There are some things you learn right away when you get to college. I got most of the big things, like whether to go to class (yes) and if I should eat two dinners (no) out of the way after a week or two on campus. Others took much longer to figure out. These were usually smaller details, like where Willy Street was or that there actually was stuff to the west of Camp Randall. After a year and a half, I finally learned the stretch of land by Subway on State Street was not named “Crackhead Park,” though it may as well have been.

If all goes according to plan, Lisa Link Peace Park, as it is officially called, will have a new look in the near future. Plans driven in part by a desire to make the area more “family friendly” (read: clear out the bums) are moving forward to renovate the embattled piece of property at Gilman and State.

Those plans are, at least in part, justified. Homelessness is a complex and increasingly important issue in Madison and will have to be addressed in the near future. Nevertheless, our parks are public spaces and should be accessible to all, homeless or not. In most cases, everyone manages to coexist, but at Peace Park, the equilibrium is clearly out of whack. The area is rarely used by patrons of State Street or families, and it requires frequent police attention.

That’s why a $1 million facelift is being proposed for the park. The city will contribute about $650,000 in Tax Increment Financing funds and private donations are expected to cover the difference. There will be no carousel as was notoriously proposed years ago, but plans include a remodeled park with a visitor center, amphitheater and interactive fountain.

Those who want to renovate the park are right on one critical point: The status quo is lousy. Unfortunately, their fixes don’t quite seem to do the job, failing to address both the presence of vagrants and the root causes of homelessness.

Incorporating an amphitheater into the park seems like a great option for expanding its use. And the cacophony of bands, speakers and whatever else alights on stage will only add to the character of State Street and Madison. If one of the reasons for remodeling the park is the issues with transients, however, this aspect of the project creates more problems than it solves. Without other significant changes, it is tough to see how the amphitheater will become anything but a campground once the sun goes down.

Unless of course, there is a police presence located in the park itself, and conveniently enough, there is. Included in plans for a visitor center is this sort of police outpost.

To put it bluntly: no way. I appreciate the work MPD does to protect our city, but there are already plenty of police on State Street, and some video cameras to boot. If their current regular presence at the park has not produced the desired results, an outpost is not likely to, either. If there is a legitimate need for more, permanent facilities downtown, that’s a separate conversation. But to use TIF funds to build “Police Park” under the guise of renovating Peace Park doesn’t quite seem kosher.

The police outpost’s neighbors also suffer from some head-scratching logic. The bustling tourist destination Madison apparently is, people from as far away as Sun Prairie and Middleton become hopelessly lost as they attempt to navigate from the capitol to the campus, necessitating a visitor center on State Street.

Never mind that it’s away from any serious parking garage where one of these “tourists” may tether their SUV for the afternoon. Never mind we don’t exactly have an influx of foreigners badgering Badgers for directions to the UW Bookstore. And never mind that State Street is a straight line. Whoever is lucky — unlucky — enough to become Madison’s cheery representative to the world will spend most of their time issuing one of the two following directions to a constant stream of Coastie parents: “go out the door and take a left,” or “go out the door and take a right.” In my opinion, a map (maybe like the ones they already have) could issue similar commands at a far more reasonable price. It probably wouldn’t even demand benefits.

The motivations behind renovating Peace Park are nothing sinister, but the problem is deeper than new flower beds and fresh sod. Until the root causes of homelessness begin to be addressed, there will be no peace in this park.

Joey Labuz ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in biomedical engineering.