Eli Judge

Details on the Downtown Residential Lighting Initiative.
(608) 322-6358
district8@cityofmadison.com

district8@cityofmadison.com
(608) 322-6358

district8@cityofmadison.com
(608) 322-6358 (Must use area code)

So, I’ve been a bad blogger. Campus issues, aside from the formation of the city budget, have been relatively quiet over the course of the summer. I do have some beginning of the year updates that I think some people might find interesting.

The apartment flip of August 15th has come and gone. I just wanted to remind you to make sure to request photographs of any damage that their landlord detracts from your security deposit. If you have any interesting stories regarding security deposit returns (strange charges, refusal to provide pictures, etc) PLEASE let me know about it! Feel free to also consult the Tenant Resource Center's website with information on move-in.

I’m working out when traditional Alder Hours are going to be hosted this semester. Expect to have that post come up in the next two days. For all new students, my Alder Hours are similar to TA office hours. You are welcome to come to Lakefront on Langdon (on the first floor of the Memorial Union) to come and talk to me about any issue.

If you are a freshman, welcome to Madison! I will likely see you tomorrow at freshman convocation at the Kohl Center at noon. If you have any questions about the city or student involvement here in Madison feel free to contact me and I’d be happy to get you in touch with the people you need to know!

I’m happy to announce that I will start to post these posts as YouTube videos instead of text! I’m currently waiting on some hardware repairs (my Macbook is at DoIt at the moment) but will start to do updates by video. If you have a need for text of what is said in these videos please contact me by email (district8@cityofmadison.com) or phone (6083226358) and I will be happy to transcribe the words for you. Keep an eye out for this exciting new means of updates!

Dear Residents of the 8th District,

Recent details about my attendance on the 911 Communications Board have raised many questions about what has happened over the past couple months.

On May 15th of 2007, about a month after I was sworn in as an alder, I was appointed to the Communications Center Board. I fully admit that I overlooked this specific legislative file and at that time I was not aware of my appointment. This spot on the board is required by ordinance to be filled by an alder that serves on the Madison Public Safety Review Board (which I had just two weeks prior been put on by the Mayor). While this is the case, at the time I was never told of the required appointment nor was I consulted on my availability to make it to the board's meetings. In fact, no information was passed to me about this body until I was informed, about three months later, that my attendance was less than exemplary. During that period I was moving into my fall semester of this academic year and I had classes scheduled during the monthly meeting time of the board. Understandably, I shared the reasoning why I was unable to make the meetings with representatives of the board at a Public Safety Review Board meeting in either August or September and suggested that I be replaced as the representative from the Common Council as I knew I would be unable to make it to meetings. I felt this was the responsible action given the need of the board to find a suitable replacement.

Some time passed and as the New Year rolled around I was informed by the Mayor of the frustration felt by some members of the board with regards to my continued absence. I was, as you might imagine, surprised and disappointed by this revelation given my previous suggestion that I be removed due to my academic conflicts. My spring semester schedule was equally prohibitive of my attendance at board meetings, despite my best efforts to make room for both the Communications Board and the several other committees I serve on for city business. I replied to the Mayor with the same suggestion that I offered the board representatives months prior which was to remove me from the board due to my conflicts academically.

I feel obligated to offer a full apology to my constituents, along with the City of Madison at large, for not having pressed harder for my removal from the Communications Board. I realize now that, although I communicated my inability to attend board meetings on several occasions, I should have marched into the Mayor's office and informed him that I would not leave until my removal was complete.

Questions have been brought up about my attendance on other committees that I have been appointed to and currently serve. For your reference, I have requested the record of all of my attendance since I was elected in April of 2007 (please note, some of the "excused" meetings are either duplicates or were double-marked in error during a roll call vote, indicating I was both present and excused. Council staff informs me that this indicates that I was "present"). That data can be found here. I would also point out that two of the “absences” noted on the list took place during other city meetings (the first during an “Alder Training” class, the other during the final night of the budget process). I believe the one absence in December and January was due to my brief return home to Chicago for winter break.

As a resolution to the Communications Center Board issue, during the Common Council meeting tonight, Paul Skidmore will be reappointed to the Communications Board as the Common Council representative. I hope to provide what support that I can for Ald. Skidmore in his representation of Madison to the county committee and I believe this will solve what appears to have been a case of miscommunication and red-tape at the city level.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns about this issue or any other, please feel free to give me a call (please use area code, 6083226358) or send me an email (district8@cityofmadison.com). We can either communicate through phone/email or set up a time to meet in person.

