City of Madison
—  City  —
Downtown Madison skyline
Flag Official seal of City of Madison Seal
Location of Madison in Dane County, Wisconsin
Coordinates: 43°4′N 89°24′W / 43.067°N 89.4°W / 43.067; -89.4Coordinates: 43°4′N 89°24′W / 43.067°N 89.4°W / 43.067; -89.4
Country	United States
U.S. State	Wisconsin
Municipality	City
Platted	October 9, 1839[1]
Incorporated	1848
Government
• Mayor	Paul Soglin (D)
Area
• City	84.7 sq mi (219 km2)
• Land	67.3 sq mi (174 km2)
• Water	16.0 sq mi (41 km2)
Population (2010)
• City	233,209
• Density	3,030/sq mi (1,169.8/km2)
• Urban	329,5331
• Metro	568,593
• Demonym	Madisonian
Time zone	Central (UTC−6)
• Summer (DST)	CDT (UTC−5)
Area code(s)	608
Website	www.cityofmadison.com
1 Urban = 2000 Census

Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. As of the 2010 census, Madison had a population of 233,209.^[2] making it the second largest city in Wisconsin, after Milwaukee, and the 81st largest in the United States. The city forms the core of the United States Census Bureau's Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Dane County and neighboring Iowa and Columbia counties. The Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area had a 2010 population of 568,593.

History[link]

View of Madison. From the Water Cure, South Side of Lake Monona, 1855.

Madison's origins begin in 1829, when former federal judge James Duane Doty purchased over a thousand acres (4 km²) of swamp and forest land on the isthmus between Lakes Mendota and Monona, with the intention of building a city in the Four Lakes region,. When the Wisconsin Territory was created in 1836 the territorial legislature convened in Belmont, Wisconsin. One of the legislature's tasks was to select a permanent location for the territory's capital. Doty lobbied aggressively for Madison as the new capital, offering buffalo robes to the freezing legislators and promising choice Madison lots at discount prices to undecided voters . He had James Slaughter plat two cities in the area, Madison and "The City of Four Lakes", near present-day Middleton. Doty named the city Madison for James Madison, the fourth President of the U.S. who had died on June 28, 1836 and he named the streets for the other 38 signers of the U.S. Constitution.^[3] Although the city existed only on paper, the territorial legislature voted on November 28 in favor of Madison as its capital, largely because of its location halfway between the new and growing cities around Milwaukee in the east and the long established strategic post of Prairie du Chien in the west, and between the highly populated lead mining regions in the southwest and Wisconsin's oldest city, Green Bay in the northeast. Being named for the much-admired founding father James Madison, who had just died, and having streets named for each of the 39 signers of the Constitution, may have also helped attract votes.^[4]

Creation and expansion[link]

The cornerstone for the Wisconsin capitol was laid in 1837, and the legislature first met there in 1838. On October 9, 1839, Kintzing Prichett registered the plat of Madison at the registrar's office of the then-territorial Dane County.^[1] Madison was incorporated as a village in 1846, with a population of 626. When Wisconsin became a state in 1848, Madison remained the capital, and the following year it became the site of the University of Wisconsin (now University of Wisconsin–Madison). The Milwaukee & Mississippi Railroad (a predecessor of the Milwaukee Road) connected to Madison in 1854. Madison incorporated as a city in 1856, with a population of 6,863, leaving the unincorporated remainder as a separate Town of Madison.^[5] The original capitol was replaced in 1863 and the second capitol burned in 1904. The current capitol was built between 1906 and 1917.^[6]

During the Civil War, Madison served as a center of the Union Army in Wisconsin. The intersection of Milwaukee, East Washington, Winnebago and North Streets is known as Union Corners, because a tavern located there was the last stop for Union soldiers before heading to fight the Confederates. Camp Randall, on the west side of Madison, was built and used as a training camp, a military hospital, and a prison camp for captured Confederate soldiers. After the war ended, the Camp Randall site was absorbed into the University of Wisconsin and Camp Randall Stadium was built there in 1917. In 2004 the last vestige of active military training on the site was removed when the stadium renovation replaced a firing range used for ROTC training.

