As a follow-up to my post about getting around Madison by bicycle and on foot, I thought I should provide a brief overview of the city of Madison.
The city of Madison is divided into about 70 neighborhoods spread across seven regions. The regions are based around the Wisconsin sate capitol building in the center of the Downtown region which is dominated by cultural, governmental, and commercial entities. The other regions are listed below with their defining features.
Downtown: Seat of government for the state of Wisconsin, county of Dane, and city of Madison. Lots of cultural offerings in this area combined with the main commercial corridor for students, namely the State street pedestrian mall.
Near East: placeholder text.
Far East: Suburb-like residential area with some dodgy neighborhoods but mostly nicer, upscale neighborhoods. Home to the Olbrich Botanical Gardens.
Near West: Suburb-like residential area with some dodgy neighborhoods but mostly middle-class neighborhoods with a few upscale neighborhoods near the Arboretum and around the western edge of the university. Home to most of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, the UW-M Arboretum, several big golf courses, and several big cemeteries.
Far West: placeholder text.
South: placeholder text.
North: I know nothing about this area.
To find out everything you could possibly want to know about Madison from a geographic-based, socio-political perspective, check out the Madison Neighborhood Indicators Project here. For reference purposes I live in the Nakoma planning district but the Summit Woods neighborhood association.
To be continued.
