Yeah, that was proclaimed loud and clear by a local Downtown Business Leader at the Plan Commission. No, not before Walker was elected, but just last night.
Not very politically savvy, eh? Here’s the statement Susan Schmitz, President of Downtown Madison Inc said at the Plan Commission last night, when talking about the Development Process Review Report.
Thank you, nice to see all of you tonight. I am here representing Downtown Madison Incorporated, and we do want to thank Tim Cooley, Matt Mikolajewski, Doug Nelson, Joe Boucher and members of the Economic Development Commission and everyone else who worked on the document that is before you. Like many groups, DMI worked on our recommendations in February through June in 2010 and submitted them to then Economic Development Director Tim Cooley June 28th. DMI thinks that the document before you is complete and covers all of our recommendations and more. And I would like to emphasize a few that DMI thinks are very important. We would like to make sure that the preamble to the document contains language that focuses on a can-do attitude. An attitude that can get us to “yes”. Understanding that not all projects are good projects but lets begin with a lets-take-a-look attitude. We want developers to invest in Madison and we want them to feel welcome. Another area that is in the recommendations is the empowerment of city staff. The City of Madison has great staff and very seasoned people in the Planning, Community and Economic Development Division, they need to be empowered to make good decisions for the City of Madison and to make recommendations where appropriate. We are also hoping that the recommendations pertaining to increased outreach for the neighborhood associations works to bring more people to the table. Property and business owners along side the residents. An inclusive process. We look forward to the final document and offer whatever help we can with implementation, in particular in marketing and getting the word out that we are open for business. Thanks very much.
Besides being politically tone deaf given what has been going on at the capitol for the last 6 weeks, the statement was kind of offensive in that it doesn’t recognize the privileged position they had in this process, as their recommendations were done by the time the Mayor announced he wanted to take a look at the process and everyone else (not the business community) were just getting started.
Additionally, she piles on by thanking Doug Nelson, the chair of the Economic Development Commission, who is . . . wait for it . . . the regional President of M&I Bank. Who has contributed to the campaigns of people like Reince Priebus, chair of the Republican National Committee. Again, just stunningly politically tone deaf. But then again, the Madison business community has lived in its little echo chamber for so long, that saying things like this are the norm and are not given more than a second thought. Corporate welfare ($16M for the Edgewater when Verona originally offered Epic $18M), government being open for business and running government more like a business are excepted as goals for the city within this crowd.
I didn’t get to watch the whole thing (I didn’t set my TiVo right), but the plan commission spent a considerable amount of time discussing things like:
– Items in the report they didn’t have the legal authority to “require” neighborhood associations to do
– The need for more legal research into what was a state statute requirement vs local decision.
– Lack of examples of a problem for some of the solutions proposed.
– One plan commissioner points out that the negative statements in the “case for improvement” are the wrong place to start, some of the language is just “silly”. That language was recommended for removal.
– They criticized the language because they start with the assumption that all development is good, but the real good is the economic benefits of a well built environment.
– Unintended consequences of some of the recommendations
– Removing pejorative language
And finally, one of the things I thought was awesome was when someone mentioned the map that shows that 50% of the parcels in Madison is off the tax rolls staff finally said that if you removed the road right of ways and public parkland, etc, it was only 14.1% of the properties that are not contributing to tax base. (State, UW and county lands; churches and non-profits) One plan commissioner was quick to point out that much of the other land not taxed has to do with roads and if we had better development that reduced the need for cars we would have less untaxable land.
I wish I had seen the rest of the discussion, and I will review it and probably blog it, depending upon if I’m feeling better. If not, you might want to check out the plan commission meeting for yourself. Its an interesting microcosm of the larger discussion that the rest of Wisconsin is having. The themes and characters are all there . . . and apparently Madison is, after all, open for business! Will the residents of Madison allow this trend to continue, or will the wake up and notice that many of the things going on at the state are also going on here locally.
Brenda, seems like you are insinuating that we should be “closed for business”, no?
Good job Brenda. The biz stance begs the Q: Open for locally owned biz or absentee owned? How many local stores will the new Hilldale Target snuff out how soon?
Not at all! Just pointing out that was not a politically savvy phrase at the moment. The plan commissioners did a good job of trying to balance the needs of the people who live in Madison and the business community. The staff walk that line every day and do a professional job at it. There isn’t much wrong with our development process, many developers tell you that their project turned out better as a result and in the end, Madison is a special place because of it, we’re not Anywhere USA. I hope if you get elected, you can have a higher level of dialog than this, the issues are much deeper than a sound bite. I hope you look at the report, there are a whole bunch of great recommendations in it, then there are some problems. And some unintended consequences . . .
Government, should be here to serve the people who live here. The people who vote in elections. The elected officials should remember that.
Not a sound bite, just a question. I look forward to being part of a much bigger dialogue. One that involves neighbors, school leaders, business leaders, city staff, alders, etc.
Elected officials shouldn’t have to “remember” that government is here to serve the people, they should “know” that. Business leaders and developers are people who need to be listened to as well.
You’re right Madison is not anywhere USA, thankfully. We should continue to value the local democracy that happens at the neighborhood level and advocate for their input in development projects. When neighborhoods are involved at the early stages and are acting reasonably and in good faith, the project turns out better. However, there remains a perception that Madison is not an attractive place to do business. No doubt, some of this is perceived. But, where we can make improvements to the process that is helpful for developers and neighborhoods, we should.
While I certainly wouldn’t invest my money with M&I bank, I don’t see the statement to be politically tone deaf. In fact, my assumption is that the statement was non-political and instead aimed at being pragmatic. My response was aimed at what seemed to be a predetermined negative reaction to anything or anyone that takes a “pro-business” stance…however one interprets that phrase.
I am actually trudging through the report during my free time today. I have learned a lot more about city government in the last 18 months by reading your blog. Thank you.
Also, I think we can all distinguish between Susan’s “open for business” and Governor Walker’s “open for business?”
Just a note, developers have to also act reasonably and in good faith. Those that do, have no problem. The hard-headed developers who want it only their way are the ones that have the trouble and create the perception. I don’t think we need to fix that, they do. We could do everything in the report and there will still be people who have the perception that Madison is unfriendly to business. It’s an argument that gets brought up every 5 years or so to advance the latest gift to the business community.
By the way, being critical of something is not the same as a “predetermined negative reaction to anything or anyone that takes a “pro-business” stance”. It’s just being critical . . . I’m critical of many things . . . and people and ideas and . . .
Fair enough. Hard-headed developers and hard-headed neighbors are the problem, real and perceived.