WELCOME, MAYORS! LISTEN, LEARN, LEAVE

The United States Conference of Mayors is, by all accounts, a harmless
group. As former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin points out on today's Forum
page, the group has a history of taking moderately liberal positions,
organizing long-winded policy debates and presiding gracefully over the
decline of the municipalities they are charged with governing.

I bear the group and its members no ill will.

But it is my sincere hope that they will come and go from Madison quickly.
Make that very quickly.

Everything about the mayors conference rubs this city wrong. It is an
elitest, expensive and exclusionary event. It is going to screw up our
downtown on Farmers' Market day, shutter the taxpayer-funded Monona Terrace
to the taxpayers, close portions of Lake Monona, and turn the University of
Wisconsin Memorial Union into a private club for out-of-towners who do not
even cheer for the Badgers.

These are significant annoyances, to be sure.

But the darkest development came this week, in the form of an announcement
that the State Capitol will be closed to the public during significant
portions of the conference.

This is simply ridiculous. The mayors are not coming to Madison; they are
stepping into a protective bubble that could be located in any city in the
United States. In doing so, they are isolating themselves from a city that
could teach them a lot about how to use public resources to create a
livable community. They are also alienating themselves from the citizens of
that city.

How high is the level of alienation?

Let's just say that it's a good thing this is not a democracy because,
given a vote, Wisconsinites would surely choose keeping the Capitol open
over letting the mayors conference go forward.

The mayors conference has been shamefully and shamelessly organized, as
Madison Reps. Mark Pocan and Terese Berceau noted in an angry condemnation
of the decision to close the Capitol.

At every turn organizers of the conference have chosen the comfort of the
mayors over the concerns of the citizens of Madison.

The organizers understand that the event is dramatically out of sync with
Madison. That's why they continue to peddle the absurd claim that they must
lock the people of Madison out of much of their city for security reasons.
No competent observer of preparations for this weekend's protests believes
that campaigners for civil liberties, better public services and drug law
reform pose a serious threat to this conference or this city. (To their
credit, Madison police have downplayed concerns to the point of announcing
that they are not planning to dust off the riot gear.)

The security excuse is just that: an excuse.

The real threat that Madisonians and the mayors face over the next few days
will occur inside the Monona Terrace Convention Center, where some of the
creepiest corporations in the world will be plying their wares. Don't look
for Wisconsin's best and brightest on the schedule of speakers. There is
not room for them because the schedule is packed with the CEOs and other
lobbyists for Waste Management, American Management Services, 3M,
AstraZeneca Phamaceuticals, DuPont Security, Bechtel, DaimlerChrysler, the
Mortgage Bankers Association, the International Council of Shopping Centers
and the usual clique of water privatizers, service diminishers and
municipal treasury emptiers.

The mayors conference is an epic example of opportunity lost. Mayors from
around the country could have come to Madison and learned a great deal from
a great city. Instead, they have annoyed that city and its citizens to such
an extent that the popular response of Madisonians to the mayors is likely
to be: "Don't let the Learjet doors hit you as you're leaving."