9/11 - 9/17 Updates

City meetings continue to be mostly virtual with details listed in City Meetings of Interest below. Common Council meetings are hybrid so the public can attend in person or via Zoom.Stay in touch with your neighbors through either Capitol Neighborhoods, Inc.  or Campus Area Neighborhood Assoc .***There are three sections to this week's update:

1. Downtown Safety Updates
2. Capital Budget Hearings
3. Downtown Updates
4. City of Madison Updates

Downtown Safety Updates

The past few weeks when students came back to campus saw an increase in campus safety issues. We had the horrific assault 9/3, gunfire on W Gilman 9/2, and a bar raid at Church Key where 100 fake IDs were confiscated. Whilst the gravity of these instances reached the point of making local and even national news, I find it important for us to remind ourselves that assault, gunfire, and other alcohol and substance abuse issues impact downtown, especially our youth on a daily basis. Of course there are many lovely people at the city from first responders to traffic engineering who are doing great work at reducing safety issues and have seen some results.

Nonetheless, I continue to work with staff on policy and budget changes to better address these issues. If you have any specific public safety issues you would like to address, please send me an email at district2@cityofmadison.com

Capital Budget Hearings

This week the Finance Committee heard from city agencies on their capital budget requests for 2024. You can check out the mayor's blog on her 2024 Executive Capital Budget here. The full Capital Budget can be found here.

2024 Budget Schedule

Budget | Finance, City of Madison, Wisconsin

• For the next few weeks Mayor Rhodes-Conway will evaluate the agency requests before releasing the Executive Budgets
  • Sep 5th Capital Executive Budget
  • Oct 3rd Operating Executive Budget
• Mid-September: Agencies present their Capital budget to Finance committee.
• Early October: Agencies present their Operating budget to Finance committee.
• Mid-November: Council Adopts the budget

Keep an eye out for the Operating Budget to be released. I will be working on sharing some of my budget highlights over the week. In the meantime, check out the Capital Budget Hearings of 9/11 and 9/12 here If you have anything you would like me to focus on, email me. 

Downtown Updates

Traffic Safety 
I'm happy to report that several traffic safety improvements in District 2 will be considered at the Transportation Commission meeting tonight. These improvements are based on requests submitted through the Safe Streets program. 

• E Johnson St at N Pinckney St - installation of RRFB (Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons)
  • Proposed to increase pedestrian crossing safety 
  • Estimated costs $20,000
• W Dayton at Lake St - installation of bike lane green dashed through intersection.
  • Proposed to reduce bike crashes
  • Estimated costs $3000

Please keep in mind that traffic safety improvements are often generated based on resident communication. For example, the E Johnson and N Pinckney improvements were based on a constituent reaching out to me and staff to share their concern with this street. If you would like to report a traffic safety concern, please reach out to me or Traffic Engineering, traffic@cityofmadison.com.
 

Survey (DUE THIS FRIDAY SEPT 15): Brayton Lot – Block 113 Future Redevelopment - RFP process:
The former Brayton Parking Lot, (Block 113) in Downtown Madison is a 2-acre site in the First Settlement Neighborhood three blocks from the Capitol Square. The future of this site has been addressed in multiple City adopted plans over nearly 30 years. These plans have been consistent in their vision for the scale and massing of future buildings and several policy and regulatory measures have been put in place to realize that future. Now, the community has a unique opportunity to implement those plans, as the City starts to look for future development partners through a public process. Visit the website for more information (adopted plans, PowerPoint presentation and more):

• • https://www.cityofmadison.com/dpced/planning/brayton-lot-block-113/3907/
  • Take our survey to find out your priorities for the site. Survey closes on Sept 15: www.surveymonkey.com/r/Block113

Save the Date: Mansion Hill Neighborhood Association Meeting 9/28 at 5:30p

At this meeting, the NGC Hospitality will join us to discuss their adaptive reuse proposal to reimagine the former Madison College site as 126 loft style residential and hotel units. 

CORE Spaces Johnson and Broom Development

Last week CORE Spaces joined the Campus Area Neighborhood Association in a postcard meeting on their new development. You can watch the meeting here. CORE intends for their official submission to be toward the end of September. Please make comments on the design and anythign else before then. You can submit comments to urbandesigncomments@cityofmadison.com and pccomments@cityofmadison.com. 

Save the Date:

• UW-Madison Homecoming Parade Oct 6th 6-7p

The annual homecoming parade will take place October 6th. Langdon St will close 4p and ends at about 7:30p. Please bare in mind any disruptions or read closures. 

• Madison Night Market, 9/14 5p - 9p 

Downtown alders including myself, Alder Govindarajan (D8), Alder Verveer (D4), and Alder Rummel (D6) alongside city staff will have a table at this weeks night market. We hope to see you there!

