In the past year as co-presidents of the Tenney-Lapham
Neighborhood, we’ve had a deeper involvement with the city and our
immediate area. From our
experience, it is clear that we need more residents to become involved in
various ways if we want our voices to be heard and to know more about what is
planned for our neighborhood.
Some of what we’ve seen is not encouraging. Some of the plans for the East Isthmus
Rail Corridor involved transforming parts of Tenney-Lapham, and neither the
TLNA nor the alder was informed about this. It took a lot of work to have the plans changed and to ask
for notification of any proposals that might involve us.
We’ve also experienced the reality of public hearings
about construction in our area, which are, at times, hardly a forum for input
from neighborhoods. Yet
we’ve also seen wealthier blocks of our own neighborhood and areas of the
west-side given preferential treatment because they had been lobbying for years
on their own – and without consulting their Neighborhood Association. We
need to minimize such end-runs and, more importantly, make certain that public
hearings be just that: a chance
for residents to be heard and their ideas taken into the actual plans.
That stated, it is unfortunate Madison’s heart is not
its residents and its neighborhoods, but wedded to the construction and
development industry. Those forces
control much of what we face, and residents need to find ways to make their
voices heard. Public outcry has to
be dramatic if it is to be effective, and going through the channels has less
meaning than it did even a decade ago.
We have to organize public protests, like the Northside Neighborhood did
to get another grocery store. Even
when we, as neighborhood leaders, were invited to the mayor’s meeting on
neighborhood grocery stores, the result of the meeting was nothing
concrete. It was held to get a
sense of what people think about neighborhood grocery stores and,
unfortunately, nothing that would give the rest of Madison what the Mayor did
for the Northside.
To move forward, we have to demonstrate publicly for the
causes that move us. We have to be
present in numbers at council meetings.
Not all of us can attend every meeting, but a significant, rotating
presence would speak more for the Neighborhood’s interests. The days of a strong letter and the
alder’s support have given way to counting heads and getting all
neighbors present to state something.
Even then, we’ve seen alders from other districts urge us to take
what we can get and to accept mediocrity.
Even public officials will admit the weakness of some developers’
plans, but will publicly endorse them at the expense of the
neighborhood’s integrity and the will of the people.
Despite all this, we are still convinced that the
neighborhood can do something. We
have an alder who represents us well.
We have committed individuals on the TLNA Board. Yet there are meetings and hearings
that the few of us who volunteer cannot attend because of conflicting meetings
or the sheer lack of time. We need
more – more people to help us, more to speak up at public hearings, more
to write to the papers, more public outcry. Before you flee to the suburbs or bury your head in the
sand, take a stake in your neighborhood and make Tenney-Lapham a wonderful place
to live!
-James L.
Zychowicz, Salvatore Calomino - TLNA Co-Presidents
WHAT TO DO:
Contact the TLNA Board: JZychowicz@aol.com
or SCalomino@aol.com
Contract our alder, Brenda Konkel: BrendaKonkel@yahoo.com
or District2@council.ci.madison.wi.us
Non-Emergency Police Problems (noise, vandalism, etc.): 255-2345
Chronic Problems for the Police (nuisance houses, drug dealing areas, etc.):
Captain Luis Yudice lyudice@ci.madison.wi.us
Inspection issues (From
structural problems to garbage cans on the street, etc.):
George Hank ghank@ci.madison.wi.us
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Fall 2003 Table of Contents