Mayoral candidate Bert Zipperer wants to make students aware of Madison’s diversity and make student housing affordable.
“We are much more segregated than we are comfortable realizing,” Zipperer said. “As a city, we don’t have a sense of our racial diversity in housing or the workplace.”
Zipperer has worked in Madison schools for 15 years, and he is currently a guidance counselor at Lincoln Elementary. The school is in a racially diverse neighborhood, one, Zipperer said, in which 75 percent of the families are low-income.
Zipperer said his experience with poverty in Madison makes him better qualified to serve as mayor.
“It’s sensitized me to the reality of what the city is,” Zipperer said. “A lot of politicians are top-down and can become out of touch with regular people.”
George Swamp, a social worker at Lincoln, said Zipperer has built a strong support system at the school.
“After seeing him build Lincoln as a community, you can imagine what he can do to build Madison as a community,” Swamp said.
He said when a Lincoln student was killed in a school parking lot accident last year, Zipperer worked behind the scenes to make the parking lot safer, drafting a letter to the City Council requesting traffic signs and speed bumps.
“As a past alder, he has the expertise of knowing who, what and where,” Swamp said. “Now we’re seeing real plans and real federal dollars.”
Zipperer served on the City Council from 1989 to 1995 and today serves on the Equal Opportunities Commission.
Fellow EOC member Paul Marunich said while he thinks Zipperer is an interesting person, he tends to disagree with Zipperer on how to solve problems regarding housing and race.
“He makes general assumptions that aren’t necessarily the case,” Marunich said.
Ald. Dorothy Borchardt, District 12, who worked with Zipperer throughout his City Council years and tried to oust him from the EOC, said she disagrees with his solutions to poverty.
“Throwing money at them is not the answer; we have to look at the big picture,” Borchardt said.
She said city-funded free and affordable housing jacks up property taxes, which strains already struggling low-income residents.
Borchardt said Zipperer is too liberal for Madison, because he believes government should do everything for people rather than holding them accountable and treating them as capable citizens.
“His heart is in the right place, but he would take Madison in the wrong direction,” she said.
EOC member Joanne Morton said despite his disagreements with city officials, Zipperer would be a good mayor because he handles conflict well.
“He does not get really irate toward any particular person,” she said.
Perhaps his calm temperament stems from his years at the University of Wisconsin, where he received his master’s degree in counseling and guidance.
“Students are a huge, largely forgotten population,” Zipperer said.
He said if elected he would defend students against greedy landlords.
“Students are seen as an endless source of income by landlords and are being charged incredible rates,” Zipperer said. He wants to set up a better enforcement system, so students are not ripped off.
In other areas of student interest, Zipperer said he does not think drink specials are the source of a campus binge-drinking problem, and he thinks city residents should decide whether they want smoking in bars and restaurants.
In response to the Halloween riots last weekend, Zipperer questioned whether police action aggravated the situation.
“This is the first time we’ve seen tear gas on State Street for years,” Zipperer said. “Whenever you use force it has dire consequences.”
Zipperer said if he were mayor he would immediately evaluate the night to find out what happened differently from other years.
