by: Diane Benjamin
It’s been obvious since Mayor Renner was elected that his focus is Downtown. He really believes the future of Bloomington is Downtown, he wants to copy what Chris Koos did in Normal. He actually told me there is a waiting list of people who want to live downtown. After calling a few rental companies, I found apartments available for rent. I’m not sure where the waiting list is.
I heard the Downtown streets were cleared quickly of snow while many side-streets were untouched or covered with ice. That’s why I found this entry in the proposed budget in interesting:
http://www.cityblm.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=6393
Isn’t Downtown a very small part of Bloomington?
Here’s some questions that must be answered considering the huge budget increases:
- How much money is proposed for Downtown?
- How much money is proposed for the Downtown Business Association?
- How much money is proposed for grants to repair or update facades?
- How much money is proposed for MORE studies?
Your tax money will be spent on Downtown if you don’t speak up. Mayor Renner thinks Downtown will become a destination, the “if we build it, they will come” mentality. The McLean County Museum of History is currently putting a visitors center in the basement. The plane is being removed.
Touting snow removal Downtown while much of the rest of the city remained under ice and snow clearly shows where Renner’s priorities lie. If they aren’t yours, make sure he knows it.
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We just live a few blocks from downtown Bloomington. We have lived here now about 14 years and behind our house, between our 800 block of East Jefferson Street and the 800 block of East Washington Street there is an alley and we have never seen it in as horrible of shape with trash, litter and debris as it is now. I swear, it looks like something you would see in a third world country! A few years ago it got bad but not this bad, and I reported it to our Alderman, Mayor Stockton and city council, within 10 days the city had it cleaned up. I have talked to Mayor Renner and David Hales about this alley owned by the city at one of the meetings with the Mayor, they seemed interested, even took notes, yet nothing has been done! I urge you to just drive down that alley and check it out for yourselves, it’s a total mess. Most, but not all, the people who live back there had rather throw there garbage on the ground instead of their garbage cans. Talk about disrespect! Maybe that’s why so often we see cities building these nice housing complexes for these welfare, section 8, city assisted living people and in a couple years it looks like something in a third world country. Personally, I think we “give” to much to these people and instead of appreciating it they expect it. As the old but TRUE saying goes, give a person a fish and they will eat a meal, teach them how to fish and they will eat every meal. We need to make people responsible and independent to stand on their own two feet instead of lazy with our city government handouts!