3 day Partial Round Up

March 19, 2010 1:26 pm

I’m a bit behind on the blogging . . . meetings til 11:00 and midnight two nights in a row will do that.

UDC ON EDGEWATER
I haven’t finished my post, but Kristin nails it pretty good. Or should I say, “good enough”. 🙂 What bothered me, which you will see when I am done, is that Brad Murphy the Planning Unit Director told the UDC that they had to look at the PUD standards and find that the project met the standards. The standards were never mentioned once in the discussion. The other stand out of the meeting was that only one member thought the project was a “masterpiece”, while the others were less blinded by the intense lobbying efforts and more realistic. Hopefully I’ll finish that post over the weekend, but I have two meetings tomorrow and an event to go to on Sunday afternoon.

I GUESS IT DEPENDS UPON YOUR PERSPECTIVE
Did UDC do the right thing? I think they were just sick of it. Check this out, on my previous blog post someone tries to argue that the item I posted was in fact appropriate.

Seems pretty silly given the actual view from the top of the building.

MOLLENHOFF ON THE EDGEWATER
This is a good read. An error or two, most notably, the Council put the TIF in the budget, but have not yet approved the final TIF amount. In fact, I checked with Joe yesterday, they still don’t even have a TIF application. Nonetheless, the question at the end of the story is what haunts me about the project.

ROB’S LINK
It’s Friday, so I’m letting Rob take another crack at making my blog more interesting. He says “Carry On: This just blew me away! That is talent.”

WILL THE EDGEWATER GO BACK TO LANDMARKS
Bridget Maniaci said she would request it did, but that it was up to the city attorney (all the way at the end.) Hopefully, since it is Friday, we might hear today. Stuart Levitan makes the argument for why it has to go back:

Personally, I believe the current plan is different enough that the Council can’t act on our initial denial. I don’t see how the Council can “modify the decision of the Landmarks Commission” to produce an entirely different plan. Also, when the applicant was obviously able to make such a substantial alteration, how could the Council find that “failure to grant the Certificate of Appropriateness will preclude any and all reasonable use of the property and/or will cause serious hardship for the owner…”

UNITED CITIZENS AGAINST CITIZENS UNITED
There, all better. And Citizens United are still dead wrong.

DO YOU BUY THIS?
Homeless not welcome at the Capitol 8 – 10? Do you buy the reasoning? Does it really take two hours to clean up the dirty needles before the fourth-graders get there? Sounds like a stretch to me.

A LITTLE CHALLENGE TO THE MAYOR
Yesterday I applied to be on the Housing Committee for the City of Madison. There are currently three openings, so it will be interesting to see what happens. And, unlike Blathering Blaska, I’m serious about wanting to be appointed, not just trying to make a political point, and I have background that could be useful. My year of silence is nearly over and given that I’ve already helped fix one ordinance and have repeatedly been asked questions by committee members at meetings I’ve attended, it just makes sense. We’ll see if the mayor thinks so.

WYOU MEETS ITS NEW NEIGHBORS
I like this idea, can’t wait to see the final product.

MEETING SCHEDULED AT LAST MINUTE CANCELLED DUE TO LACK OF QUORUM
What a surprise. And waste of people’s time. Cnare and Schmidt were the only ones to show up. Skidmore was sick, Eagon had class, Rummel resigned (maybe?) and no word from Bruer and Clear. We’re told by staff that they now can’t meet until April 22 or so. A month away.

IS THE CITY’S PROCESS BROKEN?
Steve Steinhoff looks at some projects and how the process works.

WHERE SHOULD THE TRAIN STATION GO?
WisDOT has a survey out looking for input on rail planning, and there is a general comment section at the end where you could address the station issue. Let them know what you think!

MATC PARKING LOT RETURNS
Wow, I think that might be the first time I linked this source. It’ll be back at Plan Commission on April 12.

IF YOU SEE SMOKE ON THE ISTHMUS
Don’t panic, it could just be that they are doing a controlled burn along the bikepath between the Yahara and the Blair. I’ve heard about it a couple times, but have not yet seen finalized plan.

IDEAS FOR GOOGLE FIBER
Lukas has a link to a good video about how Madison could use Google Fiber. 🙂

I AGREE WITH BRIDGET AGAIN!
Why do I think that when we agree we’re going to be as successful as Zach Brandon and I were. Sigh. This one makes me laugh a little, the woman quoted in the article is a good friend, Rob was the best man in her wedding. I was the one who told her to go ahead and have the party, after all, who on Gorham St. is going to complain about noise on a Saturday afternoon, right? It sound like good advice, especially after you go around the neighborhood knocking on doors and telling people about the party and making sure there are no concerns. But no, someone had to be a buzz kill. And I was wrong. Glad to see this is being addressed, I just wish it wasn’t in connection with Mifflin St Block Party, that’s going to make it a little tougher politically.

MORE BAD NEWS FOR THE HOMELESS
And a sign of the times . . .

On April 1, 2010 Porchlight will be closing its housing waiting list. We will not be accepting new applications and will be returning applications received after 3/31/2010.

There will be a few exceptions to this new policy:

We will continue to accept housing applications for the following programs:
● Sober Living (singles)
● Veteran Transitional Housing (singles)
● Housing First (families) program is through Sun Prairie and Madison School District-school social worker must refer household to Porchlight)
● Single Women without children

Applications currently on the waiting list and those received by 3/31/10 will continue to be placed on the waiting list, processed, interviewed rejected or accepted.

The reason for this policy is the large number of current applications on our waiting list.

