A short, but action packed week ahead, here’s a round up of issues going on . . .
TERRENCE WALL KICKS OFF HIS CAMPAIGN
Well, at least voters will have a very, very, very clear choice. Russ Feingold, considered by many to be the best of the best. Principled, clean campaigner, not in it for the money, etc, etc, etc against Terrence Wall, who is currently being called a tax dodging, liar (Or, not good with honesty if you prefer). What I find interesting is the credit he takes for what has happened on the Common Council here locally. That’s apparently his major accomplishment. I wonder how members of Smart Growth Madison feel about this?
HATIN’ ON MARGE’S BP
Well, yes, the stock in the store has decreased considerably. I wonder if anyone bothered to talk to Marge (yes, there really is one). I’m guessing she would say that the East Washington reconstruction was tough on her business and she’s been slow to recover. While its not ideal, I’d hate to see them go out of business as it is one of the few places downtown to fill up. Other choices being the gas station on 1100 Willy St, one on Atwood and then the PDQ on Johnson/Commercial.
NO MORE COAL
Finally, we crawled out of the dark ages and will be burning cleaner fuel on the city’s near east side. I always used to marvel at how dirty my old “white” house used to get. I wonder if we will actually be able to see the difference.
MAYOR DAVE DOESN”T GET IT
Yeah, how is that news? It’s just that sometimes, he REALLY, REALLY, tragically embarrassingly doesn’t get it. It’s just extra sad when he does it on an important day.
MINI-EDGEWATER ROUND UP?
– Disco came back? Sure, get rid of the 70’s facade, but for $16M? To benefit a owner who didn’t follow through last time they made a deal with the city? And at the price of allowing more insensitive lakefront commercial development?
– The Daily Cardinal doesn’t see the Edgewater development as important as the Mayor does:
Well, there was the Edgewater saga, which concerns a building that in all likelihood no current UW student will ever use or probably even see to completion, even if it does get built. On top of that, the project has a nasty habit of dying and then resurrecting itself. It’s more anticlimactic than Lord of the Rings.
– Daily Cardinal catches students up on the Edgewater.
– Developers LOVE changing the laws to smooth the way for them to do whatever they want. Note, the ordinance won’t be considered tonight, they will be introduced for further discussion. I hope this doesn’t become the new “compromise” we do with development projects.
– Here’s the schedule the staff put out for the Edgewater project. Note, they have it not going back to Landmarks and several issues will be dealt with “later”. The neighborhood meeting will be on 2/4 and they don’t mention the fact that they are approving TIF and this isn’t in a TIF district.
CAMPUS PAPERS ARE BACK
And kudos to the Daily Cardinal for taking on the racial disparities in the criminal justice issue.
THE OTHER CARDINAL IS BACK, TOO
It’s so good to see fundraisers happening at the Cardinal Bar again! I was at an event there in December and am looking forward to having events there again. Thanks so much to Ricardo for all the work he has put into the bar and bringing it back for us all to enjoy. Here’s an event coming up:
Benefit for Haiti Relief with
– Bonobo Secret Handshake
– Aniv de la Rev
– VO5 and
– DJ TriniTuesday, January 26
8 PM, Cardinal BarSponsored by Cardinal, Madison-Arcatao Sister City Project, Community Action on Latin America (CALA) and the Madison-Camaguey Sister City Association.
Proceeds will go to Doctors Without Borders Haitian Relief Fund.
Welcome by WORT-FM
To see more details and RSVP, follow this link.
IT’S NOT ON THE WEEKLY SCHEDULE YET, BUT . . .
Transportation to be discussed at Downtown Coordinating Committee (so, no link yet)
Thursday, Jan. 21 at 5:30pm at Room 108 of the City-County Buildin
NEW BUSINESS
A. Madison Metro – Kamp
GENERAL DISCUSSIONB. Parking Ramps & Meters – Knobeloch
GENERAL DISCUSSIONC. High Speed Rail/Multimodal Station – Sollinger/Miller
GENERAL DISCUSSION
MILWAUKEE PAID SICK LEAVE AT COURT OF APPEALS TODAY
Milwaukee’s paid sick leave ordinance, which was overwhelmingly approved by voters last fall, is being litigated by the Chamber of Commerce. The case will be at the Court of Appeals
tomorrowtoday (1/19 at 10am).
AFFORDABLE HOUSING TRUST FUND
Well, interesting, from Michael Schumacher:
I’m recommending placing the almost 3 year old Affordable Housing Trust Fund Proposed Amendment (#57, 06811) on file without prejudice for a technicality. After consultation with the City Attorney’s office and a member from the Affordable Housing Subcommittee, on which I serve as well, the simpler step is to reintroduce a clean version on 2/2/10 of the recent work done by the Housing and AH subcommittees.
Therefore, next steps will be to finalize the work at the AH subcommittee, obtain approval by by the Housing and CDBG committees, and have it come back to the Council.
I have two thoughts. One, is that I hate to lose the legislative history of the last three years and this is a really weak excuse. Technically, it won’t be lost, just harder to find. On the other hand, if Schumacher and the Mayor need to remove any record of my name off this to stop stalling and make the simple changes that should have been done three years ago so that we can use the money for affordable housing projects, fine. And go ahead, take credit for all that work too. Just freaking do it! Quit stalling!
MORE ON THIS LATER
Chamber of Commerce and business community loves their ineffective leader . . . really? You’d think they’d want someone who was doing a better job.
PROMISES, PROMISES
Broken promises.
