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Madison, Wisconsin

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Madison, Wisconsin
File:Madison Wisconsin night.jpg
Flag of Madison, Wisconsin
Flag
Official seal of Madison, Wisconsin
Seal
Nickname: 
"Mad Town" or "Mad City"
Location of Madison in Dane County, Wisconsin
Location of Madison in Dane County, Wisconsin
MunicipalityCity
Incorporated1848
Government
 • MayorDave Cieslewicz
Population
 (2000)
 • City221,551
 • Metro
366,950
Time zoneUTC6 (Central)
Websitehttp://www.ci.madison.wi.us

Madison is the capital of Wisconsin, a state in the United States of America. It is the county seat of Dane County. Madison is also home to the University of Wisconsin.

As of a 2005 census projection, Madison had a population of 221,551, making it the second largest city in Wisconsin. Counting the city's immediate suburbs, the area population exceeds 350,000. The city forms the core of the United States Census Bureau's Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Dane County and neighboring Iowa and Columbia counties, had a 2000 census population of 501,774. All making this micropolitan area the fastest growing in Wisconsin and one of the fastest within the United States.

History

View of Madison. Taken from the Water Cure, South Side of Lake Monona, 1855.

Madison was created in 1836 when a former federal judge named James Duane Doty purchased over a thousand acres (4 km²) of swamp and forest land surrounding lakes Mendota, Monona, Kegonsa, and Waubesa, then known as the Four Lakes region, with the intention of building a new city on the site. Wisconsin Territory had been created earlier in the year, and the territorial legislature had convened in Belmont, Wisconsin. One of the legislature's tasks was to choose a permanent location for the territory's capital city. Doty lobbied aggressively for the legislature to select Madison as the new capital, offering buffalo robes to the freezing legislators and promising choice Madison lots at discount prices to undecided voters. He had James Slaughter plat two cities in the area, Madison and "The City of Four Lakes", near present-day Middleton. Despite the fact that Madison was still only a city on paper, the territorial legislature voted on November 28 in favor of choosing Madison for its capital largely because of its location halfway between the new and growing cities around Milwaukee in the east and the long established strategic post of Prairie du Chien in the west, and because of its location between the highly populated lead mining regions in the southwest and Wisconsin's oldest city, Green Bay in the northeast. Being named for a much-admired founding father who had just died, and having streets named after every founding father, also helped attract votes.

Madison's skyline as seen from the shore of Lake Monona

The cornerstone for the Wisconsin capitol building was laid in 1837, and the legislature first met there in 1838. Madison was incorporated as a village in 1846, with a population of 626. When Wisconsin became a state in 1848, Madison remained the capital city, and it became host to the University of Wisconsin. The Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad (a predecessor of what would become known as the Milwaukee Road) connected to Madison in 1854. Madison became a city in 1856, with a population of 6,863. The original capitol burned in 1904 and construction on the current capitol building began in 1906.

During the American Civil War, Madison served as a center of the Union Army in Wisconsin. The intersection of Milwaukee, East Washington, Winnebago, and North Streets are known as Union Corners, as a tavern located there was the last stop for Union soldiers before heading to fight the Confederates. Camp Randall was built and was used as a training camp, a military hospital, and a prison camp for captured Confederate soldiers. After the war ended, Camp Randall was absorbed into the grounds of the University of Wisconsin. Camp Randall Stadium was built over the site in 1917.

Madison continued its growth throughout the 20th century. Today Madison is the second largest city in Wisconsin, and continues to grow steadily.

Geography

View of Lake Monona from Monona Terrace

Madison is located in the center of Dane County in central southern Wisconsin, 77 miles west of Milwaukee. The city completely surrounds the smaller Town of Madison, as well as Maple Bluff and Shorewood Hills.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Madison has a total area of 219.3 km² (84.7 mi²). 177.9 km² (68.7 mi²) of it is land and 41.5 km² (16.0 mi²) of it (18.91%) is water.

The city is often described as The City of Four Lakes, comprised of Lake Mendota, Lake Monona, Lake Wingra and Lake Waubesa, although Waubesa is not actually in Madison, but rather immediately south of it. The downtown is located on an isthmus between lakes Mendota and Monona, but the city has long since expanded far beyond. The lakes are connected via the Yahara River to Lake Kegonsa. Eventually the Yahara flows into the Rock River and beyond to the Mississippi River.