• Madison is Music, 9/14 - 9/17

• WI Student ASLA Park(ing) Day, 9/15 2:30p - 5:30p

WHAT IS PARK(ING) DAY?Park(ing) Day was started 17 years ago to spread awareness about landscape architecture to the public. This year's theme is "Pollinator Places" and we will be working to educate the public about pollinator communities, their habitats, and how we can assist in creating thriving ecosystems for them, both in landscape architecture and in their everyday lives. We'd like to thank all of our sponsors for supporting this effort by providing materials and financial assistance to make this day a success!
 

• Habitat for Humanity Frame Up on the Square, 9/16 9a - 1p

The event is a "Frame Up" for Habitat for Humanity, where preregistered participants will build the walls of a Habitat for Humanity home in the street. This event is meant to raise awareness of the organization while the frame of a Habitat home is being built.

• Woof's (R)octoBEARfest, 9/16 2p - 11p

Block party with music by Union Road, 4-11 pm, 9/16, Woof's/100 block of King Street. Donations benefit GSAFE.
 

City of Madison Meetings and Updates

• Transportation Commission, 9/13 5p

  • Agenda Item 5: Safe Streets Madison (see above on traffic safety improvements in District 2)
  • Agenda Item 9: Update on 2024 Department of Transportation Capital Budget
• Public Hearing – Proposed December Service Changes, Wednesday, September 27 – 6:00 pm: We’re holding a virtual public hearing with the Transportation Commission to discuss possible service change adjustments for December.

Like the adjustments that we recently made, these are not large-scale adjustments. A few of our routes have struggled to stay on time and others still need adjustments to better connect to other routes.
We still haven’t seen how the new service operate on a full service day when UW, MMSD and other schools and campuses are all in session. With that first day coming on Tuesday, we may see a need for other adjustments that we’ll either try to work into service changes in December or else during our next driver pick in March.
Official public hearing feedback can be submitted ahead of time by calling (608) 266-4466, emailing mymetrobus@cityofmadison.com, or by filling out an online form at mymetrobus.com/feedback. All feedback submitted ahead of time will be considered in the same way as feedback provided at the hearing itself.

• HUD-Approved Homebuyer Education, Saturday, September 16, 2023: Take the first step to owning a home, and join us in this Home Buyer Education Workshop. This FREE HUD-Approved homebuyer education workshop takes place in person and lunch is provided. For more details and to register, follow link. This first time home buying workshop cover the following:

  • how to find the right hom
  • how to apply for a mortgage
  • credit improvement tips
  • how much you can afford and more!
• Trucks & Treasures, Saturday, September 16, 2023: It's a big rig gig... TRUCKS and a kids-to-kids garage sale... TREASURES! This event is free to attend and happens rain or shine. It's perfect for kids of all ages. Be sure to bring cash, if you'd like to shop from the treasures.
• Bird & Nature Adventures | Starkweather Creek Area, Saturday, September 16, 2023: Bike The Creek with Kacy Zander and Friends of Starkweather Creek ~ Join Kacy Zander and other Friends of Starkweather Creek for a guided bike tour or take a bike ride on your own any day in September to look for native wildflowers along the greenways, parks and yards beside Starkweather Creek. Bring your bike or rent a B-Cycle at a nearby station at Goodman, Blue Plate Diner or Garver Feed Mill.
• Willy Street Fair, Saturday, September 16 - Sunday, September 17: TWO days: round out the summer festival season with the best local vendors, food, bands, beer, and people! **Please leave your dogs at home--thank you!
• Bird & Nature Adventures | Warner Park, Sunday, September 17, 2023: Enjoy an informal family and kid-friendly nature walk around the scenic Warner Pond lagoon and across Castle Creek to discover the wetlands, woods, and prairie in the Wild Side of Warner Park and the birds and other creatures that call it home! Walks at Warner Park held on the 3rd Sunday of every month are co-sponsored by Madison Bird City FUN partners Wild Warner and Madison Audubon . Meet at the colorful Warner Park shelter by the lagoon. Parking is available nearby. No registration is required. No pets are allowed.
• Movie at The Glen | Minions - The Rise of Gru, Sunday, September 17, 2023: Grab a blanket or bring a lawn chair and head over to The Glen for yard games and a movie! All are welcome!

Save the Date!

• Jeff Erlanger Accessible Playground at Rennebohm Park Ribbon Cutting, Wednesday, September 20, 2023, 11am: Madison Parks Foundation and Madison Parks invite you to a Jeff Erlanger was an amazing person who seemed to connect with everyone he encountered. He met Fred Rogers, his childhood idol, when he was just 5 years old and in 1980, at the age 10, he was invited to appear on the award-winning television series, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. Jeff went on to graduate from Memorial High School and Edgewood College. After graduation, he worked as an intern for Representative Tammy Baldwin and Senator Russ Feingold. Jeff died at just 36 years old in 2007. Upon his death, the Mayor and City Council created the annual Jeff Erlanger Civility in Public Discourse Award in honor of his commitment to community-building advocacy.