Less regurgitation of things you should know, more attitude! 🙂
BIGOTED FLASHBACK
As my co-worker and friend Megin McDonell says on my Facebook page “hello? 1999? is that you? can you come and get your talking points, please, and take them back to your own century? thanks.”
Apparently, we’re going to have the debate about if Section 8 causes crime, again. What’s so galling is that is that it is the landlord’s responsibility to screen their tenants just like any other tenant and if they find the tenant to be a problem – for a reason other than that they receive Section 8 payments to help pay their rents – then it is up to them to deny them. What I find concerning about the police department’s current desire to map where crime and Section 8 vouchers might line up, is that it presumes that Section 8 somehow causes the crime, instead of recognizing that maybe, just maybe, those are the only landlords they can get to to rent to them because the other units are too expensive or they are being discriminated against. Another facebook friend notes “Of course, there’s never any drug use, alcohol related violence, sexual assault, battery, theft, etc. happening at other concentrations of government assisted housing in town, i.e. the University.” Good point. The final craziness here is that the section 8 program has their own requirements from HUD related to felony drug offenses and qualification to receive benefits of the program. On a final note, the landlord they are using as their poster child here is not the greatest landlord and I hear many concerns about his dealings. And I do believe he is in violation of the ordinance based on his comments in this article and previous articles on this matter. My personal opinion – not “according to sources at the Madison Tenant Resource Center”
SHAPIRO OUT, MERCER IN
Wow. Somehow, I don’t think this is a very good decision. First of all, I don’t think they can just decide who replaces Shapiro, I’m pretty sure the council will vote on it. Second, I really hope that cooler heads prevail and someone talks some sense into the Tavern League – Mercer certainly hasn’t used good judgment lately, if the Tavern League wants to further alienate themselves, this is a good step, if not, I hope they reconsider.
HOW’D I MISS THIS
What? 12 Monona Terrace employees lost their jobs? Why? Just trying to be thorough, randomly. Do you believe it?
“In many ways, progressive Madison resembles a European-style monarchy. The king is called the mayor, and the council is a group of his advisers.”
That kind of nailed it. This council has a council leadership that is an arm of the mayor. It’s like they forgot there is an executive and legislative branch. The Mayor has 10 staff people, the 20 council members have 2 to share among them. They also all mostly have full time jobs in addition to serving our community. The problem I see is that the Mayor doesn’t have to have all this power. The council could elect council leadership that will represent the council’s interests, not the Mayor’s. The council could take more initiative and show some leadership of their own, both individually and collectively. The Council could work in a more democratic manner instead of letting three guys make all the decisions behind the scenes and then call things “compromises” when 3/4 of the council and none of the community were involved in the discussion. Sigh . . . I could go on, but I better stop . . .
BONE MARROW DONORS NEEDED
Marrow Donor Registration
Antonio Rieder Drive
Saturday, November 21
10am-3pm
At Centro HispanoAntonio is an adorable 6-year-old from Guatemala who was adopted by a family in Madison. During the fall of 2009, he was diagnosed with the blood disorder aplastic anemia. Antonio’s best treatment may be a bone marrow transplant. The best match for him and other patients of color is an unrelated donor from the same ethnic group. That’s why his family is encouraging donors from all ethnicities to join the Be The Match Registry.
You could help save a life.
Contact Todd Coleman at (866) 702-HOPE Or todd.coleman@bcw.edu
LANDBANKING WORKSHOPS
On November 11th, the Madison Common Council took the historic step of setting aside $5 million to establish a city land banking fund.
But how exactly will land banking work here in Madison? The details are still being worked out, but there is one thing that we know for sure: we increase the likelihood that our land banking efforts will be successful if we do a good job of learning lessons from successful land banking programs in other cities.
Join us for a discussion with two of the nation’s most innovative land banking experts from Denver, CO. Aaron Miripol is President and CEO of the Urban Land Conservancy, a nonprofit organization with a mission of land banking, preservation and development of urban property for the long term community benefit. Joining Aaron will be Dace West, Co-Director of the City of Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships, which serves as a catalyst to leverage the best of Denver’s public and nonprofit sectors to engage in innovative and collaborative work.
Aaron and Dace will share their experiences and help build our knowledge base around issues such as:
* Models of land banking, including Denver’s Urban Land Conservancy,
* Developing collaborative projects between city government and nonprofits,
* Incorporating neighborhood needs through Community Benefits Agreements,
* Creating successful transit oriented development.Land Banking Workshops (same workshop both dates)
* Monday, November 30th, 6:30-8:30 PM, at the brand new Urban League Center for Economic Development & Workforce Training, 2222 S. Park St.
* Tuesday, December 1st, 9:00–11:00 AM, at the Madison Municipal Building, Room 260, 215 Martin Luther King, Jr. BlvdSponsored by the Center for Resilient Cities, Common Wealth Development, Housing Initiatives, Madison Area Community Land Trust, Project Home, Urban League of Greater Madison, and the City of Madison.
For more information, go to www.affordablehome.org/landbanking
