Many questions remain about Big Top's long-term contract at Breese Stevens

The first presentation to the public of a proposed contract between Big Top and the City of Madison was on Wednesday last week. The Use Agreement proposed is for 15 years, with the option to extend for another 5 years.

My kids are 5 and 7 years old. They will be somewhere between the ages of 20 and 27 when this contract expires -- maybe working, going to college, starting families of their own. 

Twenty years ago, Tommy Thompson was our Governor. In 2003, Sue Bauman was the Mayor of Madison, our first and only (so far) woman mayor. At that time, Facebook didn't yet exist.

My point is that 15-20 years is a long time.

 

This contract deserves some scrutiny from the City of Madison, the Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association, and anyone interested in the future of downtown Madison.

The information publicly presented, and re-capped in the recent Wisconsin State Journal article, offers a vision of some of the changes. However, there are many questions not yet answered. Without additional information, it is hard to imagine the full scope of this contract or what possibilities are unexplored.

The Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association meets on February 8th. Members of the council are gathering questions, researching answers, and encouraging neighbors to be in communicating with their Alder, Ledell Zellers. 

The City of Madison Parks Division owns the historic property. The seven members of the Board of Parks Commissioners have the job of overseeing maintenance and acquisition of everything from greenways to the municipal swimming pool to Breese Stevens. 

The Use Agreement is proposed by Big Top Events, a company that will manage the property, pay a lease, and bring in revenue. The City Council will be asked to approve the contract. 

The proposed rental for the next 15 years is stated to be approximately $100,000/year, or $8,333/month. [A three bedroom, 2 bath apartment at the Constellation next door rents for $2,245/month.] There are retail spaces and opportunities for restaurants and vendors within Breese Stevens, all of which would be subleased by Big Top to bring additional revenue.

The following facts were presented by Big Top Baseball in a public listening session on January 24th. 

Click here to download the PDF. My outstanding questions are listed below.

CATEGORY	EXISTING TERMS	NEW TERMS	QUESTIONS
Terms	5 years remaining	15 years with 5 year option
Professional Soccer	No team	2019 Launch of professional soccer team
Facility Improvements	N/A	$1.6 Million invested by city
# of Concerts	6 +1 (Madison Parks Foundation fundraiser)	7-14 (Annual increase in concerts, not to exceed 14)
Concert Decibel Levels	100 dBa at sound board	No change
Non Concert Decibel Levels	85 dBa at perimeter	No change
Curfew	10:00 PM	All events 10:00 PM, except one (1) 10:30 PM and one (1) 11:00 PM
Stage Orientation	Restricted only for concerts to point away from Mifflin St.	Restricted for all events to point away from Mifflin St.
PA System	Existing	New system to better contain sound in facility for non-concert events
Rental Fee	Approximately $30,000/year	Approximately $100,000/year
Ability to Sublease Space Under Seating	N/A	Allowed
Beer and Wine Sales	Allowed for all non high school events	No change
Liquor Sales	Liquor allowed at private parties only	Liquor available at all public, as well as private events, in separately ticketed spaces inside stadium
Free Community Facility Use	Zero events	Eight proposed
Employment	Two full-time employees	12 full-time employees

Some questions that I have:

-How many professional soccer league games will there be per season?

-When will games be held? In other words, weekends or weekdays, and will they be daytime or evening events?

-What will the average ticket price be for professional soccer games?

-What is the average ticket price for concerts at Breese Stevens?

-When does Breese Stevens open for the season? When does it close? How many days of this season will the venue NOT be used? 

-How many total events -- including concerts, sporting events, East High School events, community events, and 'other' uses -- take place during this season?

-How many events take place in downtown neighborhood parks other than Breese Stevens between May and September?

-How does the Marquette Neighborhood Association use the revenue generated from the events they help to run and organize?

-Is revenue from Breese Stevens considered part of the Parks Commission's long-range plan for supporting the 249 parks, 4 golf courses and 1 cemetery that are part of Madison's park system?

- Does the contract contain a provision that increases the rent over time with inflation and cost of living changes?

Do you have other questions?

Please send them to Alder Ledell Zellers and Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association president Patty Prime.

Ledell Zellers : district2@cityofmadison.com

Patty Prime : pprime@gmail.com

 

We missed the train. Now what?

