Blast to the Past

Here is an old site I found about Allied Drive from, back in 2004:

http://www.thescoop.org/archives/2004/04/30/madisons-allied-drive/

The Pit We Live In

I took this picture as I was walking around the back of the courtyard of my Allied Drive apartment building. It appeared so representative of what life is like here. Right up on the horizon are these manicured houses, yet where I stood was all this debris and trash. I know, my photography is just so deep.

Hang Out With The Latinos and Get Schooled

Little Lola who lives next door just turned six and when my other half and I were invited to her birthday party, I would have never in a million years guessed that it was going to be a kegger party! We had so much fun. The furniture was all moved aside for the dancers and I learned a few moves from one of my elder Latino neighbors who kept having to stop every few minutes because of arthritis in his leg. The food was incredible and it was a lesson in how parties are supposed to be. I learned some new Spanish and I can't wait for the next little kid to have a birthday! I know little Lorenzo will be having a party in October - but I am hoping someone has a birthday in in August or September ... After the party, we went down the block over to Elisha's to play some spades and school Rob again, but of course, they were too scared to open the door.

The Grand Oak Tree

Here is a picture of the landmark weeping willow tree many community residents voiced requests to avoid cutting down within the city's redevelopment plans. It truly is a beautiful tree ... if you're into trees ...

Crime Rates on Allied Drop?

One of the articles offered to the CDBG commission in our monthly packets had a clip from our daily newspaper about calls to the police decreasing by 35% from last year and the overall crime rate dropping. Most of Madison probably thinks this is attributed to changes that have taken place in the neighborhood and possibly some "troublemakers" getting evicted. However, I have a different prospective. Our neighborhood officer, Ozone (AKA Jason Ostrega), has been on our streets for roughly a year now. Our prior officer was commonly referred to as a white racist a-hole. Who knows, maybe having more minority officers have had an impact on how many of my neighbors get dropped down to the street top and subsequently arrested for disorderly conduct. My observation has been that Ozone is not the sort to jump the gun with his authority and he has an overall respect for members in the community. That respect is often returned and I have seen Ozone request people to stop certain behaviors and my neighbors often listen. If you want to compare the attitudes of the police to last year, just look at that community meal that they threw for residents to learn about the new proposed loitering ordinance. Absolutely no one in the Boys and Girls Club gym who came to hear what the officers had to say was able to hear a thing. It was almost as if they did not really want us to hear anything. The was I see it, if they cared about us as residents, they would have made sure we were able to somehow get the updates we arrived for, and if that meant plugging in the Boys and Girls Club PA system, I am guessing that would have taken a whole 10 minutes for which all of us would have patiently waited for. At least they had Subway sandwiches. Thank you Ozone for the great service to our community and for keeping our streets safe!