The City of Madison continued annexations from the Town of Madison almost from the date of the city's incorporation, leaving the latter a collection of discontinuous areas subject to annexation. In the wake of continued controversy and an effort in the state legislature to simply abolish the town, an agreement was reached in 2003 to provide for the incorporation of the remaining portions of the Town into the City of Madison and the City of Fitchburg by October 30, 2022.^[7]

Geography and climate[link]

View of Lake Monona from Monona Terrace

Madison is located in the center of Dane County in south-central Wisconsin, 77 miles (124 km) west of Milwaukee and 122 miles (196 km) northwest of Chicago. The city completely surrounds the smaller Town of Madison, the City of Monona, and the villages of Maple Bluff and Shorewood Hills. Madison shares borders with its largest suburb, Sun Prairie, and three other communities, Middleton, McFarland and Fitchburg. The city's boundaries also approach the villages of Verona, Cottage Grove, DeForest, and Waunakee.

According to the United States Census Bureau, Madison's area is 84.7 square miles (219.4 km²), of which, 68.7 square miles (177.9 km²) of it is land and 16.0 square miles (41.4 km²) of it (18.9%) is water.

The city is sometimes described as The City of Four Lakes, comprising the four successive lakes of the Yahara River: Lake Mendota ("Fourth Lake"), Lake Monona ("Third Lake"), Lake Waubesa ("Second Lake") and Lake Kegonsa ("First Lake"),^[8] although Waubesa and Kegonsa are not actually in Madison, but just south of it. A fifth smaller lake, Lake Wingra, is within the city as well; it is connected to the Yahara River chain by Wingra Creek. The Yahara flows into the Rock River, which in turn, flows into the Mississippi River. Downtown Madison is located on an isthmus between Lakes Mendota and Monona. The city's trademark of "Lake, City, Lake" reflects this geography.

Local identity varies throughout Madison, with over 120 officially recognized neighborhood associations.^[9] Neighborhoods on and near the eastern part of the isthmus, some of the city's oldest, have the strongest sense of identity and are the most politically liberal.^{[citation needed]} Historically, the north, east, and south sides were blue collar while the west side was white collar, and to a certain extent this remains true. Students dominate on the University of Wisconsin campus and to the east into downtown, while to its south and in Shorewood Hills on its west, faculty have been a major presence since those neighborhoods were originally developed. The turning point in Madison's development was the university's 1954 decision to develop its experimental farm on the western edge of town; since then, the city has grown substantially along suburban lines.

Madison, along with the rest of the state, has a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfb/Dfa), characterized by variable weather patterns and a large seasonal temperature variance: winter temperatures can be well below freezing, with moderate to occasionally heavy snowfall; high temperatures in summer average in the lower 80s °F (27–28 °C), reaching 90 °F (32.2 °C) on an average 12 days per year,^[10] often accompanied by high humidity levels. The warmer months usually see greater precipitation.

Demographics[link]

As of the census^[2] of 2010, there were 233,209 people, 89,019 households and 42,462 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,029.7 people per square mile (1,169.8/km²). There were 108,843 housing units at an average density of 1,345.4 per square mile (519.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 83.96% White, 7.07% African American, 0.36% Native American, 7.34% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.67% from other races and 2.55% from two or more races. 6.83% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 89,019 households out of which 22.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.0% were married couples living together, 7.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 52.3% were non-families. 35.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.19 and the average family size was 2.87.

In the city the population was spread out with 17.9% under the age of 18, 21.4% from 18 to 24, 32.2% from 25 to 44, 19.3% from 45 to 64, and 9.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 96.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.0 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $41,941, and the median income for a family was $59,840. Males had a median income of $36,718 versus $30,551 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,498. About 5.8% of families and 15.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 11.4% of those under age 18 and 4.5% of those age 65 or over.

Combined Statistical Area[link]

Madison-Baraboo CSA:

  Madison MetroSA

  Baraboo MicroSA

Madison is the larger principal city of the Madison-Baraboo CSA, a Combined Statistical Area that includes the Madison metropolitan area (Columbia, Dane and Iowa counties) and the Baraboo micropolitan area (Sauk County),^[15][16][17] which had a combined population of 630,569^[18] at the 2010 census.^[2]

Government[link]

Madison has a mayor-council system of government. Madison's city council, known as the Common Council, consists of 20 members, one from each district. The mayor is elected in a citywide vote.

