Bright Spots on Madison Main Street

Good news from Madison's Main Street:

Think running a hardware store is man's work? Don't say that to Lue Poppen. As of last week Friday, Poppen is the new manager at Madison's Ace Hardware. She has thirty years of hardware retail experience, most of that at Rusty's Hardware in Howard. She's also a farm gal, so I have no doubt she knows more about hardware than I do. Congratulations on the promotion, Lue!

It must be summer: Mochavino has set out its new sidewalk furniture! They're obviously getting ready for the overflow crowd coming to Tuesday night's IgniteSD event. Stop in for coffee and conversation and watch the milling hordes downtown.

I don't know if it was Sherry or Dar who picked the color, but it got my attention. The Country Café and Dar's Hair Salon on South Egan Ave. now share a nice new coat of yellow paint. Nice work! Now if we could get around to renovating the rest of Main Street....

Mochavino Opens in Downtown Madison Saturday

I get the scoop straight from my wife's Facebook status: Mochavino, Madison's renamed and revamped downtown coffee house, reopens tomorrow (Saturday, March 20)!

I shouldn't be excited about this. I don't drink coffee. I don't drink wine. But Erin does... and we both love third places. We're glad to have a third place reopening on Madison's Main Street. Expect Madison's bohemians and artistes to be out in full force.

Mochavino: come sip, come chat, come see and be seen. Or plunk your coffee down in front of your computer and send the first tweet from Mochavino. (I haven't heard for sure, but co-owner Shaun Bader is a computer guy: they've got to have Wi-Fi, right? ;-) )

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Update 2010.03.20: Third places may be taking first place in Madison: the Madison Area Arts Council just announced its new "Third Place Nights" project! Once a month, come write, paint, sculpt, knit, and otherwise art-ify, philosophize, and socialize with your creative neighbors!

Health Care: Small Business Sees Need for Uncle Sam Insurance

The Chamber of Commerce and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin obviously aren't speaking for small business. The Main Street Alliance recognizes that health insurance reform is good for business, not to mention our fellow Americans:

Rick Poore spent $61,000 in health insurance premiums last year for the employees of his Lincoln screen print and embroidery business.

Over the past 10 years, the premiums Poore helps pay for his employees' health insurance have gone up close to 120 percent, he said.

In early November, Poore joined a group of eight small business owners on a trip to Washington to try to persuade representatives and senators to support health care reform legislation.

"It'll put money back in the pockets of employers and employees," said Poore, who owns Design Wear.

He said he believes health care reform would put as much as $12,000 back in his pocket each year and up to $400 back in each of his employees' pockets.

He said soaring insurance premiums have prevented him from providing insurance to all of his 33 employees and from investing in his business to remain competitive [emphasis mine; Kevin Abourezk, "Small Business Owners Take up Health Reform Fight," Lincoln Journal Star, 2009.11.28].

And how do small business owners like Poore feel about the public option? Hannah Ledford, the Main Street Alliance's Nebraska director, interviewed 118 small business owners. She found 60% of them want Uncle Sam Insurance. 25% want only private insurance. 15% are undecided.

60%: these aren't raving liberal intellectuals Hedford visited with. These are local shop owners, good main street capitalists, saying straight capitalism can't solve the health coverage problem.

Take it from Main Street, Congress: help the economy recover by cranking up that public option!

Howard Rural Learning Center Building Bustling Downtown

KJAM has been giving good press to the Rural Learning Center's plan to expand its Howard facility. The new main street facility, slated to open next year, will include a hotel, restaurant, and conference center and will add 18 employees to Howard's job rolls. They'll also do some cool green stuff, which means conservative retro-snobs like Fastidious will never visit.

Hey, wait a minute: hotel and conference center, downtown... where have I heard that idea before? And why is Howard able to capitalize on it while Madison's economic development are content with flowers for Main Street?

Campaign Promise Fulfilled: Madison Gets Main Street Flower Pots!

Cross-posted at RealMadison.org!

