The worst of Madison: Rising cost of living, underfunded schools, toxic lakes and more (Wisconsin's Berkley)

Behind Madison’s reputation as a “best place to live” are some ugly realities of life in Wisconsin’s capital city — from skyrocketing rents to deteriorating lake health to a stalled-out legislature. We’re putting the spotlight on the public health crises, environmental hazards and transportation headaches shaping life on the isthmus. But cataloging the “worst of Madison” ultimately comes from a place of love — because you can’t make a city better without first being honest about where it falls short.

Wisconsin’s reputation as one of the drunkest states in the country is a badge many Wisconsinites wear with honor. Our historic brewing tradition, passion for sports and high bars-per-capita ratio lend themselves to a robust drinking culture where alcohol consumption is the norm at social gatherings.

As such, our cities and counties tend to dominate lists of the most drunk places in America, and national statistics reflect that. In national surveys conducted from 2018 to 2023, Wisconsin’s rate of binge drinking exceeded the national median, with about 20% of Wisconsinites reporting binge drinking (which health officials define as five standard drinks in a few hours for men, four for women) in the past month.

While the way we consume alcohol in Wisconsin is indicative of a public health crisis, the real problem may be how nonchalant we are about our excessive drinking. The aforementioned survey data support this claim: 38.8% of Wisconsinites perceive a great risk from weekly binge drinking in contrast to 44.9% of all Americans. But excessive drinking has serious consequences for more than just those who partake. From 2020-22, alcohol was involved in 25.8% of fatal motor vehicle crashes in Dane County. Not to kill the fun — there’s nothing wrong with celebrating over a drink now and again — but we might want to start considering the true costs of our state’s “harmless” pastime.

When the University of Wisconsin–Madison hired Luke Fickell in 2022 to coach its football team, fans hoped he’d launch a winning program. It hasn’t exactly panned out. The team’s abysmal 2025-26 season included a six-game losing streak — and two of those games were shutouts they lost by more than 30 points. It’s more than just a disappointment to fans. The team’s poor performance has led to reduced attendance, game-day spending and tourism, threatening millions in revenue for the city of Madison.

In the last two years, 69 public schools have shut down in Wisconsin, as districts struggle with ballooning costs, reduced state funds and declining enrollment.

Even though Madison is growing, public school enrollment continues to decline. Between 2013 and 2025, the Madison Metropolitan School District, or MMSD, lost approximately 7% of its student population. In an enrollment tally conducted in September 2025, MMSD noted another dip.

Nationwide, public K-12 school systems have seen falling enrollments driven primarily by falling birth rates and increased interest in other education options (like homeschooling or private and charter schools). This can strain school budgets, since enrollment is a factor that influences the distribution of state funds. During the 2025-26 school year, 71% of Wisconsin public school districts are receiving less state funding as more families use the state’s school voucher programs, which rely on taxpayer dollars to cover the cost of tuition for students who attend private and charter schools.

Assistant Superintendent of Strategy and Innovation Cynthia Green cautions against interpreting the enrollment statistics as an all-in-one indicator of district health: “With the growth in Madison, even with declining birth rates, we see an opportunity to bring in more families,” she says. Green points to the pilot five-day 4-year-old kindergarten (4K) program at Olson Elementary, which the district hopes to expand, as one example of how MMSD is aiming to attract parents. The district’s five-year plan to boost enrollment focuses on 4K investment, kindergarten recruitment and raising awareness about specialty programs (like the popular dual-language immersion, which is currently offered at 21 MMSD schools).

But even as MMSD tries to scale up successful programs to bolster enrollment, it’s facing serious budget shortfalls. The district expects to receive $7 million less from general state aid next school year — even with cost increases of more than $30 million expected and a $62 million gap between what the district requested for special education reimbursement and what the state offered.

In 2024, MMSD was one of 145 Wisconsin districts (nearly half of Wisconsin’s 421 total districts) that turned to voters with referenda to raise property taxes. It’s possible that MMSD will do so again in the future, relying on voters to foot the bill where the state falls short.

The same severe housing shortage driving Madison’s housing affordability crisis (read more about this on Page 40) is also driving up rent prices. The median rent for one- and two-bedroom apartments increased by nearly 50% between 2020 and 2025.

While housing supply is insufficient across income brackets, lower-income renters are hit especially hard. If a higher-income renter can’t find a rental property or unit at their desired price point, they have the option to “rent down” — and, in fact, three out of four renter households with incomes above the median do so, further limiting the choices and opportunities for lower-income renters.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines a household as cost-burdened when it spends more than 30% of its income on housing and utilities and as severely cost-burdened when it’s spending more than 50%. In 2023, close to 50% of Madison renters (including college students) would have qualified as “rent-burdened.”

While Madison’s rental vacancy rate has started to approach a “healthy” range of 5-7% (up from its low of 1.9% in 2022), addressing the city’s serious supply-and-demand imbalance is critical to easing the pressure.

In 1832, Lake Monona was described as clear as crystal — a far cry from the algae blooms, muck and disease clouding Madison’s lakes nearly two centuries later.

According to University of Wisconsin–Madison Center for Limnology Director Jake Vander Zanden, the lakes will probably never again be so pristine. A combination of climate change, weather and pollution have gradually transformed these precious natural resources into ghosts of their former selves.

Since 2011, the Yahara chain of lakes — Lake Mendota, Lake Monona, Lake Wingra, Lake Kegonsa and Lake Waubesa — have been listed as impaired under the Clean Water Act because of their high levels of phosphorous and other contaminants. Phosphorus is applied as a fertilizer in agricultural fields, where the mineral is carried by stormwater runoff to nearby lakes. Once it reaches the lakes, phosphorus promotes the growth of toxic blue-green algae blooms.

In the past decade and a half, a flurry of studies and programs has been set in motion to evaluate and address Madison’s lake pollution issue. Nutrient management programs on farms have proven to be effective in curtailing lake pollution, while sediment-removal programs have removed tens of thousands of pounds of accumulated muck from upstream waterways. But even as these projects work to restore water health, climate change continues to accelerate, offsetting any positive efforts. Wetter, hotter summers and winters, in addition to extreme precipitation events, increase the impact of pollutants, making them significantly harder to address.

So unless anyone has a silver bullet solution, it’s time our elected officials start to hold the perpetrators of climate change accountable before it’s too late for our lakes — and all of us.

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We have two really bad places, Madison and Milwaukee. There are smaller pockets but liberals and gimmefreeshits live in urban areas because thats where they know money for them is.

Anywhere there is a larger population base thats where libs gravitate to go after other peoples money.

Known locally in SF Bay area as ‘Berzerkly’.
Also: berserkly.

Berserkly is an adverb that means in a berserk manner. Berserk is a word that describes someone who is extremely angry, violent, or out of control.

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