Black and white photos bring out the character of Madison’s east side. From our apartment in the “The Medallion,” we hear at least one freighter blast its horn each day. It’s usually a train bearing grain or other commodities, crawling along the lakeshore.
Across the street, Madison Gas & Electric rises with impressive smokestacks and a mix of historic brick and modern steel buildings. Its a very clean power plant. We never see smoke and the grass is well-tended. It apparently doesn’t take many people to run a power plant these days, as the parking lots are all empty. In the shadows of the power plant, a soup kitchen serves the homeless and a whiskey distillery serves the hip.
Willy Street
Willy Street is down this way, with my favorite haunt being Madison Sourdough and also the Willy Street Co-op Market. I’ve became an “owner” of the Co-op for the princely sum of $15, a fee that has not changed since the 1970s. But the food has changed. Sure the Co-op has the requisite bins of bulk grains and nuts, but also a Whole Foods-like aisle of vegan cosmetics. I like all the interesting upscale ingredients. Need Paleo, gluten-free, or tempeh? Or fresh yellowfin tuna or a perfect t-bone steak? The Co-op has got you covered. But unlike Whole Foods, it serves its community, for example, sponsoring many of the festivals that appear all summer long, popping up in one or another park. The coop check-out staff feels free to bring their whole self to work, and they’re a colorful bunch.
The Co-op bridges the 1970s and today, and so does the rest of Willy St. I notice a countercultural feel, for example, in the jazz club with a huge picture of St. John Coltrane above the bar. Willy Street has a do-it-yourself playhouse. A dispensary or two. Storefronts that might actually have the same things in the windows since the 1970s, or at least, are selling to those who consider stuff from the 1970s to be antiques. There are great brick structures with faded paint proclaiming the best bread, the best candy, and the best farm equipment. International Harvester is featured in the photos, but doesn’t still occupy their building. I think its a law firm now.
Along the railway runs the Capitol Bikeway, a great place for walking the dogs amidst people in every form of self-propelled transportation. As we walk, the dogs like the little strips of grass – lots of dogs appreciate this grass, apparently – and I like the prairie wildflowers growing wherever they’ve been allowed to. If you like the “Highline” in NYC, well, this the “line” in Madison. There are marathon-runners, baby strollers, dog walkers and carbon fiber/titanium bicycles zooming by.
Willy Street has a real barbershop. A pinball arcade. A free vending machine that dispenses Narcan. A ballot collection box. At the end of Willy near our apartment, there’s an excellent Indonesian restaurant, a very friendly kebab shop, and a Chinese hot pot restaurant. Along the lake, across the street from these low-cost establishments, another old industrial building was taken over by an upscale bike shop and “Sardine”, a french bistro where you can get dressed up, or not.
Capitol Square
Walking away from Willy Street, we can also stroll to the state capitol. Its amazing how well Madisonians use their state grounds. There’s constantly something happening here! The best farmer’s market. The best protests. Music concerts. Homeless hangouts. Art festivals. The grounds of the Capitol are perpetually in use, and everything is open to the people.
On the far side of this grand building, State Street connects the corridors of power to the university. State Street is gritty is a different way and I didn’t take any pictures of it. It’s a bit downscale. I guess there’s no point in improving it beyond the means of the students who deploy their purchasing power alternatively on coffee or beer, pizza or noodles. And since they might spill either, a few t-shirt shops. Nonetheless I’ll take State Street in Madison over Wisconsin Ave in Georgetown; the latter has been taken over by pricey international brands, whereas the shops here still have a mom-and-pop feel.
Our Neighborhood
But we live on the east side of the Capitol, and that features a wonderful collection of dive bars, spilling into the street. We’re glad that one nearby us is closing, because sometimes they play music much too loud. Nonetheless the “Come Back In” with its adjoining “Essen Haus” and “Up North Pub” is a scene, with beach volleyball in the parking lot, polka in the dining room, and a older crowd telling their beer about the good old days when they too could play volleyball and then dance the polka. Within a short walk there are also great coffee shops, an ice cream parlor, a gastropub, an upscale pizza joint, Mexican restaurants, and a fine breakfast spot called Marigold.
Our neighborhood proclaims its name to be “First Settlement.” I guess they are commemorating where Europeans first took over Native American grounds. An old Catholic church, St Patrick’s, is stately but lonely. Need a mattress? You can always go shopping for discarded furniture which is thrown out on the sidewalks of Madison for the trash department to pick up. The main gentrifying population appears to be the rabbits, who come out every evening from every nook and cranny to tend the gardens. Audrey and I have never seen a city with more rabbits.
We’re also on the isthmus between two lakes, and its a short stroll to either. James Madison park has the better lakefront park, on Lake Mendota. But the path on Lake Monona features the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed convention center, which is stunning. And its apparently a great place to fish the lake, as there’s always a crowd casting their lines. The dogs like walking along Lake Monona because it gets more foot and bike traffic, and thus more chances of finding dropped food. At the convention center, we sometimes ride a glass elevator up 5 floors from lake level to street level, and then stroll to the Capitol and back to our apartment. A nice loop.
A Sense of Place
Madison has a historic sense of place, and yet the biggest non-government employer is very high tech. The medical records company “Epic” is based here and MyChart is probably what your doctor uses too. With plenty of nationally-leading businesses and a university and state government, Madison has plenty of people with disposable income, and thus plenty of fun things to do. And while there’s some gentrifying apartment towers sprouting up along the lake, it still has lots of older industrial character.
Photos
Enjoy the photos below, and they look better enlarged. Click any photo and then use the arrow keys to see them all.
