2019 Survey Follow-up

I can’t express the joy I experienced walking down the Southwest Commuter bike path on New Year’s Day. The combination of the fresh snow clinging to every branch with the sun waking up just behind them, and the friendly faces and greetings, hopeful of a promising year to come for our neighborhood. I fully appreciate what a special community we live in, but also know that without effort to improve, simple maintenance leads to obsolescence. As a community, we must adapt and grow to address the alterations time brings our way.

This is a great opportunity for our neighborhood to reflect on progress since the CMNNA Annual Meeting in September, while also looking ahead and sharing ideas we are excited for in 2019. CMNNA has done a significant amount of legwork since the Annual Meeting. The Board has internalized the feedback we received at the meeting and through the survey. We have also gotten to know each other as there was significant turn over in the positions; this is great to see as we can be confident that democracy is alive and well in our small corner of the universe.

Please take a few minutes to review our annual survey results

(www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-RYYWLRKCV/).

Each question is included, with a key, in order to provide context for understanding the results.  The sections below summarize some of the key findings from the survey, as well as related accomplishments and future plans.

This was found to be the number one concern of our residents, in part because the survey coincided with a rash of car prowling and burglaries. I had a personal experience with this as I found out the headache and life interruption having your vehicle stolen can cause, as mine was stolen in mid-July. Unfortunately, there are limited things a Neighborhood Association can effectively do to address the issue. Ideas floated by the residents and explored by the Board are below.

• Good Neighbor Project

Although this is publicized by the city, there is no project/program outside of the name. The idea is simply getting to know your neighbors and watching out for each other. Having social events in order to better understand your neighbors so you can recognize what is normal or abnormal and therefore should be reported.

The goal of this “Program” seemed extremely close to the goals of our Neighborhood Association and local neighborhood social groups, including book clubs, Neighborhood Parties/Block Parties, etc. The Association highly encourages involvement in these types of gatherings and residents getting the word out through social media and local publications such as “Under the Oaks”,”The Oak Leaf”, “University Neighbors”, and simply talking to each other. The Board will continue to help promote and facilitate the building of social and community ties throughout the Neighborhood. We are also working to create relationships with organizations currently operating within CMNNA boundaries so that we can work together, forming synergies instead of siloing and wasting community resources.

Other ideas which were floated-

-Neighborhood Block Call Tree – Operating on some blocks but not                         Neighborhood wide.

-Community Based Camera Network

-Private security patrols for individual neighborhoods

-Walking neighborhood patrols by residents

There were pros and cons to each of these ideas and the board ultimately did not have enough support to move forward with them. If there are community members who feel passionately that there is support and would like to work towards implementing these or any other ideas, please reach out. At this time, our approach will continue to be building a caring, connected, supportive, situationally aware community that values open dialogue among all its members.

Resources- How to have a block party  www.cityofmadison.com/specialEvents/blockparties/applicationProcess.cfm

Crime Prevention-
http://www.cityofmadison.com/police/safety/crimeprevention/

Crime Committee Chair-Vacant

Our Neighborhood has significant location and green space assets available to its residents. Our area has, and will continue to become more urban, and have increased traffic volume as Madison and the surrounding area grow. As traffic flows increase and residents’ desire to use alternative methods of transportation such as busing, walking, and biking also grow. We will continue to be faced with increasing undesirable pedestrian-vehicle interactions. Thus, Pedestrian Safety and Walkability has a high level of interest to the residents. There are significant areas throughout the Neighborhood which are very unfriendly to the walking young family, elderly, and alternatively abled individuals.

The Safe Streets Committee is working to address identified areas of concern throughout the Neighborhood, and discussing options with those directly effected by the issues. If you have identified an area of concern such as a crosswalk without a curb cut, dangerous crossing, sidewalk with service gap, or unsafe pedestrian throughway, please bring it to the attention of the Safe Streets Committee.

Safe Streets Committee Chair-

Zachary Henak – zachary.henak@gmail.com.

Traffic information-

The Traffic Committees efforts should be recognized here as Sharon Koenig has done an amazing job of embodying our goal of citizen empowerment. She has led measures to explore the traffic issues of Seminole Hwy and particularly at the intersection with Winslow Ln. The work has entailed being trained and utilizing the MPD rentable speed laser gun, and collecting survey results from the neighbors effected by the intersection in order to present a case to Traffic Engineering with data to back it up. The Committee is currently in talks with Traffic Engineering as to a time line of implementation and specific improvements and their implementation.

Traffic Committee Chair-

Sharon Koenig – koenig-twoteach2@aol.com

Highlighting a lesser known city program-

City of Madison Traffic Engineering developed the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program (NTMP) which works with neighborhoods on active and passive traffic measures in response to community concerns about traffic in neighborhoods. The CMNNA has a good working relationship with Traffic Engineering personnel and will continue to develop that relationship through the Traffic and Safe Streets Committees.

Additional traffic ideas can be found in the 2018 National Association of City Transportation Officials Urban Street Design Guide (https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/).

Parks and Open Space ranked as one of the greatest assets of our community as well as the item which is in the least need for improvement efforts. This is an area the community greatly values and we do not want to forget about. In this spirit, the CMNNA has been monitoring park upkeep and maintenance to the best of our ability and noticed that Doncaster Park is up for replacement in the spring of 2019. The city hosts working groups to gather community input and the CMNNA felt this was a topic they could participate in to make sure the community’s interests were represented. Thus, a CMNNA representative attended each of the working sessions and found out the community has the ability to help raise additional funds in order to bring a higher quality park to the area.

Most well known parks in the area, such as Westmorland and Nakoma, have had community financial support. With the help of $1000 from the Nakoma League, CMNNA was able to secure $7500 in additional funding in order to significantly expand the age range of children served by the park equipment and provide a greater variety of learning experiences.

Our Greenspace Committee has been tasked with enhancing our open spaces and creating greater awareness of The Neighborhood(CMNNA). The present focus will be two-fold: maintaining and enhancing the space under the pedestrian/bike bridge spiral ramp at Whenona Drive, which is the site of our Butterfly-Pollinator Garden, and exploring the possibility of a neighborhood sign at the corner where the Beltline exit ramp meets Seminole Highway.

We are also excited to announce that the Butterfly Garden has just become a certified Monarch Waystation, a program of Monarch Watch: https://monarchwatch.org/waystations/

Greenspace Committee Co-chairs:

Carol Buelow: crbuelow@wisc.edu

LaVonne Bennett: Jonlavon@tds.net