Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Our Public Market and Economic Opportunity: Capitalism in Madison

This weekend Ann Althouse mocked -she is good at that- the Madison Public Market:

Either they got more and more interested or they became conscious of the need to look interested. I would expect people, here in Madison, Wisconsin, to be aware of the importance of not looking bored or uncaring when someone comes at you with talk of "inclusiveness" and the "com[ing] together" of "cultures and ethnicities.

There is good reason why the analysis of the Public Market includes a focus on diversity, inclusiveness, and equity.

Here are some of the inputs in the analysis:

• As is usually the case following difficult economic periods, the recovery after the Great Recession was pretty good for middle and upper income households including most professionals. It was bad, and is still challenging, for low income families and individuals.
• The kind of entry-level jobs that used to provide parents opportunities to raise middle class bound children are quickly disappearing:
  
  • Full-time retail positions with advancement and career opportunities are replaced with part-time jobs with no benefits.
  • Entry-level positions in state government and at the University of Wisconsin are disappearing.
•  Wisconsin is dead last in entrepreneurship among the fifty states.                        
•  Madison is the major exception in the Badger State in creating new small businesses.
•  Entrepreneurship as an essential element of our economy is new to Madison because of our historic reliance on the University of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin State government as a job creator.
•  For low-income people of all colors and races, entrepreneurship is one of the few opportunities for accumulating wealth without a college degree.
• The food industry is a robust sector for new businesses; over one-third of all new businesses in the US are founded by immigrants.

There are dozens pf public markets in the United States and they are as varied as their cities. The French Market in Chicago is expensive. It serves mostly highly processed foods to tourists and business people out for lunch.

Pike's Place Market in Seattle still provides a variety of fresh seafood to the locals, but it is expensive and losing its charm as it is now a major tourist destination. One only hopes it does not go the way of San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf.

The Reading Market in Philadelphia is in a class of its own. Its variety of foods, fresh and processed, and its history are unique, as is its relationship to the rail terminal.  When Madison was to have a rail connection to Milwaukee in the pre-Walker era, locating Madison's Public Market in direct proximity to the Madison terminal made sense.

In Minneapolis and York, Pennsylvania, are three different markets for Madison to emulate. The Mercado is Mexican and the Global Market is what its name implies. In York, the market vendors are almost all white, reflecting the population of the community. All three markets, particularity the Mercado and York, are in unassuming buildings, their focus is serving real people, not elites and cosmopolitans.

If Althouse can look beyond her own exclusive world, one reeking in privilege, perhaps she will escape the shackles of her rigid assumption that everything in Madison is crafted by liberals, reeking in socialism. At times these plans are crafted by liberals reeking in capitalism.

       

Wisconsin State Journal: "Have you no sense of decency...Sean Duffy?"

This morning the Wisconsin State Journal (WSJ) weighed in, asking, with hyperbole, "Have you no sense of decency, U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy?"

The newspaper opined: No Red Scare in Madison, Rep. Sean Duffy

...but the mayor also made some good points while delivering a clever zinger most of his constituents will love. The only thing communist about Madison, Soglin told the Associated Press, is that revenue generated here is redistributed to help economically struggling communities in Duffy’s 7th Congressional District in northern Wisconsin.

The editors went on:

Wisconsin has long struggled with an urban-rural divide...We all should be on the same side in Wisconsin when it comes to helping each other succeed across regions of the state. When southern Wisconsin does well, that’s good for northern Wisconsin, and vice versa...

And that is where the conversation goes from here. We need a deliberate discussion to make sure the closing of Wisconsin public schools come to an end, which will only happen when the failed economic policies of Duffy, Governor Scott Walker, and the Republican State Senate come to an end. From WISC-TV, Channel 3:

River Valley School District to close Lone Rock, Arena elementary schools

"I fear for the future of our local communities as they look toward the loss of local schools, creating falling property values, creating terrible busing situations for our youngest students, and having families with young students deciding not to move into our area,” a speaker at the meeting said Thursday night.

District officials said the closures will make up for about $950,000 worth of the $1.5 million deficit projected through the next two school years.

 

Project SOAR Kickoff

Recently I joined 100 Black Men of Madison President, Dr. Floyd Rose; Madison Metropolitan School District Superintendent, Dr. Jennifer Cheatham; United Way of Dane County President and CEO, Renee Moe; Police Chief Mike Koval; County Executive Joe Parisi; Journey Mental Health Executive Director, Bill Greer; and CUNA Mutual Executive Director, Steve Goldberg, to kick off the 100 Black Men's new initiative, Student Opportunities, Access and Readiness or Project SOAR.

Photo Credit: Paul McMahon

Under Project SOAR, 100 Black Men and community partners will mentor 300 African American male students, ages 12-17, who are currently enrolled in the Madison Public School District. The Project SOAR mentoring program will pay particular attention to those students who are economically disadvantaged, from single parent homes, homeless, in foster care, or in the juvenile justice system.

