Taking the pledge
In your reporting on superdelegates (“No Endorsements Needed,” 4/7/2016) you neglected to mention that Hillary Clinton holds a commanding lead with pledged delegates. These delegates are determined by the primaries and caucuses that the voters vote in. Bernie Sanders has a narrow but not mathematically impossible route to earn more pledged delegates than Clinton but it is unlikely.
In fact, the only actual, not perceived, effect that the superdelegates can possibly have at this point is to overturn the will of the voters and hand the nomination to Sanders.
In this era where hyperbole and innuendo spread like wildfire on the internet, we depend on print publications to provide an accurate picture of what is happening. Isthmus failed to do so in this article.
Yogesh Chawla (via email)
The short list
In your 40th anniversary story (“Isthmus by the Numbers,” 4/7/2016), I was surprised to see how short your list of “staffers who went on to write books” was. I’m sure you have missed a lot of folks! Two I remember from the years when my store was across the street from your office are Mike Baron and Mark Fearing. Particularly surprising was the absence of Mike Baron, considering the article in the same issue on Mike’s visit to Madison (“A Badger Homecoming”). Mike has probably written more books than anyone; graphic novels are books, you know; they have spines and everything. Mark Fearing did covers for you, I think in the 1990s. He illustrates kids’ books now.
Hank Luttrell (via email)
Editor’s note: Luttrell is correct about Mike Baron; he was a music editor in Isthmus’ early days. Mark Fearing, however, was a freelance illustrator, not a staffer.
Run for your lives
As a Dane County and Madison resident, I’m glad when people run for office. Mike Basford, chair of the Democratic Party of Dane County, and District 1 County Supervisor Mary Kolar don’t seem to be with me on that (“Familiar Faces,” 4/7/2016).
Basford said there were only four County Board races this year among 37 seats because “People are happy with how Dane County government is working. The quality of life here is good.” For lots of us, yes, life is good here; for others, not so much.
When Wisconsin is one of the worst states in the U.S. for racial disparities, and Dane is the worst county in Wisconsin, we have work to do. When we have hundreds of people living on our streets in Madison, and well over a thousand homeless students in the Madison school district alone, we have a lot of work to do.
Kolar said her re-election is a message to progressives that it’s time “to work together to help those most in need” though she’d previously voted against funding for a downtown day resource center.
“This race has been nothing but a distraction,” Kolar said. I say thanks to Rob Dz Franklin for giving the voters of District 1 a choice on the ballot.
I encourage all citizens of Dane County to watch their governments at all levels, not just state and federal, and to run for office if they think they can do better.
Norm Littlejohn (via email)
[Editor's note: Norm Littlejohn's letter was changed to reflect that Mary Kolar is a co-sponsor of the living wage proposal and also introduced the resolution for the day resource center (though she did vote against a $4 million funding proposal for the latter).]
Traffic problem?
I’m concerned about some consequences that the new Festival Foods development will have in my neighborhood (“One-Stop Shopping,” 3/31/2016). Every day drivers endanger bicycle safety on East Mifflin Street’s Bike Boulevard. The additional car traffic associated with the new 55,000-square-foot grocery store will make the roads downtown even more dangerous for cyclists.
Bicycles are supposed to have complete right-of-way on a Bike Boulevard. The law too loosely states that motor vehicles are welcome on these safe havens for bikes. Given that developers expect high levels of car traffic at Festival Foods, the city of Madison should make Bike Boulevards only available to motor vehicles that are “local traffic,” prohibiting use by commuter traffic that abuse the Boulevards. Cyclists deserve the right to have a safe thoroughfare of their own.
Kim Larson (via email)