Demographics

City of Madison
Population by year [1][2]
1840 172
1850 1,525
1860 6,611
1870 9,176
1880 10,324
1890 13,426
1900 19,164
1910 25,531
1920 38,378
1930 57,899
1940 67,447
1950 96,056
1960 126,706
1970 173,258
1980 179,616
1990 191,262
2000 208,054
2005 221,551

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 208,054 people, 89,019 households, and 42,462 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,169.8/km² (3,029.7/mi²). There were 92,394 housing units at an average density of 519.5/km² (1,345.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 83.96% White, 5.84% African American, 0.36% Native American, 5.80% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.67% from other races, and 2.32% from two or more races. 4.09% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 89,019 households out of which 22.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.0% were married couples living together, 7.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 52.3% were non-families. 35.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.19 and the average family size was 2.87.

In the city the population was spread out with 17.9% under the age of 18, 21.4% from 18 to 24, 32.2% from 25 to 44, 19.3% from 45 to 64, and 9.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 96.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $41,941, and the median income for a family was $59,840. Males had a median income of $36,718 versus $30,551 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,498. About 5.8% of families and 15.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.4% of those under age 18 and 4.5% of those age 65 or over.

The metropolitan area of Madison as of 2003 had 526,742 inhabitants, making it the second-most populous in the state, after Milwaukee. Dane County is also one of the fastest growing counties in Wisconsin, adding around 60,000 people per decade.

Politics

Madison is associated with "Fighting Bob" La Follette and the Progressive movement. La Follette's Magazine, The Progressive, founded in 1909, is still published in Madison today. City voting patterns have supported the Democratic Party in national elections in the last half-century, and a liberal and progressive majority is generally elected to the city council. Detractors refer to Madison as The People's Republic of Madison, or as "70 square miles surrounded by reality" (although the number varies significantly depending on who is quoting it). This latter phrase was coined by former Wisconsin Republican governor Lee S. Dreyfus while campaigning in 1978, as recounted by campaign aide Bill Kraus.

The counterculture was centered in the neighborhood of Mifflin and Bassett streets, referred to as Mifflin-Bassett or Miffland. The area contained many three-story apartments where students and counterculture youth lived, used illegal substances, painted murals, and operated the co-operative grocery store Mifflin Street Co-op. The neighborhood often came into conflict with authorities, particularly then Republican Mayor Bill Dyke, a one-time personality on WISC-TV who was later to run for vice-president with segregationist Lester Maddox. Dyke was viewed by students as a direct antagonist in efforts to protest the Vietnam War, due to his efforts to suppress the campus riots that resulted in property damage.

Madison is also home to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which attempts to influence government in matters of removing any and all religious references from governmental entities and activities. The foundation is known for its lawsuits against religious displays on public property, among other things. In recent years, they have made removal of In God We Trust from American currency a main focus.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, thousands of students and other citizens took part in anti-Vietnam War marches and demonstrations, with more violent incidents drawing national attention to the city and UW campus. These include:

  • the 1967 student protest of Dow Chemical Company, with 74 injured;
  • the 1969 strike to secure greater representation and rights for African American students and faculty, which necessitated the involvement of the Wisconsin Army National Guard;
  • the 1970 fire that caused damage to the Army ROTC headquarters housed in the Old Red Gym, also known as the Armory; and
  • the 1970 late summer pre-dawn ANFO bombing of Sterling Hall which housed the Army Mathematics Research Center, killing a post-doctoral student, Robert Fassnacht. Four bombers in the "New Year's Gang" were linked to the bombing, one of whom remains at large.

These protests were the subject of the documentary The War at Home [3] Tom Bates also wrote the book Rads on the subject (ISBN 0060924284). Bates wrote that Dyke's attempt to suppress the annual Mifflin Street block party "would take three days, require hundreds of officers on overtime pay, and engulf the student community from the nearby Southeast Dorms to Langdon Street's fraternity row. Tear gas hung like heavy fog across the Isthmus." In the fracas, student activist Paul Soglin, then a city alderman, was arrested and taken to jail. Soglin was later elected mayor of Madison, serving from 1973 to 1979 and from 1989 to 1997, by his latter term breaking with the most extreme elements of Madison's left.