When conducting the youth and young adult surveys and interviews for President Barack Obama's My Brother's Keeper (MBK) Madison initiative, our boys and young men of color frequently mentioned a desire to see increased opportunities for mentorship. I am pleased to support Project SOAR as it aligns with our MBK Madison goals and seeks to address a critical need within our Madison community.

Food Access and the Public Market

Tuesday’s Council meeting brought out a number of issues related to food, a public market, and equity.
 
I think it is important to realize that creating food equity in Madison will not be solved by splitting the public market district. While Madison might support multiple markets in future years it is critical, for the sake of the market district and the success of the vendors,  that we develop a robust facility. In some instances equity is achieved by distributing a specific resource equally.  In other instances equity is achieved by focusing on different priorities.
 
This point is highlighted by the food deserts in our community which need attention, whether or not we build a public market. There are neighborhoods in Madison that need to attract more private commercial investment. When originally constructed areas like Allied Drive and Owl Creek were not designed to attract neighborhood retail, particularly food. When originally constructed, areas like Darbo-Worthington and Meadowood had viable food outlets which no longer exist. The changing demographics of the neighborhoods and the changing structure of grocery stores lead to the demise of what, at the time of construction, were considered large supermarkets with stores under 60,000 square feet. It should be noted that the closing of supermarkets was not limited to lower income areas, as experienced in the Westmoreland area with the shuttering of the market that once stood on Mineral Point near Speedway.
 
It is important as we continue the discussion to remember the nature of our objective. It is not to create public markets in multiple locations.  It is to create access to healthy, quality, reasonably priced food.  It is to ensure that public money, used to encourage private investment, job creation, and a robust economy is equitably spent.
 
That gets us to the critical discussion about the cost of construction and operation of a public market. An examination of public markets around the country demonstrates that most receive different forms of subsidization. The state of Massachusetts gave Boston a $4 million grant for its new market.  The states of New York and Connecticut are providing multiple regional grants to develop markets in their respective states. The new public market in Grand Rapids received significant foundation funding.  The point is that private and non-profit support is necessary for this project.
 
Public markets are like many other public facilities such as convention centers, performing arts centers, and recreational facilities in public parks. The private sector does not build them because they are not profitable as private business enterprises.
 
But that does not mean that they are not of economic value to a community. The positive externalities (which cannot be monetized by a for-profit business) include business creation, job creation, access to quality food, value added to place (property tax increases to surrounding property through new construction and appreciation), cultural benefits, and a strengthening of the local and regional food system.  As an example, our Economic Development staff benchmarked a recent analysis completed by another city to assess the potential economic impact of re-localizing food buying in Madison.  This analysis showed that if we shifted 20% of the City’s food buying to local sources, we could create 1,800 new jobs in the food economy.  By creating a center-point for food retail, storage, processing, and distribution, the public market can move us in this direction. 
 
The operation of the market is critical to matching the mission of the project with reality.  In order to meet our goals as a city, an operator must have a deep, meaningful commitment to equitable access for both vendors and customers alike.  The action last night by the City Council will ensure that the selection of a program and an operator will be done through an equity lens. 
 
From an equity and economic development prospective, one of the things that great Public Markets do well is create food-based entrepreneurship opportunities for populations that have historically been denied chances to start businesses through traditional means.  Many people of color, women, and immigrants who might have the skills and entrepreneurial spirit to start great food businesses face financial and structural barriers due to current discrimination and legacies of discrimination.  Public Markets can lower these barriers.  
 
In 2003, the Ford Foundation commissioned a report titled, “Public Markets as a Vehicle for Social Integration and Upward Mobility.”  Research conducted for this report found that 85% of surveyed small businesses using public markets as platforms for starting a business self-finance their start-up costs.  This suggests that public markets can support those who are unable to use traditional bank-based financing methods.   The report also surveyed public market vendors at several markets across the country and asked why they started a business at a public market.  The most common responses included “pay rent/bills,” “pay for own education,” “send kids to college,” and “expand business.”
 
The definition of the word “Equity” (created by Policylink and used in the City’s Equity Tool) is as follows… “Just and fair inclusion into a society in which all, including all racial and ethnic groups, can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. Equity gives all people a just and fair shot in life despite historic patterns of racial and economic exclusion”
 
Food entrepreneurship has historically been a pathway to economic opportunity for families most often left behind by “historic patterns of economic exclusion”.  When I read this definition of equity and think about how we can make meaningful progress toward giving more Madison residents opportunities to “participate, prosper, and reach their full potential.” I think the Public Market could be one of our most powerful tools. 
 
