Politically, that is. My alder, at the last minute and without consultations with anyone, wants to up-zone it tonight at the plan commission . . . which is making me think again what a disaster this situation is. It’s definitely an only-in-Madison situation.
BACK STORY
I love my neighborhood, I rented on Butler St. for a year, I rented on Franklin St. for 4.5 years, I bought a house and lived on 500 block of E. Mifflin St. for 11 years and now December will mark 3 years in our new house on Hancocks St. That’s almost 20 years living in a 2 block radius. Needless to say, I love the neighborhood.
I just didn’t live in my neighborhood either, I was president of the neighborhood association for a couple years, have been a member of the neighborhood association since at least 1994, I served as alder for 8 years and now, I’m back as a neighborhood representative for the neighborhood. So, I’ve been a leader in my neighborhood for nearly the whole time I have lived in my neighborhood.
My neighborhood is also pretty painful to deal with. We have 4 representatives to the neighborhood association. Myself, Lupes Montes and . . . Cliff Fisher (developer) and Erik Minton (developer). And our alder is Bridget Maniaci. Of the 5 of us, 3 of us have run for alderperson. Erik ran against me in 2003 (I won by 80%) and then Bridget, of course, defeated me in 2009. Cliff Fisher, every time he drives by my house flips me off. I haven’t really talked to him in years and don’t even know why he hates me, he just does. And he makes every meeting I try to attend unbearable. Lupe Montes was the only one to complain when we had a neighborhood block party to get more people involved. Erik Minton is actually the most pleasant of the bunch to deal with.
Erik Minton is the current president of the neighborhood association. He hasn’t called a meeting since last February. I don’t think he actually even lives in the neighborhood. Nothing gets posted to our neighborhood listserve about meetings. He wasn’t even a member for many months when he got elected president. There is no real will to have a neighborhood association, this whole thing is just about control. About being in a position of power when needed. And perhaps keeping it dysfunctional so that we have no power to speak up for the neighborhood.
CHARACTER OF OUR NEIGHBORHOOD AND PLANS FOR DEVELOPMENT
It appears, our alder is asking the plan commission to zone our neighborhood higher, so that the buildings can get torn down and we can look like all the new buildings going up in the Bassett Neighborhood. We. are. not. the. Bassett. Neighborhood.
The character of our neighborhood is actually quite diverse, we have everything from 950 sq foot houses to the Butler Plaza (owned by Erik – he also developed the Arcadia and the Odessa.) That is what is kinda cool about it. We also have a few really bad examples of how when you move a house to save it, its doesn’t really fit into the neighborhood, it stands out as being kinda strange. We also had the house that was up on blocks for too long, waiting to be moved. It’s a bizarre, eclectic little area of about 11 blocks that is a transition zone. We’re sandwiched between E Washington and the Johnson/Gorham raceway – but its a little peaceful area with a lot of character and charm. Clearly I believe in it enough to have purchased two homes here. It’s got a ton of potential.
However, our alder doesn’t quite see it that way. Well, maybe she sees potential, but the potential she sees is to tear it down and build more Pinkus McBride projects and Stonehouse (City Row) development projects. Unaffordable housing that is for young professionals like herself. Its not at all what we have talked about for years in terms of development for the neighborhood.
I thought we had kind of settled on the theory that we would build big buildings on East Washington and largely leave the rest of the neighborhood alone and when there was development, whatever was build that was new would have the same mass, character and style as what was there. Front porches, 1 – 3 stories, dense development.
BRIDGET’S PROPOSAL
Without having a neighborhood meeting . . .
Without asking the neighborhood representatives . . .
Without sending something to the neighborhood listserve . . .
Without mentioning it at the Capital Neighborhoods meeting . . .
Ignoring the input for the Downtown Plan . . .
Our alder has decided that our neighborhood should be essentially up-zoned.
And, I might add, this meeting to discuss this didn’t get the agenda up until well, 23 hours ago according to my gmail.
from: noreply@cityofmadison.com
reply-to: noreply@cityofmadison.com
to: brendakonkel@gmail.com
date: Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 11:04 AM
subject: [Additions to Weekly Meeting Schedule] Posted on: 9/26/2012 11:04 AMADDITIONS TO WEEKLY MEETING SCHEDULE
Meeting: PLAN COMMISSION
Date: 9/27/2012 5:30 PM
Location: MADISON SENIOR CENTER, 330 W. MIFFLIN ST.
Here’s the agenda.
There’s tons and tons of documents and unless you have devoted your life to this for the past few years or have a hired lobbyist to track it for you, its not going to make any sense. Here’s the document that they will be discussing. According to someone who was paying attention, this memo came out on 9/21, or just 6 days ago.
