Halloween 2006 with Mayor Dave and Alderman Mike Verveer

Last night, I got to spend Halloween with some of Madison's top city officials, police and fire chiefs, and partiers at State Street bars. It wasn't at all what I expected!

For my J335 journalism class, we were assigned to cover Halloween. For the past few years, Halloween on State Street has ended with riots, broken windows and pepper spray. I did an advanced story about alternatives to Halloween, which was posted on our class website and linked from The Daily Page on two occasions (which is run by The Isthmus). http://www.journalism.wisc.edu/j335/halloween/gettingready/alternatives.html

Then, last night I was assigned to shadow Alderman and Assistant District Attorney Mike Verveer, whose District 4 holds part of the State Street area. I was supposed to meet him at 10 p.m., but he was still at other parties dressed as a bride left at the altar. We eventually met up at 11 p.m.
In the meantime, I saw the Processing Center in the parking lot under the City County Building, where all arrested students are taken and fined or jailed. It was staffed by a fair number of police officers and others, but it was, for the most part, empty of students at 10:30 p.m.
Then I walked around with Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, his spokesperson and two other student journalists for about 20 minutes. We were held up when George Twigg, his spokesperson/assistant, had to still buy his ticket at the gate. While we were cruising State Street, Mike Verveer called me.
We met on State Street but first headed to the Command Post located in the Madison Fire Dept. on Johnson Street. I was the only member of the media allowed in the Command Post that night! 20 of the most important decisionmakers for the night were gathered in there watching video surveilance of the entire street and an up-to-date number of arrests on three different large screens. Guys with joysticks could zoom in on individuals on State Street and see what they were doing. Others in the room were fielding 911 calls. Here I spoke with police and fire chiefs and was offered to munch on food from their potluck.
Then Mike and I went to State Street where we met his friends. We went to the Plaza Tavern and Paul's Club for a couple of hours. I expected Mike to be more concerned about things on State Street and to spend more time there and in the command post, but he spent most of the evening drinking beers and taking shots with friends.
Finally at 1:15 a.m. (2:15 if you hadn't changed your clocks yet), he and I headed to State Street. The street was almost cleared with no signs of pepper spray. Mike was astonished. He held a little press conference on State Street. (although it was more like he was the only city official out, so the media attacked him) I finally left his side about 45 minutes later.
Mike was very nice to me and was always concerned with what I wanted to do. He always wanted to get me access to places. The only time I didn't spend with him last night was when he went into the men's room. He always introduced me to anyone he met, including all the hot shots who were then subjected to my questions.
After a quick picture with him, I went back to Vilas to our "newsroom" where I filed my story. I was home at 4:45 a.m. (or 5:45 old time).
Read my story here: http://www.journalism.wisc.edu/j335/halloween/onthestreet/verveer.html

I was also listed in a blog on The Daily Page as the student who was following around Verveer. :o)

If you want to know more details about the night, ask!