H 32°, L 7° | Tomorrow: 
H 17°, L 4°The City of Madison Plan Commission voted Monday to approve the proposed renovations of Lisa Link Peace Park.
The plans for the State Street park include a visitor’s center with public restrooms, outdoor performance space, fountains, bike parking, a surcharge-free ATM and a small police workstation.
The commission and members of the community debated for more than 90 minutes before voting unanimously to give approval to the plans.
The bulk of the debate centered on the current users of Peace Park, many of whom are homeless.
Operation Welcome Home, an organization that supports Madison’s homeless community, sent more than five speakers, all of whom stressed they would be without a home if the plans for Peace Park were approved.
“Lisa Link wanted that park to be for people,” Max Holmes of OWH said. “Where else would you have us go?”
OWH’s objections to the plans were based on the proposed police workstation and the installation of an ATM, which would outlaw panhandling within 50 feet of the park’s entrance due to a Madison city ordinance.
“It’s a peace park, not a police park,” Kayla Fox of OWH said.
According to Ken Saiki of Ken Saiki Design, Inc., the landscape architecture firm responsible for the new plans, the proposed police workstation would be only 29 square feet. It is intended to be a place where the police can recharge equipment, conduct research and file paperwork. The police are not expected to be there for any serious duration of time.
Mary Carbine of Madison’s Central Business Improvement District said a business within 50 feet of the park will be installing their own ATM within 30 days, so the proposed ATM should have no negative effect on who uses the park. Carbine added the ATM will provide $3,500 to $5,000 worth of income that can be spent on keeping the park clean.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, assured the attendees the goal of the renovations is not to kick people out of the park.
“There’s nothing in these beautiful designs that will keep people away from the park,” Verveer said. “The reality is that folks are afraid to use the park.”
Verveer characterized the park as having a “serious perception problem” because the park is the number one police call destination for downtown Madison and was the site of downtown Madison’s first surveillance camera.
Susan Schmitz, a member of the Lisa Link Park Advisory Committee, gave her full support to the park. Schmitz said she has been working on the plans since 2001, when renovations were first proposed. The first 18 months of the committee was devoted to spending hours observing the park and how it was used so the city could make a plan that best uses the park.
Construction is expected to be completed by July 2010, and Verveer expressed his hope that upon completion of the plans, the current users of the park would return.
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i think this whole thing is bullshit. peace park is a very important spot for the homeless people of madison.
how about in hard economic times we embrace a culture of solidarity, rather than spend a million dollars to push the homeless out of sight??
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So more foot traffic somehow=the abandonment of PP by the homeless? That theory would could hold… if the park weren’t dead center in the middle of downtown. I live a block from there, ads considering that I’ve been accosted twice and almost mugged once, if the little police shack keeps away the few users of the park who give the rest if its users a bad name, then the park is better off for it.
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“how about in hard economic times we embrace a culture of solidarity” ok there mr idealism, that might work at the hippie co-op but it won’t fly in public policy classroom 101
How about we embrace a culture of “taxpayers shouldn’t pay for a park and then not be allowed to request changes to the park THEY PAY FOR.”
Go to the park at night. People are not sleeping there. This is no one’s home. It’s some bums who don’t want their haunt taken away.
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Its not about people’s homes being taken away— its that homeless people have limited spaces to be in during the day. THey have to be out of the shelter from 7:30am-7:30pm. THey get harassed at the library and the capitol if they stay very long, there is limited space at the Hospitality House and it is all the way on the South Side. Plus it is a PUBLIC SPACE! People don’t have the option of going into the comfort of their own homes. People down there that I know have searched for jobs. There are no jobs. And employers discriminate against homeless people anyway. So this is a matter of taking a way one of the only places where people can be during the day and sending a very clear message, “The Madison Public Does Not Want to See Homeless and Poor People Downtown Because They are Scared of Them and Do Not Want to Be Pushed Out of Their Comfort Zone.” And the city is willing to spend $1 million to make sure people dont have to face their fears of homeless and poor people rather than putting money towards actually addressing the root causes of the problem.
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The idea that the root cause of the problem is SOLVED by the 1 million dollars id fallacious at best and does not address the duty owed to Madison taxpayers. There’s no evidence to suggest the “problem” of homelessness at Peace Park would be solved if all money spent in its renovations were funneled into “social services” (or whatever buzz word is hot nowadays) for these people. We already spend substantial amounts in city and county budgets - why is this extra money necessary? And how is this good policy? Every single city action can be looked at in a 1:1 trade off mentality. So we shouldn’t pay for a police officer because his or her salary could theoretically feed, cloth, and shelter someone for a few years?
You seem to ignore who funds the park: Madison taxpayers. They don’t like what they’re paying for. There’s a duty owed to them. The park will be better off with renovations and nobody kicks the homeless OUT of the park during daylight hours.
If the end result is simply no more panhandling there, well, that is an external cost I would be willing to take for serious renovations to an otherwise SHITTY “park”.
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Panhandling will be banned from the park with this plan. Homelessness doesn’t automatically mean panhandling. Homeless people can certainly still use the park, no one’s going to kick them out if they can’t provide a permanent address- they just can’t panhandle. There are plenty of other places the homeless can go if this redesign offends them or they feel the urge to beg- the park is outdoors, and there’s no lack of alternative spaces outside. 10:10 -I would be much more concerned with INDOOR places for the homeless to go if I were you, seeing as how it gets hella cold in Madison during the winter. I highly doubt the homeless enjoy being in Peace Park when the temps hit the single digits.
Frankly, this park will be better off with this new design and live up to its name- a park people can use in peace.
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Oh boo-farking-hoo - I guess they’ll have to look for work instead of panhandling.
I can’t imagine what Madison would be like if it never got cold - bums everywhere I guess.