Not to frighten anyone, but the State Street area is becoming a more dangerous place to be at night.
A bar fight continued out onto the streets August 2, leading to an Illinois man being stabbed and an area man injured on the 400 block of W. Gilman Street just before bar time. One of the 10 individuals involved in the brawl presumably remains at large.
A group beat a man so badly August 13 that they left a large puddle of blood outside the Stop & Shop corner grocery, 501 State St.
The next evening, John Williamson, owner of Sports World, 510 State St., kept his store open late as part of a food drive promotion. His cell phone was taken and smashed on the ground when he attempted to call the police to report being threatened by thieves he had seen stealing food.
These incidents sparked Williamson's outrage and a letter to various city individuals about the \state of the street."" One common perception is that State Street has become increasingly unsavory, especially at night, with more fights, graffiti, drug dealing and panhandling.
Frequently, an early morning walk from the capital building to Library Mall reveals broken glass and piles of vomit scattered along the sidewalks. Graffiti seems increasingly common, and its existence indicates an increasing lack of respect for the community and the aesthetics of the area.
All this is in opposition to efforts to gentrify the downtown area.
The Business Improvement District, current State Street Design Project, State Street Strategic Plan and of course the Overture Center are intended to ""spruce up"" the environs of downtown. They aim to bring people back from the suburbs to an atmosphere which soccer moms can consider safe and classy.
Somehow, they are failing. The spate of crimes has the police department considering installing a ""mini-station"" in Lisa Link Peace Park. Its initial proposal has been met with something less than warmth from Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, who is worried about budget constraints and the character of the area.
Located in the 400 block of State Street, the park is a popular gathering place for a random assortment of gutter punks, homeless people and panhandlers. As such, it is considered to be the source of many of the problems and remains a focus of scrutiny whenever these issues resurface.
Madison's lax vagrancy laws and enforcement are probably to blame for the resugence of these issues. The city, and especially the downtown, has become known as a place where it is easy to drift around during the summertime. When applied, the punishment for panhandling is a $200 fine, which, of course, those ticketed cannot afford to pay. Each year, as Madison's reputation spreads, more transients arrive to hang out for the season. The drifters are more inclined to be aggressive than the locals and could be a source of some of the criminal upsurge.
The situation has sparked debate as of late, with some arguing for harsher penalties for the symptom, rather than to deal with the disease. Others want to attack the root causes of the problems facing those downtown, whether it is drug addiction, mental illness, alcohol abuse or something else. The debate is still too new to see where it will go, but the decisions will have to be made soon as the Overture Center nears completion.
If the problems are not dealt with now, they will be addressed in ramshackle fashion later. More funding to the groups working with the citizens of Peace Park could go a long way to preventing the violence and social problems.
jrgartner@wisc.edu.