Keep it livable

My summertime travels have included chances to use the commuter rail systems in Chicago and New York. I love trains! So I also jumped at the chance to ride the brand new street car in Cincinnati. 

I'm now back home to the nagging realization that Madison is a long way from a viable, visionary public transportation plan. 

In that light, I think it so important that Madison continues to invest in our network of bike trails and bike lanes. We are a biking city and a biking state! We have that going for us! 

Tenney-Lapham neighbors are doing important work to make the East Mifflin Street Bike Boulevard safer. This will do a lot to make the streets safer for everyone and make it a happier place to live. 

We can keep our neighborhood livable by:

-making it safer for bike traffic by re-orienting stop signs at streets that cross the bike boulevard 

-slowing car traffic that crosses through the neighborhood, like on busy Baldwin Street, by adding raised crosswalks 

-keeping non-residential car traffic off residential streets with tools like 'diverters'

It's a visionary plan! Check it out and contact Alder Ledell Zellers and tell her you support the TLNA recommendations.

Almost shoulda, coulda, woulda

I get close to crying when I think about the high-speed trains that were coming to Madison, but were sent away when Governor Walker decided to lock the state in 20th century mistakes.

Tragically our Governor sent away the jobs and the money, maybe because he is bad at math so didn't understand the real costs, or maybe because he is good at math and gets lots of money from car and road construction project enthusiasts, or maybe he just wanted to screw Madison. Because a city without train service can't evolve gracefully into the 21st century.

Cities big and small are trying to be what put Madison on the map: a walkable, bikeable, livable city. “Madison is 30 square miles surrounded by reality," said Lee Dreyfus, future Governor of Wisconsin, while campaigning in 1978. I believe that was said with pride, though some doubters think it means we are naive to the 'real' American way of life (where cars rule). 

Reality is, Madison has grown and we've gotten stuck at our precocious peak.

Statistics report that people born in America these days are no longer crazy for cars. Turns out these wise, mature young Americans want to ride bikes, join car-sharing programs, spend money on exotic vacations, and live in creative, vibrant neighborhoods. And cities all over the country are bending over backward to attract and retain young people. 

“The goal is to rebalance the public space and create a city for people,” say forward-thinking urban politicians. Cities are developing waterfronts, building parks and bike lanes, and getting the cars off the downtown streets. Basically trying to be as cool as Madison is, was, or could have been. 

Does Madison have to let the streets decline into ugly, noisy, stinky traffic jams, or might we instead choose to retain our glory with some preventative measures? 

Madison is a street-car city by design

The central isthmus core spread outward into the leafy, livable "street-car suburbs" designed and developed for people who wanted to be able to step off the streetcar and walk home. 
In other words, the developers a hundred years ago knew their customers and responded to their demands. A history of Madison's early streetcar system (1892-1935) explains that the developers worked with the transportation system and actually subsidized the construction of the lines. In the case of University Heights development, "the subsidy was in the form of $10,000 in subscriptions paid by Heights residents. In return the trolley company gave the residents free passes to ride anywhere on the system for an entire month." 

At least one street car line was done for industrial economic development. "In 1919, the Oscar Mayer Company paid for a line extension to its East Side plant so that workers could get to and from their jobs more easily." 

Former Mayor Dave Cieslewicz planned to build a streetcar system in Madison and keep the city moving into the 21st century. It was going to be a major uphill battle, but smart urban planners understood the vision and were laying the groundwork. Then for some reason it was made into a joke, called the Trolley Folly. Ten years ago, in 2007, the plan was cancelled.  

Mayor Dave, who is a great student of history and extremely astute, explained his decision to shelve the streetcar idea altogether:

"Major public investments like streetcars should only be undertaken when there is broad consensus in the community, and that is clearly not the case with this issue."

Neighborhood by design

 

My neighborhood is being redesigned. Sadly, it's not a story of developers and transportation companies working together. 

The neighborhood, specifically the Tenney-Lapham Neighorhood Association, has stepped up to do what they can to address the issues of congested and unsafe streets very locally.

In an earlier blog post, I mentioned the neighborhood steering committee that formed around a goal to improve the East Mifflin Street Bicycle Boulevard. The larger goal is called "traffic calming" and includes measures that will make it safer for people walking or riding bikes throughout the neighborhood. 

