District 12 candidates (clockwise from top left) Syed Abbas, Diane Farsetta, Mark-Anthony Whitaker and Lydia Maurer
The redevelopment of Oscar Mayer. Bus rapid transit. The new public market. The north and east sides of Madison are primed for some significant changes in coming years. In this transformational time, four candidates are vying to replace retiring District 12 Ald. Larry Palm: Syed Abbas, Diane Farsetta, Lydia Maurer and Mark-Anthony Whitaker. James Stansfield withdrew from the race in early January but his name will still appear on the Feb. 19 primary ballot. The two finishers will advance to the general election on April 2.
Farsetta, a care outreach specialist for the UW-Madison School of Nursing, says the district’s next alder “needs to find meaningful ways for the community to shape city decisions.”
“We do not want this to become a boutique area where residents are all upper-class and white,” says Farsetta, who was previously director of the Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice and has lived in the district since 2007. “One thing that’s overarching is community engagement. I think that’s been largely missing and has to happen when we’re talking about development. I think my decades of grassroots activism speak to my ability to do this.”
Abbas, a project manager for the nonprofit Slipstream, is co-chair of the Eken Park Neighborhood Association. He’s also served on the Oscar Mayer Strategic Assessment Committee. That committee recently submitted a report with development recommendations for the 72-acre site. Abbas says the surrounding community wants to see “a diversity of jobs” at the former Oscar Mayer site and the expansive lot is “uniquely positioned to be used for food innovation.”
“We have FEED Kitchens on North Sherman. The new public market will be close by [on First and East Johnson]. The community really wants to see this whole area be more vibrant,” says Abbas, who has lived in the district for three years. “We want to connect the north side to the east side through the Oscar Mayer [site] with a bike path…. I’m excited for the area to look more welcoming, especially with that large parking lot on Packers Avenue. It looks pretty awful and it’s premium land.”
Whitaker, an information technologist at Meriter and an Army veteran, says the district “needs someone who will fight for what’s in the best interest of the folks that live around here.”
“I want to make sure that racial disparities and income disparities are part of the discussion regarding these new development opportunities,” says Whitaker, who moved to the district in 2011 with his partner, John, who grew up on the north side. “People don’t want to see condos put in that nobody in the surrounding neighborhoods can afford.”
Maurer, a program assistant supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Human Services, says Oscar Mayer has defined the community for decades.
“We get to modernize that legacy,” says Maurer, who has lived in the district since 2003. “It’s a very exciting time and I will work to see that it’s done right.”
The city is considering basing a bus rapid transit system out of a yet-to-built satellite garage on part of the Oscar Mayer site. The project, which may be contingent on state and federal funding, is still in its early stages.
Yet, Whitaker is already hearing concern about bus rapid transit from voters.
“[Bus rapid transit] is going to go right down Sherman Avenue. Folks are concerned congestion will only get worse, particularly for pedestrians, bicyclists and people who use alternative modes of transportation,” says Whitaker. “How are we going to make sure people are safe on our streets? It’s the same thing with the new public market that’s being built. People are worried about all that additional traffic coming into their neighborhood.”
Maurer is hearing similar concerns.
“What people are telling me is they want to see traffic calming measures put in place,” says Maurer. “We have a lot of major corridors in the district and traffic seems to only be increasing with development.”
Farsetta says thriving communities have a mix of retail, employment and “affordable, market-rate and working class housing as well as transportation alternatives.” She would like to see the city increase its affordable housing fund and utilize public land trusts — where the city acquires and maintains ownership of land — for new developments.
“When you have big targeted projects, like we have on the north side, land trusts can be a really important tool for us to use. We already have seen success with this model in some of our neighborhoods,” says Farsetta. “The benefit of land trusts is they remain permanently affordable and it can be both residential and commercial space.”
Abbas says he’ll focus on a major challenge in the district: unemployment.
“There is 11.7 percent unemployment rate in the district and the rest of the city has 2.2 percent. People don’t have equal opportunities,” says Abbas. “One example is [the] Brentwood Village [neighborhood]. That area is in desperate need of a neighborhood resource center with social workers. There is lack of access to information and services and I would like to fix that.”
