Isadore Knox Is Retiring from the Madison Common Council: A Lifetime of Service (Part 2 of 2)
Madison District 14 Alder decided not to run for reelection in the 2026 Spring Primary
by Jonathan Gramling
Madison Alder Isadore Knox effectively retired from the Madison Common Council when he chose not to run for reelection in the April 7th election. In many ways, Knox has lived a lifetime of service in his own methodical way. He is not one to make headlines. His leadership has been a quiet one that has allowed him to promote change while others have been in the spotlight. And just because Knox is retiring from the Madison Common Council doesn’t mean he is retiring from advocating for South Madison.
Knox has lived in South Madison since 1990.
“I live on Baird Street and it’s a great place to be,” Knox said. “When we were here in Madison, we used to live near Allied Drive. We moved over to Hammersley. And we then had an opportunity to buy a house on the south side, which was really great because we go to Mt. Zion, which is two blocks up the street. There’s Penn Park close by. So everything that we needed as a family was on the south side. It was a great opportunity to be more a part of the south side community. And definitely, we became a part of the community.”
For decades, there had been a lot of distrust between the residents of South Madison and city hall. Many felt that South Madison was neglected and was the path of least resistance when it came to locating public facilities that other well-connected neighborhoods didn’t want. Part of the reason was South Madison lacked any real political power in the city. Some South Madison residednts wanted to change that.
“When I moved to the south side, there were a lot of people in the community who were concerned about the south side getting the bad end of the stick,” Knox said. “You would hear a lot about that, particularly from the Madisonians who lived here. I can remember there was a time when a group of came together. I think we went to a workshop in the Wisconsin Dells. And we talked about how we could create more power in support of our community and make sure that we are driving what is happening in our community. One of the people in that group who was significant was Napoleon Smith. Napoleon lived on the next block. He was a friend of mine. And Napoleon ended up running for city council. He became city council president. And he was very effective in making sure that the best interests of the residents of South Madison were considered.”
And in 2005 when Knox looked around and no one was running, he stepped up to the plate.
“I try to say that I don’t like politics,” Knox said. “But when you get into a situation where there is an election coming up and you are looking around for who is going to represent the interests of you and people like you, if you don’t see anyone, then it is time for you to step up. And that was my first entry. I needed to step up because I didn’t see anyone else who looked like me who could represent those interests. That was my approach to running. It wasn’t an ambition to become an alder because that is not who I am. I do more stuff in the community. I would rather do it behind the scenes to be honest with you. But sometimes, you have to step up and do that.”
Knox also got involved in community life in South Madison. As their kids grew older, Knox and his wife Cheryl got involved in programs that their children wanted to join. Knox became involved with the Southside Raiders.
“I started out as a friend of the Raiders,” Knox said. When the late Wayne Strong was the director, he felt it was becoming overwhelming and talked to me about quitting. I was like, ‘Don’t quit. I’ll do it with you.’ And that’s how I became co-director of the Southside Raiders with Wayne. Our whole goal had always been to support these young people and hopefully help prepare them for the next level and for success. And we had a lot of success. We had some unsuccessful situations too. But it is so critically important to the south side. It’s a source of pride, whether it’s the cheerleaders or the football players. It’s something I’ve been trying to ween myself away from. But it’s not easy to do. The great part that I love about the Raiders is that people keep coming back. Some of the old players come back and they coach. People from the community come back and they help support it.”
And the Raiders were Knox’s entree to the South Madison Planning Council. They wanted a rep from the Raiders and Knox was it. He has gone on and off the board as an elected official or a neighborhood resident. During that time, he served as the council president. Now that Knox will be leaving the council because he will no longer be an elected official, he will rejoin as a South Madison resident.
“The whole purpose of SMPC is the same, to make sure that residents have some voice and input to some of the development that is happening on the south side,” Knox said.
And South Madison is at a critical juncture in its history. Rapid development is coming to South Madison.
“The good thing is we have a lot of good projects come up like The Hub,” Knox said. “But in terms of housing, we probably have the lowest percentage of home ownership in the city. We obviously need all kids of housing. That’s what I stress to people. Yes, we need affordable housing. That’s critical. But in addition to that, we need other kinds of housing too, for seniors who don’t want to go into a senior center. We need smaller homes and homes for working people. There’s a lot happening on the south side right now. I kind of promised my family that this term would be my last term. But I have to say that I plan on being very active through SMPC in terms of making sure that we are looking out for the kind of development that South Madison residents want. There are a lot of people who things for South Madison who aren’t residents. I think it’s important that the residents have a critical role in what is coming. One thing we are doing at SMPC is we are going to start a development committee so when planning comes for the south area, we can already have our priorities set on what we want for the South Madison neighborhood. That’s one critical area.”
How that development unfolds will likely have a big impact on the character of South Madison.
“The wave of development that is coming could overwhelm the existing neighborhoods,” Knox observed. “And that has been the big push back. We know we need more affordable housing. But I always try to look at it like, ‘Let’s make sure that it is balanced, scattered site housing.’ But you have a lot of people on this current council who would love to have high-rise housing all up Park Street. You can see the difference from north of Wingra Creek to south of Wingra Creek. Many of us have been trying to hold the line where we agree on the level of development over six stories and maybe it should be more scattered site. I know of the two people who are running for my seat, both of them don’t agree with that at all. They would not hesitate to have high density housing. It’s kind of a push back and forth on that issue. I would love to see someone develop the area where Thorstad Chevrolet was to provide smaller homes. There is vacant land on S. Park Street. The question is, ‘What kind of housing are we going to put there. That’s where the battle is going to be in terms of what is appropriate. We do have a housing crisis. There is no doubt about it. But it needs to be planned smartly and respectfully. The latest thing that we have, the project on Park and Badger, fortunately because Metro needs a cheap part of that space, they had reduced it to six stories. But that was more accidental than anything.”
While there will be gentrification pressures with the rapid development, Knox feels that South Madison will retain its diversity.
“I don’t think it will lose its diversity because a lot of the people who are staying in the housing off of Baird Street, some of those people will transition into there,” Knox said about the new housing. “I’m not concerned about the diversity. But there are other areas that we should be concerned about as they determine what is going to go on a lot of these vacant properties.”
While Knox is leaving the Madison Common Council, he will remain involved.
“It’s been an honor and a pleasure to serve the residents of the city, particularly from the south side,” Knox said. “I never took that for granted. And I will continue to be in the community supporting the best for the south side in the future.”
Isadore Knox has served South Madison well. It’s a lifetime of service that for the south side’s sake is taken up by the next generation.