Here’s the info we have about it:
14) Subarea 19 – James Madison Park Neighborhood
Alder Maniaci recommended changing the area outlined below from DR1 to DR2. The area recommended for DR1 in this area includes 158 properties on 14.8 acres, and currently has a combination of R5 and R6 zoning. There are a total of 530 units in the area, mostly in single, two, three, and four unit buildings. The recently adopted Downtown Plan recommends maintaining the existing character of the James Madison Park neighborhood. Specifically, Objective 4.10 in the Plan states:“The James Madison Park neighborhood should accommodate a mix of dwelling units, some of which are suitable to families with children. The renovation of existing houses coupled with selective
redevelopment that generally reflects the scale and rhythm of the existing structures should help reinvigorate the area, provide a variety of housing options (including workforce housing), and
strengthen linkages to the adjacent Tenney-Lapham neighborhood.” [emphasis added]Staff believe that the DR1 district is a more appropriate designation for achieving this objective. The application of DR1 is consistent with the mapping methodology, as it best represents the existing development pattern. Within the DR1 district, new multi-family buildings with 5-8 units would be reviewed as a conditional use, whereas in the DR2 district, they are a permitted use. Also, DR1 as drafted has a maximum building width (see item #5 of this memorandum), while DR2 does not.
DR1 as recommended would not preclude redevelopment in this area over time, but would ensure conditional use review for buildings with over four units, and may better maintain existing scale and rhythm than would the application of the DR2 district. If future redevelopment proposals consistent with the Downtown Plan require DR2 zoning, a rezoning to DR2 could be requested and considered at that time (this type of request might be easiest to support along North Hamilton, Butler, and Gorham Streets on the northwest edge of the neighborhood, where the Downtown Plan recommends allowing for relatively higher density development).
STAFF RECOMMEND: No change.
CONCLUSION
I’m feeling blindsided, but not surprised. I’m feeling unrepresented, but not surprised. Thanks to the people who have been following this and gave me a heads up a this weekend. But how does an elected official recommend to make this kind of radical change without consulting the neighborhood people who live there, the representatives of the neighborhood association or the neighborhood association members? Wouldn’t you think this would merit a neighborhood meeting?
That is, if our alder had any respect for the people living in the area or wasn’t so arrogant that she didn’t believe she was the only one that knew what is best for us. I ask again, who is she representing? The developers? Or the people who vote for her? (With the 2 notable exceptions – developers largely do NOT live in our neighborhood)
This is not what is right for the neighborhood. It goes against the planning that was recently done for the neighborhood and it ignores years of discussions about these very issues. It’s disrespectful representation of the people who live here. Leave the neighborhood as the staff suggest. I hope the plan commission follows their recommendation.
Erik Minton is a creep. He makes (or used to make) prospective tenants put down a month’s rent with a rental application. I looked at and liked one of his apartments, and put down the deposit (which I never should have), and then had second thoughts. So, while the rental agent was still checking my references (and I had cell phone messages to prove it), I indicated that I was no longer interested. They refused to give me my money back. After several visits to the TRC, months of letters from the several law students who helped me out, phone calls (one from Minton himself, trying to make a “deal” with me), and my threats to take it to court, I finally got all but $150 back. But that’s $150 that Minton legally has no right to, but I would have had to have spent $85 or something to go to court, making it not worth it to me. Like I said, a creep who takes advantage of poor students.
Brenda – I hope that you will have the decency to post this
since you’ve lobbed some pretty nasty comments at some of your neighbors. I
caution you that it will be long, but it needs to be. Your attacks on others are pretty commonplace
on this blog. Normally I’d just chalk it up to your personality and let it go.
But I have to respond to this one because you decided to take a shot at my
wife, Lupe Montes.
I think that it is telling that you point out the names of 5
people, then go on to explain how 4 of them have serious personality flaws,
complete with little jabs and digs along the way. Imagine that. According to
you, you are the only rational one. But
that’s not my only reason for writing. I think that it’s only fair that your
readers see some of the rest of the story.
1. Lupe was not the only one to complain about the
“neighborhood block party”. I discussed it with one of the organizers
when he first circulated a petition. The petitions were originally circulated
around student move out time. The Mifflin Street fiasco was still a fresh
memory and I told the petitioner that I couldn’t sign the petition because I didn’t think
having another block party was a good idea at that time. I also had concerns
that the petition signers likely wouldn’t be even living in the neighborhood
for the party they were approving.
Even so, I would have been OK with it had it been handled
better. After the petitioner stopped by
our house, I never heard another word about it. No publicity. Nothing. Then one
Friday night I came home from work. It was a quiet late afternoon on our block.
Several new tenants were moving in, but all else was quiet. Around 6:30 I went
out on my porch to get a pizza flyer and saw that a sign had been put on the
terrace in front of our house. It wasn’t there when I first got home. It stated
that there was to be no parking and the street was closed by police order, beginning
the next morning. It was a little more
than 12 hours before our street was to be shut down and this was our first
notification as home owners on the block.
Had the pizza flyer not been on our porch, we likely would have learned
that our block was shut off after it was already closed.
I learned from a number of people in the neighborhood that
you were one of the strongest advocates for a block party. I find it interesting that one of your
initiatives kept some neighbors in the dark about the closure of their street.
To make matters worse, the day of the block party, I saw at least two instances
of students with their parents trying to figure out how they were going to
unload their cars. Clearly they were learning for the first time that there was
no parking on their new block that day. There were no flyers on the light posts and
nothing distributed on the doors. There were no mailings and nothing was posted
on the official James Madison Park newsgroup.
