’s cover story this week was on use of the N-word, especially in Madison schools. 

Looking at racial disparities in health, Capital City Hues published a column from the UW Carbone Cancer Center pointing out that cancer is a leading killer among Dane County’s African Americans. The Cap Times talked to critics and supporters of the Dane County Health Department’s Share the Room, Not the Bed campaign, which targets co-sleeping as a means of reducing infant mortality. In Wisconsin, the infant mortality rate for African-Americans is nearly four times that of whites. Ruth Conniff writes in The Isthmus that cuts to education funding create disparities in access to extracurriculars, as wealthier students can afford private lessons.

Public Spaces and Public Dollars

Rev. Alex Gee’s church, Fountain of Life, has started construction of a private park that he envisions as an important gathering space. The State Journal’s editorial board is thrilled with the opening of Central Park in Madison.

The School board adopted a $402M budget with a smaller property tax increase than originally sought, although that may change based on health insurance projections. MGE seeks to hike prices on light users of electricity says the Cap Times’ Mike Ivey. Dane County home sales fell in May. Meanwhile, could Scott Resnick be the next person in charge of Madison’s finances as mayor.