🏫 UW fraternity is looking for a home

💰 Mayor Proposes Additional $1M For Homeless Shelter

• Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway won’t release her proposed 2026 operating budget until Oct. 7. But she’s already announced that the budget will include another $1 million in new spending for the Bartillon Drive men' s homeless shelter scheduled to open next spring.
• The shelter will need $4 million in actual funding annual for round-the-clock support for hundreds of unhoused residents. A new group, Shelter Friends of Dane County is launching a fundraising campaign to raise money from businesses, private sources, and the Dane County community.
• 🎧 Dig deeper: The announcement comes the same week that the city is dismantling the Dairy Drive tiny house encampment. Brenda Konkel of Madison Street Medicine came on the City Cast Madison podcast to talk about the challenges facing Madison’s growing unhoused community. [City of Madison, 🎧 City Cast Madison]

🏫 UW’s Alpha Chi Sigma Is a Frat Without a Home

• The historic chemistry fraternity Alpha Chi Sigma had originally planned to raze its longtime houses on North Lake Street, which were structurally unsafe, and build new apartments in their place.
• But while the new eight-story Alchemy Apartments were finished two years ago, the fraternity doesn’t reside there. Why? In a twist of fate familiar to those experiencing Madison’s skyrocketing housing costs, they can no longer afford to live in the apartments. The price tag for the fraternity’s portion of the building swelled from $2.2 million to $3.8 million due to increased construction costs during COVID-19.
• The developer has remodeled the building to provide 22 units of student housing, and Alpha Chi Sigma is accepting donations to find a new chapter house. [Cap Times]

📰 Reporter Fired For Using AI Tells Her Side of the Story

• A Wisconsin State Journal reporter used artificial intelligence to report on a story on a downtown development. But the resulting story was full of factual errors, including a made-up source, and led to her dismissal and the story being retracted and re-reported.
• But what really happened? That reporter, Audrey Korte, talked at length to Isthmus editor/president Judith Davidoff. As Davidoff tells City Cast Madison host Bianca Martin on the City Cast Madison podcast, Korte took full responsibility for her mistakes, but also said there’s more to the story, including a breakdown in editorial oversight and an understaffed newsroom. [Isthmus, 🎧City Cast Madison]

Hispanic Heritage Month (also known as Latine Heritage Month) runs from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15. Originally created as a commemorative week in 1968 and expanded to a month in 1988, the month coincides with the Independence Day celebrations of eight countries, including Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, and more.

It’s important to celebrate the contributions of America’s Latino and Hispanic communities every year. But the celebrations seem more crucial than ever this year, when those communities are under threat by the federal government’s mass deportation efforts, and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that ICE agents in California can use race as a factor to stop and detain people.

Here are several ways you can celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month in Madison.

DreamBank Hispanic Heritage Month Event (Sept. 25)

American Family Insurance’s DreamBank will host a talk by Erika Cruz, founder of the Courage Driven Latina, called “Unlocking Your Purpose and Potential.” The talk takes place Sept. 25 and is free, but advance registration is required.

Xicana Voices: A Valuable Part of the American Literary Landscape (Oct. 1)

Xicana refers to women of Mexican descent living in the United States, and this special free virtual event sponsored by the Wisconsin Book Festival features eight Xicana writers reading from and discussing their work.

La Movida Hispanic Heritage Luncheon (Oct. 2)

Madison’s Spanish-language radio station will host its annual luncheon at Monona Terrace. In addition to food, socializing, and an awards ceremony, the luncheon features keynote speaker Shiva Bidar, co-chair of the Latino Health Council of Dane County and Chief Social Impact Officer of UW Health.

“Machuca” Screening (Oct. 3)

Lakeview Library will host a free screening of the 2004 film “Machuca,” which looks at how the friendship of two Chilean boys from different social classes is tested by the growing civil unrest in their country in 1973.

Centro Hispano Celebration Gala (Oct. 4)

Called “La Magia del Pueblo” (The Magic of Our Community), Centro’s annual fundraiser will feature live music and dancing, storytelling, an auction, food and drink, and more. With the “Magia” theme, attendees are encouraged to wear sparkles, vibrant colors or other fashion that celebrates their “magic.”

⬆️ Last Week’s Photos

He’s located at the Malt House!

🎉Congratulations to Tricia M., Matt A., and Jen W. for being the first three people to guess correctly!

⬇️ This Week’s Photo

Where is this sign? A few clues:

• It’s on the north side
• A former dive bar with a bad rep, it was rehabbed about 10 years ago
• If you get it right, you are one of our “top” guessers!