Update on Gun Violence in the District

Most of you have probably seen the news about last night's tragedy at the Harmony Apartments in District 3. We heard the sirens before I found out what happened last night. I grieve for the victims involved, their families, and the youth in their friend circles and at school - all of whom will need our understanding and compassion while they heal. 

I’ve been in touch with MPD repeatedly since the incident and am hoping they will have more news to share about their search for the suspect soon. I’m working with Public Health's Violence Prevention staff to organize a meeting at the Harmony for their residents to gather, grieve, and discuss what changes they want at the property to make it safer and more supportive. I’m hoping we can pull this together in the next week or two. I'm also meeting with MMSD leaders later this week along with a few other alders who have struggling properties in their districts.

Many District 3 residents have shared their own grief for the fifteen year old victim who passed way last night and many are concerned about what we can do to improve the situation at the property. Because the City did not help finance the Harmony Apartments, state law allows the City very little authority to direct the management of the private property (note: I learned that the City did waive park fees per a City policy, though that doesn't give the City additional authority over management). That’s incredibly frustrating for me because there are some changes we know would help.

The Assistant City Attorney who works on these cases for the City told Royal Capital (owners of the property) today that the City is gravely concerned and is considering next steps. She shared a list of improvements that we urgently want to see at the property that should help make it more secure and supportive. I asked for two items to be added to that list, and they were included: the installation of benches and garbage cans to create a better-maintained and adult-supervised environment around the property, and second, programing and activities to engage the kids and and foster a sense of community and neighborliness in a supervised manner. Those will cost the property owner money. They committed to providing a safe space with activities and programming and four years later that just has not happened. It’s up to them to demonstrate their commitment to their tenants’ safety with these improvements. I’ve tried to do some work of my own on programming at the property: I secured a weekly Library Dream Bus stop for the Harmony this fall and I'm hearing from the Dream Bus team that their weekly Thursday afternoon stop now also incorporates a visit with MPD's Youth Community Officer Victoria Wickersheim and has become a good connection point with the kids. But that was my effort, the Dane County Library Services team's, and MPD’s, with no help from the owners of the Harmony.

I also asked the City Attorney’s office for help because I think we need to consider changing the qualifications we use to determine a Chronic Nuisance Property. Issuing a Chronic Nuisance Order for the property would compel the owners to make a good-faith effort to abate the nuisance activities and demonstrate progress, such as by implementing the security and programming items on the Assistant City Attorney’s list in order to vacate the Order. Currently the City can declare a chronic nuisance if there are “three enforcement actions” (like arrests) related to nuisance crimes within 90 days. I want the City to consider treating homicides more severely than other nuisances in this process because a homicide, especially involving a minor like happened here, is a terrible tragedy that have to do our best to prevent prevent from ever happening again.

This has been the biggest challenge of my short term so far. I know that emotions are high and we need your patience. Folks are asking for more information and for a community meeting about this. I’ve shared what I know so far in this post. The most important use of MPD officers’ time right now is to focus on their case and investigation. Outcomes from the case may change the property’s eligibility for the Nuisance Order. On the requests for a meeting, I’m discussing with officers a Coffee With A Cop-style meeting in a bigger space than usual about the gun violence we’re seeing here, how we’re responding to it, and the challenges of doing so. This also happens to be the already very full City budget season when city officials and agencies (including MPD and Public Health) are focused on and busy with budget hearings for amending and adopting the City’s 2024 budget. All of this is to say that we have some scheduling details to work out with a lot of people in order to hold such a community meeting. I will share those details in a future blog post as soon as I have logistics ready to share.