A Week in Review (Or Something Like that...)

For the “glass is half-empty” folks, I will remind you that we are entering our third week of summer. (No, the summer is not “almost over.” It ends in September,) We need to focus on the positive, people.

Madison has had a very exciting summer which has hardly yet begun. While protesters are still yelling to “Recall Walker,” emergency vehicles were speeding by me on my morning run ten mornings ago. Knowing something was wrong, I walked over to see a building in flames before I left for work. My poor friend had lost everything in that building, as did everyone else who lived there and two business owners are without a business.

While the Concourse Hotel graciously gave rooms to the displaced residents for a week, it saddened me to run into one of the displaced victims wearing what looked like some “St.Vinny’s giveaway” as she walked to work. I gathered some of my favorite clothes and dropped them to my friend. She needs to remain looking fashionable. No sense in dumping a bag of tee shirts to these people. It’s sad.

A week before this fire, a woman who was walking to her campus job was hit by a metro bus that was off duty, driving back to the station. The poor woman died as she crossed the walk (and had the right of way), as she did every day, to walk to her job. The city was shook up by this event. I feel horrible for her family. And I feel horrible for the bus driver who must have had some sort of blind spot.

I have always said that Madison drivers are much more courteous with pedestrians and bikers and we just never hear about this. It was another sad day.

And speaking of bikers, Trek’s new program has distributed bike racks surrounding the capitol square, around the city, including on the hospital grounds. You can rent them with a credit card and have a bike for a day. Their goal is something like “20 in 2020” – I believe they want 20% of the city to commute by bike by 2020. The bikes are being utilized a lot – I notice them riding by me when I run in the mornings. It’s a great initiative for this healthy city.

Personally, my summer has started out nicely. I continue to meet a lot of great people and hang out at all of my favorite walkable places. The night scene is really fun and as much as I love to stay in after work in the winter, it is too hard come summertime.

My favorite spot is Graze, right on the square. I also like drinks at Natt Spil and I still prefer any night of dancing at Plan B. Enjoy the summer and if you have a boat, feel free to take me out on it. (No Pressure).