Politics[link]

Wisconsin State Capitol atop Madison's isthmus

City voters have supported the Democratic Party in national elections in the last half-century, and a liberal and progressive majority is generally elected to the city council. Detractors refer to Madison as The People's Republic of Madison, the "Left Coast of Wisconsin" or as "78 square miles surrounded by reality."^{[citation needed]} This latter phrase was coined by former Wisconsin Republican governor Lee S. Dreyfus, while campaigning in 1978, as recounted by campaign aide Bill Kraus.^{[citation needed]}

The city's voters are generally much more liberal than voters in the rest of Wisconsin. For example, 76% of Madison voters voted against a 2006 state constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage,^[19] even though the ban passed statewide with 59% of the vote.^[20]

Current politics[link]

Madison city politics remain dominated by activists of liberal and progressive ideologies. In 1992, a local third party, Progressive Dane, was founded. Recently enacted city policies supported in the Progressive Dane platform have included an inclusionary zoning ordinance, later abandoned by the mayor and a majority of the city council, and a city minimum wage. The party holds several seats on the Madison City Council and Dane County Board of Supervisors, and is aligned variously with the Democratic and Green parties.

In early 2011, Madison was the site for large protests against a bill proposed by Governor Scott Walker that removed collective bargaining rights for public worker unions. The protests at the capitol ranged in size from 10,000 to over 100,000 people and lasted for several months.

Historical politics[link]

In the 1960s and 1970s, the Madison counterculture was centered in the neighborhood of Mifflin and Bassett streets, referred to as "Miffland". The area contained many three-story apartments where students and counterculture youth lived, painted murals, and operated the co-operative grocery store, the Mifflin Street Co-op. Residents of the neighborhood often came into conflict with authorities, particularly during the administration of Republican mayor Bill Dyke. Dyke was viewed by students as a direct antagonist in efforts to protest the Vietnam War because of his efforts to suppress local protests. The annual Mifflin Street Block Party became a focal point for protest, although by the late 1970s it had become a mainstream community party.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, thousands of students and other citizens took part in anti-Vietnam War marches and demonstrations, with more violent incidents drawing national attention to the city and UW campus. These include:

• the 1967 student protest of Dow Chemical Company, with 74 injured;
• the 1969 strike to secure greater representation and rights for African-American students and faculty, which necessitated the involvement of the Wisconsin Army National Guard;
• the 1970 fire that caused damage to the Army ROTC headquarters housed in the Old Red Gym, also known as the Armory; and
• the 1970 late summer predawn ANFO bombing of the Army Mathematics Research Center in Sterling Hall, killing a postdoctoral student, Robert Fassnacht. (See Sterling Hall bombing)

These protests were the subject of the documentary The War at Home.^{[21][dead link]} David Maraniss's book, They Marched into Sunlight, incorporated the 1967 Dow protests into a larger Vietnam War narrative. Tom Bates wrote the book Rads on the subject (ISBN 0-06-092428-4). Bates wrote that Dyke's attempt to suppress the annual Mifflin Street block party "would take three days, require hundreds of officers on overtime pay, and engulf the student community from the nearby Southeast Dorms to Langdon Street's fraternity row. Tear gas hung like heavy fog across the Isthmus." In the fracas, student activist Paul Soglin, then a city alderman, was arrested twice and taken to jail. Soglin was later elected mayor of Madison, serving from 1973 to 1979, 1989 to 1997, and is the current mayor, elected again in April, 2011. During his middle term he led the construction of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Monona Terrace.

Political groups and publications[link]

Madison is home to the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which attempts to influence government in matters relating to the separation of church and state. The foundation is known for its lawsuits against religious displays on public property, and for advocating removal of "In God We Trust" from American currency.

Madison is associated with "Fighting Bob" La Follette and the Progressive movement. La Follette's magazine, The Progressive, founded in 1909, is still published in Madison.

Religion[link]

Madison is the episcopal see for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison.^[22] Saint Raphael's Cathedral, damaged by arson in 2005 and demolished in 2008, was the mother church of the diocese.

The world's largest congregation of Unitarian Universalists,^{[citation needed]} the First Unitarian Society of Madison, makes its home in the historic Unitarian Meeting House, designed by one of its members, Frank Lloyd Wright.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA has its headquarter in Madison. The city also has a Buddhist temple, a Hindu temple, three mosques and several synagogues, a Bahá'í community center, an LDS stake, and a Unity Church congregation.