Madison city politics has remained dominated by activists of liberal and progressive ideologies, particularly in the downtown and east side of the city. In 1992, the local third party Progressive Dane was founded, which organizes to influence local politics through the city council and the Dane County Board of Supervisors. Recently enacted city policies supported in the Progressive Dane platform have included an inclusionary zoning ordinance and a city minimum wage. The party holds multiple seats on the Madison City Council and Dane County Board of Supervisors, and is aligned variously with the Democratic and Green parties.

Economy

File:66C1-Dec-019.jpg
Wisconsin State Capitol

Wisconsin state government and the University of Wisconsin remain the top two major Madison employers. However, Madison's economy today is evolving from a governmental based economy to a consumer services and high-tech base, particularly in the health, biotech and advertising sectors. Beginning in the early 1990s, the city has experienced a steady economic boom and has been comparatively unaffected by recession. Much of the expansion has occurred on the city's south and west sides, but it has also affected the east side near the Interstate 39-90-94 interchange and along the northern shore of Lake Mendota. Underpinning the boom is the development of high-tech companies, many actively fostered by the University of Wisconsin working with local businesses and entrepreneurs to transfer the results of academic research into real-world applications, most notably bio-tech applications.

Many businesses are attracted to Madison's exceptional skill base, taking advantage of the area's high level of education. According to city-data.com, Madison has 48.2% of its population containing a bachelor's degree or higher. Forbes magazine reported in 2004 that Madison has the highest percentage of PH.D.s in the nation. In 2005, Forbes listed the city as having the lowest unemployment: 2.5%, less than half the U.S. 2004 average [4] In 2006, the same magazine listed Madison as number 31 in the top 200 metro areas for "Best Places for Business and Careers." [5] Forbes has however named Madison in the top ten several times within the past decade.

According to the Wisconsin State Journal Madison and the city of Milwaukee will be cooperating to bring more business into the region. One of many hopes of this project includes the long awaited arrival of regional rail transportation. As the two cities grow ever closer the region has occasionally been called "Madwaukee." The larger region which includes Chicago and Minneapolis/St Paul has been referred to as the "Circle City."

Business

The pizza chains Rocky Rococo and Pizza Pit were both started in Madison. Rocky's was started by two students in 1974, Pizza Pit was started by local Terry Voice. Madison is also home to companies such as the North American division of Spectrum Brands (formerly Rayovac), Alliant Energy, American Family Insurance, the Credit Union National Association, CUNA Mutual Group.

Oscar Mayer has been a Madison fixture for decades, and was a family business for many years before being sold to Kraft Foods.

The Pleasant Company was started in Madison by Pleasant Rowland. The Pleasant Company was bought out by Mattel and renamed American Girl for its most famous product line.

Madison has a large number of technology companies in the area, including TomoTherapy, Sonic Foundry, Raven Software, Human Head Studios, Renaissance Learning and Epic Systems Corporation.

Many biotech firms exist here as well, including Promega[6], Third Wave Technologies [7] and the Iceland-based Nimblegen [8].

The biggest employer in Madison is the Wisconsin state government, including virtually all of the state's departments, such as the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, the Wisconsin Attorney General, and so forth. This also includes the University of Wisconsin.

Madison's hospitals are known nationally for their expertise. Two are particularly well known, the University of Wisconsin Hospital (a research hospital), and St. Mary's Hospital. Meriter Hospital and the Veteran's Hospital are also present in Madison.

Education

Madison is home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as Edgewood College, Madison Area Technical College, and Herzing College, giving the city a student population of nearly 50,000. The University of Wisconsin contributes the vast majority of these, with roughly 41,000 students enrolled. This makes it one of the largest public universities in the United States. It is consistently rated among the top public post-secondary schools in the country, and has outstanding courses, professors, and programs. In a Forbes magazine city ranking from 2003, Madison had the highest number of Ph.D.s per capita, and third highest college graduates per capita, among ranked cities in the United States. [9] Sports make up a large part of the campus experience at the university, both intramural and intercollegiate. The University's athletic teams, nicknamed "The Badgers", are consistently among the best in United States, drawing throngs of students, alumni, and state residents to their contests.

