Madison

Madison, Wisconsin

The county seat of Dane County and the state capital of Wisconsin are both located in Madison. With a population of 269,840 as of the 2020 Census, it was the 80th-largest city in the United States and the second-largest in Wisconsin, behind Milwaukee. With a population of 680,796 and including Dane County and the nearby counties of Iowa, Green, and Columbia, the city serves as the central hub of the Madison Metropolitan Area. James Madison, an American founding father and president, is honored by the name Madison. The Ho-Chunk call the area around Madison Dejope, which means "four lakes," or Taychopera, which means "country of the four lakes," in their native tongue. The city is situated on their ancestral territory.

The city of Madison is home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Wisconsin State Capitol, the Overture Center for the Arts, and the Henry Vilas Zoo. It is situated on an isthmus and the grounds surrounding four lakes: Lake Mendota, Lake Monona, Lake Kegonsa, and Lake Waubesa. Madison is one of five communities that have been awarded a "Platinum Bicycle Friendly Community" certification from the League of American Bicyclists. Madison is home to a vast network of parks and bike routes, and it boasts the most parks and playgrounds per capita of any of the 100 major U.S. cities. Additionally, Madison is home to nine National Historic Landmarks, many of which were created by the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, including the 1937 Jacobs I House, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Madisonians are the locals of Madison. Modern Madison is regarded as the most politically liberal city in Wisconsin. Madison has historically been a hub for progressive political action, rallies, and demonstrations. The University of Wisconsin-Madison, the state's largest employer, as well as other educational institutions, have a big influence on Madison's economics, culture, and demography.

Madison will have Wisconsin's fastest growth rate as of 2021. The Madison region is home to the headquarters of Epic Systems, American Family Insurance, Exact Sciences, Promega, American Girl, Sub-Zero, Lands' End, Spectrum Brands, a regional office for Google, the University Research Park, as well as numerous biotechnology and health systems startups. Madison's economy also boasts a sizable and expanding technology sector. In 2018, tourism in Madison contributed more than $1 billion to the local economy of Dane County. Rising housing costs in several Madison neighborhoods have been caused by a combination of a surging population and a scarcity of housing due to stringent zoning density requirements, with a 23% increase in median rent between 2014 and 2019.

Geography

Madison is situated 77 miles (124 kilometres) west of Milwaukee and 122 miles (196 km) northwest of Chicago in the middle of Dane County in south-central Wisconsin. The towns of Maple Bluff and Shorewood Hills, as well as the metropolis of Monona, are entirely surrounded by the city. Madison's largest suburb, Sun Prairie, as well as Middleton, McFarland, and Fitchburg all border it. In addition to Mount Horeb, Oregon, Stoughton, and Cross Plains, other suburbs include the city of Verona, the communities of Cottage Grove, DeForest, and Waunakee, as well as Mount Horeb itself.

The city has a total area of 94.03 square miles (243.54 km2), of which 17.24 square miles (44.65 km2) are water and 76.79 square miles (198.89 km2) are land, according to the United States Census Bureau.

The city is sometimes referred to as The City of Four Lakes because it is made up of the four lakes that follow one another in the Yahara River: Lake Mendota (also known as the "Fourth Lake"), Lake Monona (also known as the "Third Lake"), Lake Waubesa (also known as the "Second Lake"), and Lake Kegonsa (also known as the "First Lake"). Waubesa and Kegonsa, The city is also home to Lake Wingra, a fifth smaller lake that is joined to the Yahara River system by Wingra Creek. The Mississippi River receives water from the Rock River, which receives water from the Yahara. Between Lakes Mendota and Monona lies an isthmus where downtown Madison is situated. The city's motto, "Lake, City, Lake," is a reflection of its location. The east side's Regas Road and Corporate Drive intersection, at 836.9 feet, has the city's lowest elevation (255.1 m). At 1,190 feet, the greatest elevation is found along Pleasant View Road on the city's far western border, above a section of a terminal moraine from the Wisconsin glaciation's Green Bay Lobe (360 m).

Climate

Madison, like the rest of the state, has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfa), which is characterized by erratic weather patterns and a significant seasonal temperature variation: high temperatures in summer typically range from the lower 80s °F (27-28 °C), reaching 90 °F or 32.2 °F on an average 12 afternoons per year, with l The majority of the year's precipitation falls in the summer, but substantial amounts also fall in the winter.

Economy

The tech industry and state employment are two sectors that distinguish Madison's economy.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison and Epic Systems were the two largest employers in the Madison Metropolitan Area as of late 2018. The University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics and the Wisconsin State Government continue to be the two largest employers in the state. The economy of Madison is currently changing from one that is dependent on government to one that is centered on consumer services and high technology, particularly in the health, biotech, and advertising industries.

