The annual battle between UW-Madison students and city hall appears to be on for this year as Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's plan for Halloween 2006 has run into stiff opposition.
The immediate problem for Cieslewicz is an effort by Alds. Mike Verveer, District 4, and Austin King, District 8, to delay a final city council vote on Halloween plans set for tonight. Both Verveer and King, who already support more than $85,000 of city spending on lighting, police and other expenses, say a delay of two weeks is needed to allow for student input on party planning.
""The mayor hates Halloween,"" King said. ""He wants to shut it down.""
Verveer said he has warned the mayor rushing his plan to fence off State Street and charge $5 for entry would only serve to anger an already skeptical student body. He also called a proposed limit of 50,000 partiers on State Street ""downright stupid.""
""The plan is on thin ice with a lot of students,"" Verveer said. ""It will be even worse if students find out that if they want to have any input, they need to rush to the city council meeting Tuesday.""
King, unlike Verveer, opposes the mayor's plan to charge admission and fence off the street. He said he hopes a meeting early next week with students, police and Cieslewicz will offer an opportunity to rethink the current plans, which he says jeopardize the city.
""Instead of being on State Street, people are going to end up in residential areas downtown,"" King said. ""I don't want to see those areas subject to the same melee and pepper spray as on State Street.""
Late last week, Cieslewicz said he strongly opposed delaying the vote. Although he has since moderated his stance, spokesperson George Twigg would not say whether the mayor now supports a delay.
As students returned to campus last week, opposition to the mayor's plan grew rapidly. ASM Chair Dylan Rath, who initially supported the plan to charge admission and fence off State Street, has since changed his mind citing ""student backlash.""
""There weren't a lot of students around in the summer,"" Rath said. ""And now that they've heard the plans, it would be good to give them a chance to speak.""
Last Wednesday, ASM passed a resolution to ""charge the city to look at options other than charging admission to UW students.""
King said his student-dominated district is ""uniformly and overwhelmingly"" against the current plan, adding that the mayor risks alienating thousands of UW-Madison partiers.
