[Above: Screenshot from the CLA presentation, Wed. September 14]
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Curiously, the presentation by Allen Arntsen and Mike Sturm at the September 15 “Clean Lakes Alliance 101 Science Cafe,” on “re-imagining Lake Monona’s shoreline,” omitted a critical piece of the history of this shoreline–the fact that it is a landfill created purposely by the City of Madison to help fulfill John Nolen’s 1911 “Madison, Model City” plan.
Arntsen is the Chair of the City of Madison Lake Monona Waterfront Ad-hoc Committee and also on the Friends of Nolen Waterfront board, and Sturm is the City of Madison Parks Division project manger, city representative for the Lake Monona Waterfront Ad-hoc Committee Design Challenge.
Their presentation is here and the powerpoint slides are here (both sent to me, as a participant of the event, by Clean Lakes Alliance).
The presentation began with a lovely short video of the shoreline by Phil Brinkman, editor at the Wisconsin State Journal, a big supporter and promoter of the shoreline makeover project (and of Monona Terrace when it was built in the ’90s). To make his video, Phil flew his drone over the entire Law Park area, which includes Monona Terrace. Thank you Phil! It’s great to see this video embedded in many recent Wisconsin State Journal articles. “Friends of Nolen Waterfront,” a private entity that has been pushing for the lakeshore do-over for years, is so lucky to have the WSJ on its PR team!
In their discussion and slide (below) on “previous development plans,” however, Arntsen and Sturm neglected to mention one huge previous development plan: from the 1930s through the 1950s, the City of Madison created new lakeshore land by filling the edge of the lake with city garbage, MGE coal ash, newspapers, construction wastes, and a plethora of other refuse.
The Law Park landfill was not mentioned once in the presentation. Some might argue that this isn’t an important detail in the history. I disagree. Monona Terrace could not have been built at all if the city hadn’t first “made” new land from garbage, for the express purpose of facilitating Nolen’s vision.
Mr. Arntsen is a retired attorney who worked for Foley & Lardner, a prominent Madison law firm that represents powerful entities here. Who is on the Friends of Nolen Waterfront board along with him? See the list on the website and below.
Are all of these highly educated, privileged people really unaware of this part of the history of the downtown Monona waterfront?
Hmmm. Very unlikely. Several of them may not know about it, but several others certainly know–but would rather that it stays buried, unknown to the public and decisionmakers. Madison Gas & Electric, for instance, does not want people to know that tons of their coal ash is buried in this landfill, leaching metals and petroleum compounds into the lake and fish that people who fish at “the wall”–mostly Black people–eat and share with their families.
As for the supposed environmentalists on this board–Sustain Dane, Nature Conservancy–sadly, they appear to be co-opted and greenwashed. Even if they know about the landfill, they likely won’t have the courage to raise questions about it and its effects on Lake Monona. They probably won’t be willing to rock the corporate boat. (Will they?)
And, of course, Clean Lakes Alliance is a corporate greenwashing group–supported by developers (and entities representing them), chemical manufacturers, investment firms, and energy companies, including MGE. These powerful entities do not want people to know about the landfill at the core of this lakeshore makeover–which will be a huge moneymaker for them.
