Road construction: lessons learned?

In Business Magazine has a nice story about how the City of Madison completely botched the planning of the East Washington road construction and how it drove several stores out of business. Meanwhile, did the City learn its lesson for University Avenue?

According to Michael Gay, the City's Business Development Coordinator, "The first time we did this, we weren't so good."

Check out the story at: http://www.ibmadison.com:80/retail?id=139

Can't Drive in Madison

Drivers: please avoid campus and downtown if you can! Gorham, University Ave (downtown), Campus Drive and University Ave (west) are all one-lane at the same time. Not sure why that entire stretch was chosen to be worked on at the same time, but it's a nightmare going to and from downtown and the near west side.

Complicating matters is that the Mills Street construction has crossed Regent St., so now Regent is a parking lot. Plus, Mills Street (between University and Johnson) and Randall Ave. (between University and Johnson) also are closed, so it's hard to use Dayton Street as an alternative.

For those keeping track, that means three of your routes out (westbound)--University, Dayton and Regent--are fucked. Langdon Street has some building construction that has clogged the road, too. Try driving from the Capitol to Hilldale Mall in less than 20 minutes--it's nearly impossible.

Soon Farley Avenue (which becomes University Bay Drive and connects to UW Hospital) will be under construction, so you can't cut through the neighborhoods, either. Advice? TAKE THE BELTLINE!

(If we only had light rail...)

Road construction woes

How brutal is it now to drive through east campus? Drivers coming from the east side via Gorham Street or coming from the south via Broom Street have been feeling the pain of the construction of one of the busiest intersections downtown. It's just one lane on Gorham there, so cars turning left from Broom or coming down Gorham get severely bottle-necked. Most drivers have taken parallel streets (Gilman and Langdon), only to find themselves worst off (Gilman takes you back to that intersection, and Langdon is tight because of building construction).

Those coming up Broom and avoiding the intersection have tried Dayton Street, but that, too, is under construction near Randall where the new Union South is being built. The city never plans anything out well.

Move-out and graduation weekend (May 16-17) will be a complete cluster-fuck. Stay away from campus if you can that weekend!

Playboy Ranks UW No. 6 for Party Schools

Damn! The last time Playboy ranked party schools (2006), the University of Wisconsin-Madison was No. 1. This time around UW has fallen to No. 6 behind Miami, Texas, San Diego State, Florida and Arizona. At least Wisconsin is the northern most school!

I'm sure you can find more info at www.playboy.com.

Live Like You Mean It

I'm not the first to bash the state's choice for a new slogan, but I won't be the last, either. To reiterate, the state paid ad agency Red Brown Kle $50,000 to do the work, and all it did was steal a slogan that has been used many times before (e.g. by Bacardi)--"Live Like You Mean It."

Here's the piece of crap we have to deal with for at least a year.

Here's my favorite parody so far:

Parking rates increase again

Madison is raising its parking rates again. Downtown meters, for example, will increase from $1.25/hour to $1.50/hour. I'm not surprised by this action, given how poorly the city is run, especially in regards to all financial matters. It would be easier to swallow if:

1) We had better public transit options--namely, light rail, which could transport people from one side of town to another. Obviously, we are still years away from this.
2) The meters took credit cards. Who the hell carries that much change all the time? Two summers ago Madison experimented with meters that took credit cards, but so far the city has not indicated it will make them permanent.

I worry for downtown businesses, as most don't have parking lots. Hopefully the increased meter and ramp prices don't deter would-be diners, drinkers and shoppers too much.

Another west side grocery store

As a former west-sider, I know the benefits of living on that side of town--better schools (Memorial and West), homes that aren't run-down or 100 years old, better layout (e.g. not dependent on one street--East Washington--to go anywhere), and the list goes on.

Now as another slap in the face to the east side, Hy-Vee grocery store will open in 2010 at Westgate Mall, right across the street from Copps. Not too far away, Sentry is across from another Copps, and Woodman's is a block away from Sam's and Wal-Mart.

Meanwhile, on the east side, there are just a handful of grocery stores. If you're not shopping at Woodman's East, then where the hell are you shopping? (Hy-Vee wants to open a second location in the former K-Mart, but another grocery store proposal failed a few years back.)

Basically, I find it amusing that another grocery story is coming to the west side. A better use of that space: Crate and Barrel, Champp's, Dave and Buster's, etc.