How hot is it this week?
It’s so hot in Madison they’re freezing furniture down on Allied Drive.


It sounds like a punch line. But it’s actually and unfortunately true.

As if the residents of Allied Drive, including many children, don’t have enough to worry about crime, violence, drug dealing, poverty bedbugs have infested an apartment building in their troubled neighborhood on Madison’s Southwest Side.
It’s easy!
The city, which recently purchased the building, is actually freezing tenants’ furniture in trailers for a day to destroy the bugs and their larvae.

It’s a strange-but-true event during the hottest week of the summer.

More significantly, it’s a sign of the city’s determination to revitalize the crime-ridden area.

The city recently purchased 2345 Allied Drive and eight surrounding rental properties in the heart of the neighborhood. The hope is to develop much of the 2300 and 2400 blocks with help from nonprofits and the private sector.

A similar collaborative helped turn the once- dangerous Simpson Street area into the thriving and safe community of Lake Point Drive on the South Side.

Improving Allied Drive will undoubtedly cost city taxpayers some money. But taxpayers are already spending huge amounts on police calls to the area.

And if the city’s redevelopment effort is successful, those calls should decline along with the financial burden.

Eradicating the bed bugs today should lead to bigger and better changes for Allied Drive tomorrow.