Halloween on Allied Drive vs. State Street

I found Halloween to be unbelievably quiet out here - I remember it was like that last year too. There were a few costumes here and there, not a lot of people out on the streets, and all around, the aura was not consistent with children's frenzy and excitement. It was fine for me because I was not all that up for going out or dressing up this year anyway. An interesting conversation I had with a neighbor who was going out to State Street for the first time ever, revealed that she was actually scared to go out to State Street. She said that she is petite, and she has heard it was crazy out there and she just does not know about the whole plan. Ironic, because I hear that all the time about people being scared to come out to Allied Drive.

Last holiday season, I was was selling really heavy on eBay where all my spare time in November and December involved making my share of 4th quarter retail profits. During those two months, it made sense to hire someone to do some light housekeeping for eight weeks, once a week for one or two hours. Would you believe that I had three different businesses tell me no, they will not come out here? One of them I remember after telling them my address starting asking me a LOT of personal questions about my living situation, why I need a maid, and I was thinking, aren't I the one that is doing the hiring and supposed to be the one asking the questions? One of them said they needed a deposit because of the "risk" involved in cleaning my house, and since I was an eBay pimp that month, I had the cash flow, so I agreed, maybe a little too fast because he called me back to tell me he can't do it because of some other lame reason. Then there was one woman who had an ad in the State Journal classifieds who finally said she would do it for $14 an hour and a two hour minimum. Fine. eBay was consuming all my time and the two extra hours to help me sustain all my other responsibilities would have helped me not kill myself from sleep deprivation.

The day she was supposed to come out, she called early in the morning to ask me if my apartment building is safe. She said her boyfriend told her Allied Drive was a bad neighborhood, so she wanted to make sure. I told her that I have never had a problem here. Then she asked me how dirty my place was. "I mean, is it really grungy?" Ok, now I was getting irritated, but I maintained my composure and said, no, not really. She said her boyfriend was going to come with because she just did not feel safe. Again, I am a little irritated because I really was not wanting all these people in my house snooping around and lifting my valuable eBay secrets. So she comes out, I hear a knock on the door, by the time I get to the door, I see a woman practically running out to the parking lot. The naive part of me thought, oh, maybe she forgot something and she's coming back. About 15 minutes later, the phone rings, and it was her. She said she can't come out here. She was here and she just did not feel comfortable. There was a car in our lot with a broken window and she could not afford to allow her things to be stolen. You know, whatever.

Let me tell you about things getting stolen from here. I had accidentally dropped a Visa gift card that fell out of my lap while I was getting out of my car in the parking lot. The next day, one of my Latino neighbors approached me and gave me the card saying they found it next to my car. Now this was a gift card that anyone could have just used without getting in any kind of trouble. I thought the card was lost and I really didn't care because it only had about $8 left on it, so it was no big loss. However the card was returned to me by one of my neighbors who saw it next to my car and assumed it was mine. I really didn't want to hear about this lady thinking that everyone on Allied Drive was out to steal the junk in her run-down car.

Anyway, back to this lady who looked so raggedy herself, I really don't know if she could've cleaned all that well anyway. First of all, if she would have taken the time to really look at what was in my parking lot, instead of just seeing what she wanted to see, she would have noticed a lot of really nice pimped out rides. I have a lot of Latino neighbors who work on their cars all summer and you can tell that they really love their cars - and they hook their cars up - there are some really sweet rides in our lot! We had a memo from Meyer Management telling us that we can only have a certain number of cars parked in the lot, likely because some of the cars that my neighbors work on are extra cars over and above what we are allowed to park. She said she was scared, what was she really scared of?

I don't know - it is probably the same thing that my neighbor heading out to State Street was scared of ...

