Here & Now

Redeveloping Madison's Bayview Community With Design Justice

Frederica Freyberg:

This is a special week for those living in the Bayview community of Madison. By the end of the month, nearly 50 people will be living in new apartment homes after years of planning and fundraising. “Here & Now” special projects journalist Murv Seymour tells us how Bayview’s past could help shape the future of affordable housing across Murv Seymour the state.

Mary Berryman Agard:

All the housing on the triangle including Bayview is low-income housing.

Murv Seymour:

On the edge of Madison’s south side —

Mary Berryman Agard:

Bayview is 50 years old.

Murv Seymour:

— sits a tiny community that represents a slice of Wisconsin’s diversity.

Mary Berryman Agard:

It has been for 50 years, a center of really quiet promise.

Xong Vang:

Bayview has always been culturally diverse.

Mary Berryman Agard:

This is an area of the city that used to be originally Ho-Chunk land. Then it became later on land that was settled by waves of immigrants coming into Madison: Albanians, Italians, Jewish people, African-Americans.

Xong Vang:

My parents lived here before I did. My neighbor’s parents lived here. Language might be a barrier, but it doesn’t stop the residents from engaging and talking to one another, and, you know, just having a sense of community.

Nina Okwali Nanonah:

Bayview is a place I love. I’ve been here for over 18 years.

Murv Seymour:

Nina Okwali Nanonah and Xong Vang are long time Bayview residents. Both say —

Xong Vang:

Here it’s more than just townhomes, side by side, more than just brick buildings side by side. Everyone knows everybody: the parents, the kids, the grandchildren.

Nina Okwali Nanonah:

We look out for each other. Your kids can go out and play without you getting worried of anything happening. It is a place that’s really, really free, safe, and is centered on families.

Mary Berryman Agard:

We have a different way of providing housing.

Murv Seymour:

That different way also provides —

Mary Berryman Agard:

Job services, social services, some health services, education, children’s programs. The importance of Bayview is it is one of the most successful affordable housing communities around.

Nina Okwali Nanonah:

You can wait for five, six years waiting to get one apartment that’s affordable.

Alexis London:

Building affordable housing in urban environments close to the things that people need to get to is really essential. We’re located within a mile of downtown Madison. We are only blocks away from campus. We are blocks away from the Monona Bay. Here, you have access to transportation, jobs, really good schools, banks, healthcare facilities, all of the things that all of us need.

Murv Seymour:

Also known as the Greenbush community and nowadays “the triangle” because of the unique shape of the block where it sits, the sense of diversity here dates back more than 50 years when the triangle first began to take shape. Back then, when city leaders chose to rebuild the area, it would have a devastating impact on this mainly minority community.

Alexis London:

I think that history on the triangle is one that, you know, is really complicated.

Mary Berryman Agard:

In the 1960s, that blossoming, fruitful, scruffy immigrant area was devastated by old school urban renewal. Federal money became available to cities all across the country to remove what was considered to be urban blight. Homes were bought out. You had to sell or you were going to be condemned out. So the neighborhood was taken down without really considering what would happen to the residents who lived there. People went out to secure housing, and there was not more affordable housing to be had. They lived with relatives. They lived outdoors. Sleeping in what’s now Brittingham Park. They left the community. They tripled up and rented apartments. You know, they survived but not well and not, perhaps, fairly. A group of advocates who at that time said, you can’t just take down all this housing where these low-income people are living. Where are they going to go? What are you doing, city of Madison?

Murv Seymour:

It is 2021. Groundbreaking day on a $55 million renewal effort that will fund new accessible apartments, new townhomes, an expanded arts and recreation center. Bayview will be able to house 500 people, 200 more than it currently houses. Construction crews have been working on this project for a little more than a year now. They’re almost ready for people to move in, but unlike the past, this modern-day redevelopment is being done in a process called “design justice” which means the work being done here at Bayview is done with the voices and visions of the people that live here and not without them.

Xong Vang:

I’ve lived here for many, many years.

Murv Seymour:

Xong Vang took part in ceremonies that day. He couldn’t be happier about the transformation of this place he calls home.

Xong Vang:

I’m very excited for this redevelopment. These buildings are very, very old.

Mary Berryman Agard:

Across the state, people are just beginning to understand that when you redevelop affordable housing or housing of any kind, you redevelop it with the people who live there, not in spite of them, not without them. For us that meant holding 25 community meetings in three languages. We would say to our residents, what are your concerns about x? They would answer in the meeting, 1, 2, and 3, and we would say to the architects, did you hear that? They said, 1, 2, 3. Could you please come up with some solutions for 1, 2, 3, and come back to us.

Xong Vang:

They’d have little booklets of colors and say, hey, what color do you like? Do you like this one? This one? How do you want your roof line to be?

Nina Okwali Nanonah:

We’re making it possible for us to have a voice.

Alexis London:

Instead of having basements, we are making people’s living spaces larger. We are creating more storage rooms that are either in individual apartment units or in common areas. We are talking about shared sort of library of tools or event supplies that people might be able to use and share in the future. The arts are a big part of our history and our future. We are planning to double the size of the community center. We are planning to have additional community spaces that are classrooms that serve specific age groups, so we’ll have a commercial kitchen. We’ll have a special dedicated space for seniors and adults, for career development, for business planning, and we’ll have an early childhood space that will provide early learning experiences as well as parent engagement classes. Without this kind of a model of housing, people are going to end up completely stretched and taxed. They’re going to be paying more than 50% of their income on rent, so they won’t have as much money to pay for clothing, books, food, all of those essential services.

Xong Vang:

People need places to call their own, and a roof over their head so they can concentrate on things, simple things like work. Day care. Health.

Nina Okwali Nanonah:

When you are comfortable and you are in a place that’s good, you’re going to be happy.

Murv Seymour:

Without Bayview, Xong and Nina aren’t sure where they would call home.

Nina Okwali Nanonah:

I don’t really know where I would be living. As a foreigner, I probably would be stranded. I probably be homeless.

Alexis London:

That is a model of community development, of housing development, that the entire state would benefit from, and it could happen with all different types of communities. I think it is especially important that it happens in low-income communities of color because those people are typically the people who don’t have as much power, who are left out of the conversation.

Murv Seymour:

A conversation helping to create stronger housing, health, and community. Reporting for “Here & Now,” I’m Murv Seymour.

Frederica Freyberg:

The next phase of constructing more apartments and townhomes begins next month. The Bayview Foundation still looks to raise $1.4 million to complete the entire redevelopment by the fall of 2024.