The city began to experience a sustained economic expansion in the early 1990s and has been less damaged by the recession than other parts of the state. The growth of high-tech businesses, many of which were encouraged by UW-collaboration Madison's with local entrepreneurs and businesses to translate academic research findings into practical applications, particularly in the field of biotechnology, is what's driving the current economic boom.

The skill base in Madison is appealing to many enterprises, who benefit from the high level of education in the region. Over the age of 25, 48.2% of Madison's population possess a bachelor's degree or higher. According to a 2004 Forbes magazine article, Madison had the greatest percentage of Americans with doctorates. In the early years of the twenty-first century, Madison was also included on a number of Forbes rankings of the "Ten Best Cities."

Sports

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is the focus of Madison's athletics fan base, which is well-known. The city was named one of the "top college sports towns" in the country by Sports Illustrated in 2003. Madison was awarded the best college football town in the country by Sports Illustrated in 2019.

Venues in and around Madison are where the UW-Madison teams compete in home-field sporting events. In attendance at Wisconsin Badgers football games at Camp Randall Stadium have been as many as 83,000 spectators. The Kohl Center is the home of the Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball and men's ice hockey teams. The 76-million-dollar arena's construction was finished in 1997. The LaBahn Arena is the home of the Wisconsin Badgers women's ice hockey team. Both the university-owned Wisconsin Field House and the county-owned Alliant Energy Center (previously Dane County Memorial Coliseum) host some events.

After 19 years away, the Madison Capitols returned to the Madison region in 2014. After three seasons in the Alliant Energy Center, the Capitols now play their home games at Bob Suter's Capitol Ice Arena

Forward Madison FC, which plays at the storied Breese Stevens Field, was unveiled as Madison's first professional soccer team on May 17, 2018.

The Madison Mallards are a Northwoods League college wood-bat summer baseball club based in Madison. From June through August, they perform in Warner Park on the northern edge of the city.

Government

A liberal and progressive majority typically wins election to the city council, and city voters have consistently supported the Democratic Party in recent presidential elections. The expression "77 square miles surrounded by reality" was created by former Wisconsin Republican governor Lee S. Dreyfus in 1978 while he was running for office. A motion to adopt Dreyfus' humor as the official city "punchline" was rejected by the city council in 2013 after it came up for a vote.

Voters in the city tend to lean far more liberally than those in the rest of Wisconsin. For instance, even though the ban on homosexual marriage was approved statewide with 59% of the vote, Madison residents rejected it with 76% of the vote in 2006.

Progressive Dane, a local third party, was established in 1992. An inclusionary zoning legislation and a city minimum wage were among the city initiatives backed by the Progressive Dane platform that were later dropped by the mayor and the majority of the city council. The party, which has varying affiliations with the Democratic and Green parties, holds many seats on the Dane County Board of Supervisors and the Madison City Council.

The mayor-council form of government is used in Madison. The Common Council, the name given to Madison's city council, is made up of 20 members, one from each district. A citywide election is held to choose the mayor.

Mark Pocan, who represents Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district in the US House of Representatives, is its center (D). In the Wisconsin State Senate, Madison is represented by Democrats Melissa Agard and Kelda Roys, and in the Wisconsin State Assembly, Madison is represented by Democrats Jimmy P. Anderson, Samba Baldeh, Francesca Hong, Sheila Stubbs, and Lisa Subeck.

Madison and all of Wisconsin are represented in the US Senate by Ron Johnson (R) and Tammy Baldwin (D). Baldwin, a Madison resident, served as the 2nd's representative from 1999 to 2013, when she turned the seat over to Pocan.

Population

Wisconsin's Dane County is home to the city of Madison. It serves as Dane County's county seat as well. It is the 81st largest city in the United States and the second largest city in Wisconsin with a projected population of 280,829 in 2023. Madison's population has grown by 4.07% from the most recent census, which showed a population of 269,840 in 2020, and is now rising at a pace of 1.32% annually. Madison has a population density of 3,540 persons per square mile, spanning over 101 miles.

The poverty rate in Madison is 18.17%, with an average household income of $87,055. The median monthly cost of rent in recent years has been, and the median value of a home is. Madison has a 31.2-year median age, with 30.8-year men and 31.6-year females.

Madison is the state's capital and the county seat of Dane County in the state's southern region. It is located 77 miles west of Milwaukee and 122 miles northwest of Chicago, Illinois. The 83rd largest city in the country and the second largest in Wisconsin in Madison.

With a population of around 578,000, the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Region—which includes Dane, Iowa, and Columbia counties—ranks as the 86th-largest metro area in the country.

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