It's not a full downtown redevelopment program, but it is a fulfillment of city commissioner Karen Lembcke's campaign promise: Madison has new flower baskets on the lightpoles on Egan Avenue!

Lovely violet flowers on the 100 block North of Madison's Egan Avenue. Those downtown trees are just reaching full blossom. Keep pushing, little leaves! you can do it!

A closer view of those violet flowers, with Madison's most impressive Main Street façades in the sunny background. Oh, the possibilities....

The 200 block North gets pink flowers, which we see here catching heck from the wind. I think my gardening wife calls that "hardening off." It's good for the plants, really. You can be beautiful in South Dakota, but you still have to be tough.

Flowers at the "Four Corners" make even this sign a little easier to take. Maybe the flowers will distract the lawyers who otherwise might bring a trademark infringement case. Hey, wait a minute: what's that little package hanging off the flower pot?

The flowers are nice. I'll bet our economic development director Dwaine Chapel finally took my advice and brought a good idea to work with him from his home in Brookings. You know, Brookings, that nice college town that has downtown flower baskets and a downtown development organization.

Sunday Diversion: Historical Photos of Downtown Madison

Faithful reader and local historian John Hess sends some wonderful historic photos of Madison's bustling downtown. I've posted the four he just sent me on RealMadison.org for everyone's enjoyment. Here are a couple, before and way before:
Here's the North 200 block of Egan Avenue, downtown Madison, circa... well, I'm guessing 1950. Notice the used car lot with the string of lights on the west side, about where the flea market is today, between Bray's Furniture and Piper's Laundry. Down the street, you can see the old Penney's store in what is now the Dakota Drug building. And on the east side, near today's Radio Shack, the State Theater. Movies downtown! Ah, the good old days!

Now the really good old days, when the horse poop around City Hall wasn't just metaphorical. Here we see Madison pre-Detroit. The view looks north, perhaps from the railroad tracks. On the west side, you see the old Lake Park Hotel (oh! what I wouldn't give for a front porch like that on Main Street again!). And across the street, accommodations for the horse you rode in on, too, at the Lake Park Livery.

Those are some august buildings. Dwaine, take some notes (especially of that hotel porch!) and let us know when you want help with that Main Street and More project!

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By the way, in the 1990's, the Lake County Historical Society, with lots of work by Dr. Clyde Brashier, Jon Lauck, and other local folks put together a monster county history book stuffed with great photos like this. I've been thinking it would be cool to have an online version of that book (add that to the list of projects!). If you have more photos of old Madison, share them with the world! Log in and upload them to the Historic Madison album on RealMadison.org.

ICAP to Rosebud Building: Best LAIC Could Do?

The Inter-Lakes Community Action Program has agreed to buy the core of the old Rosebud property from the city of Madison. If I understand Chuck Clement's report correctly, ICAP will finally own its own building in Madison, after over 40 years of operations here.

ICAP does a lot of good work here (e.g., Head Start). I'm glad they'll have a nice new building that keeps them in a nice central location from which to serve the community. It's much better to have ICAP's workers and the people they serve downtown rather than out on the edge of town where most folks would have to drive.

However, I can't help thinking the city and the Lake Area Improvement Corporation could have done much better with the Rosebud property. The city bought the west half of that block on South Van Eps last February for $400,000. ICAP is buying it for $350,000. The city will pay for clearing the property and performing an environmental study to make sure Rosebud didn't spill any nasty stuff there.

So evidently LAIC director Dwaine Chapel has negotiated a sale in which the city (A) loses money and (B) gains no new jobs or other economic benefits. ICAP is already here, already providing services. From an economic development perspective, was there no other possible use (see #2) for that land that might have generated a better sale price and long-term sales tax and property tax revenue for the city? Downtown lot, prime location, great chance to recruit retail... and we get another service office, a welfare agency, a non-profit whose move from across the block won't add a penny to the Main Street till.

