I’ve been on vacation this week, so that’s why the blog has been a little sparse and erratic with the postings. Also, there will be no blog tomorrow because I will be up north camping, so here’s the weekly round up, a day early.
EDGEWATER
Jay Rath does a good job of telling the “secret” story of the Edgewater and how it is developing. While the public sits in the dark, Alder Maniaci is having weekly meetings about the project and the Mayor is being heavily lobbied about plans most have not seen, yet many support. And meanwhile, where are those lobbying reports from last year? I told the reporter I had been lobbied in November and December, but checked my calendar and it started the 1st week in September. Just how much money is being spent on these private meetings? And to hear the tale told, some of these meetings come complete with dinner. I’d love to see the how much they’ve spent so far. At least maybe we will get a partial report in July now that they registered 6 months after the lobbying began. More on the Edgewater here. And a student/neighborhood perspective here.
SOGLIN COMPLETELY MISSES THE POINT, AGAIN
Soglin defends the Edgewater group’s right to have private meetings. I don’t think anyone said that they couldn’t have private meetings. That misses the point. They were touting their 225 meetings as if they had worked things out with the neighborhood, or at least that is how some of the commenters had interpreted it, and I just wanted to make it clear that wasn’t the case. No one said they couldn’t meet. It just kinda sucks when there are 225 and less than 10 are with the actual neighborhood association and they are actively excluded from the other 200 meetings. And attempts to meet with the developer were pushed off repeatedly.
DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL TOMORROW
REV. JAMES C. WRIGHT HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD
The Madison Department of Civil Rights (DCR) is seeking nominations of individuals who have served the Madison community in the area of civil rights for the Annual James C. Wright Award. The Award is presented annually at our Summer Diversity Picnic, which will be held on July 16, 2009. Individuals should share Rev. Wright’s dedication to and compassion for civil and human rights and conduct their daily life consistent with these values. The nomination deadline is June 26, 2009, award criteria and nomination forms are available on the Equal Opportunities Division’s website at: www.cityofmadison.com/dcr.*Members of the Department of Civil Rights, its staff and/or volunteers will not be eligible to receive the award.
Please contact Annie Weatherby-Flowers at the Equal Opportunities Division of the Department of Civil Rights at 608.266.6577 with questions or other requests for information.
OH, NOW NON-PROFITS ARE IMPORTANT
Anyone see the irony in the Mayor’s latest call for ideas from Non-profits for his Mayor’s group? This, from a Mayor who is has a city attorney working 60% time trying to figure out how to tax non-profits that provide low-income housing and other non-profit groups, won’t consider more than a true cost of living increase for the groups as health care costs and gas prices rose leaving them to scramble to cover increased costs and even considered giving away the entire non-profit funding process to United Way so that he wouldn’t have to deal with it in the budget. This is the mayor now getting credit from Obama and seeking good ideas which he can what, take credit for? Barf.
ASM FINALLY STEPS UP
After all these years, they are finally doing something on August 14th/15th to help the temporarily homeless students. It’s about time!
ASM initiated the event entitled Move Out Night. It is essentially to give students a place to stay between the gap in leases and show property owners that this is an issue that greatly impacts the lives of students. Beginning on August 14th through the morning on August 15th, the SAC will be open 24 hours. During this period there will be free food, entertainment, a raffle, Wii, and an ASM sponsored movie on the study steps.
You can join a facebook group here.
IS MADISON MORE BUSINESS FRIENDLY? WRONG QUESTION? WRONG WAY?
So, is the goal to be business friendly? If it is the goal, what will the results be? What is the city trying to achieve? I agree, we don’t want to be chasing businesses out of Madison, but what are we trying to do? What are the bigger goals? A city with a high quality of life? How is that defined? And can we have a city with a high quality of life and be business friendly at the same time? If we just give away lots of money to keep businesses that are already here, what do we accomplish? If we let developers develop whatever they want without regard to the people who live near, will they really want to still live there? (I know I was glad to move away from that piece of crap in my old backyard.)
Even worse, the whole measure of it we are business friendly seems to be how many events we hold to have elected officials get buddy-buddy and drink with the business community. Is that the goal? To make people be friends? Why not build professional relationships? Through professional discussions about matters that are important. Educating each other on issues, helping businesses understand government and helping government understand businesses with facts and figures and discussions that are open to the public. Wouldn’t that be a better methodology?
THE IDAHO STOP
After the recent death of the bicyclist at Baldwin and Wilson, there have been many discussions about what types of actions need to be taken to prevent this from happening again. Not blowing through stop signs and wearing a helmet, highly advised! But beyond that, there are other issues, sightlines are bad at that corner and cars are speeding. Proposals to improve the intersection include 4 way stop, traffic calming islands, painting on the street to indicate there is a bike lane or drawing attention to the intersection with a mural type painting. One of the other proposals is to adopt an ordinance similar to Idaho state law, where bikes can treat stop signs like yield signs. While all the suggestions are interesting, I wonder if any of them will actually happen. I know that portion of the bike trail sort of freaks me out, both while on bike and while driving my car. I hope they are able to work out some solutions before someone else gets seriously injured or worse.
WE GOT OUR RTA, NOW WHAT?
Is anyone else more than a little nervous that it is the beginning of another decline in bus service for those who use the buses? As the bus service expands to other areas of the county, will it mean that there is less service to Madison? How do we make sure that doesn’t happen? What guarantees can we get?
DON’T CELEBRATE TOO QUICKLY
While some might want you to believe that the non-profit property tax exemption issue is resolved, it isn’t. Non-profits that rent to other non-profits will still be taxed (Social Justice Center) and there is still the issues of taxing mixed use housing and non-profits that grow too large. Issues outlined here.
Ok, that’s it for this vacation week. My blogging will resume to normal next week.