As always,

Eli

A press release from University Communications. More to come:

The University of Wisconsin Police Department is adding extra patrols and asking for vigilance in the wake of the death of a young woman in the 500 block of West Doty Street in Downtown Madison.

Madison Police Department is identifying the victim as a UW-Madison student. Dean of Students Lori Berquam is urging all students to pay close attention to personal safety.

All evening events and classes are continuing as scheduled, however members of the campus community are urged to walk in groups or take advantage of SAFEwalk and SAFEride programs available on campus. Call (608) 262-5000 for detailed information.

If you are a student interested in crisis support as a result of this, or any other situation, call University Health Services Counseling and Consultation Services' 24-hour crisis line, (608) 265-5600, or the Offices of the Dean of Students, (608) 263-5700.

If you are a faculty or staff member in need of counseling, the Employee Assistance Office can be reached at (608) 263-2987.

If you have any information about this case, please call Crime Stoppers at (608) 266-6014.

For additional information as it becomes available, visit http://www.wisc.edu or local media.

There have been a lot of questions raised, along with some interesting accusations made, of the State Street reconstruction project, so I felt it warranted a detailed post.

First, to the above poster (Assuming that this isn’t, as was suspected, an April Fools joke), this project is fully funded on both ends of its development. The city has allotted over five million dollars for the streets’ demolition and redevelopment. As an anonymous city official put it when I inquired into the potential truth behind the above poster, he/she said, “The city provides the wonderful service of rebuilding roads after we’ve had our fun destroying them. (Cue substantial sarcasm)”

The project will be completed around September 12th of this year. The project will include street and curb improvements, lighting upgrades, trees that will replace the ones removed during construction, an overhaul of “Concrete Park” (the space between Statesider and Towers private residence halls), the installation of a public art piece in the space between State St. Brats and University Inn, and, finally, bike-rack improvements. In essence, this stage of State St. construction is the continuation of what was done to the first four blocks two years ago.

For your reference, the plans of the project, compliments of the City Engineering division, can be found here.

While this round of downtown construction will certainly be disruptive to the student population and downtown business in general, completing the final stage of this necessary project over the summer, when students, for the most part, will be elsewhere, is best should we hope to keep it’s impact to a minimum.

If you have any questions that weren’t addressed, please feel free to contact me by phone (6083226358, please use the area code) and/or email (district8@cityofmadison.com) so we can clear things up. I also invite you to visit my “Alder Hours” at Lakefront on Langdon (in the Memorial Union) at 11:30 every Monday morning.

*EDIT*

Below, I've added a segment of an email regarding bike racks in the State St. area. Due to the construction, many of the racks in the area had to be removed. The email spells out where new replacements are/may be placed.

"We have taken a look at our options to add bike racks around the State St. project limits and have found/are exploring some options:

1. We are going to add bike racks outside the city ramp in between Hawthorne Ct and Frances St.

2. A city ordinance does not allow us to put bikes on Library Mall, but we are exploring putting some on Murray St, near the intersection of Library Mall.

3. We also are exploring adding some around the Gilman St corner of the job. Perhaps inside Peace Park."

(For some background on this post, I suggest you consult some recent articles published in various campus and Madison papers. Some are listed below)

http://badgerherald.com/oped/2008/03/25/its_not_me_its_you.php
http://dailycardinal.com/article/2407
http://badgerherald.com/news/2008/03/12/langdon_plans_capito.php
http://dailycardinal.com/article/2401
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/278040

Over the past couple months, there has been a growing feeling of discontent among the student population towards the group in the downtown area known as Capital Neighborhoods Inc (CNI). CNI, for those not privy to the neighborhood beat, is a conglomeration of several different smaller groups all around the capital square area. The recent catalyst of what could, at times, be described outright anger and rage on the part of most of campus was the “list of ideas” for the downtown that CNI’s Alcohol Issues Subcommittee released to the public in late January. These ideas or proposals included an increase on taxes on alcohol in the city and, more shockingly, the suggestion that all UW students should go through an alcohol issues screening program.

I touched on these issues in my letter addressed to the CNI executive committee (EC) which I am sure will find it’s way onto the internet in short order.

Tonight, the State/Langdon representatives of CNI addressed the EC with the intention of announcing their succession from the central city neighborhood association. Several individuals, including Jess Pavlic (the president of State/Langdon), Josh Monisi, Mikeala Loui, Han Lee (all representatives from the State/Langdon group), and myself, presented a list of grievances to the EC relating to various policy differences, conflicts, and points of contention that the two neighborhoods have. While they didn’t speak, the two-dozen or so State/Langdon residents that attended the meeting listened attentively on the edges of the somewhat crowded room the meeting was held in. A lively, fortunately civil discussion ensued.

