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Submit your questions here. You may even get answers, some of which are bound to be accurate.
Whether you do or not, the city has posted the 2009 Monona Spring & Summer Guide on the web page (Monona). It looks great and has a ton of of information.
UPDATE: The spring and summer guide was mailed to residents on Friday, March 20.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
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Will the City of Madison ever remove the graffiti from the oil recycling facility at Dean and Monona Drive? Its been there over a month and has been added to in subsequent weeks. I filed an online report over 2 weeks ago and called the hotlie over 1 week ago.
ReplyDeleteIn the past, Lisa Jo had a wonderful Park clean-up day.
ReplyDeleteIs that going to happen again?
Carl,
ReplyDeleteFrom MOPD Chief Walter Ostrenga:
"I called the city of Madison graffiti hot line about the Oil Drop off graffiti (Monona and Dean by the golf course).
They have had multiple calls and have it on their list, but can’t do anything until it warms up."
Doug- What do you think are the 3 biggest issues facing Monona today?
ReplyDelete"Doug- What do you think are the 3 biggest issues facing Monona today?"
ReplyDeleteI will take a crack at this later tonight or tomorrow. I'd be interested in what others think the biggest issues are.
re:biggest issues.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is Wisconsin (and probably most of the U.S.) tax plan is based upon growth. More people means more workers to pay for Social Security, more students means more State aid, more construction means more valued properties to tax for services.
Much of the City is being redone as we speak, and this increases the value of the property similar to growth into corn fields. But once complete, the changes will probably last for years, which is bad for growth under the current system.
Of course places will increase in value, but not at the rate of other communities, effectively becoming no growth.
If this seems likely to you, what should Monona do to survive when the rules seem to paint Monona into a corner (between a lake and Madison)?
Our biggest challenge is not one single issue or even three issues, but rather a collection of issues that will determine whether we renew and improve our quality of life or decline. We have to maintain and improve the things that make Monona an exceptional place to live. The target audience, if you will, includes
ReplyDeleteboth current residents and prospective residents. To a large extent that means focusing on the basics: continuing to help the library stride toward excellence,
maintaining and improving our parks, improving our recreational programming, and continuing to catch up on our streets and utilities. We need to improve out
senior services and facilities. We really need to improve our transit services.
We have to respect our history and the people who made it while taking up the challenge to actively shape our future. We can not afford to sit back passively.
We also need to be more open to input and involvement from 'new' people in our community.
We also need to think about who we are likely to attract as new residents. The families looking to build new large houses and three- and four-car garages in a
traditional new suburban setting are not going to come here. We are more likely to attract people who want to live near Madison and view that proximity as a major asset; people who want to leave a smaller footprint; people open to trying
new ways of doing old things; people who are not afraid of something simply because it is unconventional.
While campaigning this year I have been very encouraged to meet a number of young-ish parents with small children. Many of these folks have high brain-power
type jobs. They could move to other parts of the Madison area or – more likely –
to other parts of the US where they could make more money. So, why don’t they?
Quality of life. They don’t spend hours driving to and from work and they can send their children to very good public schools. Being able to send your kids to
public schools for a real education is a major attraction – one that you may not appreciate if you’ve lived in the Midwest your whole life, like me.
We also need to help foster an environment in which our existing businesses can succeed as well as attracting new businesses.
Reconstructing Monona Drive will help revitalize business, improve safety, and beautify the city. We reinvented Broadway starting 20+ years ago.
Incorporating sustainable environmental principles into our
everyday thinking will lead to better decisions as we work to improve our library, parks, and roads. We must respect our unique local history, while being
welcoming to new people and new ideas. Let's avoid knee-jerk opposition and give new ideas a chance to germinate as we gather public input and data for a fact-based decision.
Regarding our landlocked situation, we can't change it. I don't have a lot of envy of communities that chew up cornfields for new development.
ReplyDeleteWe do have what those places envy but cannot have: immediate proximity to Madison. We have immediate access to excellent regional transportation. We have direct access to a beautiful lake.
We've had some success with redevelopment, but there are plenty of places left for business redevelopment. And there have been some very encouraging concrete changes. The new Monona State Bank, the proposed Menard's expansion, the Livesey development at former Chief's Auto, the new commercial development in Madison at LakePoint.