Please contact Porchlight staff if you have questions 257-2534.

So much for the safety net.

ANTHONY BROWN

Jonathan Gramling at the Madison Hues does a thoughtful piece on Dr. Brown. And for those of you looking for information about services:
Visitation Time & Location
Friday, March 19, 2010, 4:00 – 7:00 PM
Mt. Zion Baptist Church
2019 Fisher Street, Madison Wisconsin 53713

Dinner: Holiday Day Inn (Fourier Drive)

Service Time & Location
Saturday, March 20, 2010, 11:00 AM
Mt. Zion Baptist Church
2019 Fisher Street, Madison Wisconsin 53713

NOTE: There will be no parking at Mt. Zion Baptist Church or the side streets near it tomorrow Saturday March 20. People attending the visitation and funeral tomorrow are asked to park at the Villager Mall. Shuttle rides between the Villager Mall and Mt. Zion Baptist Church will begin at 8:45 a.m. and continue until 5 p.m.

Burial Time & Location
Saturday, March 20, 2010, 3:00 PM
Roselawn Memorial Park
At 401 Femrite Drive, Monona, Wisconsin 53716

ANOTHER SCHOOL BOARD FORUM

There are some MMSD budget cuts that are being considered which could have an adverse impact on students of color and efforts to diminish the achievement gap. Please give serious consideration to attending this forum!

Thursday, 25 March School Board Community Forum

A community forum for candidates of the upcoming Madison School Board Election is scheduled Thursday, 25 March from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at new Urban League of Greater Madison’s Center for Economic Development & Workforce Training located at 2222 South Park Street, Madison.

This event is sponsored by the African American Communication and Collaboration Council (AACCC)

The event format will provide each of the four candidates an opportunity to make an initial statement concerning qualifications, vision and why they seek to serve as a member of the Madison School Board. The remaining time will be dedicated to responding to questions presented by African American community leaders and members of the audience.

All individuals who are interested in the success or our children are invited to attend and participate.

PROM DRESSES
Who ever thought you’d read about prom dresses on my blog. I know it stressed my family out as I tried to find the cheapest dress I could find and still look like I was going to prom. Sorry, no photos! But I can tell you that even tho it was the 80’s, I didn’t have mall hair.

UW Madison’s Panhel Sororities has been working the the Jr. League of Madison for an event called “All Dressed Up.”
The event is offered to any student that would like a free dress for their prom/homecoming etc. They have shoes and accessories as well.

This year they have over 3,000 dresses, over 20 dressing rooms, and raffles for gift certificates for nails, pedicures, make up, and hair appointments donated by Panhel sororities.

All Dressed Up (Free dresses, shoes, accessories, and raffles)
Saturday, March 20th, 2010
8:30am – 2:00pm
at Madison College, Truax Campus
for more information, please contact Maria Lopez at Lopez3@wisc.edu

VOLUNTEER AT WORKERS INDEPENDENT NEWS
Workers Independent News (WIN) needs your help! WIN needs volunteers who are willing to give 2 hours a week to help expand the impact of the WIN news service around the country.

Workers Independent News produces news each workday focusing on the issues and concerns of working people. Our news is distributed nationally on broadcast radio, via podcast, via cell phone.

WIN has just launched a new 15 minute Internet based newscast.

WIN headlines and the new program can be heard at www.laborradio.org.

Here in Madison our news is broadcast on WTDY at 6:57 AM and on WORT at 8:00 AM.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!
We have two types of work that needs to be accomplished:

1) Data base management and acquisition: using the internet to research people, unions and companies and entering those names in our database using excel;

2) Affiliate relations: calling radio stations around the country to see if they currently play WIN and if not, asking them to do so. Scripts will be provided.

Volunteers work a 2-hour shift a week in the WIN office which is located downtown just off University Ave and a block from State St. Many of the WIN staff volunteer or have volunteered with WORT and worked with other social change and nonprofit organizations and unions.

Please call Betsy Lawrence at 608-251- 0327.
Thank you for your support!

Frank Emspak
Betsy Lawrence

VOTE FOR FRUITS AND NUTS!
This came out on Tuesday, but I’m first getting to it now.

Madison Fruits & Nuts Project
Today is the first day of internet voting to determine which communities will be given trees and training for orchards from the Fruit Tree Planting Foundation. Here’s where you can vote for one proposed orchard site daily …

www.communitiestakeroot.com

In Madison we’ve submitted four orchard proposals and nearby Middleton, Wisconsin submitted one too. Each person can vote once a day. Each week, the top vote earners get picked for an orchard. We’re hoping to have all 5 Madison-area sites selected for this spring. Middleton already has 200 votes today! Please consider making it a daily practice to take a moment to vote, and spread around your votes between sites proposed in our community:

-Marlborough Park in the Allied Dunns Marsh neighborhood
-Wingra Park in Dudgeon Monroe neighborhood
-Troy Kids Garden on the Northside
-Eagle Heights Garden on UW Campus
-Bock Garden in Middleton

Please consider sharing this email with your friends and relatives so that they will vote too. Scroll down to view a write-up and total votes as of this morning on the gardens listed. None of Madison or Middleton gardens are the top leaders in the national vote yet! A garden in Bloomington, IN leads with 869 votes.

Did you see Madison Fruits and Nuts in USA Today last week!? Good press for urban fruit! There is a photo of our fabulous Jess Bullen Memorial Orchard at Quann Garden in South Madison.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-08-fruit-trees-city-park_N.htm

Think fruit,
Janet Parker for Madison Fruits & Nuts