A point that was brought up by CNI’s EC centered on the potential lack of longevity that a new student neighborhood could attain. The transient nature of the student population, it was said, would lead to a potential failure of the concept of a campus area group. To that, State/Langdon representatives and I pointed to groups like ASM and the College Democrats/Republicans (all of whom seemed to have an interested representative at this meeting), which, over time, had become institutions of the campus. We felt that the potentially larger territory that a campus neighborhood would encompass would give us a greater pool of people to recruit from and potentially more success in the fight over membership numbers that State/Langdon has had problems with for many years.

A member of the EC pointed out that support from CNI in such an expansion could be beneficial for both our group and theirs. While that is potentially true, we disagreed in that most students familiar with neighborhood politics, even before the alcohol proposals of last January were released, had a very negative view of CNI as a whole. It had become clear to the State/Langdon representatives that recruiting was being hampered, if not made nearly impossible, by our direct association with CNI. The final straw, so to speak, that the January round of policies created led to the “tainting” of what chances State/Langdon had of growing the campus group effectively while maintaining our connection to CNI.

The discussion brought up an essential truth with regards to the interaction of both campus and CNI territory. It was said that some of the issues that the isthmus faces could be best tackled as a combined front, or united effort, of both neighborhood groups. Issues like safety, for example, could be universally addressed and improved by joint interaction. While this was the case, I was quick to bring up the fact that issues, like safety, do not operate within a bubble. One of the primary motivations behind alcohol policies, CNI’s or otherwise, is to control alcohol intake in order to promote public safety and order. It is my opinion that, while we may all agree that we want a safe, fun place to live, having fundamental differences on how we go about building that neighborhood (and the policies that form it) stands in the face of being effective in combating even the most fundamental of problems.

I fully understand the need, now more than ever, for our two communities to start a discussion about where the downtown is going and how our groups are going to interact with each other. The isthmus is a tiny place and neither of our to communities are going anywhere. State/Langdon and I understood that dynamic and considered, at great length, the possibility of remaining a part of CNI. In the end, though, we firmly felt that something new and separate from CNI would be needed should we hope to find anything resembling long-term success.

Even so, at the end of our meeting tonight, State/Langdon and the CNI EC formed an ad hoc committee that comprised of members of both bodies. This group will serve as a transition entity for State/Langdon into independence and also as the new first step into the improved communications between campus and CNI. This plan was met with approval on both sides of the debate and was given a unanimous vote in favor of its undertaking. While a timeline has not been immediately set for State/Langdon’s full independence, I have great faith that the move will be conducted expeditiously and with great concern for detail. I encourage any resident of the campus area to contact me should they desire to voice an opinion on the formation of the new group (contact info below).

All things considered, I believe this will give the campus area the opportunity it needs to truly make a successful neighborhood organization. State/Langdon will continue, and improve, the discourse it has been having with CNI and, hopefully, will also forge a new group capable of lasting for decades.

I had promised a recap of the meeting tonight, and I hope I have done something resembling that. If you have any questions, or just want a first hand account of what happened, feel free, as always, to call me (6083226358), send me and email (district8@cityofmadison.com), or visit my “alder hours” (Mondays at 11:30am in Lakefront on Langdon in the Memorial Union).

On a separate note, tomorrow's (now today's, the 26th) debate between the two candidates for Dane County Board in the 5th district will be held at Tripp Commons (in the Memorial Union) at 5pm. I strongly urge you to stop by if you haven't had a chance to see either (alphabetically) Manning or O'Hagan.

Classes in Van Vleck have been canceled today, I’ve heard, due to flooding. Who says being a math major doesn’t pay off?

Also, this Wednesday, the photo ordinance will be discussed and voted on in the Housing Committee. The meeting is at 5pm in Room LL-110 in the Madison Municipal Building (215 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd). I strongly encourage students to come to that meeting and register or speak in support! If there is no way you can make it, you can send an email in support to Meg Zopelis (mzopelis@cityofmadison.com) or me and we will make sure your opinion gets into the hands of the committee members!

Sorry about the short notice, but today's "Alder Hours" are going to need to be pushed back a bit. Instead of its normal mid-afternoon slot, I will be pushing today's session back to 4:30 pm. It will still be at Lakefront on Langdon on the first floor of the Memorial Union.

I'm sorry for whatever inconvenience this causes to anyone. If the new time wont work for you, feel free to give me a call (6083226358, please use the area code) and we can set up a one on one time.