The final leg of my journey saw me back in Eastmorland ambling down Atwood Avenue. The owners of one home apparently got tired of mowing and so their front yard was full of flowers and other non-grass plants. I did a double take when I saw cacti amongst the flora.
It had been a while since I'd seen cacti outside in Wisconsin – since my visit to the Wisconsin Desert, in fact.
Somehow the southeast corner of the intersection of Atwood Avenue and Cottage Grove Road became mural central without me noticing. One day the art treatment on one building caught my attention and then on my next visit to Walgreens it appeared as if the murals had multiplied like rabbits because they were all over the place. The Rockwell Tattoo parlor, Java Cat, Exhaust Pros, Jade Monkey, and the mall all have all been muraled up. So here are a few of them beginning with the Exhaust Pros building which looks like it was conceived by the same person who did the Karben4 logo while they were playing QBert.
Of course the utility box on the corner has been artified and of course I forgot to take a picture of it.
The area around the intersection was designated as one of two "activity centers" a few years back by the city and thusly city planners developed a, um, plan (PDF) for it. It makes various recommendations to increase population density, promote economic development, make use of vacant space, and whatnot. And now an apartment complex called The Grove is under construction on the north side of Cottage Grove Road. It will be mostly low income apartments with retail at ground level.
The mall across the street seems to be on life support. The Ace Hardware store which used to occupy most of it is sadly missed. By me, anyway. The space formerly occupied by Ace is now the temporary Pinney Library whose new home is under construction down the street. Closing signs cluttered the windows of the Bethesda Thrift Store. That leaves an art supply store and Diane's Draperies. My understanding is that the owner of the mall is looking to sell, figuring that they could fetch a good price with all of the development happening in the area. Hence the short-term lease offered to Ace and that its closure.
Farther east on Cottage Grove Road is Chief's Tavern.
I still think of it as the Packer Inn, the joint where Madison-area music legends The Goose Island Ramblers played regularly after the campus bar Glen and Ann's became The Nitty Gritty.
The former Surco Peruvian restaurant building looks to have some renovation going on but I don't know if a business is actually going to move in.
Even bigger than The Grove development is Royster Corners, the foremost project in this 70 acre plot that was formerly home to a fertilizer factory.
It's a sprawling mixed-use thing to be anchored by the new Pinney Library. If Eric Klinenberg is right, the area's civic life should improve. I can certainly see it as a spot where low- and middle-income residents will meet and socialize. In addition to the library, the complex will have market rate apartments and retail.
Just across Royster Oaks Drive are the Pinney Lane Apartments, another complex with low-income housing. I hadn't noticed the artwork/plaything in the courtyard previously It's like a Möbius strip that has been cut.
In the same area there are a few dozen plots for single-family houses. There are 7 or 8 homes now either occupied or to be soon.
What really surprised me was that there was an alley, a rarity in Madison.
I look forward to seeing what comes of it all – the shiny new library which has the potential to be a meeting ground for residents old and new, middle-class and of lesser means; all of the new commercial space too. I don't expect a brewpub or any other such marker of "gentrification" but some restaurants would be nice. Plus a hardware store, pet supply store, bookstore, and a record store, please.
Oh, and better bus service would be nice. Madison Metro has changed the route of the 38 bus to accommodate the Royster Commons development but it only runs on weekdays and only during rush hours. The future residents of The Grove will be better served by transit but all-day routes that run on Atwood Avenue only appear once an hour. While The Grove and Royster Commons gets all the press, an apartment building went up on Claire Street just south of Cottage Grove Road not too long ago. Considering the arterial status of Cottage Grove Road, it's a shame that buses mostly serve it via north-south routes instead of one that runs the length of the street. This really exaggerates the division caused by Highway 51.
It was time to circle back and head home so I made my way to the bike path, a.k.a. – the Capital City Trail. I had to cross a couple sets of railroad tracks including one that was abandoned. I'm guessing that happened back in c.2006 when the fertilizer factory closed as this spur turns to the south where the factory was and joins the main line a few blocks to the west.
There's a retention pond here that is home to a native Wisconsin plant farm as well as geese aplenty.
I hoofed it down the trail until Ring Street where another retention pond starts and I walked along it.
While it took some stooping, I made my way under Dennett Drive and saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
I also pissed off a lot of spiders as most of their webs ended up in my hair. Besides seeing a lot of minnows in the water, I saw a couple of turtles.
Not being a herpetologist, I am not sure what varieties they are but my hypothesis is that the top one is a painted turtle while the bottom is a juvenile snapping turtle.
I emerged at Walter Street, where this trek began, with sore feet.
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