Maybe the ongoing LAIC shell game has some long-term strategy. Maybe moving ICAP kitty-wampus across the street frees up that property next to Heritage Apartments for some super-duper business opportunity... or maybe just a big garage for Mayor Hexom.

I do not begrudge ICAP their new digs. They'll make good use of the property and continue to serve the community well. But in terms of fulfilling the city's economic development mission, this deal only casts more doubt on the LAIC's ability to make a buck.

Aberdeen Downtown Going Wireless; Madison Should Follow!

today's special from RealMadison.org!

Supposedly someone at the Lake Area Improvement Corporation is working on downtown revitalization (although I'll be darned if I can get them to reply to my e-mails about the project).

Don't think too hard, kids: here's a great idea for Main Street development from our friends at the Aberdeen Downtown Association: make downtown one big wireless Internet hotspot!

When Margot Gillette took a job with the Aberdeen Downtown Association a few years ago, she started a to-do list.

No. 1 dealt with the [beautification] and revitalization of downtown Aberdeen. But the next item required a bit of technology.

"On my list of to-dos, No. 2 is to make downtown Wi-Fi," said Gillette, economic manager of the downtown association. "And that's just what we're doing."

The Aberdeen Downtown Association has partnered with Tel Serv Communications Inc., a local technology company, to make Main Street - from Sixth Avenue to Railroad Avenue - wireless. Downtown patrons will now be able to get wireless connections along the street and inside most downtown businesses. Eric Hanson, co-owner of Tel Serv, said about 20 businesses are participating so far. Others have shown interest.

[see Emily Arthur-Richardt, "Wi-Fi Now Available to Downtown Businesses," Aberdeen American News, 2008.08.21]

Among the pluses of a downtown wireless Internet hotspot:

• Wireless access can draw more students downtown (remember, every high school and college student in Madison has a wireless-equipped laptop).
• Employees can move around the store or office with wireless devices while helping customers.
• Visiting sales reps and other professionals can access Internet while calling on downtown businesses (sales reps like that kind of thing).

Tel Serv Communications is working with the Aberdeen Downtown Association to provide the free signal. Tel Serv co-owner Eric Hanson estimates the project cost "amounts to thousands of dollars." Heck, if Madison can spend $12,500 just to study the potential for high-tech business development, we can probably swing a few thousand to build a practical high-tech service that immediately and directly benefits thousands of Madison residents and visitors. Find a corporate partner (Knology? Midco?), give 'em ad rights to slap a little company logo on the hotspot welcome page, and let it rip!

Downtown hotspot for Madison -- add that to the to-do list!

KJAM Promotes Downtown

Sheer coincidence? Psychic link with the KJAM marketing department? Who cares! After my question this weekend about the mountain in KJAM's website banner, I click on the KJAM homepage and find this lovely image of our hometown, complete with anti-corporate rallying cry:


Looks like the very handsome and very single Matt Hendrickson must have scrambled up the National Guard's portable climbing tower Friday afternoon and captured this vertiginous view of our very verdant Egan Avenue. (Notice: no mountains.) Nice work, KJAM!

Now if we could get a full aerial shot and do a hyperlinked image map so folks could click on each building and go straight to each business's website....

Outdoor Dining Good for Downtown Madison

KJAM reports that, in just a week, the Stadium Sports Grill has seen an uptick in business thanks to its new outdoor seating. The city approved the permit for Stadium's outdoor dining just last week.

Monday's MDL reported Jack Meyer's concerns that outdoor dining might be hard on the sidewalks and set a bad example for the youth (as if the kids don't know full well what's going on behind the closed doors and shaded windows of the Four Corners, or see for themselves the beer signs in "family-friendly" Stadium). Alas, according to Tuesday's paper, Meyer's attorney told him the city's permit is an administrative decision that can't be referred to a public vote.