The results of the neighborhood traffic survey and the "traffic improvement recommendations" can be found here. There is a cool map that pinpoints all the recommendations, which were as a whole very positively received by the city traffic engineering department.  Now it is time for them to happen.




We need this 

 
The neighborhood recommendations to Traffic Engineering will help resolve current traffic congestion and make sure that the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood continues to be an urban commercial-residential zone in which bike, foot, bus and car travel co-exist safely.

We need to demand that our public streets are designed for us. As the former mayor said, we need broad consensus in the community. 

We also need visionary leaders and collaboration among civic leaders.

And, I believe, we need some trains... 

Contact Alder Ledell Zellers and tell her you support the TLNA recommendations. The more she hears from us, the more she'll work to make the vision for healthier and happier streets a reality.

  

Party in the Park 2017

This year the annual block party is on Sunday afternoon, June 11th, from 4-7PM. 

It is summer and there is so much going on, so make this Sunday your chill-out time: come hang out under the trees, have some dinner, maybe some ice cream and a cool beverage, and soak up the relaxed neighborhood vibe. We have a great event planned:

4-5PM ROLLER RINK on the ROOFTOP. We provide the tunes, you bring your wheels. If you have no wheels, just come up to watch the fun.

4PM The Water Well is open for tour! Back by popular demand, this is your chance to see inside the building at Reynolds and learn a bit more about the water we drink and use every day.

5PM Morris Dancers bring rhythm and step to the 'hood!

5:30 The beloved TLNA unicyclists perform. These are kids of all ages doing tricks on one wheel you won't believe!

5-6 Transportation Revelations. Meet the city's patrol horses, try out a cargo bike provided by the new Cargo Bike Shop, & get aboard a Metro bus to plan your next trip.

6PM Drumming with Elmore Lawson! If you haven't been at one of Elmore's drum circles yet, you are in for a treat. He brings some extra drums so anyone can jump in, but if you prefer to listen instead, you won't be sorry you stayed to round out your weekend with some groovy rhythms.

 

Everyone is Welcome!

As always, there will be ice cream, beverages, great food and good times. Your area restaurants have stepped up again to bring you delicious offerings (Avenue Bar, Underground Food Collective, Cork N Bottle, and more!)

Still not convinced? It's so much fun...take a look at some pictures from 2015 and 2016.

See you Sunday!

Healthy and Happy Urban Living

"Cities are the greatest thing that people do."
-Stewart Brand, author of Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto, and featured speaker at the 2017 Nelson Institute Earth Day Conference in Madison

We have a problem. Let's solve it.

Madison is projected to have 70,000 new residents by 2040. The current population of the city is around 250,000, so that significant shift presents all sorts of possibilities, and problems.

Like all American cities, the street systems are designed for cars. Like most American cities, the public transportation system is too inefficient or too inconvenient for a good portion of the population to want to use it.

The Cap East District, as envisioned and supported by city planning, is now booming. It's an urban-infill dream come true: unused buildings and empty lots are giving rise to high-rise mixed-use spaces. 

So the problem is: Lots of people who want to move around in a city. It is easier to design a system from scratch than to retrofit it. We don't want to clear-cut this urban isthmus (or any part of the city). However, what is happening in the Cap East District is almost like a new city by design.

So as this dream comes true for developers and city government, I hope the people don't get run over. Literally. We need a vision for human movement and behavior, and we need transportation systems to support the dream. We don't want to try to retrofit it in 2040.

This Wisconsin State Journal article about the Cosmos apartment complex alongside Starting Block Madison and American Family Insurance article ends with an admission of a part of the problem: "We have to take a better look at how we get people across East Wash. How do we get the people back and forth comfortably and safely? That's going to be a long-term issue we'll have to be looking at as we develop East Wash."

I'm struck by the fecklessness of this statement. Is it really possible at this stage of the game that this important piece of the puzzle is missing?

There is a transportation master plan and, like any average citizen, I know very little about it. It's called Madison in Motion. At a session of the recent Earth Day conference at Monona Terrace, Brian Grady from the city's planning division explained to a crowded room of people that is hasn't been as successful as it should have been.

