The night market cometh

☀️ Today's weather: Mostly sunny and hot. High: 92° Low: 67°

Happy Thursday, Madison.

In another sign of the changing seasons, tonight marks the city's first night market of the year.

The Madison Night Market brings together dozens of local vendors and businesses to showcase and sell their work. From 4-8 p.m. tonight you'll find art, music, and food carts along State Street and Gilman Street.

Tonight will feature performances from Madison queer pop band LINE and blues band The Cash Box Kings at Lisa Link Peace Park at 4:30 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively.

Check out the full list of vendors here to map out your game plan.

— Hayley

🚘 A quick traffic update.

• The city has announced that starting Monday, May 16, South Blair Street will be fully closed at all times including the morning rush hour.
• Additional westbound lanes on Williamson Street have opened up as construction moves out of the Williamson/Wilson/John Nolen intersection.
• The city hoped to have Blair Street re-opened to two-way traffic by June 20.

🥵 Some Madison School District classrooms are feeling the heat.

• You don't need me to tell you it's been hot this week. But some Madison classrooms are stuck in the heat without air conditioning. In some cases, teachers brought students outside for class because even in the unusual spring heat, it would be cooler than inside their classroom.
• While most Madison schools have air conditioning in main offices, libraries, or nurse’s stations, many classrooms aren't as lucky. The Madison teachers' union has suggested installing window units for classrooms in the past but that proposal was ultimately deemed too expensive. The district has offered box fans for classrooms, but as the Wisconsin State Journal reports, the fans provide little to no comfort.
• “Everyone is in a bad mood on a hot day and there is really no break from it. Getting the kids to focus is extra hard,” Lee Briggs, a teacher at Toki Middle School told the State Journal.
• Related: MMSD reminds families of closure policies during early season heat wave (WKOW)

⛳ From golf course to landfill.

• At their Tuesday meeting, the Madison City Council voted 17-2 in favor of a joining city-county venture to turn half of the Yahara Hills Golf Course into a landfill and "sustainability campus."
• The city will now move forward with a $5.5 million deal to sell Dane County about 230 acres of the Yahara Hills Golf Course. The county must still approve its end of the deal and the city has through the end of 2024 to buy back the land should the county decide not to put a landfill on the site, the State Journal reports.
• While the land sale represents a monumental step for this project, Channel 3000 notes the earliest the county could start construction would be 2028.
• Related: As Yahara Landfill plans continue, neighbors worry about future property value (NBC 15)

🍃 Green Cab quietly stopped its 24/7 operation.

• The Madison transportation company recently stopped offering 24/7 ride services, leading to confusion for riders and other officials in the city’s transportation sector.
• As Tone Madison reports, by ending its 24/7 and on-demand services, Green Cab is technically no longer operating as a taxi service under city ordinances. The change to Green Cab's operations has put a strain on the rest of the city’s dwindling taxi fleet, leading to increased wait times and prices.

🎓 Bye Bye, Becky.

• Outgoing University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank spoke to reporters Tuesday in her final press briefing as the university’s leader where she highlighted the universities successes during her tenure and offered advice to her successor.
• Blank served as UW's chancellor for nine years. During her time in the role, Blank made strides to make the university more financially stable and decrease the school's graduation gap. Blank said she hopes her successor will work to improve campus climate, a subject that has been the source of criticism against Blank.
• Blank’s final day as chancellor is May 27. She is leaving to become the next president of Northwestern University.

👕 Stinky flower: gone but never forgotten.

• It came, it stank, and then it left. So long!
• Buy your shirt here. The proceeds will be split between Olbrich Botanical Gardens and local artist Jess Draws (aka bumblechub).

🚆 Did someone say trains?

• You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in Madison who doesn't get excited at the thought of passenger rail coming to town. But now the city is trying to determine if Amtrak was to come to Madison, where would we put the station?
• At their meeting Tuesday, members of City Council proposed a $120,000 study to determine the efficacy of an Amtrak station and highlight potential locations for the station.
• Bringing passenger rail to town has been a focus of Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway’s first term. The council will vote on the proposal — and the funds allocated to it — at a later meeting.

🌳 Your lunchtime read: After a yearslong search, Wisconsin’s oldest tree is revealed. Sort of.

• From Wisconsin Life: "Close your eyes and imagine the oldest tree in Wisconsin.
  
  When I would do this, I used to picture something like a massive red oak with limbs the size of telephone poles, or a towering white pine missed by the loggers of the 19th Century.
  
  But that’s not it at all.
  
  The oldest known tree in Wisconsin is a scrawny, scrubby little red cedar growing out of the side of a cliff. It’s not majestic. Actually, it’s so unremarkable that it’s easy to miss."

📅 Events

Thursday, May 12

• Madison Night Market. Vendors showcase handmade products, local art, artisan gifts, prepackaged foods, and fresh produce on State Street and Gilman Street. Live music, artists, special visiting food carts, vendors. 3-7 p.m.
• Mike Cammilleri Organ Trio at North Street Cabaret. 7 p.m. $10. 🟠
• Ready to Wear fashion show from the Madison Reading Project. Paper inspired benefit fashion show benefitting childhood literacy cause. 7 p.m. $55 general admission, $85 VIP.
• J.E. Sunde at The Bur Oak. Music at 8 p.m. $12 advance, $15 doors. 🟠

Wondering what that 🟠 means? That symbol next to an event listing means the Tone Madison team recommends checking it out.

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