Our choice is not between whether to provide access to healthy, affordable, culturally appropriate food for all or to support a public market district.  Rather, our duty is to ensure that the public market district is a welcoming, affordable, and accessible place for all Madisonians while we simultaneously address food access issues in all neighborhoods.  A public market district cannot do both, but the City of Madison, along with our partners, can.

Equity Initiatives and For the Record

I really enjoyed being a guest on WISC TV's For the Record with Neil Heinen this past weekend. We had an engaging discussion on the City of Madison Equity Initiatives. As Neil put it, there is a lot more going on than people think! Take a look by clicking on the photo below.

As Neil and I discussed, the City's effort is just one part of the very large puzzle. We look forward to working with private sector businesses as well. Together we can make a difference.

 

Neighborhood Resource Teams-Merging Placemaking and Social Cohesion

I was recently able to address the National League of Cities-Big Ideas for Cities Conference. I took a walk down memory lane and described the inception of our Neighborhood Resource Teams. Ironically a letter from a young Madison Police Officer named Joe Balles was part of the story. I called it Neighborhood Resource Teams-Merging Placemaking and Social Cohesion. Take a look and let me know what you think.

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City of Madison Equity Initiatives

I was really pleased to be able to unveil the City of Madison Equity Initiatives earlier today. I was joined by Godwin Amegashie of 100 Black Men of Madison, Wensy Melendez of Amigo Construction, Felicia Anderson of the Brentwood neighborhood and Frank Davis of MOSES along with other city staff to discuss the report.

We have a lot of work to do, but this report outlines some of the progress we have made, and explains some of the initiatives that are underway. I look forward to continuing to work on this collaborative effort with partners from City departments, non-profits, private businesses and others.

Racial Equity: The first major step for the city

If you not had a chance, you should read the article by Dean Mosiman in the Wisconsin State Journal or at Madison.com entitled "Madison moving on racial equity initiative." It outlines the city's plans to integrate and increase equity in all aspects of city operations. As I stated in the article, this is the first major step because it changes the conversation from what's wrong to how do we solve it and how are we going to move forward to achieve racial equity in City government.

 

Employee Engagement and Equity

The City of Madison, through the efforts of dedicated employees and elected officials, strives to deliver the highest quality services and provide a fair and orderly system of governance for our citizens and visitors.  At the City of Madison we are always looking for ways to improve and better deliver on our mission. 

 With this in mind the City of Madison recently embarked on a new initiative aimed at building employee engagement and equity across all of the various City Departments and Divisions.  The engagement and equity initiative is designed to create a culture where employees are fully involved in, and passionate about their work.  As a result they go above and beyond their expected performance in an effort to support the mission of their department and the mission of the City as a whole.  Higher levels of engagement have been proven to produce many positive outcomes such as better customer service, greater productivity, happier employees, and lower rates of absenteeism and turnover, to name a few.   The engagement and equity initiative focuses on building trust, equipping employees, developing employees, and connecting to purpose.  The model that we are delivering provides strategies and techniques that allow us to work on each of these areas at the individual employee level, in teams, and organizationally.   We are very excited about this new initiative and its positive impact on our services to the community.  It is through our most innovative, talented, and engaged employees that we are able to make the most significant improvements in support of our Vision of Madison as a safe and healthy place for all to live, learn, work, and play.

 Implementation efforts have been proceeding rapidly thanks to the hard work and dedicated service of our City’s Culture and Engagement Team.  The Team is made up of 40 of our most engaged City employees  who have been spearheading both team and individual efforts within various departments.  One of these initiatives was creation of the City website dedicated to the Employee Engagement and Equity program which is now available to all employees and members of the general public.  You can check out the website at http://www.cityofmadison.com/employeenet/HR/engage/ .  You will find several helpful resources including a progress report, the engagement and equity model, powerpoint presentations, team members, and HR Contacts. 

 

 

Racial Justice and the Race to Equity Project

The Wisconsin Council on Children and Families has completed its much awaited report Race to Equity:A Baseline Report on the State of Racial Disparities in Dane County. The report confirms we have a lot of challenges as we work to improve our community for everyone.

This study confirms that while Madison is a wonderful city for many of us, particularly white families, it's not that great of a place for families of color, specifically black. It shows that while white individuals here do better on measures of health, education and employment than others nationwide, black individuals here generally fare worse than their counterparts nationwide.

The local jobless rate in 2011 nationwide,for blacks was twice the rate for whites., However, in Dane County it was 25.2% for blacks and only 4.8% for whites. That is a disturbing statistic.

I was pleased to be able to attend the YWCA Racial Justice Summit today, to meet with Erica Nelson, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, Project Director as well as hundreds of other committed people.  I am confident many of those who attended will continue to partner with us as we work to address this problem.

We know we have work to do and although this report has some startling statistics, I am pleased that we have the data and we know our challenge.