📝 New Willy St. restaurant on the way

🚫 Campus Traffic Alert

• Starting Monday, traffic heading eastbound on part of Campus Drive will reduce to one lane. Yikes. According to the city, the closure will be in place at all times until mid-May.
• Also closing: Pleasant View Road, between Quarry Road and Pleasant View Golf Course, will close twice next week on Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. [City of Madison]

🏗️ Breaking Ground on the Dane County Jail

• Local and county officials held a ground-breaking ceremony this week for the highly priced and hotly debated Dane County jail. Also in attendance at the event were protesters with Freedom Inc., a local nonprofit organization that works with low- to no-income communities of color in Dane County. The group has been a vocal opponent of the project, urging county officials to spend its money on community resources instead.
• For Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett, building the jail was a non-negotiable. After much back and forth on designs and price, the county ultimately approved the project with a final price tag of $207 million, making it the most expensive project in county history. [WORT, City Cast Madison 🎧]

🍛 A New Restaurant is Coming to Willy St.

• Rajan Pradhan the former longtime owner of Dobhan on Atwood Avenue and Chautara on State Street is preparing to embark on his latest restaurant venture — Ama on Willy Street.
• The restaurant, whose name means “mother” in Nepali, is an ode to Pradhan’s mother, who opened the iconic State Street Nepali restaurant Himal Chuli decades ago. She died in 2022. Fittingly, Pradhan is aiming for a Mother’s Day opening. [Cap Times]

🏳️‍🌈 Catch the Big Gay Market This Weekend

• Saturday is the fifth annual Big Gay Market in Cottage Grove. The market will feature more than 60 vendors and plenty of drag queens.The market was founded by two local artists who wanted to help fill a void in the art community by creating space specifically for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC artists.
• Details: The market is March 16 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Wisconsin Rugby Complex.
• Related reading: Did you know Madison has a Gay Hockey Association? [Blueprint365, City Cast Madison 🎧, Cap Times]

We’ve made it through another week. Nice! Here’s your treat.

Meet Lewis. This cutie is a rescue pup who came all the way from China, and yes, he has his own passport. Lewis was adopted from the Dane County Humane Society back in 2018 and has been living his best life full of walks, treats, and days spent lounging around in his screened-in porch.

State Street Condos, Bus Money, and Where to See the Eclipse

The City Cast team is here to round up the news of the week. Bianca Martin, Hayley Sperling and Molly Stentz recap the proposed huge new housing development for the 100 block of State Street near the Capitol, the federal money we’re hoping to get for our bus system, and places to check out the solar eclipse in April. (Yes, they will involve driving!)