As people who live and/or work near the proposed East Washington site -- including the adjacent Emerson East, Tenney-Lapham, Marquette and SASY neighborhoods -- we urge you to select South Park Street as the location for the Madison Public Market District.

We appreciate all the work that went into evaluating the potential market sites, but according to the site analysis report:

The South Park area is nearly twice as diverse as East Washington;

The median household income of the South Park area is roughly half that of East Washington;

The South Park area "needs better access to quality food";

The South Park site boasts the largest daytime population and the best walkability score, and ties with East Washington on multi-modal accessibility; and

The drawbacks of the South Park site, such as having fewer buses per day, can and should be changed, as part of an overall commitment to developing the area.

While we would certainly enjoy having the public market on the east side, we think investing public dollars to bring jobs, fresh food and community resources to the South Park area would benefit the city overall and better reflect our values and hopes for Madison. Thank you for considering our input.