Issues
Like the rest of our nation the state of our economy dominates the concerns of the residents of District 11, this was true when I was elected and unfortunately is still true today.
In my first term as Alder I've taken a leadership role in several areas:
- Encouraging the development and implementation of neighborhood plans
- Bringing together neighbors, developers, and City staff to ensure that development proposals fit with the neighborhood
- Forging compromise for complex infrastructure issues such as the Hillcrest-Upland Greenway
- Proposing and taking a lead role in the Common Council Working Group on Snow Removal Policy
- Along with Alder Bidar-Sielaff proposing a sustainable compromise for the Overture Center's future
- Ensuring we have adequate resources for our elections
- Looking ahead to the challenges of the future, from the oncoming onslaught of the Emerald Ash Borer to managing our ever-increasing rainfall of recent years
I have lived in District 11 for 10 years and I understand the needs and desires of my constituents. We haven't always gotten what we've asked for - reconstruction of Regent St is unfortunately delayed, for example, but in my term we've repaired roads, fix erosion problems, filled the "Hilldale Hole," and even added an ambulance to our fire station, shortening their response times.
Development
When I took office we had what was no better than a gravel pit next to Hilldale on University Avenue. Target Corporation approached the City in 2009 about building a store there. I guided them through the process of working with the neighborhoods and then through the City approval process. In addition we also added dozens of quality, affordable apartments, well suited for young professionals and seniors alike.
Looking ahead, several locations along University Avenue, the Hill Farms DOT site, and the next phase of redevelopment at Hilldale are on the horizon. All of those will require the same coordination between neighbors, the developers, and the City that I brought to the Target project.
Infill development is necessary if we are to contain sprawl, but we must balance the desire for density with the character of the area around it, the desires of the people who already live there, and the impact the infill will have on future projects and property values. Infill development also takes pressure off of our roads, it can reduce the distance we need to travel for goods and services, saving both fuel and wear and tear on cars and roads alike.
It takes courage to stand for what you believe in on hot-button issues such as this. It takes foresight and wisdom to deal with them well.
Neighborhood representation
The Neighborhood Plan for Westmorland, which I co-chaired the development of and was created from volumes of input from residents and reflected the values of that neighborhood as a whole, was approved during my first term. I advocated for changes to the grant program, making it more financially viable for neighborhoods to develop plans. As a result, the neighborhoods around Hoyt Park are also embarking on developing a Neighborhood Plan in 2011, and Hill Farms will soon follow. Once those plans are completed District 11 will have developed for itself a comprehensive and consistent guide for the future.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure, quality of life, and the health of our economy are tied together. City infrastructure is what gives us the means to move around, define and maintain our environment, and do business. It stretches beyond roads, utilities, and water supplies to include things as big as public transportation and as small as rain gardens. The infrastructure is the mosaic that we live our lives upon. It includes the man-made and the natural, giving great importance to environmental stewardship and smart planning.
Issues with our water supply have been widely publicized in the last few years. Residents of District 11 has dealt with manganese and are now impacted by the city's efforts to build a new well in our area. Manganese and the appearance of carbon tetrachloride in one well and hexavalent chromium across the city are reminders that the city's physical, below-ground infrastructure is aging. Vigilance and foresight are necessary to identify these issues early.
Perched on the edge of historic wetlands along University Ave on one side and the bluff overlooking Lake Wingra on another, District 11 has a number of stormwater challenges. With the recent increase in rainfall over the last few years, these have become particularly acute and can be difficult to resolve. The Hillcrest-Upland Greenway is a perfect example. What started as a pedestrian walkway and open storm sewer when Sunset Village was first built had since turned into a heavily-eroded ravine reminiscent of old mountain ranges like the Ozarks. It had its own rugged beauty but also two problems: a sanity sewer lay at the bottom, all but exposed in several places, and tremendous erosion that was causing the backyards along it to slump into the channel and thus be washed away. I worked with the residents along the Greenway and city staff for a year and together we came up with a plan that all but stops the erosion while maintaining the natural character of the Greenway. In doing so we stopped a substantial amount of sediment from flowing into Lake Mendota. What could have been a very ugly and painful process ultimately was resolved with cooperation and a compromise that balanced the need to control erosion with maintaining the character the Greenway had developed.
Transportation
I serve on several transportation related committees, including the Madison Area Transportation Planning Board (MATPB, aka MPO, which distributes Federal money for transportation projects), the Long Range Transportation Planning Committee (LRTPC), the Transit and Parking Commission (TPC, which oversees Metro), and the ADA Transit Subcommittee to the TPC (ADATS). As a result I have a comprehensive understanding of our transportation issues and have been in a position to take the lead on several aspects of it.
When Greyhound played hopscotch across the City, moving its station on an almost daily basis, I took a leadership role in both working with them to choose a single location as well as determining our ability to regulate the inter-city buses and, if possible, create a new depot for them. Such a depot was likely to be part of the now-cancelled high speed rail station at Monona Terrace, but we may yet see facilities for inter-city buses at a centralized location downtown.
The loss of high speed rail dealt us a tremendous blow. We lost the opportunity to replace old, worn out rails and upgrade a slew of intersections to make them more safe. We also lost leverage to perform upgrades to certain roadways later. Most importantly, however, by rejectng the grant we will now have a more difficult time getting any of our Federal tax dollars back for transportation projects, even highway projects. With the impending reconstruction of Verona Rd, we need experienced leadership to make sure we get our fair share of our Federal resources for these projects.
Despite the much-needed efforts over the last several years to repair and replace aging roadways, there are still several sub-par arterials and side-streets that need reconstruction in coming years. Midvale was resurfaced and given traffic calming features very early in my term, and more recently Segoe Rd received similar treatment. University Avenue was also resurfaced and largely rebuilt. Several main streets, such as Regent St, remain in poor shape and are competing for funds. Given my experience in this area, I am best suited to make sure we get the repairs we need in District 11.
I supported the creation the Madison regional RTA. I hope that the new majority at the Capitol will not remove this tool from our kit, which is needed now more than ever given the threats to transit funding that could, if realized, cripple Madison Metro.
The economy
Madison's greatest resource is its people, and everyone in our city deserves an economy that serves them well. Local businesses are the backbone of our economy and should be supported by city policies in conjunction with the ideal that the economy serves the people, that people are intrinsically valuable and deserving of respect.
Madison has seen the loss of manufacturing that has plagued our nation as a whole. My family has been in the tool and die business for a couple generations and we've seen the manufacturing tasks shift overseas including the repetitive manual labor I did during my summers as a teenager. Madison alone cannot reverse this trend, but there may be ways that it can be slowed, or replaced with jobs of comparable or better quality to replace those that we are losing.
The desire of many Madisonians to live a life that has a smaller impact on our environment can be used to achieve our economic goals. To give just one example, there have been advances in solar cells based on organic compounds, compounds that are much cleaner to manufacture than the silicon cells commercially available today. Much fundamental research remains to be done, but the city, in conjunction with the state and University, can make efforts to draw that research, and commercial enterprises that may result from it, to Madison. We have the existing infrastructure and people-power to support high-level fundamental research of that nature. I believe we should be making those efforts. They will only benefit us in the long run.
I serve on the Economic Development Committee, and there we take on the challenges of developing a stronger, more vibrant economy for the City of Madison. It is incredibly challenging, but Madison has resources most cities our size could only dream of.