Paul Soglin: Waxing America

National Recognition for Cooperative Development in Madison

The City of Madison supports its businesses in a number of innovative ways, from our Façade Grant Program that helps small businesses pay for improvements to their streetscapes through grants, to supporting organizations like the Madison Development Corporation and the Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative Corporation that provide micro or alternative lending to small businesses all over the City.

Continuing to find ways to help strengthen locally owned businesses the City is working on the "Co-operative Enterprises for Job Creation and Business Development" program that will begin in 2016.

The State of Wisconsin has a unique strength in the number and strength of cooperative or worker owned businesses. There are over 773 cooperatives throughout the state that account for over 64,000 jobs and $27 billion in revenue.
It was great to see these efforts to create and support cooperative enterprises receive national interest from an on-line publication called GEO Newsletter.

Grassroots Economic Organizing (GEO) is a decentralized collective of educators, researchers and grassroots activists working to promote an economy based on democratic participation, worker and community ownership, social and economic justice, and ecological sustainability.

Ajowa Nzinga Ifateyo, a journalist for GEO, researched our Madison efforts and ideas by interviewing a large cross-section of supporters of this work including: Kevin Gundlach, South Central Federation of Labor President; Ole Olson and John Kessler both of Isthmus Engineering and Manufacturing; Ruth Rohlich of the City's Economic Development Department; Anne Reynolds, Director of UW Center for Cooperatives and me.

Her story shares some history of the successful cooperative businesses in Madison and additionally outlines City plans for the "Co-operative Enterprises for Job Creation and Business Development" project.

Check out the GEO story:  "$5 Million for Co-op Development in Madison."

For more information about the project:  Co-operative Enterprises Program

These are a few of the organizations mentioned in the story:

My Brother's Keeper Focus Areas

Thank you to all of you who encouraged others to participate or participated directly in the My Brother's Keeper Youth Survey. As you may recall from blog posts in November ( http://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor/blog/?Id=6180 ) ( http://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor/blog/?Id=6222 ) the My Brother's Keeper Community Challenge (MBK) is a White House issued challenge accepted by the City of Madison to implement programs and policies to improve life chances for boys and young men of color. The youth survey was conducted as part of the "policy review and recommendations for action" stage of the MBK challenge.

Since the MBK challenge directs involved cities to focus on two goals, the action team and I needed to determine which areas are most in need of our attention and resources. We wanted boys and young men of color to have the opportunity to choose the focus areas themselves.

Over 200 youth took the survey and shared their ideas and opinions. I cannot emphasize enough the value of the information survey participants provided. Although we asked broad questions on how we can solve complicated social problems and remove barriers to opportunities for our boys and young men of color, our youth exceeded our expectations, sharing thought provoking ideas, personal experiences, and even making some policy recommendations of their own!

Through the surveys, we have gained great insight into places where our Madison community could use improvement and identified our two My Brother's Keeper focus areas: ensure all students graduate from high school and ensure all children and young people remain safe from violent crime and receive second chances.

In the coming days and weeks, we will produce a report detailing our plan of action and policy recommendations to achieve these two goals. We will also determine a method to track our progress and share our data with the community.

Stay tuned for updates as the City of Madison enters the next stage of this challenge!

Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance

On Monday, I joined hundreds from throughout Dane County in commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday at the Overture Center for Arts for the 30^th Annual Madison and Dane County Martin Luther King, Jr. Observance Ceremony.

At the ceremony, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and I presented the 2015 City-County Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Awards to two very deserving recipients: Barbara Nichols and Peng Her.

Ms. Nichols has dedicated her career and life to public service with a focus on Civil Rights.

Mr. Her overcame adversity to become an activist for not only the Hmong community but also for other marginalized populations.

Despite their differing career paths, both recipients embody the ideal that Dr. King lived.

Diane Nash, a long time civil rights leader and peace activist delivered the keynote address. Her career accomplishments include serving on a national committee that promoted passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and being active in the peace movement that contributed to the end of war in Vietnam. Her remarks were inspiring.

The gathering served as a celebration of the progress that has been made, and an important reminder of the work that remains. The legacy of Dr. King continues to motivate us to embody the qualities that he lived; fairness, equality, and peace.

1000 Books Before Kindergarten Party

I headed over to Pinney Library this week for the 1000 Books Before Kindergarten 1^st Year Party. I joined Alder Ahrens, Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, News Anchor Michelle Li, representatives from Madison Police and Fire, and several others to celebrate a year of participation! The kids celebrated with balloons, snacks, and fun facemasks while they listened to the stories.

“1000 Books Before Kindergarten” is a challenge to parents to start reading to their newborn, infants, and toddlers. The goal is to read 1000 books before the child starts kindergarten. Reading to kids at such an early age not only promotes bonding between the parent and the child, but exposes children to words and sounds. This makes them even more comfortable with language upon their entrance to kindergarten.

I read the story A Duck on a Bike by David Shannon, a really nice story about a duck who challenges himself to ride a bike, even though he looks silly.

City of Madison Selected as a Semifinalist in $5 Million Georgetown University Energy Prize

I am delighted to announce that the City of Madison has been selected to advance to the Semifinal round of the Georgetown University Energy Prize, a national competition that challenges us, along with other small- and medium-sized communities to develop and implement creative, sustainable, and replicable strategies to save energy.

Our commitment is to provide the citizens of Madison with the support and assistance they need to lower their energy usage – not only to lower their utility bill but to reduce harmful GHG emissions.  The City of Madison has a stated goal of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.  In order to do that, the City needs to be aggressive.  A larger percentage of our GHG emissions come from heating and cooling buildings because most of our electrical power comes from coal which is high in GHG emissions.  The Georgetown University Energy Prize has put us in the running against leading small- and medium-sized communities across the county.

The City of Madison will work together over the next two years with, local, utilities, local government officials, residents, energy efficiency experts, and others to implement our energy-saving plan that will not only deliver financial benefits to residents, but will also help ensure the long-term sustainability of our community. Most importantly, we will develop new approaches that other communities can replicate--so that we can all do our part to secure our nation's energy future.

In competing for the Georgetown University Energy Prize, the City of Madison intends to focus improvements on:

• Developing strategies for all residents – homeowners and renters to reduce energy use
• Reducing Municipal energy use even more by engaging employees

Stay tuned for more details on the Prize, the City of Madison's energy-saving plan, and to learn how you can support our efforts! In the meantime please stay connected by checking out the contest website at http://guep.org/

Madison Ranked One of the 10 Happiest Cities

I was pleased to see Madison ranked as one of the Top 10 Happiest Cities by National Geographic.  How impressive that Madison sits aside cities from all over the world, including Gold Coast, Australia, Koh Samui, Thailand, and San Sebastián, Spain.

The number of activities Madison offers to its residents and visitors throughout all four seasons does not go unnoticed.  From our parks, bike paths and lakes to our State Street charm, and wonderful neighborhoods, there is something for everybody. Not to mention all of the happy people you are bound to meet everywhere. 

Congratulations once again Madison!

Check out National Geographic's ranking at the link below:

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/photos-top-10-happiest-cities/