Additional degree programs are available through satellite campuses of Lakeland College, Upper Iowa University and the University of Phoenix for students who maintain full-time employment.

The Madison Metropolitan School District is one of the best in the state. With an enrollment of approximately 25,000 students in 46 schools, it is the largest school district in Wisconsin.[10] Madison has more than six times the National Merit Scholar Semifinalists than comparable school districts. The five public high schools are: James Madison Memorial, Madison West, Madison East, LaFollette, and Malcolm Shabazz, an alternative school. The most notable of the private schools is Edgewood High School, located on the Edgewood College campus.[11]

With the State-imposed property tax caps, the Madison School District has found itself struggling as of late. In trying to find new methods of funding and support, the School District has tried to estimate the opinions of the public by holding public sessions on their budget. While the State-imposed mandates allow for a 3.3% increase in spending, inflation amounts to a 5.4% per year, resulting in an annual increase necessary to continue previous course offerings that is below state mandates.

Transportation

Madison is served by the Dane County Regional Airport, which serves more than 100 commercial flights on an average day, and nearly 1.6 million passengers annually. The Metro Transit System operates the city bus routes. [12] Madison also enjoys widespread taxicab coverage.

A commuter light rail system has been proposed, particularly for a corridor passing through the isthmus and alongside the university campus, but has remained on paper for decades. A high-speed rail route from Chicago through Milwaukee and Madison to Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, has also been proposed as part of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative. Though for a time, former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson was the chairman of Amtrak, the nearest train station is in Columbus, Wisconsin. Regional buses connect Madison to Milwaukee, Janesville, Beloit, and in Illinois, Rockford, O'Hare Airport, and Chicago.

WSOR number 4025 painted for the railroad's 25th anniversary, seen in Madison July 23 2005.

Railroad freight services are provided in Madison by Wisconsin and Southern Railroad (WSOR), which has been operating since 1980, having taken over trackage owned since the 19th century by the Chicago and North Western and the Milwaukee Road. Some of the proposed light rail and commuter routes would use existing WSOR rights of way, such as the line between the Kohl Center and Middleton. Limited commuter trains were tested along this line in the early 2000s as "football specials". The trains took passengers from the Middleton depot to Camp Randall Stadium to help alleviate parking issues on game days.

Interstates 39, 90, and 94 intersect at Madison, connecting the city to Milwaukee, Chicago, and Minneapolis/St. Paul.

Media

Madison is home to an extensive and varied number of print publications for a city that reflect the city's role as the state capital and diverse political, cultural and academic population. The Wisconsin State Journal (weekday circulation: ~95,000; Sundays: ~155,000) is published in the mornings, while its sister publication, The Capital Times (Mon-Sat circulation: ~20,000) publishes in the afternoon. Though conjoined in a joint-operating agreement operated under the name Capital Newspapers, the Journal is owned by the national chain Lee Enterprises, while the Times is independently-owned. Wisconsin State Journal is the descendant of the Wisconsin Express, a paper founded in the Wisconsin Territory in 1839. The Capital Times was founded in 1917 by William T. Evjue, a business manager for the State Journal who disagreed with that paper's editorial criticisms of Wisconsin Republican Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. for his opposition to U.S. entry into World War I. Through Capital Newspapers, Lee also owns many other papers in southwest Wisconsin and northeast Iowa.

The city is also home to the free weekly alternative newspaper Isthmus[13] (weekly circulation: ~65,000), which was founded in 1976. The Onion, a satirical weekly, was also founded in Madison in 1988 and maintains its business offices in the city, though its editorial headquarters were moved to New York City in 2000. Two student newspapers are published during the academic year, The Daily Cardinal (Mon-Fri circulation: ~10,000) and The Badger Herald (Mon-Fri circulation: ~16,000). The Herald began during the turmultuous Vietnam War era as a conservative alternative to the liberal Cardinal. Madison is also home to numerous other specialty print publications focusing on local music, politics, and sports, including The Madison Times[14], Wisconsin Sports Weekly[15] The Mendota Beacon, The Madison Observer, [16] and The Simpson Street Free Press[17].