Hungry on Allied Drive

There is a lyric to a track that I have heard about 2,000 times in the last 5 days (because it is on the Need for Speed soundtrack). This track found a way to adhere to my brain and I find myself humming it at work, mainly because it is so characteristic of Allied Drive. Here is an excerpt:

So if ya hit, the ambulance, it don't come around here
Now ya stuck, not even cabs, they don't run around here
If ya hungry, pizza man, he don't come around here

The last line there is key because that is one thing I find so aggravating about this community. It is not possible to get a pizza delivered on Allied Drive because Madison's pizza joints are "uncomfortable" with our community. That does not stop me from trying. I call the pizza places every couple months (usually when I am on my period) and and the conversation goes something like this:

Lina: Hi, I was wondering if you deliver and how far you go?

Stan the Pizza Man (in uppity cheerful voice): We sure do! Where do you live?

Lina: I'm over by Verona Road, right by Walgreens.

Stan the Pizza Man (still in an uppity cheerful voice): No problem! What can I get for you?

Lina: Great! (Note: This is where I order my food.)

Stan the Pizza Man (still in an uppity cheerful voice): Excellent, can I get your delivery address?

Lina: Sure! I am at 2347 Allied Drive. (Note: I make an conscious effort to sound uppity and proper here, think Bree from Desperate Housewives.)

Stan the Pizza Man (notable coldness in voice): Oh. Please hold.

After a couple minutes, Stan the Pizza Man returns.

Stan the Pizza Man (notable coldness still in voice): I am sorry, we don't come out to Allied Drive.

Lina: Really? Why is that? (Note: I question the reasons as if it is the first time I am having this conversation.)

Stan the Pizza Man (notable coldness still in voice): Well, our delivery people do not feel comfortable going down there.

Lina: Really? They are not comfortable? That's odd, Do you know why they do not feel comfortable? (Note: My tone is still as if it is the first time I have heard that we can not get food here.)

Stan the Pizza Man (still cold): Well I guess there have been some prank calls from out there and some of our drivers have gotten robbed, so they don't like going down there.

Lina: Really? You never get prank calls from anywhere else in Madison?

Stan the Pizza Man (cold): I don't know.

Lina: Do you know if this is this a policy for all of your locations? (Note: Now I am preparing to shift into bitch-mode.)

Stan the Pizza Man (still cold): Well I don't know, that is just what they said.

Lina: So what I am hearing is that deliveries can only be made if the driver feels comfortable at the time, so if I call on a different day when a different driver is working, or maybe even the same driver, they may feel comfortable driving down this street at another time and I may be able to get a delivery on a different day, right? I mean, maybe the driver is just having a bad hair day today and doesn't feel like going outside. (Note: Bitch-mode, 1st gear)

Stan the Pizza Man (still cold): Maybe, I really don't know.

Lina: It's too bad equal opportunity and affirmative action don't apply to the hunger of members of federally protected groups. (Note: I only say things like that on my bad hair days, and maybe when I have some cramps too)

Blah blah blah, depending on my mood, I may push it a little more. I have called all the pizza places within a two mile radius, including Glass Nickel, Pizza Extreme, Rocky Rococo's and Pizza Pit. It's all the same conversation. Some will offer to meet me at the end of the block, like over on Red Arrow or Crescent. That's generous, but the whole reason I asked for delivery was so that I did not have to go outside. If I am going down the block, I might as well drive out and pick the darn pizza up and save the $2 for delivery. Domino's, though they have offered similar conversations as above, will still deliver here if the sun is up (I'm not trying to be funny, that is really what they told me). However over the last few weeks, I called after sunset and did get a delivery. But damn, Domino's gets old after a while! I guess I should not complain, as Suni Clay says on his track, if ya hungry, pizza man, he don't come around here ... Any ideas on how we can get food out here? I am all ears!!

Also, I added the sound track to the side bar - take a few hundred listens so that I am not the only Madisonian humming this song over the next several weeks! I included the lyrics too, and I have to say, the rest of the track totally reflects our 'hood ... as if it was written right here. But I guess to presume that would be small-minded. Maybe, possibly, every city has an Allied Drive. Regardless, I decided to proclaim it as the Allied Drive anthem - hey, if we can proclaim mayors on Allied Drive, we can certainly proclaim anthems!