The Earth Day conference, presented by the UW's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, was tagged "Hope and Renewal in the Age of the Apocalypse." It was a welcome chance to consider shining examples of human problem-solving. The featured presenters were there to push us to think big, thing bold, and think pragmatically.

Cities are beautiful and intricate systems for people to meet their needs while developing their well-being and happiness. Julian Agyeman, author of Sharing Cities and Just Sustainability, offered a concept called "urban acupuncture." The term was coined by Brazilian architect, urbanist and mayor Jaime Lerner. Agyeman told stories of 'pin-pricks of excellence,' such as High Line Park in New York City and Spanish Park Library in an impoverished neighborhood of Medellín, Columbia. These intense injections of visionary change have a healing effect on the neighborhood and the city. The good energy spreads. 

Excellence is contagious: once people experience what is possible, they want and create more excellence.

The Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association has decided to make traffic issues the focus of projects, events, and conversations this year. Residential and commercial density is concentrated and increasing quickly in this neighborhood and we feel the tension that can birth grand change. Positive, negative, both, either.

How much can a neighborhood association accomplish?

On April 17th, an initial meeting was held for neighbors to talk with traffic engineering specialist Tom Mohr. The agenda and scope of that meeting can be found here. The slides from Mohr's presentation can be found here.

There are many concerns, but at this meeting, the focus was on the East Mifflin Street bike boulevard and traffic around Lapham Elementary School. Mohr discussed the issues, brought to light the pros and cons of possible changes, and encouraged neighbors to work together to design solutions. 

Graphic from City of Madison traffic engineer Tom Mohr

Sooo...

Let's do some urban acupuncture. Let's be bold and move toward a vision. Let's look for shining examples, trust data, ask for expertise, and make changes.

A neighborhood steering committee is forming and will meet this week: May 18, 2017, 7:00 PM at Festival Foods 2nd Floor Conference Room. We are lucky to have people working on this and we owe it to them to respect their ideas and try them.

It seems to me we don't have problems of engineering or science. We have 'social science' problems. In other words, the real challenge is in presenting opportunities that allow us as individuals to feel lucky to be part of a community with equitable and healthy systems working in our favor. If we recognize and capitalize on our strengths, we will be resilient as other changes come.

At this moment in history, fully half of the world's population lives in cities. The median age in Madison is 30.8 years old. This is visible in the Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood. But here, among the old trees and historic parks, we also benefit from the wisdom that comes from a diversity of experience.

We are ripe to become a pin-prick of excellence on the planet. I am looking for bold vision. I am hopeful we can experiment and strive to be an example talked about by conference presenters in the future.

"The person who is in love with their vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go." -German theologist Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"When they go low, we go high" - My Thoughts on Trees & Politics

"When they go low, we go high"

Michelle Obama's DNC speech worked on me.

I've been reminded of the importance of scripting a positive story. I've been reminded of how important we are as role models for our children. I've been reminded that the stories we tell, about ourselves as individuals, families, and communities, matter.

This article in The Atlantic explains the field of Narrative Psychology by saying people use stories to make meaning. To biologists, we are storytelling animals. To humanists, things like language, literature, philosophy, and ethics, are disciplines of memory and imagination that tell us where we have been and help us imagine where we might go.

For example, here are two stories we might tell our kids:

The Emerald Ash Borer blight destroyed the tree canopy of Madison's historic downtown neighborhoods and was a huge loss for the environment, property owners, and general morale of the city.

OR

The Emerald Ash Borer blight gave city planners the opportunity to replace ash trees that had been trimmed to the point of ill-health since the increase of electric voltage in power lines and to diversify the canopy while moving power lines underground.

National politics are buzzing, but on a local level I'm following along with the Madison Canopy Street Trees Facebook page. 

Some local news coverage tells part of the story. Neighbors have been meeting regularly and are gaining attention. A petition asks city planners to change the policy to plant only short trees under power lines (sign it here). 

Two years ago, before the Emerald Ash Borer was spotted right downtown, Ash trees in city parks could be 'saved' from removal plans if private funds were raised to pay for treatment.

The story goes like this: with organized effort and local fundraising, the TLNA neighborhood came together to take care of the trees in Tenney and Reynolds Parks.

