I’m running for mayor because the misplaced priorities of City Hall are eroding our quality of life.
I came to Madison in the summer of 1969 to attend school. The campus looked a lot different back then. The current richness of cultural diversity didn’t exist. It was a time of political and social change as the war in Vietnam and the civil rights movement challenged our conscience.
Another change is the amount of crime that plagues students and other downtown residents.
When I was in school, we didn’t have students patrolling Langdon Street to try and protect each other from violent assaults, and we didn’t have the university engaging in a much-needed, all-out public-safety awareness campaign because we didn’t have students being mugged, beaten and violently assaulted just about every week.
The Aug. 27 issue of the Wisconsin State Journal reported, “For the first six months of this year, Madison saw a 76 percent rise in robberies of all kinds compared with the same period in 2005.”
Public safety needs to be a priority for City Hall.
During the 2005 budget cycle, I testified in favor of additional resources for the Madison Police Department to increase the number of officers to meet recommended staffing levels. Yet the mayor disagreed and argued against adding additional police officers. Thankfully, his own Board of Estimates overruled him and he was forced to add the additional officers. As mayor, I will never have to be forced to make public safety a priority in the budget.
Madison is a growing community, and we are beginning to face the same issues that growing communities face. City Hall must have the political will to be tough on crime, but we also need a long-term plan to fight crime. As mayor, my focus will be on breaking the cycle of poverty that grips more people than we realize. I believe that to fight crime in the long run, we must fight poverty now.
My priorities will make Madison a great place to live and a horrible place to be a criminal.
Unfortunately, the mayor’s public safety priority was to throw a wet blanket over Halloween. If I were mayor, I would have found ways to encourage a safe celebration of this Madison tradition, without resorting to measures that restricted the civil liberties of responsible partygoers.
After muggings, one of the main public-safety issues downtown is the congregation of drunken people on State Street at bar time. To help resolve this issue, I will lobby the state Legislature for an exemption from the 2 a.m. bar time on Halloween. Just like on New Year’s Eve, people can have fun and then leave when they’re ready. There won’t be a drunken mob pushed onto State Street all at once for them to get caught up in.
Another of the mayor’s misplaced priorities is his ridiculous obsession with trolleys. Trolleys will be an expensive mistake for Madison, especially for students.
It’s been reported that trolley tracks will cost between $15 million and $25 million per mile. Keep in mind that Madison Metro ran a $9 million deficit this year. In other cities where trolleys have been built, the bus system has suffered. To help reduce financial pressure, some cities have seen an increase in rates or have attempted to discontinue popular bus pass options. If the city foolishly pours hundreds of millions of dollars into trolleys, the same could happen here, with the unfortunate result that the city will have to charge more for the student bus pass and/or reduce the bus service that gets so many students to class on winter mornings.
Not only does the cost of the mayor’s trolleys threaten transportation options for students, it also takes resources away from what the city needs to be focusing on: fighting crime and poverty.
The cost of one mile of trolley tracks could go a long way toward fighting crime and addressing poverty.
I’m looking forward to spending more time on campus to talk about the issues facing Madison, such as public safety, affordable housing and public transportation. As a candidate, and hopefully as mayor, I’ll need your input to make Madison a great place to live, work and study.
With more than 40,000 students on campus, students are about 20 percent of the population in Madison. Downtown Madison, especially the campus, is the cultural heart of Madison. It is vital to the city that the student voice is heard, and as mayor I will listen and take your concerns seriously.
Be safe, and good luck this semester.
Ray Allen is a Madison mayoral candidate. He previously served on the Madison School Board for nine years.