Many people call my town of Madison, Wisconsin “67 square miles surrounded by reality”. Honestly, if you can handle certain things it is a nice place to live. One of the things you will need to be able to handle is the super liberal culture that you will be immersed in once here. I have a lot of fun with it. I moved here from Rockford, Illinois 15 years ago and to this day am amazed at what goes on. The two cities are separated by only 70 miles, but are worlds apart.
The Madison City Council is famous for wasting time on declarations that have no effect other than making a statement. They have had votes on impeaching presidents, taking stands on foreign conflicts, and many other things that will drive most normal people insane. All of the hand wringing and time wasting costs MONEY – and, in the end, it is my tax money that they are wasting. It is enough to drive one crazy unless you get used to it. Remember, the city council is made up of mostly Democrats and “Progressives”.
Of note this week are two ordinances that made me laugh when I read about them in the paper. First, booze.
We have a small population of bums here in Madison, and they usually congregate on State Street and around the capitol area. Our bum population is migratory, of course as winters here are too harsh for them to lay around by the lakes year ’round. To try to stop the panhandling, the city council has decided to limit the sales of certain types of booze in the downtown area. The types of booze that will not be for sale downtown will be anything less than a six pack of beer or malt liquor (except imports or microbrews!) fortified wine, and less than a pint of hard liquor.
Of course this will do pretty much zero to curb the bums doing what they do, but if it makes the council feel good, so be it.
Unrelated is the new chicken ordinance that a certain alder is pushing. If you own a single family home you are allowed to raise chickens in your back yard here in Madison, but the alder is looking to add multi family dwellings to the eligible list to raise them. Talk about mindboggling.
I have never raised chickens, but don’t they stink like pretty much every other farm animal? I know they make a lot of noise from the time I spent on farms as a youth.
Like I said, you just have to get used to legislation such as this if you are going to be able to tolerate living in Madison.
Ice cream cones at the student union, the patio out back on the lake … .
Madison is a place of great beauty inhabited by total nutjobs.
Don’t forget beer served on that patio…bands in the summer too.
The chickens are coming home to drink.
The major problem with chickens is not odor but noise. Chickens can make a great deal of noise, especially in the earl dawn hours (and I’m not talking just roosters.) Get a cat in visual range of some nesting hens and you will here about.
We have the same general political problem here in Austin for the same reason. A bunch of people who can’t actually do anything trying to feel important.
Madison has its good points…
Mickey’s Dairy Bar. The 4 “Bs”: Bullfeathers, Brothers, BW3, and (State Street) Brats. Halloween in Madison is unlike any other Halloween in the world.
Great Union that still serves booze (the only Big 10 school to still do so). Great football. Decent professors, and some very good ones (to include Prof Jeremi Suri, whose recent book on Kissinger was mentioned some weeks ago on this blog).
Madison does have its fruits, nuts, and flakes, but the conservative in me makes me think that it’s a good thing. Reason #1: They add character to the city. Reason #2: Each nut who lives is Madison is one nut who is not living somewhere else.
I’ll hopefully make it back to my alma mater this coming autumn. Dan, perhaps a beverage (nothing less than a six-pack, of course.)
Semper Fidelis, all.
I’m not saying you’re wrong about the sounds Shannon, but the first place I lived in Austin (46th & D) was only two houses down from a guy who strangely only raised roosters and huge somewhat belligerant ones at that. They seemed to have a different idea of daybreak than I did.
Coming soon to Madison…
Jonathan – wow that is a lot of chickens.
Smitten Eagle – no doubt that the fruits and nuts add to the city, but at times it is pretty mindboggling. I drove down Willy Street yesterday afternoon and that place is 100% stuck in the sixties. If you are ever in town it is obvious that we will need to have a few together. You should try to come to the Illinois game this fall, fellow blogger Carl from Chicago will be up here to cheer on our beloved Illini at the game. Not much beats Badger game day atmosphere.
Hmmm…2 things come to mind…
1. Liberals are idiots.
2. I can hear the street “vendors” now…”So…you want a bottle of MD20/20 with that rock?”
Dan in Madison, is Willy St. Madison’s “Brigadoon”?
In 1967 I was en route to Rochester, Minn. from L.A. (Lower Alabama) with a stopover in Madison. The plane had a problem and we deplaned and went into the Terminal and my first impression was: Damn, these people talk funny.
Idiotic comment deleted…as usual. Dan.