Pay to Play? or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Some Ice Cream

Two local stories that I wanted to touch on, the redevelopment of Lisa Link Peace Park, and a proposal to charge street musicians and other artists a fee to, be...well, artists.

First about Peace Park:

Let me say this; I think for the most part, that Susan Schmitz of Downtown Madison, Inc(DMI) is a well meaning person, but her quote in the WSJ is just awful. AWFUL. For one thing, parks are for, you know parking yourself and enjoying them the best way you can, so saying that people are taking over the park and sitting there all day and hanging out as if it was a bad thing is odd. If people weren't doing that, the should in fact close that park immediately. The second thing she said is equally infuriating;

“Unfortunately, (the park) is taken over by folks who sit there all day and hang out. We want people to be able to take their kids to get an ice cream cone and sit down at a table and chairs without fear of people saying negative things and their feeling safe.”

Tables and Chairs? Ice Cream? You mean like this place? Or this one? Or this one? Or all of these that are in Madison? Or this park? Or this Pedestrian Mall? Or the former Ben and Jerry's?

No matter what you may think of the residents who spend time in Peace Park, you have to see a certain level of elitism in kicking them out of the only place they feel comfortable in the entire city, especially when you consider the number of family oriented places in Madison in the first place. From the few regulars who I have spoken to, they plan to simply move elsewhere, likely to James Madison, and that will probably upset residents of that area, simply restarting the process. If only the city could spend some this park redeveloping money on supporting human services. Nah. We need more cops, right? For the public safety crazed, a police station, along with an amphitheater and tourism center will be added to the park as well. An amphitheater? For what? twelve people? A tourism center? You mean like all the ones on State Street that are used infrequently, or worse, have no one in them? And for us students, a police station. Now considering the position of the Central District leadership on bars and house parties, what do you think this station will be primarily used for? Certainly, it will cut down on response times for real crimes, but don't be surprised if it is a launching pad for bar and house raids, targeting students. Honestly, I seriously believe this city's policy towards fighting poverty is hiring/deploying more cops and redeveloping parks.

Now the street performers:

Because of my lateness, Alder Mike Verveer has responded to the criticisms of a plan to charge street performers(Piccolo guy, Art Paul, kids trying to afford math books) to perform downtown, 10 dollars a day, or 50 dollars for the whole year. Pure and simple, it is total madness to charge people for performing, responsibly and respectfully in the Downtown area. I figure most people do not make 10 dollars a day except the long timers who have built a reputation. When I first moved here, I remember seeing kids in front of Badger Liquor playing guitar for 3 or 4 nights in a row, to pay for a book or two at the bookstore, so unlike the typical rightwing nut jobs, I know people are not making a living off this, but some are using it to supplement their incomes, and a loss of thousands would probably hurt them greatly. Others have taken a more radical position, saying they will play without a permit, and don't mind being arrested. I doubt it will reach this point, as it looks like Mike has backed down from this idea. Let's hope he throws it out completely.

MJ