When I first moved to Madison four years ago, all the upperclassmen I knew would consistently tell me that State Street just wasn't what it used to be when they were freshmen. The UW alums I've met all say the same thing. State Street just isn't the same.
While the collective memory of a college town like Madison resets itself every four years, even from my limited vantage point I'm starting to see the same thing. It's getting to be a predictable cycle—the degradation of Madison's identity. Small businesses can't pay rent, chain takes over the niche, and it becomes part of our increasingly homogenous Big Ten collegiate experience.
So how does this hurt? What's wrong with homogeneous experiences, especially if it involves something like Five Guys that most people find agreeable?
The most obvious issue is that it mars the city's identity. To define Madison based on restaurants like Fat Sandwich Company or clothing stores like Urban Outfitters is to say that all college towns are the same. The culture surrounding our education is an integral factor in shaping our overall collegiate experience, and to know that I could have similar experiences elsewhere is really unsatisfying.
Fat Sandwich takes this idea further by offering identical menus at their three college town locations, all of them with a local twist. Madison's identity is worth way more than just desultorily slapping the word ‘Badger' onto a sandwich that has more calories than most people eat in an entire week. In Fat Sandwich's defense, their website says they only use the finest frozen ingredients that they can deep-fry, so they've at least got health concerns covered, and they're honest.
When you consider the idea that these places exist elsewhere in the U.S., particularly on college campuses, it becomes apparent that their inherent worth to the campus and the community is negligible. When corporate interests are involved, the community is rarely ever the focus.
I've always heard the American Dream died long ago, but now it seems like we've forgotten that it ever existed. So where is the innovation? President Barack Obama sought to change this perspective during the State of the Union Address, pledging his dedication to small businesses. His statement had a nostalgic and largely symbolic tone to it, as if he was trying to help us remember the way things used to be done. The money being used to help jump-start small businesses will come from Wall Street, a stark reminder that endless growth and greed were not supposed to be part of the greater American identity.
A lot has to do with the decentralization of our identity as a nation. Thinking locally has become a slogan associated with a counter-culture movement, whereas before it was just a way of life. Some of Madison's best local businesses get overlooked because they rely on the old business model. The Med Café doesn't have an official website, but it is definitely the place to go for a quick lunch.
It's hard to keep up in this market with our current mentality—one that values instant gratification and an endless marketplace. But that brings into question what we see as the American Dream today.
The American Dream still is about helping each other out, getting things done and being genuinely sympathetic when good people fall on bad times. The nation was founded by people who measured personal success along with the success of those around them. Our values haven't changed, but the way in which we act on them has. We have to take responsibility for our actions and realize that we are part of a community, and to lose our identity as a community is one step closer to losing the human element.
Madison already has the distinction of being the largest U.S. city on an isthmus, but even more so, it is known for asserting a unique and organic identity. This is why the community element refuses to die; it manifests itself in very particular places, filling in the niches carved out by more homogeneous competitors.
Willy Street and Monroe Street are great examples of places that hold onto the community ideal. Big Red's Steaks started as an idea, then added a cart and now is a late night favorite because of its atmosphere and cheese steak happy hour. Local businesses sell more than coffee and brewing supplies because the human experience isn't defined by uniformity. The human experience is defined by our ideas and interactions.
Anthony Cefali is a senior majoring in biology and English. Please send all responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