Unfortunately this adoption option is not available for trees in street terraces.

Efforts now are focused on changing the strict policy against tall trees in terraces with above ground power-lines, as well as localized fundraising to put lines underground in certain instances.

'Keep the Canopy. Bury the Lines' T-shirts are for sale for $25 from the Street Tree Committee.
Leave a comment if you would like to order one.

A friend who has been keeping me abreast of this developing story said in an email recently, "Best news in months! The Sustainable Madison Committee voted to create a sub-committee on Street Trees. It's still going to be a long, long, long haul, but this is a great step."

I love that hopefulness in her story. In a phone conversation, she told me that public momentum is building and it will force a policy change. I believe it, and I believe we all need to get behind this story until it is true.

Why Trees Now? Because...

-Trees produce oxygen and absorb carbon

-Trees reduce energy costs and create shade

-Tress absorb rainfall during storms

-Trees make us happy

-Trees make our city charming and livable

-We want to be part of a city that demonstrates wise leadership and creates forward-thinking policy


The new Street Tree Committee it meeting later this month. They are looking for neighborhood liaisons and people willing to write a story for the city where trees and people win. 

Right now, if you feel compelled, contact your Alder. Let him or her know you support changing policies and funding partial utility under-grounding in order to facilitate preserving and replanting canopy trees in our street terraces. And it always helps to go to your neighborhood council meetings. There you can also get ideas and learn more about what's happening in your neighborhood.

I understand that when we are faced with challenges, all we can control is our reaction and the way we shape the narrative as we go forward. So as it applies to both the remarkable 2016 presidential election and our remarkable urban forest, "When they go low, we go high." 

In both cases, it seems we are scripting the story for generations to come.

Spinning the Globe to Bring Home the Best Souvenirs

People say that travel opens your eyes to see more clearly where you come from. People say that we need to teach our children global competency. People say that the internet is changing everything and the First Global generation is poised to produce new kinds of leaders.

When my daughter lost Marge, her beloved doll, at age three, she told us the doll had gone on a trip to India for a while. Marge did not remember to take a camera, so we have no images of her adventures.

Both my kids, not yet school-age, have stamps in their passports. I am a well-traveled 40-year-old, but I didn't get my first passport until I was six. The kids are beating me already at one of my most-valued life pursuits. 

We just spent a week at a resort south of Cancun, so nothing particularly exotic. There are better ways to raise a culturally conscious kid. However, since returning, I cannot stop thinking about the world, and how to experience more of it. So for the past week I've been surfing the web for inspiration from around the globe.

With just a few clicks, I'm connected to both the amazing (and atrocious) stories of what is happening on this planet. We can all, so easily, follow along, help fund, and learn lessons from these innovative projects.

Can bring these ideas, like souvenirs, home to Madison?

In Santiago, Chile, a dull plaza was transformed by a Shanghai-based group called 100architects. They say "You used to play in the street: Try it." Who paid for this, got the permits, invited this to happen? I don't know. But I think the idea is easy to copy and know of several 'dull plazas' in my landscape that could use some jazz hands.

In the Netherlands, it is common for people to have benches in front of their homes. They are on the sidewalk but are privately owned. It is accepted that anyone can use the bench and that no special permission is needed from the city to put the bench there. And, of course, there are no concerns about lawsuits or homeless campers. Ah, the Netherlands, land of loveliness, right? BenchesCollective riffs off the Restaurant Week model: For one day, folks offer something to the public using the benches for the setting. 

Here in Madison, we have porches...

Markets are universal. The world over, you can count on the fact that people have to sell and buy food. When traveling, markets are the best places to visit. Our Farmers Markets are wonderful, but I'm so hopeful that soon, we'll (once again) also have covered public markets. 

If you haven't yet heard, East-Sider Meghan Blake-Horst is attending the International Public Markets Conference in Barcelona, Spain. She is the power-house visionary behind MadCity Bazaar, which will be popping-up on the corner of E. Wash and 1st Ave two weekends a month from May through September. 

I'm so excited that it is her style, and sensibility, that will help shape the Madison market scene of the future. 

I'd like to see Madison swapping spit around the world a bit more. 

What are your global inspirations? How would they look, and work, here?