It is hard to imagine a neighborhood with a bigger target on it right now than West Mifflin Street.
The threat most students know and care about is directed at the annual Mifflin Street Block Party, thanks to Mayor Paul Soglin puffing out his chest to demand a tamer event and dangling a dare of ending the tradition he helped start over students' heads. But the real danger Mifflin faces isn't happening in meetings between the mayor and student government, and we won't see the result of it come the first Saturday in May.
No, the fight against Mifflin can be found in city planning meetings and documents with names so bureaucratically vague no one knows they conceal a threat to one of Madison's most historic and unique neighborhoods.
As part of Madison's Downtown Plan, the outline that will guide the city's urban planning over the next two decades, one developer has proposed replacing the Mifflin neighborhood's characteristic houses with blocks of 12-story apartment complexes. We're not just talking about one or two unoccupied buildings getting knocked down so someone can build a few townhouses. No, the city is entertaining the notion of destroying every century-old house in the neighborhood and turning the whole place into expensive monstrosities.
And it's easy to imagine any number of city officials welcoming such a proposal with open arms, given the problems the neighborhood can contribute to. Madison wouldn't suffer financially from more high-rises, either. Owners of many houses on the 500 block of Mifflin Street paid around $6,000 to $10,000 in property taxes last year. Meanwhile, Palisade Property paid nearly $300,000 in property taxes for its 12-story building on West Johnson Street. Madison might notice a bump like that in annual revenue.
But while they look over this latest proposal, and consider putting the first nail in the Mifflin Street neighborhood's coffin, we want to make sure the city asks itself one question: What makes Madison Madison?
What makes this town great? What makes it the place you've called home and the place you want to represent?
It might be the fact that Madison is dripping with history. It might be the university this city is tied to. It might even be the fact that it's a bit...off, and that it is a weird and unique place.
Think about it though, and you'll realize that what makes Mifflin great is exactly what makes Madison great. The neighborhood is historic, with a number of houses built in the late 19th Century, and its role in Vietnam War protests is well known. Of course, it's a campus neighborhood through and through. And we all know Mifflin is a bit weird too.
The houses are different from each other in design and paint scheme and boast a number of architectural quirks (such as staircases to nowhere or windows that look out onto drywall) that comes with a long life in a strange place. It's not some anonymous high-rise where every apartment is exactly the same as the ones on the floors above and below it, and where, let's be honest, the build quality isn't that much better.
Mifflin is a quintessentially Madisonian neighborhood; the city's identity boils down into these couple of blocks.
And if you want to strip away the emotional appeal of Mifflin, let's get back to practical choices students have to make when they try to stretch their money far enough to pay for school, books, food and rent. The Downtown Plan looks 20 years into the future. Ask yourself if any of those costs are going down any time soon. The Mifflin Street neighborhood is a place where a poor college student can still put a roof over their head for less than $400 a month, and we challenge anyone to find rent that cheap in a luxury high-rise.
We can't all afford to live in the Equinox or Lucky or the Palisades. And even if we can, we don't all want to. The Mifflin houses are creaky and old, but they're also cheap and fun and quite a few people at this school-including members of this editorial board-love them.
So, Madison, reject this foolish threat to one of your greatest neighborhoods. And when you plan this city's next two decades, just leave Mifflin Street alone.
