🐐 Would you adopt a goat this summer?

🏥 What Triggered Dane County’s Overdose Spike?

• Last week, Public Health Madison & Dane County officials warned that there’s been a spike in overdoses in the area, with five overdose-related EMS calls reported between July 13 and 14.
• What is causing the spike, and what can be done about it? On the City Cast Madison podcast today, host Bianca Martin talked to PHMDC public health supervisor Julia Olsen about why the agency issued that warning. [PHMDC, 🎧 City Cast Madison]

🏠 Homelessness On the Rise in Dane County

• Nearly 800 people in Dane County are homeless, a rise of 7% over this time last year, according to a new survey.
• City and county officials who work with the unhoused attribute the rise in part to the fast-growing population of the county, and the lack of affordable housing to keep up with that increase. They also point to the lack of resources to aid those in need. The 250-bed Bartillon Drive shelter will open next spring, but officials who work with the homeless say that won’t keep up with the need. [WMTV, 🎧 City Cast Madison]

📍 These Are the Metrics in Your Neighborhood

• Which parts of Madison need more prenatal childcare options? What’s the median household income in the city’s different neighborhoods? The Neighborhood Indicators Finding, a joint project between the City of Madison and the UW-Madison Applied Population Lab, just released its 2024 findings assessing data throughout Madison’s neighborhoods.
• In addition to providing updated data on existing indicators, the 2024 findings examine brand-new metrics, including community safety and disorder police calls, median rent, limited English proficiency, and alternative transportation. [City of Madison, 🔒 WSJ]

Every east side neighborhood festival in Madison has its own flavor, and AtwoodFest may be the sassiest. That’s not just because the festival, which takes place July 26 and 27 in the 1900 and 2000 blocks of Atwood Ave., is co-sponsored by Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahara (SASY) neighborhood association.

It’s also a true neighborhood festival reflecting the friendly, scrappy east side spirit, featuring many of the city’s favorite musicians, food vendors, and arts and crafts vendors. Here’s your guide to doing AtwoodFest right.

A Sassy Start

In classic sassy fashion, AtwoodFest started life in 1982 as Atwood Summerfest, even though Milwaukee had started its own much larger Summerfest 14 years earlier. Originally a fundraiser for the Goodman Center (then the Atwood Community Center), it transitioned in 2014 into becoming a joint venture hosted by the Barrymore Theatre, Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center, and the SASY Neighborhood Association, and was renamed AtwoodFest.

Come Together, Right Now

It just wouldn’t be an east side festival without a parade, would it? AtwoodFest kicks off with Convergence 2025 at 11 a.m. which symbolizes the neighborhood coming together. It starts at one of four different locations around the neighborhood – Yahara River, Circle Park, Hawthorne Park, and the Goodman Center.

Folks will go to one of those four groups all gussied up – costumes, hula hoops, and decorated bikes and wagons are encouraged. Then, members of the Madison percussion group the Handphibians will lead paraders from each location through the streets until they all converge at noon on the Atwoodfest grounds.

⬆️ Last Week’s Photo

These stairs are found at the Edgewater Hotel!

🎉 A lot of people got this one right! Congratulations to John C., Kate L., and Heidi F. for being the first three people to submit correct answers!

⬇️ This Week’s Photo

Do you know where this mural is located? A few clues:

• It’s in a public building
• It’s on the north side of the city
• It’s one of the last things you may see when you leave Madison, and one of the first things you see when you come back!