Madison: Gated City?

Madison: Gated City?

Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler’s recent strategy to keep outsiders from attending a city festival is consistent with the city’s history of enforcing strict neighborhood covenants and zoning regulations that restrict rental properties in the city. Madison has long promoted itself as more of a club than a city, but last week, after Hawkins Butler cited Franklin, Tenn., as a model city for a residents-only festival, Franklin officials said they had never heard of such a practice.

Hawkins Butler told the Madison County Herald Sept. 18 that the city was cancelling this year’s annual family fall festival, FreedomFest, because of unexpected budget expenditures and the high number of non-Madison residents who attended the event in the past.

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Another example of what the perfessor would say illustrates how municipalities are adopting restrictive, HOA-like behaviors.