📝 Late-night food carts are coming

🥡 It’s Official: Late-Night Vending Is Happening

• This week, City Council greenlit a proposal that would allow food vendors to set up shop on the 700 and 800 blocks of State Street from 8 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday nights.
• The Night Vending Program is the result of years of debate, community input, and planning. Initial efforts were derailed in the past by COVID-19.
• Under its current structure, five vendors will be allowed to participate in the program and they have yet to be chosen. [Madison Magazine, Cap Times]

💰 Evers Signs Off on UW-Madison Engineering Building And More

• Gov. Tony Evers signed a series of bipartisan bills into law this week that provides state funding for the new UW-Madison College of Engineering building, campus infrastructure projects, and changes to the Wisconsin-Minnesota reciprocity agreement.
• Some context: The roughly $740 million in funding was part of the highly controversial deal UW System President Jay Rothman and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos reached last year which resulted in changes — mostly cuts — to the universities’ diversity, equity and inclusion programming.
• Dig deeper: Take a look inside the battle that played out between UW state lawmakers. [Wisconsin State Journal, City Cast Madison 🎧]

😋 Bodega Season Is Almost Here

• Starting next month, on certain Fridays through September Breese Stevens Field will be filled with more than 100 local artists, crafters, and food vendors. This is the eighth year the Bodega pop-up market will take up residence on the east side.
• The Bodega is always free to attend from 5 to 9 p.m. The first is April 26. [WKOW]

❤️‍🩹 Your Lunchtime Listen: Why Tony Robinson's Grandmother Is Still Fighting

• This week marked the ninth anniversary of Tony Robinson’s death. Robinson was 19 years old when he was shot seven times by Madison police officer Matt Kenny in the stairwell of his Willy Street apartment. Ultimately, District Attorney Ismael Ozanne declined to charge Kenny and the police department cleared him of wrongdoing, sparking multiple days of massive protests in Madison. In 2017, the city paid out a $3.35 million civil settlement to Robinson’s family.
• Last year, City Cast Madison host Bianca Martin spoke with Robinson’s grandmother Sharon Irwin-Henry about her fight for justice and their family’s journey. [Madison365, City Cast Madison 🎧]

Madison’s Best-Kept Bagel Secret

We’re calling it: Mermaid Kitchen is Madison’s best-kept secret for bagels. But why has it taken the city so long to get good bagels? Lisa Jacobson, owner of Mermaid Kitchen, joins host Bianca Martin to talk about this bagel resurgence, why bagels are her thing now, and what it actually takes to make a good bagel.