UPDATE: Chinese food delivers to Allied!!

Police Calls: Plug and Play, Click and Drag

The Wisconsin State Journal has this great interactive map that will show all the areas of Madison and the total police calls that were made from the various areas of the city. The Allied Drive area was way ahead of many of the other city's areas with 288 calls in 2006, however we were not number one ... the University area had 431 calls. These numbers encompassed calls for aggravated battery, attempted murder, battery, homicide, burglary, arson, armed robbery and sexual assault. So there it is ... now when people automatically bring up Allied Drive in discussions about crime in Madison, let's talk about the University first. After all, they are number 1!

http://www.madison.com/wsj/projects/crime_maps/serious/index.html

In related news, WSJ covers the new Allied Plan:

http://www.madison.com/tct/news//index.php?ntid=248310

The bantering over the perfect solution for Allied Drive continues ...

Prisoners of our own homes?

I keep hearing a lot of talk about streets opening up the Allied area so that through the middle of Allied Drive, there would be another street that goes through our neighborhood creating a pathway between our neighborhood and the rest of the Dunn's Marsh community. Many individuals are vehemently against this road, and following is a summary of reasons I have heard at various neighborhood association and public city meetings:

1 - The streets are already very narrow and the open pathway would increase traffic and residents don't want any more cars coming through their quiet street.

2 - It would be so expensive and as city tax payers, many individuals feel they have the right to say no on the grounds that it would just seemingly be irresponsible use of tax dollars, and that there are better things to spend money on.

3 - The individuals that tend to speed and race down Allied are thought to potentially speed down the newly open street as well, and who would want that?

4 - And lastly, perhaps an extension of the above point, some of the residents on the other side of Allied just don't want Allied people coming out to their domain. A street would seem like an open invitation to come out to their neighborhood.

There are some very basic reasons that I see in favor of opening up the street, some of which are summarized as follows:

1 - In terms of safety, if there are more openings into Allied Drive, that makes the neighborhood less segregated from the rest of the city and allows police to have more ways to come into the community serving as a deterrant to some of the crime areas that are somewhat out of reach to normal traffic.

2 - It would be easier for those of us whose mode of transportation is foot to have actual streets to walk down, as opposed to shortcuts through fields and brush, especially in the snow and rain. Speaking from experience, it totally sucks walking to Walgreens in the snow. No one shovels snow off the fields.

There are some basic urban planning reasons for opening up the streets that boils down to a healthy community needing streets to access the rest of the community. I remember going to a neighborhood meeting and hearing a resident from the other side complain about the prospect of the streets opening up and the reason cited was that he did not want "people from down there, up here." There was some consensus among those around him and I don't think that he realized that I was one of those dreaded people from "down there" and hearing that conversation made all of the above really irrelevant.

It seems the real question is whether Allied Drive is deserving of access to the rest of the city, or are we all summoned to remain trapped in this little street with minimal access to what all the other residents of Madison have access to.

When my father was younger, he would often opt for quick fixes on home repairs. We often fixed leaky pipes with duct tape. One thing I learned growing up is that band-aid fixes typically result in something blowing up down the road and requiring a lot of money and a lot of time, and sometimes a little bit of heart to fix. For example, when pictures are damaged in a flood, it takes a certain type of attention to salvage them. That leaky pipe is Allied Drive. For years, we have made little fixes on Allied Drive, parallel to duct tape on a leaky pipe, and things are ready to blow. So be prepared, Madison, the overall solution will require a lot of money and a lot of time, and maybe a little bit of heart.

Allied Drive Unsafe For Children?

At a recent Madison city council meeting, an elected official was witnessed commenting within a public city meeting that Allied Drive is not a place anyone would want to bring their kids on the weekend. Such a snide comment reflecting snippets of news commentary of alleged violence within events in our community very likely influences others to believe that Allied Drive is inappropriate for children.