Madison is also home to The Progressive, a left-wing periodical that may be best known for the attempt of the US government in 1979 to suppress one of the Progressive's articles prior to publication. However, the magazine eventually prevailed in the landmark First Amendment case, United States v. The Progressive, Inc.

Madison's Wisconsin Public Radio station, WHA, was one of the very first radio stations in the nation to begin broadcasting, and remains the longest continuously broadcasting station in the country.

Widely heard public radio programs that originate in Madison include Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know?, To the Best of Our Knowledge, and Calling All Pets.

See also:

Culture

In 1996 Money magazine identified Madison as the best place to live in the United States. It has consistently ranked near the top of the best-places list in subsequent years, with the city's low unemployment rate a major contributor.

The main downtown thoroughfare is State Street, which links the University of Wisconsin campus with the State Capitol square, and is lined with restaurants, espresso cafes, and shops. Only pedestrians, buses, police, delivery vehicles and bikes are allowed on State Street (though it was originally an ordinary commercial street), which is an east-west street in contrast to the diagonal streets of the Isthmus and Capitol Square.

Continuing on the other side of Capitol Square is King Street, which is now developing along the lines that State Street has, but with less of a student character, and more appeal to the growing young white-collar high-tech population in Madison (whose residents jokingly refer to the post-graduate crowd). Thus King Street has more upper-end restaurants and cafes than are found on the more student-budget State Street.

In the summer time, on Saturday mornings, the Dane County Farmers' Market is held around the Capitol Square.[18] On Wednesday evenings on the same square in summer, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra performs free concerts to people picnicking on the Capitol's lawn.[19] The Great Taste of the Midwest craft beer festival, the second longest running such event in North America, is the second Saturday in August and the highly coveted tickets sell out within a few hours when they go on sale in May.[20]

Madison is host to Rhythm and Booms, a massive fireworks celebration (coordinated to music) that begins with a fly-over by several F16s from the local Wisconsin Air National Guard that break the sound barrier over the city (the only time that this is allowed). This celebration is the largest fireworks display in the Midwest in terms of the length of the show, number of shells fired and the size of its annual budget. [21]

During the winter months, Madison hosts Kites on Ice, a gathering of kite-flying enthusiasts on the ice of local Lake Monona near the state capitol. [22]

In 2004 Madison was named the healthiest city in America by Men's Journal magazine. Many major streets in Madison have designated bike lanes and the city has one of the most extensive bike trail systems in the nation. Due to this, Madison has a very active cyclist culture and it is common place to see groups of friends bicycling together throughout the city on nice days. Bicycle tourism is an $800 million industry in Wisconsin, which has 20 percent of the nation's bicycling industry manufacturing capacity. [23]

There are quite a few cooperative organizations in the Madison area, ranging from grocery stores (such as the Mifflin Street Cooperative and Willy Street Cooperative) to housing co-ops (such as Madison Community Cooperative, Lothlórien Co-op, and Nottingham Housing Cooperative). The total number of co-ops in the area is relatively high when considering the small population of the city. Many larger cities have substantially fewer co-ops.

In 2005, Madison was included in Gregory A. Kompes' book, 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Place to Live.[24] The city was also named the number one college sports town by Sports Illustrated in 2003.[25]

Music

Madison's vibrant music scene covers a wide spectrum of living musical culture.

The Madison Opera presents a full season of offerings providing at least two full productions and the incredibly popular Opera in the Park (which reached over 10,000 music lovers in the summer of 2005). In addition, the nationally recognized company produces recitals and its late series Opera Up Close.

The Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps has provided youth aged 16-22 opportunities to perform across North America every summer since 1938. The corps is hailed world-wide for its energetic and entertaining shows. Further, the University of Wisconsin Marching Band is one of the most popular marching bands in the nation, with an extensive and eclectic repertoire.[26]

Garbage is the city's most recognized contemporary contribution to popular music. The pop-rock band has been based out of Madison since formation in 1994 by producer-musician Butch Vig of Viroqua. Vig is well known for producing albums for such highly-regarded bands as The Smashing Pumpkins (whose debut album Gish was recorded at Vig's Smart Studios in Madison) and Nirvana (whose song Polly from Nevermind was also recorded at Smart Studios).

