In a cover story entitled "Some Like It Bland," staff writer Elizabeth McBride takes stock of Madison's west side. One lover of downtown Madison, local attorney Gene Rankin, deems it "a place without a soul" and calls the amorphous sprawl extending from Whitney Way to the city's perimeter "barbarizing." It is also booming, as McBride reports: "During the last five years, 62% of single-family homes and 56% of multi-family units built in Madison were constructed west of Whitney Way. And in 1989 alone, the area saw more than $31 million in nonresidential construction - about two-thirds of the city total." Rankin suggests this growth puts the city's vibrant core at risk. "Where would you have a parade out here?" he asks. "Where would you hold a political rally? Where would you post the signs to even let people know about it? Out here, those things just don't make sense."
The mild, mild west
From the Isthmus archives, July 6, 1990