With all of the budget talks about if there should be a Westside Planning Council and our annual attack on the funding for the Planning Councils in general, I couldn’t help thinking about the high profile of a group I’d never heard of at the recent Neighborhood Conference. What exactly is Madison Neighborhoods, Inc.?
I asked several people involved in Neighborhood Associations, no one seems to know. No one seems to have heard of the organization until the Neighborhood Conference. Not good for an organization that “operates as a forum for the sharing of experiences and knowledge towards cooperative working relationships among citizens, staff members and elected officials for the strenghtening of our city through the promotion of neighborhoods.” I gotta ask, what do they do? And why did the City decide to give them a “Neighborhood Leadership grant” in 2004? How much did we give them?
Their “newsletter” sheds very little light on who they are or what they do. About all I know is their post office box number and that their board of directors has 1/3 of the 6 seats vacant, including the seat that represents the Southside and Westside. Members include Daine Calhous (Eastside), Dorothy Borchardt (Northside), Mike Kohn (Business Associations) and Bob Gibbons (At-Large).
How does a group like this get such a high profile in a Neighborhood Conference? And what do they do? Will we hear from them again?