Madison is also home to widely-sampled funk drummer Clyde Stubblefield.

Art

Museums include the University of Wisconsin's Chazen Museum of Art (formerly the Elvehjem Museum), the Wisconsin Historical Museum (run by the Wisconsin Historical Society)[27], the Wisconsin Veteran's Museum[28], the Madison Children's Museum [29], and the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Madison is also the home of many independent art studios and galleries. It hosts the annual Art Fair on the Square, a juried exhibition, and the complementary Art Fair Off the Square.

Performing arts

The Madison Opera, the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Madison Repertory Theatre, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and the Madison Ballet are just some the professional resident companies of the Overture Center for the Arts, presenting annual seasons of professional theater. The city is home to a number of smaller performing arts organizations, including a group of theater companies that present in the Bartell Theatre, a former movie palace that has been renovated into live theater spaces, and Opera for the Young, an opera company that performs for elementary school students across the Midwest.

Several films have been at least partially made in Madison. One of the most notable was the movie The War at Home. Another movie that made extensive use of the city as a backdrop was the 1986 movie Back to School starring Rodney Dangerfield. The University's Bascom Hill is used extensively, as is the local university bookstore, called (appropriately enough) The University Bookstore. The film also features many dorm buildings on campus, and various outdoor locales including the Terrace and Library Mall.

Madison is also home to one of the largest film archives in the nation at the Wisconsin State Historical Society.

Architecture

Wisconsin State Capitol

The Wisconsin State Capitol dome, closely based on the dome of the U.S. Capitol, is the jewel of the Madison skyline, and is visible throughout the Madison area due to a state law that limits building heights.[citation needed] Because of its location in the urban core, Capitol square is well integrated with everyday pedestrian traffic and commerce, and the spoke streets -- especially State Street and E. Washington -- offer dramatic views of the Capitol.

Architect Frank Lloyd Wright spent much of his childhood in Madison and studied briefly at the University, and is responsible for several Madison buildings. Monona Terrace, a meeting and convention center overlooking Lake Monona, is based on a long-uncompleted Wright design, and the seminal Usonian House is located here. (Another key Wright building, the Unitarian Meeting House, is in the adjacent suburb of Shorewood Hills.)

The Bradley House, designed by Louis H. Sullivan in 1908-1910 now serves as the Sigma Phi Fraternity in the University Heights neighborhood, along with many well-maintained early 20th-century residences.

The Overture Center for the Arts, designed by Argentina-born architect César Pelli, also stands on State Street near the Capitol. Since opening in 2004, the center has already presented shows and concerts in its Overture Hall, Capitol Theater and The Playhouse (home of the Madison Repertory Theatre). The center, also including smaller performance spaces, also houses the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. The style, unlike Pelli's Petronas Towers, leans toward sleek modernism, with simple expanses of glass framed by stone that are intended to complement the historic building facades preserved as part of the building's State Street exposure.

The UW campus includes many buildings designed or supervised by architects J.T.W. Jennings (the Diary Barn, Agricultural Hall) and Arthur Peabody (the Memorial Union and the Carillon Tower). The UW administration building Bascom Hall sits atop a high hill overlooking Lake Mendota, and has been the site of many demonstrations and events. The density of the campus has grown to include 8 to 10 story high-rises including dormitories, research facilities, and classrooms. Several campus buildings erected in the 1960s exhibit brutalist architecture, which is now unpopular. In 2005 the University of Wisconsin embarked on a major redevelopment initiative that will transform the east end of its campus. The plan calls for the razing of a nearly a dozen 1950s to 1970s vintage buildings and the construction of new dormatories, administration, and classroom buildings, as well as the development of a new pedestrian mall extending to Lake Mendota.

The downtown and near east side is currently experiencing a building boom, with dozens of new condominium and apartment buildings being constructed.

