It is often thought that the Madison City Council is a cumbersome, misdirected and relatively ineffective institution. For the most part, I agree with this assessment. Yet every once in a while — between commenting on the necessities of police officers to garb their horses with animal diapers and condemning the president and vice president to nonbinding impeachment — they decide to do something productive, and dare I say, pertinent.

Such was the case Tuesday night when the council addressed the very real, very pressing issue of the Allied Drive neighborhood.

After spending month after month and dollar after dollar on a completely infeasible streetcar proposal, among other unimportant issues, the mayor and his council have at last resurrected themselves to a state of political reality. In Tuesday's meeting, the council voted on the mayor's initiative to receive a redevelopment proposal from the city's Community Development Authority for the crime-ridden Allied Drive neighborhood. The redevelopment would take place on the nearly 9-acre plot of land the city purchased last year for almost $5 million.

The proposal will include approximately 48 rental and landlord-occupied units for residents earning less than 60 percent of the area's median income. The project will be primarily funded by a loan from city subsidies and federal tax credits, which can only be attained for the following year if the proposal is submitted by Feb. 1.

In essence, the mayor and the city council have not only addressed an issue that is relevant to the city, but have done so in a timely matter in order to ensure further funding if the proposal is accepted.

After speaking to City Council President Mike Verveer, District 4, it is clear that the majority of the council saw no reason to reject a proposal in order to leave open the possibility of setting the project in motion sooner rather than later.

Of course, there were those who objected Tuesday night and still believe the Allied Drive issue can wait even longer. The most outspoken of these opponents was Ald. Brenda Konkel, District 2, who vehemently opposed accepting CDA's proposal. On her website, Konkel said the estimated $187,000 price tag per unit is almost twice as much as she thinks it should be.

She also said, "The CDA did one project 10 years ago. They don’t really have the experience to pull this one off. The project they did is no longer affordable — the $95,000 condos that they sold had no pricing restrictions on them and are selling for nearly double. And the apartments are very hard to get low-income people into because poor people have bad credit and they have strict screening criteria that doesn’t take that into consideration."

Indeed, Ms. Konkel, there is risk in putting trust in a company to redevelop land that has recently been purchased by the city to turn into consistently affordable housing. But this is only a proposal, and you know as well as I do that you can vote against it as soon as it is proposed if you so choose. Your argument against such an important proposal merely being introduced, not finalized, can only raise questions about your commitment to the project and the community as a whole.

The issues that plague the Allied Drive community are vast and complicated, and their solutions are anything but easy; this we have known for quite some time. However, last night the Madison City Council finally realized another important truth of the problem: Redeveloping this community is going to be a financial risk, but the risk must be pursued in order to bring much needed assistance to a community that has long needed it.

In years past, Allied Drive has taken a back seat to streetcars, Halloween and downtown bar restrictions, among other issues of lesser importance. And if you followed the press coverage of Tuesday night's city council meeting and the frenzy over a meaningless impeachment vote, you might think the issue has once again been relegated to the back burner. But believe it or not, the ball is rolling, and it is finally headed toward Allied Drive.

At long last, the mayor and his minions are addressing a problem that deserves some attention.

Andy Granias ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science and legal studies.