Economy[link]

Wisconsin state government and the University of Wisconsin–Madison remain the two largest Madison employers. However, Madison's economy today is evolving from a government-based economy to a consumer services and high-tech base, particularly in the health, biotech and advertising sectors.^{[citation needed]} Beginning in the early 1990s, the city experienced a steady economic boom and has been less affected by recession than other areas of the state. Much of the expansion has occurred on the city's south and west sides, but it has also affected the east side near the Interstate 39-90-94 interchange and along the northern shore of Lake Mendota. Underpinning the boom is the development of high-tech companies, many fostered by UW–Madison working with local businesses and entrepreneurs to transfer the results of academic research into real-world applications, especially bio-tech applications.

Many businesses are attracted to Madison's skill base, taking advantage of the area's high level of education. 48.2% of Madison's population over the age of 25 holds at least a bachelor's degree.^[23] Forbes magazine reported in 2004 that Madison has the highest percentage of individuals holding Ph.D.s in the United States. In 2006, the same magazine listed Madison as number 31 in the top 200 metro areas for "Best Places for Business and Careers."^[24] Madison has also been named in Forbes ten Best Cities several times within the past decade.^{[citation needed]} In 2009, in the midst of the late-2000s recession, Madison had an unemployment rate of 3.5% and was ranked number one in a list of "ten cities for job growth".^[25]

Business[link]

The largest employer in Madison is the Wisconsin state government, excluding employees of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics employees, although both groups of workers are state employees.^[26]

The University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics is an important regional teaching hospital and regional trauma center, with strengths in transplant medicine, oncology, digestive disorders, and endocrinology.^[27] Other Madison hospitals include St. Mary's Hospital,^[28] Meriter Hospital, and the VA Medical Center.

Madison is home to companies such as Spectrum Brands (formerly Rayovac), Alliant Energy, American Family Insurance, American Girl (a subsidiary of Mattel), the Credit Union National Association and its CUNA Mutual Group, Dean Health Systems, Madison-Kipp Corporation, Pacific Cycle, Schoeps Ice Cream, and Sub-Zero & Wolf Appliance. Technology companies in the area include Berbee Information Networks, Broadjam, Epic Systems Corporation, FSBO Madison, Human Head Studios, Netconcepts (recently purchased by Covario), Raven Software, Sonic Foundry, Telephone and Data Systems, and TomoTherapy.

Biotech firms include Panvera (now part of Invitrogen), Promega, and the Iceland-based Nimblegen. The contract research organization Covance is a major employer in the area.^[29]

Oscar Mayer has been a Madison fixture for decades, and was a family business for many years before being sold to Kraft Foods. The Onion newspaper and the pizza chains Rocky Rococo, the Glass Nickel Pizza Company, and Ian's Pizza originated in Madison.^[30][31]

Utilities[link]

In the mid-2000s Madison partnered with Merrimac Communications to develop and build Mad City Broadband, a wireless internet infrastructure for the city.^[32] In early 2010 a grass-root effort to bring Google's new high-speed fiber Internet to Madison failed.^[33]

Education[link]

University of Wisconsin–Madison

According to Forbes magazine, Madison ranks second in the nation in education.^[34][35] The Madison Metropolitan School District serves the city and surrounding area. With an enrollment of approximately 25,000 students in 46 schools, it is the second largest school district in Wisconsin behind the Milwaukee School District.^[36] The five public high schools are James Madison Memorial, Madison West, Madison East, Madison LaFollette, and Malcolm Shabazz City High School, an alternative school.

Among private church-related high schools are Abundant Life Christian School, Edgewood High School,^[37] located on the Edgewood College campus, and St. Ambrose Academy, a Catholic school offering grades 6 through 12.^[38] Madison Country Day School is a private high school with no religious affiliation.

The city is home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Edgewood College, Madison Area Technical College, and Madison Media Institute, giving the city a post-secondary student population of nearly 50,000. The University of Wisconsin accounts for the vast majority of students, with an enrollment of roughly 41,000, of whom 30,750 are undergraduates.^[39] In a Forbes magazine city ranking from 2003, Madison had the highest number of Ph.D.s per capita, and third highest college graduates per capita,among cities in the United States.^{[40][dead link]}

Additional degree programs are available through satellite campuses of Cardinal Stritch University, Concordia University-Wisconsin, Globe University, Lakeland College, the University of Phoenix, and Upper Iowa University. Madison also has a non-credit learning community with multiple programs and many private businesses also offering classes.

