Allied Drive Neighborhood Says Hold On Mayor Dave, We’re Not Done Yet!

Mayor Dave says Madison has no more troubled neighborhoods, and data will prevent future problems. Allied Drive Neighborhood disagrees.

Here’s Mayor Dave Cieslewicz at the People’s Candidate Forum:

And Allied Drive Response:

An Open Letter to Mayor Dave…..The Allied Reality

We, as members of the Allied Dunn’s Marsh Neighborhood Association and co-sponsors of the “People’s Candidate Forum” held March 22 at the Barrymore Theater, are gravely concerned with some of Mayor Dave’s statements from that night. We want to go on record as questioning your commitment as Mayor to this neighborhood and other similarly struggling neighborhoods in Madison.

Several questions we asked the candidates that night dealt with issues that concern communities of color and neighborhoods with a significant portion of the population living poverty like ours in Madison and Dane County. We were surprised by many of your responses and we were disappointed that you took personal credit for work in Allied that has been done collaboratively. We were particularly troubled that you readily dismissed the fact the vast majority of Allied residents continue to be burdened by the challenges of poverty and lack of opportunity. While we’ve made some strides to improve the quality of the housing stock and engaged more residents in moving forward, we know we are not finished. Just because the Mayor has declared victory over poverty in Allied, doesn’t make it so.

When asked about how to address issues of racial disparity and affordable housing at the forum, Mayor Dave, you talked a lot about the redevelopment approach used in Allied. While City staff have been generally willing to have dialogue with us, the outcomes we have achieved to date have been achieved precisely because we, as neighborhood leaders, have worked tirelessly to improve Allied by building a sense of community as well as continuing to hold the City accountable so that WE remain involved in prioritizing and decision-making for OUR neighborhood. As citizens of Madison—and one might say a Madison that stands in stark contrast to the City that most politicians see—we demand on-gong commitment to Allied and other similar neighborhoods in this City, regardless of who wins the Mayor’s race.

We would also like to take this opportunity to set the record straight about what the “Allied Approach” has involved and give credit where credit is due.

Despite your claim that we no longer have troubled neighborhoods in Madison, we know from our personal experiences that we still do. Allied is definitely improving, that is true. But there remain many neighborhoods in Madison that require the attention and resources of the City—Darbo-Worthington, Wexford Ridge, Truax, Vera Court, and South Madison come to mind. We ask that you listen to communities of color and other communities plagued by poverty in this city to find out where they are and what they say they need to improve their neighborhoods.

You mentioned that you and staff worked with the neighborhoods for over a year, to make sure that we got it RIGHT when we redeveloped Allied. You got SOME things right, perhaps, but simply upgrading housing does not stabilize or automatically improve a troubled neighborhood. Actually Mayor Dave, the work is still going on and we are not done yet. As a matter of fact, it seems the City’s commitment to the work of the Allied Area Task Force (AATF) has faded over the last year and the neighborhood feels like you are ready to pull support of this valuable group. The work in this re-development process has been going on for over four years and needs to continue. It started during Alder Ken Golden’s tenure and has continued with the incredible advocacy and hard work of Alder Brian Solomon over the last four years. It also includes County Supervisor Carousel Bayrd, representatives of Fitchburg City government and both the Madison and Verona school districts, as well as many committed residents and community service providers. We contend that the prevention of gentrification of this neighborhood and maintaining housing costs as affordable as possible ONLY happened because of the continued monthly advocacy of this body and the leadership of Alder Solomon.

Yes, we’ve maintained affordability in the first phase as you mentioned, but we are concerned about the next phases of the Allied redevelopment project. Again, the level of affordability that we achieved with Phase 1 was only attained because of the relentless work to explain to the city what “affordable” actually means to residents such as those who live in Allied. But as of late, residents have been frustrated with the decreased commitment to the residents in regards to subsequent phases of redevelopment. Phase 2 is about home ownership but without the commitment to the AATF, education/assistance as promised has not occurred with the residents who are interested in this option. Again, there is a question as to how affordable housing in Phase 2 and Phase 3 will actually be—there is still a risk of gentrification if this commitment is not continued.

You referenced the Neighborhood Indicators Project that will allow us to find early indicators, early warning signs, of stress in neighborhoods. Presuming the City has these tools, we have not seen how the City will use this information to make policy and resource allocation decisions. Again, with the recent challenges of the decreased economy, loss of jobs, high unemployment in these neighborhoods, we think there is more the City can be doing and we wonder about the upcoming commitment after April 5. Additionally when you, Mayor Dave, talked about jobs for the City of Madison, they all seem to be geared toward high-tech and jobs that require a 4-year degree. What is being planned for job creation for residents in OUR communities?

You claim we can build on the successes with the “Allied Approach” to create more affordable housing. We would like more information. You talked about Allied and Truax projects that the City of Madison has committed to over the last four years. But our challenges are this—there is not enough TRULY affordable housing in these neighborhoods and others similar in Madison. We have not heard much from the City in regards to eviction prevention with increasing risk of nation-wide foreclosures and there has been decreased commitment to Community Services funding that can help stabilize at risk people in housing. We also look to the Mayor’s commitment to the “People’s Affordable Housing Vision” after April 5 as well.

This is the chance for Allied Drive Dunn’s Marsh Association to state our case before April 5. We are looking for Mayor Dave’s response and commitment to our neighborhood, along with many other similar groups that seem to be on the fringe of the City’s attention in these challenging times.

Selena Pettigrew
President, Allied Dunns Marsh Neighborhood Association

For additional information on the “People’s Candidate Forum” and quotes from the Mayor in regards to this response, see John Quinlan’s video: http://vimeo.com/21389422