Madison Media Digest: Government, Public Spaces and Community

Here’s what we were reading while wondering who actually won Madison’s Ironman.

Government

Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney says collecting data on racial disparities in law enforcement will cost significant money. The City Council moved to accelerate a raise for employees unable to bargain for wage increases. Dave Glomp says the Midtown Police Station, delayed in Soglin’s budget, can’t wait. About 20 people attended the Dane County Board meeting this week to oppose cuts in funding the Tenant Resource Center. The council also unanimously overrode Soglin’s veto of a liquor license for a State Street restaurant. Soglin is asking neighborhoods to make sacrifices for the Judge Doyle Square project. The Judge Doyle Square project requires 13 exceptions to an 18-month old city policy about Tax Increment Financing. The Mayor predicts a close vote.

Public Spaces

The city will look at condemning six buildings on Mifflin and Bassett Streets to build a new park near the UW campus. An owner of one of the buildings objects to the plan. The push for a park is part of the Downtown Plan, which says the area is significantly underserved when it comes to parks. One Madison resident thinks the park is a waste of money at a time when cash is tight. Chris Rickert says trading cheaper housing for park space just exacerbates the shortage of housing options for people making less money.  The Blair Street Gardens at the bottom of Willy Street will be renovated this fall. The Marquette neighborhood is concerned about the environmental impact of a state storage building. Businesses around Madison formed the Blue Water Business Consortium to protect what they see as one of the state’s most valuable shared assets.

Community

The State Journal took a deep dive into bike and pedestrian crashes, noting that fatal crashes have declined over the last two years. The School District’s director of youth and community engagement, Nichelle Nichols, plans a listening tour of schools. About 3,000 people turned out in thunderstorms on a rally to “Take Back the Bike Path” following the rape of a UW-Madison graduate student on the Capital City Trail on last Saturday night. Participants of MGE’s Community Conversations series are critical. Fiesta Hispana is recapped in Spanish on Madison365, and Willy Street Blog calls this year’s Will Street Festival was “the best fair in years.”

Edgewood College’s Community Scholars Program encourages service. The East Side History Club is raising money to reprint a book of photos about the history of the Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara neighborhood. Literacy Kitchen uses the dumpling to help teach about different cultures. The designer of the new Orpheum sign tries to track down the original from the 1920s. Madison365 profiles Eric Upchurch, a social justice advocate and member of the YWCA and Young Gifted and Black Coalition. Madison’s comedian and transgender activist Dina Nina Martinez is starring in a locally filmed webseries.

Also, Neil Heinen of Madison Magazine thinks you should be reading us more.