The community center at the heart of the Bayview affordable housing redevelopment on “the Triangle” Downtown has opened its doors to the public.
Bright and airy, with big windows and a beachy blue-and-tan color scheme, the $9 million, 11,500-square-foot center was created by and for the people who live there as part of the second phase of the Bayview Foundation’s $60 million affordable housing redevelopment. The foundation is now turning to the third and final phase of the project, which will add a playground, more green space and the last 44 of the development’s 130 total housing units. The expansion is aimed at low-income families who do not currently live at Bayview and is scheduled for completion in February.
Bayview Townhomes, one of the most diverse communities in Madison, is now also home to a massive mural that features ideas and actual bits of painting from 120 of those tenants.
The artwork is titled “Hope Finds a Home” and is on the Regent Street-facing side of a new apartment building at 720 W. Washington Ave. It's the first in a series of public art projects that will be featured at Bayview Townhomes across from Brittingham Park on Madison’s south side.
When Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway visited Kennedy Heights Community Center this summer, Sedrick, age 7, joyfully attending summer classes there, told her he was going to be a mayor someday.
So we can add “encouraging big dreams” to the list of essential services Neighborhood Centers provide.
Neighborhood Centers throughout Madison operate in the heart, and as the heart, of some of the city’s most challenged neighborhoods. We have come together as a coalition to heighten awareness of the effectiveness of our services, speak with a unified voice about the challenges we face, and advocate for more investment in, and support for, the work we do.
Plans for a new community center in Bayview received a $150,000 boost from the Madison Community Foundation on Tuesday. The funds will go toward the nearly 12,000 square foot community center that the Bayview Foundation is constructing on the site of Bayview Townhomes, across from Brittingham Park at 601 Bay View Drive.
My longtime friend Salli Martyniak, who has this habit of getting involved in causes that she believes truly make a difference to Madison's future, invited me recently to tour Bayview, the showcase affordable housing community located in the city's historic Triangle Neighborhood bordered by West Washington Avenue, Regent and Park streets.
Sharon Wade was wondering how she was going to get a COVID-19 vaccine. The frail 79-year-old Black resident of the low-income Bayview Townhouses in Madison's Greenbush neighborhood has been eligible for two months, but she doesn't drive, and the thought of trying to seek out a vaccine was daunting. Then she got a flyer from Bayview on her door offering a vaccine. All she had to do was walk a few doors down to the complex’s community center.
