It’s so obvious. So, I’ll be the bad guy, again.
Homeless people (which must mean they are drunk) = bad.
Epic employees drinking = good.
Ok for traumatized kids to be next to a bar, just not a homeless shelter?
Cheap vodka and ice beer = bad.
Bourbon and mint Juleps with silver cups = good.
I wonder if they really mean that they will have a “menu so as not to exclude anyone.” I have 150 friends I can send over for lunch on one of the days when it is -25 degrees out and the library is closed.
In case you haven’t caught on, I’m talking about this. a building that has sat vacant for 5 years in the downtown but couldn’t be used for a warming shelter again . . . so it can become an upscale “brunch with fried-green tomatoes and baked oysters, shrimp and grits” kinda place.
Don’t worry, no one will be excluded.
Our communities need to get sober. Addications are in everything, including money and power. There are more bars per square inch in Madison than any other city, I am sure. We need to care. We need to come together. Many who live without in Madison, we my teachers. Learned more than any epic employee could teach me. Thank you for being the bad gal. More of us need to wake others up, out of their comfort zones, including the ability to stay drunk, on coffee, food, and drink from businesses. We need more community spaces, that are free. Free to gather. Freedom of movement between on cities. More 24/7 hacker spaces, gathering points filled with public that care, not police. Our healing project is grand and great we need more public buildings to be ours, not just for commerce and profit.
If they are your friends, you should strongly discourage them from spending the winter in Madison when they don’t have a place to live. Giving them a sleeping bag and a tent and hoping for the best is not helpful. We have homeless shelters in Madison, but you can’t stay in them forever and you have to abide by the rules. Are you suggesting unlimited stays and no consequences for causing problems for others? Is that going to be the way the tiny houses are going to be run, with no oversight or rules at all, and lifetime passes? I am sure the neighborhood will be thrilled with that.
This new business is going to employ people and be an asset to the neighborhood. This is a perfect use for a prime piece of downtown real estate and I wish the wonderful people who are going to bust their butts trying to make this business work nothing but the best. This isn’t TGI Fridays moving into a high rise. We are talking about young, hard-working entrepreneurs opening a small business. This is a GOOD THING for YOUR neighborhood, Brenda, and this is exactly the kind of thing you should have been fighting for when you were alder.
Did you read what I wrote in any way shape or form, I was talking about the DAYTIME shelter and said didn’t say anything about rules or tents or time limits. I was making a comment about how the daytime shelter couldn’t be in this spot because it was homeless people and there were traumatized kids next door – but now that its going to be a bar for upscale people, apparently everything is A-OK for traumatized kids next door. You have to admit, that is a little odd, no?
My understanding is they are opening a restaurant, with a coffee shop and wine bar attached, and I don’t know what “upscale people” are, but I don’t think they are going to have a dress code or have you fill out income information before they let people in. I’m pretty sure you and I, as well as your friends, will be able to get in, even if we aren’t dreaded drunken Epic employees. Warranted or not, the concerns about the day shelter were addressed and the day shelter happened, so why hold a grudge now when something positive is being done for the neighborhood?
After 3 years there still is no permanent daytime shelter
I understand that, I just don’t see a relevant connection between that and a new restaurant. This site was never intended to be a permanent daytime shelter.