The good liberals of Madison struggling with the "good" homeless and the "bad" homeless.

On Tuesday, the city council anguished over one block of our Capitol Square:

"(P)eople are scared to death to go there," said Maria Milsted, who runs a property management company with her husband at 106 W. Mifflin St. "We are frightened to go into our own place of work."

In her speech, Milsted distinguished between the "good homeless," — those who are seeking jobs and a place to live — and "the takers" who she believes are seeking handouts and have no intention of behaving civilly....

The mayor, Paul Soglin, the longtime Madison lefty and former UW student radical blamed the world beyond Madison for dumping its undesirables here:

"Statements that some of us have made about Madison being a drop-off point (of homeless people) for other units of government is now getting fairly well-documented," Soglin said.

He also alleged that other cities are driving homeless people into the city of Madison, and vowed that Madison would "drive them right back!"

So xenophobic. Whatever happened to empathy and compassion? We're ready now to see the downtrodden as "takers" and reprobates... when they congregate in a prime residential area and freak out the real estate folk?

You know, one of the nicest condo buildings I've ever seen is on that block. It's terrible if the bad homeless people are hurting real estate values. But if you're not freaked out by a few street people, it might be a good time to put in an offer on one of the places currently on the market. Like that 2-bedroom penthouse, priced at $2,200,000, now down to $1,995,000.

Madison Mayor Soglin's terrible idea — previously discussed on this blog — went down to defeat in the City Council last night.

Here's our previous discussion. (I said: "What is the point of this? To facilitate political discrimination?") Here's news from last night:

Despite an impassioned plea from Mayor Paul Soglin, the Madison City Council on Tuesday rejected [11-9]a measure that would have required those receiving city contracts worth more than $25,000 to disclose contributions to certain advocacy groups....

Soglin said there is no constitutional right to donate money in order to affect elections and remain anonymous. He said the measure was a “very, very small crumb in a layer cake of political, financial shenanigans” that have been going on for centuries.

“It doesn’t mean we can’t take one small step,” he said.

That makes it sound like his proposal was a crumb in a shenanigans cake.

In other Madison news, the council approved that street painting nonsense that we were talking about here.

"Businesses and groups that contract with the city could soon be required to disclose contributions to certain kinds of political advocacy groups..."

"... if a new ordinance proposed by Mayor Paul Soglin is adopted."

The ordinance, which requires people or entities contracting with the city for more than $25,000 to disclose contributions to certain advocacy groups, took its first step through city process Monday, receiving 4-0 approval from the Board of Estimates.

The ordinance is a local response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in the Citizens United case, which allows unlimited corporate contributions to political groups so long as they are independent of candidates and their committees. The ordinance aims to limit vendors doing business with the city from providing anonymous contributions to advocacy groups listed under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue code.

What is the point of this? To facilitate political discrimination?

"Madison Mayor Paul Soglin walks with his wife, while observing the crowd control at the annual Mifflin Street Block Party in Madison, Wisconsin."

Meade messages me that and says "That's your caption." Here's the photograph.

The local newspaper reports: "Mifflin Street: A peaceful day in the neighborhood."

“Certainly, we’re very pleased with the way things have gone,” [said the spokesman for the police]. “What we’re seeing today is not the Mifflin Street party of two years ago. We worked hard over the last year to get the word out to people as to what our expectations were for this day and, by and large, people have been keeping the peace and policing themselves.”

Of course, if they had failed to do so, there were plenty of Madison police officers and Dane County Sheriff’s deputies around to help them out. Instead, they spent more time posing for photos with students, than arresting them. And by late afternoon, officers were already being sent home, DeSpain said.

Brian Figueroa, a UW-Madison senior from New Richmond, could’ve told them that the show of force at the start of the day wasn’t necessary. “It’s like a wasted resource,” said Figueroa, enjoying his fourth and final Mifflin Street bash. “Just take a look and see how many cops there are for how many students. It’s such a waste. Nothing bad is happening. It’s just a lot of people having fun, drinking and enjoying a sunny day that finally came. It’s good to let loose and have fun. We’re just celebrating a mess of hard work.”

We drove by a couple times in the mid and late afternoon and the place was loaded with police — including police horses. There were lots of students mostly standing around on porches and balconies. Presumably, everyone was drinking beer, but nothing looked rowdy. There wasn't even any audible music. It looked like a beautiful spring Saturday happened and everyone simultaneously came outside, but just outside — young people, like very old people, coming out only as far as needed to be outside. But here is — a much awaited festivity, consisting of the most mundane, low-energy activity: having a drink on the porch. 

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin uses city money to try to get students not to have a party.

The Mifflin Street block party is a big spring festivity, an annual event going back to 1969, when Soglin was himself a student, partying. The heavy drinking entails law enforcement problems. ("[T]he 2011 party was marred by two stabbings and three sexual assaults.")

Soglin said he wants to put any unused portion of the $190,000 designated for policing the unauthorized block party toward funding summer day camp or employment programs for youths. The budget amendment would require City Council approval.

“Is he trying to make us feel bad?” asked Lauren Cochlin, 23, who lives in the 500 block of Mifflin Street....

Soglin called it a “real-world decision” for attendees who in recent years have gone beyond “the right to party and the tradition” associated with the event with “some very serious situations that have been life-threatening.”

What if back during the Wisconsin protests, Governor Walker had pointed at the extra money that the state would be paying for law enforcement and said that he'd put that money into some program for children if the protesters would knock it off?

A government official should not use public money (or sentimentality about the children!) to pressure citizens out of exercising their freedom. The fact that some people cross the line into committing crimes is not a reason to go after everyone. Government should target its law enforcement on criminals. It's obviously easier to manipulate the good people into giving up their liberties. Imagine feeling guilty, when you're having a beer at a block party, that you're causing some child to miss out on day camp! Ironically, it's the very people who would be sensitive to that guilt trip who'd be most likely to bring good behavior to the party, diluting the proportion of louts who don't care about anything — not the laws, not common decency, not the mayor's creepy bribes, and not the damned kids playing games in the park in July.

2 choices: "step aside" or "step the f*** up and show the world how Madison..."

"... has consistently earned our spot in the top five party schools while continuing to excel academically."

University of Wisconsin students have been protesting for a long time. Is this too not an issue of freedom?

"We still have rights; we have a house on Mifflin... Long live Mifflin."

Should they not fight for their right to party... especially on Mifflin Street? The history:

The Mifflin Street Block Party began in 1969 as a street protest, which involved dancing in protest against the Vietnam War. Its original date, May 3, was set to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the French student rebellion. Anti-war sentiments had accelerated in Madison since the 1967 Dow Chemical protest in which thousands of students occupied and were violently expelled from Ingraham Hall. The original event arose as part of a continuing conflict between students and police in the "Miffland" area, centered on Mifflin Street. Police refused to allow permission for the street dance and when they entered the area in response to a noise complaint, a confrontation ensued that lasted three nights and spread into the surrounding student areas. Students threw stones at the police and constructed barricades to defend themselves. The police responded with tear gas and billy clubs. At the end, 70 people were injured and more than 100 arrested, including future and current mayor, Paul Soglin.

"I would suggest that we not worry about funding."

"In other words: Design the best programs possible. Then we’ll worry about funding them."

The quote is from Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, and the issue is "the achievement gap" in Madison schools. Soglin has suggested "expanding access to nutritious food outside of school, supporting transportation for students and parents, and increasing the amount of time children spend in learning environments."

Increasing the amount of time children spend in learning environments sounds like a polite way of saying keep them away from their parents as much as possible.