2022 Operating Budget, Violence Prevention, Truman Olson Groundbreaking

Hi friends and neighbors,

Here are meetings and events you may find worth checking out.

2022 Operating Budget

The Finance Committee will be discussing amendments to the 2022 Executive Operating Budget at its meeting today at 4:30. I am cosponsoring several amendments: Expanding Monroe Street Library Hours; Hiring a Real Estate Specialist Position to increase staff capacity to implement the City's land banking strategy; Hiring a Digital Equity Coordinator to increase digital access for marginalized populations; Create a Violence Prevention Team within Public Health; and Staff two Community Connector Positions to address language barriers.

You can find all the details for the Finance meeting including a link to register here.

For information about additional meetings scheduled for this week, please consult the City Meeting Schedule online here.

Events, activities, seminars, etc.

• Join Focused Interruption Founder and CEO Anthony Cooper Sr as he hosts David Muhammed, Executive Director of the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, for a conversation about the Gun Violence Reduction Strategy, which has reduced gun violence by up to 60% in cities across the country since 1996. Stop the Shootings - End Gun Violence in Madison: Gun Violence Reduction Strategy will take place on Tuesday, October 26, at 6:30pm virtually via Zoom. Register here.
• The Madison Police Department is now accepting applications to the Community Academy. The Community Academy is a program designed to give the public a working knowledge and understanding of the values, goals, and operations of the City of Madison Police Department. The objective of the Academy is to help build a positive relationship between the Madison Police Department and the community, while improving the lines of communication with the members it serves. This experience allows community members the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of our Police Department. Click here for more information, including the required application and waiver forms.
• City staff will be discussing the Downtown BRT line and station locations at a virtual public information meeting on Thursday, October 28 at 6:00 p.m. You can also view recordings of past meetings:

           October 7th - 30% Eastside East-West Line Routes & Stations
           October 14th – 30% Westside East-West Line Route & Stations

Fourteen02 Groundbreaking

This morning was a cold, windy and yet very joyous moment celebrating the official groundbreaking of the Truman Olson project, now known as Fourteen02, the future site of 150 units of permanent affordable housing and a full-service grocery store to serve all of South Madison.

Here are my remarks from this morning's momentous event: 

Welcome to Madison's beautiful and diverse 13th District, which I have the great honor and privilege of representing. Back in early 2019, when I was first campaigning for the office of District 13 Alder, things looked much different than they do now. Things were bleak. The owners of the Pick 'n Save business had made it clear they wanted out, and the owners of that property had made a tentative deal to sell the land to SSM so SSM could build their new clinic on that site.  That meant by November 2019, there would be no grocery store serving the South Side.

A food desert would ensue in South Madison, and it seemed nobody had solutions to this injustice. There was talk the City could offer subsidies for home delivery of groceries or taxi rides for shopper to visit stores in other parts of the City, but I for one found that unacceptable.

Residents of South Madison deserved better and, in fact, demanded better. They organized a "Save Our Supermarket" campaign, bringing home the point that demolishing a grocery store to build a health clinic was an unwise and unjust choice, given the fact that access to healthy food is among the recognized social determinants of public health.

Upon my election, I determined that avoiding a gap in grocery services would be at the top of my agenda, that we as a City needed to do everything in our power to make that happen.

And here I need to give credit to Damond Wainwright, SSM's regional president at the time, who with his staff made the difficult but very key decision to locate their new clinic on Fish Hatchery Rd. Everyone came together, an expedited RFP was issued and by the end of 2019 the City had selected Rule Enterprises as our developer.  Rule joined with Movin' Out shortly thereafter and here we are. 

Brandon and Megan, I know there's a lot of hard work ahead of us, but I just want to say thank you for all your hard work to date.

There have been challenges and delays but I'm very grateful for the hard work by City staff -- Dan Rolfs, George Reistadt, Julie Spears, Kevin Ramakrishna and Matt Mikolajewski, in particular, in helping us get to this point. I want to thank my predecessor, former District 13 Alder Allen Arntsen, for his wise counsel and advice. I also want to thank my colleague, Alder Sheri Carter, whose wisdom, experience, and good humor helped us keep our eyes on the prize. And I want to express my gratitude to Mayor Rhodes-Conway, who never faltered in her support for this project. 

As much as I've looked forward to this day of ground-breaking, I'm even more excited for that day in which we will gather again to cut the ribbon on this amazing project -- 150 units of much needed permanent affordable housing and a full-service grocery store on the future BRT line serving all of South Madison!

Congratulations to everyone involved for the important step we are celebrating today.

Take care and stay safe,

Tag