You rail on and on about lack of prior notification for city actions
that impact constituents. Yet one of
your pet projects shut down parking for students moving into the neighborhood
and closed a street to residents with virtually no prior notice. But if a
neighbor shows displeasure at how it was handled, you use it to try to label
them as “unpleasant”.
Hypocrisy be thy name.
2. I note that you made the comment about Erik not being a
member of CNI when he was elected president. I don’t know whether that is true
or not. Ironically enough, when Erik was elected president, as a neighborhood representative you weren’t at the meeting to raise an objection. I know. I was
there. And, when your own CNI term came up for election this past June, you
didn’t show up for that election either. In fact, as I understand it, you
haven’t shown up for a CNI executive council meeting for months and months. I
also note that you paid your CNI dues on July 2nd. That would be after the
election that you didn’t bother to attend. But, then again, there have always
been 2 sets of rules in your world – one for the things that you want and another set
for those things that you don’t want.
3. Finally, it is really disappointing to see the attacks on
your neighbors in a public forum. Those attacks certainly don’t promote a
“functional” neighborhood, if that’s what you truly want. If you meet
my wife halfway, you’ll find her to be very pleasant. Lupe volunteers for a
number of things in the neighborhood. She genuinely likes people. She is very fond of many of the
people in our neighborhood and on our block. She even worked as a volunteer at
the TRC a while back. She could tell stories about that. But she hasn’t because
she still believes in the idea behind the center and has no desire to broadcast
things that she sees differently than you.
So – here we are again. You’re upset with your alder’s
recent actions. For the record we are, too. You take it as an opportunity to
attack your neighbors and rip on the neighborhood that you say you love.
Perhaps you feel that if you disparage your neighbors it will improve the image
or the sense of community in the neighborhood. Perhaps you are just angry that
you can’t always have your way. Perhaps you are the only true beacon of virtue
in the neighborhood. And perhaps the rest of us are just unenlightened rubes
keeping you from saving us from ourselves. But you do need to realize that
attacking others in a public forum colors people’s opinions toward you, Brenda.
It’s a shame that you had to attack Lupe in this post. Not
just because it’s unfair. And it is unfair. You said that you were at the planning
committee meeting the other night. So was Lupe. She didn’t see you there. But
she did stay and brought along a friend from the neighborhood. Both spoke out against the actions of our alder.
Perhaps you could have worked together on behalf of the neighborhood. Finding
common ground is a good way to understand and relate to others. Despite your
differences, I imagine that Lupe would have been willing to work with you on
that. Perhaps she still might be. She’s a better person than me.
But, you didn’t stay and speak for the neighborhood you say
you love (assuming you really were there). You left early, fired up the
computer and went on another vitriolic rant against our neighborhood, this time
attacking neighbors that you don’t like. Well, you’re right Brenda. There are
some people in our neighborhood that are really unpleasant. Look in the mirror
and you’ll see the leading example.
Brenda,
I appreciate the love and compliments of course, but there are some factual errors in your recollections along with creative concepts of your involvement and inclusion of other point of views. I do not doubt your commitment to the neighborhood, but other’s have made equal or greater commitements as well.
Your suggestion that I do not live in this neighborhood is riculous. I have lived here since 1991, except for 2 years during the construction of Butler Plaza. This is my only residence and not really possible to interpret differently. My children have and do go to Lapham School and now Marquette Elementary School. I have invested nearly 30 Million dollars in this neighborhood and worked here for nearly 20 years. I employ nearly 100 staff in this neighborhood and have remodeled and restored numerous houses in this Neighborhood. I too, along with Cliff Fisher and others have equal time and commitment to this neighborhood as you do. It seems that there is a creative look at your own commitment, along with an unusual weighting of your own perspective. I too, have participated in Neighborhood meetings in this Neighborhood for more than 15 years.
There were 5 noticed meetings held in the fall of 2011 through January 2012. You attended none of these meetings. The final two meetings were attended by only Lupe and myself, along with Alder Maniaci. She actually did attend all of the meetings. The space where we met is no longer available, and due to the lack of interest in attending, I let Cliff Fisher and Davey Mayer know I was not interested in organizing the meetings further. I believe it is a stretch to say that most people feel the neighborhood should not change or progress, but quite contrary to that, there has been a general feeling that the progress has been good. There has long been a total lack o
lack of, or shortage of quality housing choices in the neighborhood. I, Cliff Fisher, Phil Hees and others have worked energetically to bring new housing choices to this neighborhood, despite the apparent disdain you hold for any developers. I don’t mean to condone Clifford’s responses to you, though you have held your opinions out as the only authority, with little notice to those of us doing the work and “walking the walk” When I moved here 22 years ago, there was very little positive to say about this neighborhood. You underestimate the work involved in this transition, yet there is little doubt the progress has benefitted the area. This neighborhood can only now be described as truly diverse.
As a long term resident, I do look forward to continued progress. It is not accurate to say that the general consensus is to maintain the neighborhood “as is” Alder Maniaci has done a fine job keeping an open mind to this progress and has worked diligently to include the neighbors opinions as well. They just may differ from yours.
Respectfully,
Erik Minton