Former mayor Paul Soglin wants a third crack at his old job and the first crack at the issues facing Madison today.
One of the primary issues on his agenda is housing, and he has detailed plans to solve student-housing concerns.
“Housing is a greater concern today, and it’s important to recognize that if nothing is done about enrollment and the added pressure in migration to Madison, it’s going to get worse,” Soglin said, adding that students should have off-campus housing at a more reasonable cost.
To combat the problem, Soglin suggested public financing of new student housing, controlling the density of housing and designating areas for student housing only.
But Ald. Tom Powell, District 5, said Soglin’s proposal to isolate student housing is a bad idea.
“Treating students like untouchables and segregating students or any group of people is always a bad idea,” Powell said. “It doesn’t build healthy communities.”
Powell also said he does not support Soglin, because his politics have taken a turn to the right over the years.
Ald. Dorothy Borchardt, District 12, agrees that Soglin is more moderate now but sees the shift as a sign of Soglin’s maturity.
“As a student activist, he was in a neighborhood group and he had no ideas,” Borchardt said. “But he has settled down as people do once they get out in the real world.”
Soglin, however, has said he does not see himself as conservative; neither does Annie Hughes, a University of Wisconsin senior and Soglin campaign worker.
“He broke barriers in the ’70s when he hired a lot of women and minorities, and it’s hard to paint someone like that as a moderate,” Hughes said. “He cares about preserving affordable housing and the environment, and those are liberal passions.”
Soglin said he wants to clean up the Madison lakes, increase recycling, improve landfill efficiency and enhance the transit system to reduce reliance on cars.
“The current leadership has not shown the will to take the necessary steps to prevent runoff into lakes,” Soglin said.
Powell, however, was skeptical of Soglin’s commitment to cleaning up the lakes.
“There’s not much he can do in that area, because it’s a larger issue than just Madison,” Powell said. “It sounds like a grandiose promise he can’t even begin to deliver on.”
The issue of banning smoking in restaurants should be left alone, according to Soglin.
“Enough is enough. I have no problem with a statewide ban in all public places, but my greatest concern is leveling the playing field for restaurants,” he said, saying the ban could hurt Madison businesses.
On the current controversy over regulated drink specials, Soglin said drink specials themselves are not the problem and instead identified the culture surrounding drinking as problematic.
“Since the drinking age has been raised, the situation’s gotten worse. There’s no question about it — drinking was not as big of a deal before,” he said. “I’d prefer to see students drinking in bars rather than at house parties.”
Hughes said Soglin is the best candidate because of the State Street Mall, the Civic Center, the Monona Terrace and the bike paths he orchestrated during his mayoral terms.
“Students should look at the city they’re enjoying,” Hughes said. “They owe a lot of that to him.”
Soglin entered the Madison scene through UW, where he made a name for himself as an activist strongly opposed to the Vietnam War, even landing himself in jail for the cause.
After completing law school at UW, serving as an alder for five years and campaigning unsuccessfully for mayor in 1971, Soglin was elected mayor in 1973 at age 28. He left the office in 1979 to practice law and take a teaching fellowship at Harvard University.
Soglin was elected mayor again 10 years later and remained in office until 1997, when he left to run an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Representative.
Soglin now works as a financial advisor and a professor of municipal finance at the UW’s LaFollette Institute.