Party reputation

Though also highly reputed for academic achievement, for decades, the University has had a reputation as a "party campus." Examples of this include the still-continuing annual Mifflin Street Block Party (no longer a counterculture event, today a summer kick-off party for students) and the State Street Halloween Party. Both of these events are commonly attended by tens of thousands of partiers, including an ever-growing number who come from out-of-state just to attend. Following a (non-political) riot that developed at the 1996 Mifflin Street Block Party, it was forcibly canceled by the city; since then, the city has permitted resumption of a Mifflin Street event that has taken a more mellow tone.

Likewise, the State Street Halloween Party has been showing similar problems. One year, MTV was interested in televising this event; the fear of so many party-goers together eventually led to MTV backing off from its offer. In 2004, 450 partiers were arrested after bonfires were started on the street and several businesses were vandalized during the celebration. Fewer than a quarter of the arrestees were Wisconsin residents and fewer than 5% were UW-Madison students. The Halloween Party has created mixed feelings among students of UW-Madison in recent years. Some have begun to develop a hostile attitude to the vast numbers of people who come to Madison from other cities or states. They feel that the riots and property damage, again mostly performed by people from out of town, are an attack on the city by people who have nothing invested in it. In the past few years, more effort has been given to controlling the number of people who come into Madison from out of town. The University Housing Department has become very strict on controlling the number of guests allowed in the residence halls. Similarly, students who live off-campus are growing more hesitant to have large numbers of people stay at their apartments. In the fall of 2005, there was even a humorous opinion column in one of the student newspapers that, as Madison is on an isthmus mostly surrounded by lakes, it would be quite simple to dig a moat around Madison for the Halloween weekend.

At the peak of the 2005 party, an estimated 100,000 revelers were crammed onto the street at once. A nearby detox center saw a record number of "serious intoxications." Although very little property damage and no reported injuries occurred during the party, 447 people were arrested between Friday and Saturday nights, mostly for alcohol-related violations. Police decided to end the larger scale Saturday night party around 2 a.m. Finally, unable to coerce about 1,000 remaining partiers to clear the street, police ended the event with the use of riot gear and pepper spray for the fourth consecutive year. According to Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, the huge police presence at the party ultimately cost the city an estimated $750,000. Currently, many city officials are discussing completely disallowing the event to occur in the future. There is widespread doubt as to whether preventing this unofficial and unorganized phenomenon is even possible. However, Mayor Cieslewicz has recently announced plans to cordon off State Street on the evening of Saturday, October 28 2006, charging a five dollar fee for admission to the area. This admission fee would help offset the costs of police overtime and cleaning that have resulted from previous events. However some members of the community, notably former Madison mayor Paul Soglin, are concerned about the legality of charging admission for entry into a public area.

It may be for these reasons and others why another of the city's nicknames is Mad Town.

Sports

Inside the Kohl Center during a men's ice hockey game

The University of Wisconsin teams play all of their home-field sporting events in venues in and around Madison. The football team plays at Camp Randall Stadium. In 2005 a renovation was completed which added 72 luxury suites and increased the stadium's total capacity to 80,321 although crowds of as many as 83,000 have attended games. The basketball and hockey teams play at the Kohl Center. Construction on the $76 million stadium was completed in 1997. Some events are played at the county owned Alliant Energy Center (formerly Dane County Memorial Coliseum) and the University owned Wisconsin Field House.

Madison is home to the Madison Mallards, a college wood-bat summer baseball league team in the Northwoods League (not to be confused with the "Minor Leagues"). They play in Warner Park on the city's North side from June to August.

Madison is home to the Princeton-56ers, an amateur soccer team in the National Premiere Soccer League. They play in Breese Stevens Field on East Washington Ave, just a few blocks from the State Capitol.[30]

The Wisconsin Wolves is a women's professional football team based in Madison that plays in the WPFL Women's Professional Football League.

Madison is home to the All-Girl Roller Derby League, Mad Rollin' Dolls, which was formed in 2004. Mad Rollin' Dolls LLC, is a member of the Womens Flat Track Derby Association.[31]

Madison is home to a number of notable endurance sports racing events such as the Crazylegs Classic, Paddle and Portage, the Mad City Marathon, and Ironman Wisconsin.

