Residents to sell “gently used” items curbside beginning at 8 a.m.

Click on picture for for larger view of map. Courtesy: MNA

The Annual Marquette Neighborhood Association Garage Sale begins Saturday June 6, 2015 at 8 a.m. within the confines of the Marquette Neighborhood. Residents with items for sale who have signed up in advance will be listed in advertisements and receive a yard sign, however one doesn’t need to sign up to sell items in front of their home.

The  general boundaries of the Marquette Neighborhood are from Blair street in the west to Division street in the east and from East Washington Avenue to Lake Monona. Those who don’t sell items by 3 p.m will have an opportunity to donate them to St. Vincent de Paul which will be circulating a truck through the neighborhood at that time.

New this year to the event is a partnership with the Mad City Bazaar which will be open from 10 a.m to 4 p.m. in the parking lot of the Washington Plaza at 1800 East Washington Avenue.

The MNA is holding this community event as part spring cleaning, part ice breaker for residents to meet one another. MNA supports many community events and initiatives including the Marquette Waterfront Festival, Orton Park Festival, youth scholarships and community art projects.

If you haven’t joined MNA or your membership has lapsed; joining or joining again is only $5.

Craft cocktail lounge with in-home feel opens as companion to Grampa’s Pizzeria

The upstairs bar at Gib’s, features stools and is adjacent to two parlor-type seating areas.

Walk past the two-story frame house at 1380 Williamson Street and one might think they missed an invite to a house party, but you haven’t, because everyone is invited. Tonight (April 18) is the grand opening of Gib’s Bar, a companion cocktail lounge to Grampa’s Pizzeria next door.

Cast aside your visions of sweaty college kids and gallons of Busch Light, and instead imagine a typical home in the Marquette neighborhood with several of your friends before a dinner party; relaxing on carefully considered furniture on top of wood floors and trim that home buyers dream about.

Thursday night Gib’s, a shared nickname for Owner Gilbert Altschul and his late grandfather, held a soft opening and approximately 100 people over four hours, sampled both the atmosphere and the drink selections, which will be heavy on intricately styled craft cocktails. Snap assessment: Get to Gib’s before it gets really popular because it will, quick.

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A life celebrated, a call for new thinking and actions in our everyday lives

Mourners filled Madison East High School’s Milton McPike Field House to honor Tony “Terrell” Robinson on March 14, 2015.

Approximately 1,000 people gathered Saturday (March 14) in the Milton McPike Fieldhouse at Madison East High School to pay respects, remember and celebrate the life of Tony “Terrell” Robinson, Jr. Several hundred more watched the service from the school’s gym via closed-circuit television.

In a service filled with prayers from clergy, gospel music flourishes accompanying some speakers and a soulful rendition of Mariah Carey’s “One Sweet Day”; most who spoke echoed Tony Robinson’s own words:

“You ever have the feeling your’e going to live forever? I mean like your’e never going to die? I’m going to be great, I don’t know how I know but I do. Just watch. I’m going to change the world.”

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The near Eastside of Madison has it pretty good when it comes to food and resources: the Willy Street Co-op, copious amounts of restaurants, multi-faceted transportation options. The choices are so good that it has spurred Marquette Neighborhood Association President Michael Jacob to float the idea of MNA officially supporting a south side location for the proposed Public Market.

Recently, the City of Madison Local Food Committee recommended a site at the corner of East Washington Avenue and First Street, saying the location had the best combination of population density, high traffic volume and proximity to the now rapidly developing Capitol East Corridor.

But some in Madison feel that the location doesn’t address the relative food deserts that exist on the north and south sides, two locations that were also considered by the committee. This sentiment led Jacob to propose, in an email to the neighborhood listserv, throwing MNA support behind the Park Street location.

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Parks Commission gives go ahead for three concert dates in July and August

Central Park during initial construction last summer.

It is not the first time music events have been held in Central Park, La Fete de Marquette was held there in the years when it was first designated as a park, but newly announced summer concerts will mark a milestone. It will be the first organized music events since construction began to convert the space into the vision long held by the city and boosters.

That vision will continue to evolve, but since ground was broken last summer an artful restroom facility has been completed and large amounts of dirt has been moved to create small undulating mounds that are wrapped paved paths and punctuated by benches that are so new they are still wrapped in plastic.

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