Dave Cieslewicz is effectively maintaining his frantic pace in rebuilding Madison into a completely different type of city. The next target type for “infill” development is commercial land serving residential housing tracts. If you have money and a willingness to build a Mayor Dave approved design, then our tax paid public servants will green light everything. Neighborhood opinion is irrelevant to the final decision.
Lampert-Smith: Everybody loves plan - except the neighbors : In case you haven't been paying attention, Midvale Plaza is an ugly strip mall at the corner of Midvale and Tokay boulevards that developer Joe Krupp, golfer Jerry Kelly and his dad, Jack Kelly, want to spend $25 million to redevelop. The plan includes condos, apartments, retail and a new home for the Sequoya branch of the library.Or in other words, this fight pits the idea that individuals can own land versus the idea that collectives, which include both governments and corporations, can own land and people can own parts of buildings. It is a fight for the idea that a house and yard is preferable to an assured place in a stack of storage crates. New Urbanism is a socialist vision, a picture of an urban paradise painted by leaders who want to rule you. Seriously.
The fight pits "new urbanism" versus old suburbanism, with the classic Madison overtones of neighborhood versus developer.
