Like the rest of our nation the state of our economy dominates the concerns of the residents of District 11, but there are many local that our representative will face. I have endeavored to outline my vision as completely as possible, but if you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.
Development
Re-development has been a hot issue in District 11 for the last several years, and as we move forward we must be certain that the approval processes involve all stakeholders, not the least of whom are the residents.
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.
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
Over the last two years I've been in a leadership role in the development of a Neighborhood Plan for Westmorland, which is created from volumes of input from residents and strives to reflect the values of the neighborhood as a whole. The effort has served as a constant reminder of just how important it is to understand and advocate for the residents of the neighborhood and district. I will continue and expand on that role as the new Alder.
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 are reminders that the city's physical, below-ground infrastructure is aging. Vigilance and foresight are necessary to identify these issues early. We are well aware of the run-off issues that plague our lakes, and water quality has also been thrust to the forefront. We may soon see high-voltage powerlines to our immediate south along the Beltline.
With the recent passage of legislation enabling the creation of a RTA and the Federal stimulus bill, mass transit infrastructure has become a front-page issue once again. I support the creation of a Dane County or Madison regional RTA. The RTA would provide resources needed for expanding bus service around the city to better serve outlying towns, as well as support better integration of our bus routes with our airport and the now very likely high-speed rail link to Milwaukee and Chicago.
There are the usual ways of addressing these issues, such as increasing funding for and otherwise improving the bus system, and there are novel ways to address these issues as well such as the spread of rain gardens to control water infiltration or, as a loftier goal, a local solar energy cooperative that utilizes the roof space of several buildings to build a distributed power generation network. Madison has the creativity, talent, and desire to make such "pie-in-the-sky" ideas work, and I hope to lead such efforts.
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.