The Bloomington City Council wants citizens to believe everything is great, so great, the City Manager just got a huge raise.
Report from a citizen:
We are losing some very good neighbors on our block. They put their house up for sale and have already moved out. They showed me the gang activity in houses at 812 and 814 E. Jefferson Street also the house just east of her has 10 to 12 kids constantly running in yards throughout our neighborhood. The family bought a house over in Normal and are much happier.
Also we were devastated the other day when the next door neighbor told us that he was taking a job offer in Phoenix, Arizona and will be moving soon also his buddy is moving out. I told him I was jealous because Arizona is my favorite state it is so beautiful. He is a conservative like us, so when I explained the gun laws there – that he can do open or concealed carry – he was excited. We will really miss these guys, they were our allies on the block. They also pointed out to me the drug and gang activity at 812 and 814 E. Jefferson Street which I reported to Jack McQueen (police). He was also good at keeping those kids out of their back yard which in turn helped us to keep them out of our back yard. What we are concerned about now is when they move out these kids will take over that back yard next door to us at 817 E. Jefferson Street.
It does no good for me to call dispatch about that because when they ask if it is my back yard and I say no then they inform me that the tenant or owner must call even though it’s not these kid’s yard and they live three houses west of that house. Of course when they get in our yard then I can call or speak with their grandmother. So we are hoping for a good tenant to move in next door because I will explain this ongoing problem to them and we can keep them out.
The neighborhood is changing and not for the better.
Thank you Diane for posting this. Our neighborhood has been going down hill now for quite some time. In the 13 years that we have lived here we have seen a lot of drug dealing, gang activity, vandalism with loud parties blasting their sound systems at all hours of the night. We have been the victims of vandalism on 5 occasions, twice on our house and three times on our vehicles. The police and task force has done a lot of arrests with evictions of these offenders but it seems to be a constant ongoing problem because of the apartments behind us (800 block of east Washington Street) in the alley between E. Jefferson and E. Washington Streets. Also there are now three houses on our 800 block of E. Jefferson that are very connected and has been reported to police for suspected drug dealing and gang activity. Hopefully we can get some help to weed out the trouble makers and get good honest residence in our neighborhood.
Illinois is a sinking ship with a very low quality of life. Bloomington is crumbling as well- the quality of life here is well below what it was even 10 years ago. Of course happy clapping cheerleaders like the Mclean County Chamber of Commerce, elected officials, EDC etc will always chant ‘how good we have it here’..yada yada. But if one looks beneath the thin veneer of State Farm/ISU/Country and a handful of doctors and lawyers -there is a fast growing cohort of low paid retail service workers barely scraping by. There is also growing resentment (that polite society does NOT want to talk about) stemming from the massive population of $ 75k + per annum imported H1-B visa workers from India that has taken the jobs of the former US citizen middle class. Bloomington might have a decade or so respite from reality- but the smart and able are getting OUT of Illinois as soon as they are able. IMO 10 years from now you will not recognize Bloomington- and it will NOT be for the better. I have 2 years until my 30 is up and I will retire out this state. I will not even bother to look in the rear view mirror !