By: Diane Benjamin
Two schools of thought are in play locally:
1) Government exists to create Quality of Life – no specific definition
2) Government exists to provide essential services citizens can not provide for themselves – police, fire, streets, sewers etc
Normal switched to option 1 when Koos was elected. Everything that happens there is HIS vision of Utopia. Bloomington has a long history of mayors who also believe in option 1. From at least Markowiz to Renner. mayors have believed they can create a livable sustainable city. No definition exists for “livable sustainable” either.
One person’s vision of sustainable isn’t what another believes. Renner thinks bike paths, additions to the zoo, and entertainment make Bloomington a great place to live.
If you don’t agree you barely have a voice. Alderman Lower is now the lone voice standing against spending on Quality of Life. The Council is stacked with thinkers who believe in progress via government control.
The downtown Huff-Giebelhausen project is nothing more than government creating what they want to see. CEFCU and Huffs get bailed out of the bad deals they made in the past, Giebelhausen makes a lot of money, and Tari acquires property for his hotel.
The last time Bloomington had a mayor like this you were gifted with the Coliseum.
Renner is still talking about closing the gap created when the City decided garbage pick-up needs to pay for itself. Remember, garbage was included in the taxes you already paid until 2005. The cost to you has been creeping higher and higher ever since.
Tonight the Council will hear plans for expanding Constitution Trail. Repairs need to be made to bridges, so why not throw in expanding paths during the fix? It’s not a bad things to consider except when the costs are revealed. You will be told to pay more for garbage so the City can expand the trail. http://www.cityblm.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=8542
Maybe that’s the City you want to live in – government decides how to entertain you. The poor are forced to subsidize entertainment they can’t afford. Government’s boot is pushed harder on the necks of the middle class.
If you don’t want option 1, you are close to powerless to stop it for the next 2 years. A few members of the Council may listen to the citizens, most think they were elected to make your spending decisions for you. Most think they are entitle to your money for the greater good. Of course that will mean tax and fee increases, you just aren’t suppose to notice.
The government of Illinois should be a guide for destructive public policy. Illinois aims to provide everything for everybody and now can’t pay their bills. Many people have left Illinois because of the government. Bloomington is now spending their savings, next are tax increases – then more people leaving.
How many members of the new Renner budget committee believe government’s job is to provide essential services and allow citizens to decide where their money is spent? Zero.
In two years you will have the opportunity to elect a different kind of mayor and a different kind of council. The new government can try to dig out of the hole the last 3 mayors have put you in. If you think Tari’s plans end with a hotel downtown, you are wrong. His repeated declarations about downtown being the future and strip malls are dead is not truth, it’s something he intends to force on the taxpayers. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, the hell with your roads. Move downtown and walk everywhere or ride your bike.
Who is an actual public servant?
Your freedom is at stake and is rapidly disappearing. Tari only has 2 years to complete his fundamental transformation.
Quick multiple choice question: Which words/phrases belong together?
1) Socialism
2) Spend then tax and tax some more.
3) Idiotism
4) Renner
5) Karl Marx
6) Communism
7) Stupidism
8) Bankruptcy
9) None of the above
10) All of the above
The answer will be provided on a later post, hate to spoil it for you now.
I pick door number 10.
Can we get an amusement park with rides, water slides here too run by the city? I mean really the bike people are getting what they want.
I see where they patched Mercer Ave. to fill in the bowling ball size hole. Shall we say a half a…. job that they did. I want to know when Lafayette and west Washington is going to get repaved. Two streets that are a mess. I don’t know how those compare to the one’s on the cities list of fixing.
I sure hope the voters wake up and someone (conservative) runs against Renner. He’s getting between a rock and hard place because he knows if taxes go up his chances of being re-elected might be questionable.
I wonder if anyone has investigated possible voter fraud in the last election to see if IWU students who voted are registered in multiple places (home and Bloomington). I don’t know if the county checks that or not. It would be interesting to know.
You may be on the right track by thinking entertainment. Stay tuned!
There are “amusement parks.” Miller Park has a carousel and McGraw Park has a playground water feature. Maybe the Constitution Trail can connect downtown with the two. The Constitution Trail has been listed as a “selling point” for at least 23 years. Fragments have been built in the new developments on the East side of Veterans…trails to nowhere. It is nice to see a Master Bicycle Plan (which should have been put in place when the Trail was first proposed), but now is not the time to begin implementation. The current budget is unsustainable with no contingencies. The Finance Director has reported for quite some time about the decreases in revenue. Even IF the Ad Hoc Finance Committee provided common sense solutions, the Council will ignore them just like they have ignored the reports from the professional consultants and City staff regarding Solid Waste and other issues. There is a fine line between focus and obsession. There is a fine line between risky and reckless. There IS an arrogant attitude flowing from the Council and the more citizens speak out, the more they are dismissed.
On another point, I was driving from BroMenn toward Veterans on Center Street. I imagined myself as a visitor. Center Street is also in poor repair which gave a negative impression. And, there is noticeable urban blight. Would you want to spend $120.00 per night at Front and Center?
Tari’s amusement plans are MUCH bigger. The little Marxist will fix everything, just wait.
Yes of course #10, is the correct answer. All of the above pertains to choices 1-8.
Aren’t aldermen charged to speak for the people in their wards? Quoting mayor in the “paper”, he says, “the budget deficit task force is a way to get a broader, community-wide perspective rather than aldermen just giving their perspectives from individual wards.” Umm – that’s what they are supposed to contribute!
That’s how it’s suppose to work! Remember all the community input they received from surveys and the summit? No tax increase, no public money for hotel – all ignored.
For the past year, since the notorious “secret meeting” Judy Stearns walked out on, all of the ordinances and resolutions found in the meeting packets have been pre-dated as passed. The Aldermen are not representing their wards.
Are bike lanes just for bikes or will they be “sharing” with the skateboarders, roller skaters, and wheelchairs. I see a heck of a lot more of these folks on the roads than bikes. Why do the bike riders get all the love?
Because they responded to a survey by the McLean County Regional Planning Commission that only they knew about. Overwhelming love for bikes!
Pray tell the proposed hotel pie in the sky dream will have indoor amusement too. Oh boy I just can’t wait to hear this dream. Gosh I know all of those Route 66 tourist will be busting down the doors to get a reservation. What’s the latest tourist count up to now, 10 million?
On another note I drove past the city owned vacant lot on east Washington, the former hotel site and there was a city for sale sign up. I guess I never noticed that or else it is recent. What a dumpy site. If that was such a hot commodity site you would have thought one local developer, not to mention names, the same one who bought the GTE site on east Empire or where the Pizza Ranch is at would have swooped that up and bought it. Even some downtown buildings. At least I credit them for their business sense. I suppose they even think the downtown area is a dead area. Why would you buy a boat anchor building or empty lot?
There is a ton of other properties needing re-developed! Think he is going to let them border his new downtown?
We agree on this one!! While Option 1 could happen IF the funds were there (non-taxes), Option 2 is BY FAR more important!!
We have to keep what we have going…