Despite the little pieces of Allied Drive that is revealed on the news, any Allied Drive resident would concur that our children drive our community. We have a lot of kids here. Some think that our kids are neglected. Don’t pass judgments strictly through surface observations. Poverty brings forth very complex factors.

Some think our neighborhood is violent. I wonder if the recent murders and abductions on State Street have resulted in similarly vehement remarks about State Street not being a place anyone would want to bring their children. Especially considering State Street’s violence can be perceived as a notch above Allied Drive.

Though violence is reported from time to time on Allied Drive, there has always been a story associated with the logic that led to the events. It’s over a man, or someone cheating, or someone not getting paid. In all of Madison, it is rare that acts of random violence occur.

The sad fact of the matter is that some Madisonians blame Allied Drive for virtually all of the city’s crime. Even a recent neighborhood meeting several communities away tried to make Allied Drive responsible for a substantial crime occurring in their community. However the reality is that Allied Drive busts encompass people from all over Madison. If you drive down Verona Road and pass the Allied Drive area and you see cars pulled over with multiple police officers interrogating the individuals in the car, there is a likely chance that you are seeing someone from another community that the police caught either coming into Allied Drive to do some wrong, or coming out of our community after doing some wrong. My small community encompassing about nine blocks is not a scapegoat for the entire City of Madison’s problem with drugs and crime.

For the record, in the two years that I have lived on Allied Drive, I have gotten to know many mothers, fathers, brothers, daughters, grandmothers, great-grandmothers and many, many children. Never have I felt that our children are unsafe beyond typical precautions that would apply anywhere else. It annoys me when people judge our community without knowing the first thing about our community.

A principle I would like to offer elected and appointed officials with the responsibility of "dealing with Allied Drive" is one that could quite possibly apply to all areas of life. Don’t judge a community from its worst without experiencing its best.

This column was originally published in Madison Voices, Allied Drive's community newspaper. Visit their Web site at: MadisonVoices.com

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!

Losing Walgreens is a Matter of Time

As residents of the Allied community, there are many things that we know without having to look at statistics or data. We know that there are a lot of people out here that depend on the number 18 bus and if service on that line went down, many people would be out of jobs. We don’t have to look at a study to analyze the findings to know that. This is our community, we just know.

Similarly, we know that a lot of people steal from the Walgreens on the head of Allied Drive. It is a sad truth that we all just know. And I am sure that it is no surprise to the rest of Madison. There are a lot of perceptions about those of us living on Allied Drive, and one of them is that none of us have any money. Therefore it is a no-brainer that the stores over here most likely have a hard time staying profitable due to all the losses resulting from theft.

However, I know from going to Walgreens almost on a daily basis, that many of the thefts that take place are not acts of desperation. The rest of Madison must know that we are not all impoverished human beings over here that steal eggs and milk in order to feed our children. Ever since the weather broke, I go to Walgreens and I see kids bored out of their mind going into Walgreens for some quick thrills. Some of these kids are like six years old and they will all run into Walgreens, grab a King-Size chocolate bar and run out laughing and giggling, and I think in my mind, those boys will be in prison by the time they’re fourteen. We are in Wisconsin where half of the prison population is locked up over what Def Jam would call a DWB (driving while black).

These kids need to quit playing and find something to do. And maybe it is up to some of us to offer some guidance. There are many ways that we can incorporate children into our lives. I have adopted a little sister down the street from me (who I am guilty of neglecting at times, but I try to make up for it when we are together), and if everyone did the same, maybe that would have an impact on our community.

It’s not like we go anywhere fancy to spend time together. We make cookies and watch a movie, or play with Max (my puppy) and when we are together, we talk about real life things and I think that has an impact somewhere. We have a lot of kids in our neighborhood, and they all have mothers that are struggling. They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, we have a lot of children here, and not a whole lot of village, so if we want a healthy community, we need to all pitch in. I think a little investment of time with our children will go a long way. And then maybe we can count on Walgreens to stay.

This column was originally published in Madison Voices, Allied Drive's community newspaper. Visit their Web site at: MadisonVoices.com