It’s far too easy to scream and holler about the horror and tragedy of the proposed gentrification of the Mifflin Street neighborhood. It’s even easier when Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, muzzles rational discourse through inflammatory and untruthful quotations strategically placed in student newspapers read by his primary voting bloc: students. More on him later.

Consider the two plans under consideration regarding the future of our beloved Mifflin Street neighborhood.

“Plan A” proposes gutting and renovating the current buildings where they stand, with the intention of maintaining the same feel and character of the neighborhood. “Plan B,” however, emphasizes urban development and gentrification of the neighborhood, advocating housing appropriate for young professionals. Translation? This means tearing down some (not all) of the houses on Mifflin and replacing them with high-rise apartments up to six stories tall.

Indeed, many students — myself included — love the Mifflin Street neighborhood as it stands. At a gut level, we would hate to see things change. As undergraduates, we know Mifflin — for better or worse — epitomizes wild undergraduate life at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

But it is also our duty as students to consider the merits of both plans A and B, which have yet to be equally considered. We can’t afford to allow our love of Mifflin in its current state to cloud a vision for the future. After all, love isn’t rational anyways.

Verveer is in love with Mifflin and is deceptively espousing how horrible Plan B is, failing to let voters know there are compelling arguments for both plans. “I am not excited about almost wanton demolition of the area west of Mifflin,” Verveer told The Badger Herald (“Mifflin could see high-rises in its future,” Sept. 11).

Not all voices on this issue are as apocalyptic. Josh Molter — an Associated Students of Madison Legislative Affairs Committee member — told The Daily Cardinal (“Meeting clarifies plans for Mifflin renovations,” Oct. 14) Plan B would be a long-term, gradual project. As quoted in the Cardinal, Molter said, “It’s not like the city’s going to come in and say, ‘Hey, we’re tearing this down.’ It’s going to be a case-by-case basis of a developer coming and saying, ‘Hey, I’m buying these two houses and I’m going to put up a new apartment building.'”

And still Mike Verveer calls this “wanton demolition.” Sounds like political hyperbole if I’ve ever heard it.

A city well known for progressivism should be thrilled by a plan attempting to keep young professionals in close proximity to a major governmental employment hub: Capitol Square. Yet all we hear from Verveer is how the plan would boot students out of the neighborhood and negatively impact the Mifflin Street Block Party.

Sadly, Verveer is too shortsighted and concerned with political grandstanding that he fails to see — or at least take into consideration — the huge benefits the gentrification of Mifflin might provide. It’s in the city’s best interest to keep the brightest minds in town. Nice, new downtown housing for young professionals could prevent the dreaded “brain drain” and give these minds extra incentive to stay in Madison. Furthermore, by spewing out irrelevant sound bites about the block party, Verveer plays politics at its worst. As a representative of a district consisting heavily of UW students, he knows what students are interested in: partying. “I, for one, actually think that the tradition of the 40 years of celebration of the end of the school year — the beginning of spring — is a cool one,” Verveer said in an Oct. 15 Herald article (“Mifflin residents address renovation plans”), implying how tragic it would be for the block party if some of the houses on Mifflin were replaced by high-rises.

But what the public is interested in is not always in the public interest. While Verveer may have scored major points in the short-term on the Mifflin issue by manipulating an easy-to-manipulate young voting base, he is hurting the long-term prosperity of Madison. The future welfare of the city outweighs the importance of maintaining the block party in its exact form. Here Verveer plays great politics but advocates terrible public policy.

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