Over 30 supporters came out to El Sabor de Puebla 2 on Madison’s North Side on Jan. 7 as Carmella Glenn kicked off her campaign to be District 18 alder.
Friends, family and supporters gathered to hear from Glenn after the vacant position with current District 18 incumbent alder Charles Myadze missing the deadline this week to file a declaration of candidacy and nomination signatures. Glenn is confirmed against Kevin Monroe and potentially Anthony McNally to represent the district.
Supporters heralded Glenn for her long-standing community efforts as to why she’s best to represent the North Side. Glenn has continuously worked in roles that aim to support marginalized groups in community organizations as the former director of Just Dane’s Just Bakery, peer services coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, and violence intervention supervisor at the Public Health Madison & Dane County.
“When you think about what it takes to serve on the council, to be in a public role, Carmella got what it takes,” said District 17 Alder Sabrina Madison. “Oftentimes, we talk about who is serving as alder, who is running for office, we often forget to figure out whether or not they have the capacity to do the job.”
Glenn received glowing endorsements from elected officials like Madison, District 3’s Derek Field and State Rep. Francesca Hong.
Hong, who now represents the North Side after legislative map changes, endorsed Glenn saying “Carmela cares. The people of the North Side deserve somebody who cares.”
Others who previously worked with Glenn are excited to see her run for alder. Kristine Gallagher, a former public school teacher who is in Alder Madison’s district, is a fervent supporter of Glenn’s work. Gallagher finds herself “mesmerized by her uncanny ability to teach and read.” She has already donated $200 to Glenn’s campaign.
Glenn is largely unaffected by Alder Myadze’s allegations in her decision to run for office. Myadze’s lack of filing for reelection has no real bearing on her campaign plans. Glenn claims that it has long been her intention to run, but was waiting to become an empty nest parent to give as much time as needed to lead on the North Side. With her child now college-bound, Glenn aims to dive headfirst into her campaign.
Glenn’s platform is centered on investing in economic development, supporting programs that have been proven successful, collaborating with other elected officials, and leadership that aims to respect the North Side’s traditions of close-knitness and innovative solutions.
Her priorities, if elected, are a continuation of her previous work to address housing needs, safety and violence prevention, job creation, transportation and food accessibility.
“The interesting thing is, because my district is mostly residential, I can say a lot of things,” Glenn said. “I would love to work alongside those in [Districts] 8 and 12 to be able to build some employment training programs.”
Glenn wants to utilize the Warner Park expansion to find an avenue for employment training. She often describes herself as having an “entrepreneurial brain” and wants to capitalize on programs that have attracted and helped business owners in the past. She points towards previous north-side efforts like FEED Kitchen’s food trucks’ old rotations throughout the city before the COVID-19 pandemic came back.
“With Just Bakery, after we moved out of the church, we were the very first people to ever use FEED Kitchen,” Glenn said. “I was just telling one of the people from the Northside Planning Committee that if you drive by it now, there’s like 60 food trucks out there. They’re all good and they’re all over Madison. That’s just one of the things I miss… when we had food trucks on different nights of the week.”
She would like to see the rotation come back and bring more chances for small entrepreneurs to take advantage of unused real estate for potential pop-up shops.
Other things Glenn wants to see are increased efforts with Troy Community Gardens to build an ecosystem of food on the North Side, efforts to address affordable housing options and continued work with prison reform and post-incarceration programs.
