Common Council

Updates July 12, 2021

Community

Food carts coming to the parks

This program will provide daily food cart vending in 20 parks around Madison, support community-driven micro vending markets, reduce the barriers to vending in city parks, provide greater food access, and enhance our community gathering spaces.

Alongside the daily vending, the city is currently working with the Latino Chamber of Commerce and the UJAMMA Business Network to support community market opportunities in parks for new, emerging, and established entrepreneurs as they work to connect with their customers and engage new markets using our beautiful city parks as the community-based locations for their events. These markets will begin at the end of July and run through early fall in four parks around the City. The full list of event dates and park locations will be announced soon.

In-person city service desks reopening

The following agencies are currently open for in-person service:

• Assessor's Office (210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. and 1600 Emil St.)

• Engineering Division (210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. and 1600 Emil St.)

• Fire stations and administration office

• Goodman Pool (325 W. Olin Ave.) and Warner Park Community and Recreation Center (1625 Northport Dr.)

• Housing Operations Division (215 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.), open 8am-4:30pm Mondays-Thursdays, closed on Fridays

• Madison Public Libraries

• Madison Water Utility (119 Olin Ave.), open 7:30am-4pm weekdays for limited services

• Metro Transit public office (1101 E. Washington Ave.)

• Monona Terrace (1 John Nolen Dr.)

• Parks Division (210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. and 1600 Emil St.)

• Treasurer's Office (210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.)

Masks are still required in Metro offices and on Metro busses per federal order for transportation facilities and in the City-County Building through a Dane County mandate. Masks are no longer required in City offices with the exception of the City County Building at 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. due to a requirement from Dane County. Those who have not been vaccinated are encouraged to wear masks in all City buildings.

Follow all city service updates at https://www.cityofmadison.com.

Outdoor art and fitness are coming to a park near you!

See the ArtCart and Fit2Go schedules to find when they'll be in a park nearby. 

Art Cart and Art Cart EXTRA! are free outdoor art programs that travel to parks and playgrounds across Dane County.

FIT2GO provides free drop-in recreation activities throughout Madison. In addition to a variety of games and physical activities, they provide environmental education opportunities to go on nature walks, observe and catch bugs. Make sure to mark these dates on your calendar for when they are at a park near you.

This week: Maxwell Street Days returns

Downtown Madison businesses are excited to share the return of Maxwell Street Days to State Street. This year's event, now in its 44th year, expands from three days to four, July 15 – July 18. 

Maxwell Street Days info, including a list of the 60+ participating businesses

 Madison Night Market returns with a fun update

After a year of virtual events, the Madison Night Market is returning, and this year the event moves onto State Street. Vendors showcase handmade products, local art, artisan gifts, prepackaged foods and fresh produce. The event includes live music, special visiting food carts and pop-up restaurant experiences. The Market will run from 4pm – 9pm on August 19, September 16, October 22, and December 16.

Make Madison an Age-Friendly Community

In late 2019 Madison became part of the AARP Network of Age-Friendly Communities. This was a great first step to making this city more livable for adults 65 and older. However, due to the pandemic, work on this initiative was stalled.

Would you like to help make Madison an Age-Friendly Community? They need volunteers to join a steering committee of community groups, local stakeholders, and residents invested in making Madison a great place to live for all ages. If you are interested in participating, or know of any other people, organizations, or foundations that would like to participate, please email John Weichelt at Jweichelt@cityofmadison.com.

Food Scraps Recycling Program ending

The food scraps recycling program at the Streets Division drop-off sites will end on July 17, 2021. After that date, residents who had been using the food scraps program should instead place the food scraps into the trash, or find alternative composting options, such as available private services or composting appropriate scraps in backyard bins.  

Transit

Public Meeting - New Metro Fare Technology and Policies

On Wednesday, July 21, at 6pm Metro staff will hold a virtual public meeting to introduce and discuss ideas for improving how fares are collected on Metro buses.

Metro is looking at replacing its current system of magnetic stripe card passes with smart tap cards, mobile phone payments, online account payments and fare purchase kiosks located at transfer points and bus rapid transit stations.

New technology and policies are intended to make it easier for passengers to purchase fares, speed up boarding times on buses and replace old equipment. To speed up boarding times even further, staff are also exploring the possibility of no longer accepting cash on the bus.

Virtual Meeting
Wednesday, July 21 at 6 pm

City meetings schedule

City weekly meeting schedule
The Mayor's meeting schedule
The County weekly meeting schedule

COVID-19 updates

COVID data notes

• Cases were stable during this 14-day period with an average of 8 cases per day.

• 79.8% of the eligible population (ages 12+) have received at least one dose of vaccine.

• The prevalence of the Delta variant in Dane County appears to be rising quickly, and it is likely that it will soon be the dominant strain.

• There is regular testing and vaccination hours at Public Health's South Madison Office and East Washington Office. Please see their website for details. 

Resources

• How Can I Talk to Someone About Getting Vaccinated?

• Data Dashboard

• Financial Navigators hotline

• Renter Assistance 

• Close Contacts Now have Quarantine Options

• UW-Madison's rapid testing

• WI Dept. of Health Services Cases by Neighborhood (Census Tract)

• Madison COVID-related news and service updates, Español: COVID-19 and Hmoob: COVID-19

• COVID-19 recovery dashboard, a tool to track local indicators in order to better understand how our residents and community are doing throughout the pandemic.

• Public Health Madison and Dane County COVID data and orders

• Dealing with job loss

• Childcare, food, jobs, housing and low-cost internet access 

• Community-aggregated COVID resources

• From the City's Economic Development Division: Business & Non-profit Information Covid-19