Madison is being considered to help the city of Chicago in hosting the Olympics if Chicago succeeds in winning the bid for 2016. Camp Randall stadium would serve as Chicago's 80,000-seat stadium.[32]

Famous Madisonians

Notable people associated with Madison include:

Writers and journalists include:

Radio humorist Michael Feldman and his weekly program are based in Madison. The alternative rock band Garbage was founded in the city by resident Butch Vig. The emo band Rainer Maria hails from Madison as well. Rock musicians Steve Miller and Boz Scaggs both attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Other notable musicians with Madison ties include blues singer Tracy Nelson, singer/guitarist Jim Schwall, bassist Richard Davis, saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell, street performer and artist Art Paul Schlosser, drummer Clyde Stubblefield, and composer/performers Leo and Ben Sidran.

The University of Wisconsin has produced many notable achievers in diverse areas including the arts, politics, scientific research and athletics. Some are included above. One of the last US Health and Human Services Secretaries was a past chancellor of the university, Donna Shalala (and her successor was Wisconsin's then-Governor, Tommy Thompson). A number of Nobel Prize winners have been graduates or on the faculty in Madison. For a more extensive account of well-known alumni and staff of UW-Madison see:

Madison is also known unfortunately as the location of the untimely deaths of Teresa McGovern (a Madison resident and daughter of presidential candidate George McGovern) and Otis Redding. Teresa McGovern was found dead of exposure when she passed out during a Madison winter night. Otis Redding died in an airplane crash into Lake Monona. University of Wisconsin-Madison student Audrey Seiler disappeared and was later found in the marshland near the Alliant Energy Expo Center off Rimrock Road on Madison's south side in 2004, having faked her own kidnapping.

Points of interest

Sister cities

Bibliography

  • Bates, Tom, Rads: The 1970 Bombing of the Army Math Research Center at the University of Wisconsin and Its Aftermath (1993) ISBN 0060924284
  • Maraniss, David, They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967 (2003) ISBN 0743217802 ISBN 0743261046 (about the Dow Chemical protest, and a battle in Vietnam that occurred on the previous day)
  • Mollenhoff, David V., Madison : A History of the Formative Years (1982, revised 2003) ISBN 0840327285 ISBN 0299199800

Notes

  1. ^ United States Census Bureau. "Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990"
  2. ^ United States Census Bureau. [1]
  3. ^ Canby, VincentReview of The War at Home. New York Times
  4. ^ "Best Unemployment" Forbes, May 4, 2005
  5. ^ "Best Places for Business Forbes, May 22, 2006
  6. ^ Promega
  7. ^ Third Wave Technologies
  8. ^ Nimblegen
  9. ^ "Forbes rating is more than kudos for Madison; it's a reflection on Wisconsin and the Midwest" Wisconsin Education Association Council, May 17, 2004
  10. ^ Madison Metropolitan School District
  11. ^ Edgewood High School
  12. ^ Metro Transit System
  13. ^ Isthmus
  14. ^ The Madison Times
  15. ^ Wisconsin Sports Weekly
  16. ^ The Madison Observer
  17. ^ The Simpson Street Free Press
  18. ^ Madfarmmkt.org
  19. ^ Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra
  20. ^ Madison Home Brewers and Tasters Guild
  21. ^ Rhythm and Booms press release
  22. ^ Kites on Ice press release
  23. ^ Biking Federation of Wisconsin 2004 Annual Report
  24. ^ Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau."Madison Ranked Among Nation’s Best Gay-Friendly Places to Call Home". December 12, 2005
  25. ^ "Best College Sports Towns: Madison #1" from Sports Illustrated
  26. ^ University of Wisconsin Marching Band
  27. ^ Wisconsin Historical Museum
  28. ^ Wisconsin Veteran's Museum
  29. ^ Madison Children's Museum
  30. ^ Princeton-56ers
  31. ^ Mad Rollin' Dolls
  32. ^ "UW notes: Camp Randall part of Chicago's Olympic bid?". - Wisconsin State Journal
  33. ^ Reichler, Joseph L., ed. (1979) [1969]. The Baseball Encyclopedia (4th edition ed.). New York: Macmillan Publishing. ISBN 0025789708. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help)
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