Transportation[link]

Madison is served by the Dane County Regional Airport, which serves more than 100 commercial flights on an average day, and nearly 1.6 million passengers annually. Most major general aviation operations take place at Morey Field in Middleton 15 miles (24 km) from the city center. Madison Metro operates bus routes throughout the city and to some surrounding towns.^[41] Madison has five taxicab companies, and several companies provide specialized transit for individuals with disabilities.

Railways[link]

A high-speed rail route from Chicago through Milwaukee and Madison to Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, was proposed as part of the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative. Funding for the railway connecting Madison to Milwaukee was approved in January, 2010, but Governor-elect Scott Walker's opposition to the project led the Federal Railroad Administration to retract the $810 million in funding and reallocate it to other projects.^[42] The nearest passenger train station is in Columbus, Wisconsin, 28 miles (45 km) away. There the eastbound Empire Builder provides daily service to Milwaukee and Chicago, and the westbound Empire Builder provides daily service to Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.

WSOR number 4025 painted for the railroad's 25th anniversary, seen in Madison July 23, 2005.

Railroad freight services are provided to Madison by Wisconsin and Southern Railroad (WSOR) and Canadian Pacific Railway (CP). Wisconsin & Southern has been operating since 1980, having taken over trackage owned since the 19th century by the Chicago and North Western and the Milwaukee Road.

The Transport 2020 project proposed a hybrid commuter rail-light rail transit line along one of the existing rail corridors from Middleton, Wisconsin to Reiner Road between Madison and Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, serving the University Avenue corridor, UW-Madison campus, the isthmus, and northeast Madison. In June 2008, the project submitted an application with the Federal Transit Administration to begin preliminary engineering for the project. However, in June 2011, authorizing legislation for regional transit authorities in Wisconsin was repealed and the application was withdrawn. The project is currently on hold.

Buses[link]

Regional buses connect Madison to Milwaukee, Chicago, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, and many other communities. Badger Bus, which connects Madison to Milwaukee, runs about 10 buses a day. Greyhound Lines, a nationwide bus company, serves Madison on its Chicago, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis–Saint Paul route. Van Galder Bus Company, a subsidiary of Coach USA, provides transportation through Rockford to Chicago – stopping at Union Station, O'Hare Airport, and Midway Airport. Jefferson Lines provides transportation to Minneapolis–Saint Paul via La Crosse. Megabus provides limited stop service to Chicago and Minneapolis–Saint Paul. Lamers Bus Lines has once daily trips from Madison to Wausau, Dubuque, and Green Bay.

Highways[link]

I-39, I-90 and I-94 expressways intersect at Madison, connecting the city to Milwaukee, Chicago, Rockford, Illinois, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and Wausau. U.S. Routes US-12, US-14, US-18, US-51 and US-151 connect the city with Dubuque, Iowa, the Wisconsin cities of La Crosse and Janesville, Fond du Lac and Manitowoc. The Beltline is a six-to-eight lane freeway on the south and west sides of Madison and is the main link from downtown to the southeast and western suburbs. Several carsharing services are available in Madison, including Community Car a locally-owned company, and U-Haul subsidiary U Car Share.

Media[link]

Madison is home to an extensive and varied number of print publications, reflecting the city's role as the state capital and its diverse political, cultural and academic population. The Wisconsin State Journal (weekday circulation: ~95,000; Sundays: ~155,000) is published in the mornings, while its sister publication, The Capital Times (Thursday supplement to the Journal) is published online daily. Though jointly operated under the name Capital Newspapers, the Journal is owned by the national chain Lee Enterprises, and the Times is independently owned. Wisconsin State Journal is the descendant of the Wisconsin Express, a paper founded in the Wisconsin Territory in 1839. The Capital Times was founded in 1917 by William T. Evjue, a business manager for the State Journal who disagreed with that paper's editorial criticisms of Wisconsin Republican Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. for his opposition to U.S. entry into World War I.

The free weekly alternative newspaper Isthmus (weekly circulation: ~65,000) was founded in Madison in 1976. The Onion, a satirical weekly, was founded in Madison in 1988. Two student newspapers are published during the academic year, The Daily Cardinal (Mon-Fri circulation: ~10,000) and The Badger Herald (Mon-Fri circulation: ~16,000). Other specialty print publications focus on local music, politics and sports, including The Madison Times, Wisconsin Sports Weekly,The Mendota Beacon, The Madison Observer, Madison Magazine, The Simpson Street Free Press and fantasy sports web site RotoWire.com. There is a strong community of local blogs including Althouse, dane101, and The Critical Badger.

