Willy Street Must Reopen

Today marks the tenth day of the occupation and closure of Williamson Street and Baldwin Street following the officer-involved shooting and death of Corey Ruiz. I shared an update about this tragic incident and the ongoing independent investigation by the WI Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation in this section of last weekend's weekly updates post. 

Last weekend, I could never have imagined that the occupation and closure of Willy & Baldwin by peaceful protesters and mourners would stretch on this long. I interpret this persistence as a reflection of the pain and frustration folks are feeling at the death of yet another community member at the hands of law enforcement. The space has also become a refuge for unhoused people to have a place to sleep and access to food and porta potties. It's no secret that Madison has long struggled with persistent race-based gaps in criminal justice system outcomes and with unsheltered homelessness.

In the meantime, alders have received many emails from Willy and Baldwin residents, businesses, and workers who describe their feelings that the City has abandoned them by tolerating the encampment and its impact on their safety and standard of living. The stories in their emails emphasize significant concerns about their own personal safety and that of the folks living at the encampment, especially given the fact that it lies behind protester-constructed physical barricades fortified with parked vehicles and planks of wood stuck through with upward-pointing nails.

I have personally been receiving more emails from alarmed Eastsiders with each passing day. This situation cannot continue. Beyond the very real safety and health concerns for people behind the barricades, the costs to the City are rising quickly as City agencies work round-the-clock to try to maintain safety, with a lesser police presence, and to find shelter options for the unhoused people at the scene. The City has at times placed City vehicles along parts of the barricade to prevent vehicle-into-crowd violence that has taken place elsewhere, contributing to unplanned overtime costs. Today, Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway gave a media interview during which she shared that the costs related to this encampment are “roughly in the hundreds of thousands of dollars", and rising with each passing day. These unexpected costs come during an extremely tight budget year when we already need to be concerned about City expenditures breaching the State's Expenditure Restraint Incentive Program limit, which would forfeit several million dollars in vital State aid.

The barricades must come down. What that looks like, I don't know yet, because situation is very sensitive and an overreaction by the City could easily result in a response where this situation repeats itself all over again. The individuals living there must be offered shelter options, the space must be cleaned up, the street must reopen, AND we need to find a more appropriate place and manner to memorialize Mr. Ruiz. The current situation has become a distraction from the work of finding strategies and seeking policy solutions to the very real social problems at stake.

Resources: 

• This City FAQ webpage provides more information about the City's response and the answers to related questions, including “Who should I contact about criminal justice reform?"
• Here is a statement from Mayor Rhodes-Conway this afternoon calling for the encampment to come to an end
• Here is the most recent statement by the alder who represents the Willy/Baldwin area, District 6 Ald. Davy Mayer
• Here is a recent news release announcing that our community's first permanent, purpose-built homeless shelter will open on September 1st, and here's a link to the Shelter Friends of Dane County's website with information about how community members can help
• Public Health Madison Dane County has additional resources for those who need help