Title: Richard Gross Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1974-1977

Creator:

• Gross, Richard

Call Number: Mss 672

Quantity: 0.6 c.f. (2 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Richard Gross, a young community activist who served on the Madison, Wisconsin City Council, 1975-1977, as a representative of the 9th district central city area. Gross's participation in an ad hoc committee to select a site for the city bus barn and the controversy surrounding that selection are the best documented aspects of the papers. The files include correspondence, reports, minutes of meetings, resolutions introduced to the Council, and information on the Triangle and Bassett neighborhoods in the 9th district. The collection documents the leftist perspective Gross brought to national social issues as well as city matters and his collaboration with other central city alderpersons in efforts to protect the elderly, low-income, and student populations in downtown neighborhoods.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00672

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Richard Gross served one term (1975-1977) on the Madison, Wisconsin City Council, representing the ninth aldermanic district which extends south of the University of Wisconsin in the central city area. Coming to Madison in 1969 from New York in order to attend the university, Gross received his B.A. in 1973, and then went on to graduate school in Urban and Regional Planning, completing his M.A. in 1977. He served on the Council while in graduate school and while working for the Design Coalition, a community planning and architectural organization. Declining to run for reelection, he cited the frustrations of trying to achieve social change through governmental politics (Capital Times, Feb. 15, 1977). The most satisfying aspect of the job, according to Gross (in a phone interview with a Historical Society staff member, July 9, 1980) was helping constituents with particular problems, rather than struggling to effect legislative change in the Council chambers.

Gross considered himself a political leftist on the Council and was frequently allied with other central city alderpersons (particularly Michael Sack and Roney Sorenson) not only on city matters but as a co-sponsor of resolutions pressing the Council to take positions on political issues beyond Madison, such as urging Wisconsin representatives in Congress to oppose military aid to the Franco regime in Spain.

The major local issue with which Gross became involved was the debate over a site for a bus barn for Madison Metro, the city's bus system. Serving on the Transportation Commission and the Ad Hoc Committee on the Madison Metro Maintenance and Administration Facility, Gross opposed a site at the corner of Park and Regent Streets which had the initial support of the city Planning Commission. He argued that the site, which was in his district, would cause undue hardship on the Triangle neighborhood, an urban renewal area composed primarily of elderly, disabled, low-income people, and students. By the end of his Council term, he was successful in reversing the initial endorsement of the Park-Regent site and getting an East Washington Avenue site--away from a heavy residential population--selected.

After his term on the Council, Gross remained a community activist and was a key organizer of James Rowen's unsuccessful campaign for mayor in 1979.

The collection, which was donated shortly after Gross left the Council in the spring of 1977, provides good documentation on his day-to-day activities serving his constituents and attending meetings, his exchanges with city staff about various issues, and his sponsorship of resolutions in the weekly Council meetings. The papers include correspondence, memoranda, press releases, meeting minutes, and resolutions. The most extensive materials pertain to the bus barn debate, and include not only correspondence and minutes of the Ad Hoc Committee, but architectural proposals and environmental impact statements on proposed sites. As Gross was not nearly as involved with the Legislative Committee (resigning after one year because he did not feel he had sufficient time to devote to it) and the Transportation Commission, these files reflect committee operations more than input from Gross himself.

In addition to a chronological file on the resolutions Gross co-sponsored (including one to change the name of Bassett Street to Ho Chi Minh Trail), the collection contains material on his attempt to get the City Council to provide more protection of tenants through a rental registration and a security deposit ordinance which would have required more accountability by landlords. The Ninth District file on neighborhood groups and institutions provides information on zoning and traffic issues as well as the development of two housing projects in the Triangle area--Bayview and Gay Braxton. Small files on a Madison Gas and Electric Co. rate increase request and on the proposed 1976 city budget illustrate Gross's commitment to opposing higher utility rates and preserving social services for poor people in the face of possible city budget cuts.

Covering only one term of one alderperson on the City Council, this collection provides only a fragmentary glimpse into municipal government in Madison in the mid-1970s. It is more revealing of the orientation and experience of a young activist working for social change during the mayoral administration of Paul Soglin, who was himself initially characterized as a “radical” when he was elected in 1973.

Small collections from alderpersons William Dries and Alicia Ashman and papers of former mayoral aides James Rowen and Phil Ball in the Historical Society's manuscripts holdings, and a mayor's office series for the City of Madison in its local government records holdings constitute related resources for the study of Madison government in the late 1960s and 1970s. For more extensive records of the Madison City Council and its committees, however, a researcher should consult the City Clerk's office.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Richard Gross, Madison, Wisconsin, 1977. Accession Number: M77-169

Processing Information

Processed by Sarah Cooper, July 1980.

Box   1 Folder   1-3	Correspondence, 1975-1977
Box   1 Folder   4	Press Releases, 1975-1977
	Resolutions and Ordinances
Box   1 Folder   5	Co-sponsored, 1975-1977
Box   1 Folder   6	Rental Registration and Housing Survey, 1976
Box   1 Folder   7	Security Deposit, 1976
	Bus Barn
Box   1 Folder   8	Architectural Proposals, 1976
Box   1 Folder   9-10	Correspondence, 1976-1977
Box   1 Folder   11	Environmental Impact Statements, Grant Applications, 1974-1975
Box   1 Folder   12	Minutes, Reports of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Madison Metro Maintenance and Administration Facility, 1975
Box   1 Folder   13	Resolutions
Box   1 Folder   14	Clippings
Box   1 Folder   15	Legislative Committee, 1975-1976
Box   1 Folder   16	Transportation Commission, 1975-1976
	Ninth District
Box   2 Folder   1	Bassett Neighborhood Association, 1976-1977
Box   2 Folder   2	Bayview Apartments, 1975-1976
Box   2 Folder   3	431 West Doty, Conditional Use, 1975-1976
Box   2 Folder   4	Longfellow School, 1974-1975
Box   2 Folder   5	Miffland Community Health Center, 1975
Box   2 Folder   6	Near West Side Neighborhood, 1975-1976
Box   2 Folder   7	Roads and Street Improvement, 1975
Box   2 Folder   8	Madison Gas and Electric Co. Rate Increase, 1975-1976
Box   2 Folder   9	Proposed 1976 City Budget, 1975-1976