Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Keeping our Community Clean

Those of you who ride Madison Metro may have noticed a new feature to the Ride Guide: public service ads encouraging all Madison residents to do their part to keep the earth clean.

It all started when members of Brownie Troop 2464 emailed me to express their concerns about littering at bus stops and throughout the Madison community. In response, Madison Metro worked with Troop 2464 to create anti-littering ads.

Troop members went the extra mile by walking around their neighborhoods to pick up garbage. Additionally, they spent some time with State  Representative Chris Taylor to learn about laws that help keep the environment clean. All of their efforts went towards earning their Brownie Quest Journey Badge.

The efforts of Brownie Troop 2464 serve as an important reminder to each of us to do our part to keep our community clean. Thank you to Troop 2464 and Metro staff who made this effort possible!

Commonwealth Community Pollinator Project

You may have noticed a new look to the grassy area along the Southwest bike path in the Regent Neighborhood and Hillington Green area. Neighborhood residents Jeannette and David LeZaks had the idea to do something different with a formerly manicured public green space along the Southwest Bike Path. They worked with the Regent Neighborhood Association to apply for a City of Madison Neighborhood Grant to install a native perennial pollinator garden and seating area.

The City approved the grant and a group of neighbors came together to plant the garden last year and to host an ice cream social. This spring, the group installed a stone seating area to complete this lovely gathering place.

Projects like this one have so many benefits beyond just the aesthetic value including their benefit to pollinators and their ability to bring the community together to work towards a common goal. Thank you to the Regent Neighborhood Association, and to Jeannette, David and area neighbors for all of their hard work!

Community Budget Conversation

I was pleased to see a good turnout of Madison residents at the Community Budget Conversation held recently at the Central Library.

This year’s conversation was unique, as it added an interactive element. Residents were given broad service areas including public safety, infrastructure/public works, neighborhood & economic development, internal services, and youth programming. They were then asked to determine how they would disperse $1,000 among these service areas by voting on their smart phones. The results were shown to the audience in real time in the form of a bar graph.

The budget conversation was productive and I have a good idea as to where residents would like to see funds go in the 2016 budget.  It will be a challenging year, but it is helpful to get ideas and suggestions from Madison residents as I work with City staff and the Common Council to draft our 2016 spending plan.

Safety Town

Recently I joined the Safety Town group for their Media Day. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Safety Town is a program for incoming kindergarteners brought to you by the Madison Fire Department, the Madison Police Department, and the Safe Kids Coalition. Children participate in activities in an actual small-scale city that includes streets, homes, and sidewalks with the purpose of teaching them about safety and injury prevention in their community, including lessons on traffic safety. The children also have the opportunity to interact with actual City of Madison Police Officers and Fire Fighters to help them learn a new safety lesson each day.

Take a look at some photos of Safety Town's Media Day!

Community Budget Conversation

Do you have an interest in providing suggestions into how the City will spend its money in the 2016 budget? On Tuesday, July 14th from 6:00 – 7:30 pm I will host a Community Budget Conversation in room 301 of the Central Library. The finance director will lead off the conversation by providing an overview of Madison's financial climate for 2016. We will be using our cell phones to gather feedback from the audience on how to prioritize spending  across key service areas.

We will follow this exercise with a discussion. I look forward to hearing from you!

Hope to see you all there!

Madison Permanent Supportive Housing Groundbreaking

I was proud to recently join County Executive  Joe Parisi, Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer Brian Schimming, Heartland Housing, Heartland Health Outreach, U.S. Bank, BMO Harris, the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, The Home Depot Foundation, and Enterprise Community Partners at Rethke Avenue in Madison to break ground on a new housing project to address homelessness.

The new project at times referred to as the Rethke project, is a housing development focused on chronically homeless individuals and homeless veterans, is called Madison Permanent Supportive Housing.  The facility will have 60 studio apartments, with 25 units designated for veterans. The building will also offer a wellness center, library, technology center, garden, teaching kitchen, and bike storage. The project will hopefully be completed around spring of next year.

The Madison Permanent Supportive Housing facility is unique because it is specifically designed to address those who experience issues with their housing in the absence of services that address issues including mental illness, substance disorders, or medical problems. Thus, Heartland Health Outreach will provide on-site mental health services, case management, resources to other health care and employment providers, and social enrichment.

With the accessibility of these resources, along with the stability of the environment, the goal is to help improve self sufficiency. Facilities like this one take a huge step forward in our efforts to end chronic homelessness in Madison.  When I am asked about solutions for homelessness in Madison, I always refer to Housing First.  This project exemplifies that idea.

Thank you to Heartland Housing and each of the partners whose dedicated work has made Madison Permanent Supportive Housing possible!

Check out some photos from the groundbreaking!

Proterra Electric Buses

You may have seen an interesting vehicle on the streets of Madison recently. This vehicle is a Proterra Electric Bus.

These buses have many benefits. Beyond being more fuel efficient, they have zero emissions.  Compared to regular diesel buses, these electric buses reduce pollution emissions by 146,400 pounds annually. These buses also have 30 percent fewer parts than Metro's current buses. This would save Metro Transit $135,000 in maintenance costs over the life span of the bus. Additionally, Proterra describes the buses as whisper quiet!

As you can see here, the buses yield similar comforts on the inside, holding a maximum of 70 passengers with 40 seated and 37 standing!

While public transportation in itself has a profound impact on reducing emissions and environmental impact, vehicles like this up the ante. There are no immediate plans to bring these types of buses into Metro's bus fleet, but staff are excited to be reviewing this type of technology and hope to introduce this type of environmentally-friendly vehicle sometime in the future!