Once in awhile, Madison does something right!
Trigger warning: the dyspeptic proprietor of the Policy Werkes is about to type a few kind words for Madison’s mayor and her rubber stamp common council. Read at your own risk.
Could it be that the City of Madison has done something right? That’s a firm might, maybe, could be!
We remain skeptical about the success of Bus Rapid Transit, hope it succeeds, anyway. No sympathy for city government’s $22 million budget hole. (They dug it, they can dig themselves out.) They want to pay cop haters to sue the City? Send in the clowns!
But the City did good work here in Orchard Ridge by calming traffic on Hammersley Road. Had been a major, high-speed thoroughfare with no sidewalks in a residential area that was nothing more than a shortcut from Raymond Road a few blocks south.
with construction equipment readied for the east portion,
The street once extended to the right of the bike/pedestrian path.
The Head Groundskeeper is pedaling his electric-assist bicycle up to Hammersley on the portion completed last summer. Runs from Gilbert Road to Brookwood Street, just shy of McKenna Boulevard. City engineers narrowed the street to 24 feet — just enough for two lanes east to west but with no on-street parking. Took the extra space to build an 8-foot wide sidewalk/bike path on the north side of the street with a 3-foot wide grass terrace. Damned if Blaska didn’t see a bicyclist on the street, anyway.
Saw many walkers, including moms and dads pushing baby strollers this sunny September. Monitors of coal mine canaries would conclude it’s an indicator of a healthy neighborhood. Helps that motorists on Hammersley Road can no longer zoom across Whitney Way to the other side.
Mikie likes it
Lot of opposition at first, admits project manager and city engineer Aaron Canton. “But since Phase 1 has been built, the feedback I’ve received has been quite positive, folks seem to be using and enjoying the walking/biking path, especially since there was no safe pedestrian facility before,” he told The Werkes. “The most challenging change for folks seems to be the loss of on-street parking.”
A friend on that section confirmed that the street was, indeed, more peaceful, although he had to be conscious of bicyclists zooming down the hill as he left his driveway.
City contractors expect to finish Phase 2 from Gilbert Road to the W Beltline Frontage Road well before Halloween. This bike/walkway path would be a wider 10 feet with a 5-foot wide grass terrace buffering the street. Price tag: $4,469,000. The first phase cost $3,340,000. While the City was tearing up the road, it replaced the sanitary sewers, storm sewers, and water main.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: One could ask, why spend $7.8 million to calm 1.4 miles of traffic on a street lined with homes assessed at north of half a million dollars when city finances are $22 million in a budget hole? Blaska doesn’t even live on the street. But we’re not paying to sue the police, either.
5 responses to “Bitch, bitch, bitch”
FWIW, Whitney Way to Brookwood is a shorter distance than Brookwood to McKenna.
Anywho, Brookwood is definitely a…um…line of demarcation, in a 38th Parallel sorta way.
Heading west from there is, not to put too fine a point to it, like crossing 110th Street in NYC.
Would Blaska’s pedestrian present “indicator of a healthy neighborhood” observation hold had he continued heading into the sun past Hammersley’s improved portion, and/or turning south on Loreen, Theresa, or (gasp!) Prairie?
The Gotch
New water and sewers, a Peaceful street, walking, biking. What’s not to like.
And it’s all FREE !!!
Yea, right! When the city did mine the cost to me was almost the same as my full property tax bill and my assessment went up $30k the next year. I even got a discount because I live on a corner lot and they are going to hit me up again when they decide to do the other street. When that happens they will take my other 3 big trees(city) like they took the beautiful maple(city) on the corner. I still remember the yellow and red leaves in the fall.
phase 1 followed by phase 2. As JDV said, “fact of life.”