Now I love a good petition drive and public vote. In this case, though, I'm pleased to see the outdoor dining permit stand. Outdoor dining is a staple of vibrant downtowns. Even KELO's Steve Hemmingsen recognizes the charm of a little outdoor commerce. A nice outdoor bistro on Main Street is just like a good front porch in a residential neighborhood: it makes the street part of our living space, a place where we can see each other, enjoy more chance meetings, and sustain our connection to each other better than we ever can from behind our walls.

I've had my grumbles about Stadium's occasionally redneck signage (work on your marketing, folks), but I am pleased to see them contributing positively to Madison's public space.

More for Main Street -- We Already Have a Plan!

While we wait to hear back from the Lake Area Improvement Corporation on when the Main Street and More committee will have its first meeting (and who will be the point person for the project, if Tammy Jo Zingmark has indeed moved on to another job), a reader reminds me that my wife and I have already laid out a pretty good roadmap for where the Main Street committee should start. To review:

1. Renovate the Masonic Temple: This grand building deserves some upgrade and use befitting its place at the very literal heart of our community. Some Forward Madison money could go a long way toward patching up the brick work, firming up the foundation, and bringing a great business or two into the building. Imagine a movie theater, lecture hall, reception hall and meeting center, art gallery, maybe even a little coffee shop, right there at the head of Main Street, alive and vibrant, beckoning people to explore all of downtown. And even if worst comes to worst and the building can't be saved, the site is still perfect for a welcome park at the head of Main Street, just the kind of green space Tammy Jo said we need. (Remember, downtown development isn't just more buildings; any plan has to include public open space where civic events and discourse can take place.)
   
2. Resurrect the Lake Park Hotel: Instead of shunting guests out to the fringes of the city (hotels on the east and west edge, meetings at the playhouse on the north edge), why not bring our visitors right to downtown? With Rosebud Manufacturing now moved out to the industrial park, we have a great swath of buildings that could be turned into a spectacular hotel and convention center. Imagine business visitors and tourists being able to find lodging within walking distance of our downtown restaurants and shopping, city and county offices, meetings at the Chamber, even the library and the grocery store. Put the hotel and meeting space on the Center Street block right across from City Hall. Bulldoze the buildings on the south block for parking.
3. Renovate the existing downtown buildings: We have some gorgeous old brick buildings downtown. We also have some atrocious façades, god-awful plastic, metal, and plywood smacked onto that good brick. Divvy up the Forward Madison money, peel off the junk, restore the proud stone work.
   
4. If the $2.3 million sitting in the Forward Madison kitty isn't enough to cover our downtown dreams (or if the LAIC doesn't want to spend it all in one place), we lure developers with a downtown tax increment finance district. We could declare a lot of the buildings blighted: Mason's, Rosebud, the old Wenk's building along the railroad tracks... just drive down the back alleys and make your own list. Create a pay-as-you-go TIF, like they do up in Brookings: downtown businesspeople and developers invest in renovations and new businesses, and if they succeed in raising the value of their downtown property, the increased tax dollars reimburse them for their investment.

There's your Main Street redevelopment plan right there. You can find more review materials here. Let's form that committee and get to work!

LAIC Announces "Madison Main Street and More"

Last year, my wife was doing some research on Main Street programs around the country and thinking we should follow the lead of progressive places like Brookings and start a Main Street program of our own. She called the Lake Area Improvement Corporation, our local economic development agency, and asked if they could use some help getting a program like that going. No worries, the LAIC told us: they were working on just such a program and planned to roll it out come this spring. (On Erin's offer to volunteer, the LAIC said nothing.)

So spring rolled by, and we started to get worried. Where's the Main Street program?

Ah ha -- now it's here. The LAIC May/June newsletter (PDF warning!) announces the creation of "Madison Main Street and More." Filling the store fronts, restoring the old façades, creating green spaces downtown—yum! A reinvestment ratio (as of 2006) of $25.76 generated in the local economy for every $1 invested—super yum!

Tammy Jo Zingmark appears to be the point person on this project: she does the main write-up and invites folks interested in volunteering for the program to call her at the LAIC (256-0797).