The Progressive, published in Madison, is a left-wing periodical that may be best known for the attempt of the U.S. government in 1979 to suppress one of its articles before publication. The magazine eventually prevailed in the landmark First Amendment case, United States v. The Progressive, Inc. During the 1970s, there were two radical weeklies published in Madison, known as TakeOver and Free for All, as well as a Madison edition of the Bugle-American underground newspaper.

Madison hosts two volunteer-operated and community-oriented radio stations, WORT and WSUM. WORT Community Radio (89.9 FM), founded in 1975, is one of the oldest volunteer-powered radio stations in the United States. A listener-sponsored community radio station, WORT offers diverse music and talk programming that is locally produced and hosted by local DJs. WSUM (91.7 FM) is a student radio station whose programming and operation are carried out almost entirely by students.

Madison's Wisconsin Public Radio station, WHA, was one of the first radio stations in the nation to begin broadcasting, and remains the longest continuously broadcasting station in the nation.^{[citation needed]}

Widely heard public radio programs that originate in Madison include Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know?, Zorba Pastor On Your Health, To the Best of Our Knowledge and Calling All Pets.

WXJ-87 is the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards station located on Madison's west side, with broadcasts originating from the National Weather Service in Sullivan, Wisconsin.

See also:

• List of radio stations in Wisconsin
• List of television stations in Wisconsin
• List of Madison magazines
• List of Wisconsin daily newspapers

Culture[link]

In 1996 Money magazine identified Madison as the best place to live in the United States.^[43] It has consistently ranked near the top of the best-places list in subsequent years, with the city's low unemployment rate a major contributor.^{[citation needed]}

The main downtown thoroughfare is State Street, which links the University of Wisconsin campus with the Capitol Square, and is lined with restaurants, espresso cafes and shops. Only pedestrians, buses, emergency vehicles, delivery vehicles and bikes are allowed on State Street.

On the other side of Capitol Square is King Street, which has more upper-end restaurants and cafes than on the more student-budget State Street.

The skyline of Madison, with Wisconsin ANG F-16 jet fighters in the foreground

On Saturday mornings in the summer, the Dane County Farmers' Market is held around the Capitol Square.^[44] This market attracts numerous vendors who sell fresh produce, meat, cheese, and other products. On Wednesday evenings, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra performs free concerts on the capitol's lawn.^[45]

The Great Taste of the Midwest craft beer festival, established in 1987 and the second longest running such event in North America,^{[citation needed]} is held the second Saturday in August. The highly-coveted tickets sell out within an hour of going on sale in May.^[46]

Madison is host to Rhythm and Booms, a massive fireworks celebration coordinated to music. It begins with a fly-over by F-16s from the local Wisconsin Air National Guard. This celebration is the largest fireworks display in the Midwest in length, number of shells fired and the size of its annual budget.^[47]

Sailboats approaching the south shore of Lake Mendota and downtown Madison – north side of isthmus

During the winter months, sports enthusiasts enjoy ice-boating, ice skating, ice hockey, ice fishing, cross-country skiing, and snowkiting.^[48] During the rest of the year, outdoor recreation includes sailing on the local lakes, bicycling, and hiking.

Madison was named the number one college sports town by Sports Illustrated in 2003.^[49] In 2004 it was named the healthiest city in America by Men's Journal magazine. Many major streets in Madison have designated bike lanes and the city has one of the most extensive bike trail systems in the nation.^{[citation needed]} Bicycle tourism is an $800 million industry in Wisconsin, which has 20 percent of the nation's bicycle manufacturing capacity.^[50]

There are many cooperative organizations in the Madison area, ranging from grocery stores (such as the Willy Street Cooperative) to housing co-ops (such as Madison Community Cooperative and Nottingham Housing Cooperative) to worker cooperatives (including and engineering firm and a cab company).

In 2005, Madison was included in Gregory A. Kompes' book, 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live.^[51] The Madison metro area has a higher percentage of gay couples than any other city in the area outside of Chicago and Minneapolis.^[52]