Madison Wisconsin has more restaurants per capita than any other American city which is good because for some reason grocery stores are a huge municipal concern. For unknown reasons, downtown’s anti-capitalist coop source of politically correct food is once again in financial trouble.
Mifflin Street Coop: The vote was the third time in five years that people have rallied to save the not-for-profit co-op, 32 N. Bassett St., which opened in 1969 amid anti- capitalist sentiment. The store, which sells primarily organic and health foods, became a meeting place for students, radicals and anti-war protesters - sometimes all three embodied in the same person. … Monday's vote was triggered by a $30,000 loan due this summer that the co-op can't pay, said board president Matt Stoner. The co-op has about $100,000 in total debt, he said.The good news for our non-profit coop is that they are not trying to expand operations within the scope of the City of Madison Comprehensive Plan. The Mayor’s masterpiece of planning is New Urbanist to the core making it absolutely anti-market and unsafe. The Claremont Institute and Reason Online review the reasons why crowding by design is bad public policy. Still the city has a plan and they are resisting private sector efforts to deviate from the government approved vision of the future.
No Again to Whole Foods: But the layout proposed by Freed for Whole Foods stands in contrast to the initial pitch to remake Hilldale as a mixed-used, pedestrian-oriented "lifestyle center" with parking in multilevel ramps hidden behind condominiums or commercial buildings."This is not good land use at a time when we are trying to make University Avenue more humane," said near west side Ald. Robbie Webber.Madison in 2006 is a builder’s paradise if you agree to construct something matching the utopian vision of the Cieslewicz administration. The problem Whole Foods encounters is innocently assuming they should provide parking for customers. The essential goal of New Urbanist planners is the minimization of the human imprint on the environment and that means eliminating personal transportation, as much as they possibly can, from city life.
The greater problem Madison residents are facing is that this administration consistently demonstrates their heartfelt belief that government control of land use is more important than ownership rights. Whole Foods may be the Wal-Mart of Organic Food but the simple fact is that if they purchase the property, then what right does the city have to prevent them from building to safety code the structure they desire?
