By: Diane Benjamin
I was obvious at last Mondays Council meeting that some Aldermen think any project in downtown is better than none.
A reader found an interesting Facebook page yesterday promoting what looks like the Bentley plan. Here’s how the page is selling it:
The Viable Downtown Bloomington Development Plan
Yesterday at 2:38pm · · 
In order for things to change We must change…In order for things to get better we must get better…We need your help in encouraging our City Council to move forward in becoming attractive to the existing businesses like Fortune 500, #41 State Farm Insurance Cos. Please consider sending an email in support of Downtown Bloomington growth.
If you have a Facebook account, you can see the page here: https://m.facebook.com/MakeBloomingtonBetter?__mref=message_bubble
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Citizens must tell the City Council what they think. The ones that may not agree with you sure will.
Screen shot from Facebook:
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First and foremost in my opinion I doubt State Farm could care less about downtown Bloomington. The bottom line is the dollar figure that they have to pay for taxes and to operate in Bloomington. I wonder if the poster of that facebook page had permission to tie in State Farm Ins. to their comment by naming the company? It’s one thing to say a Fortune 500 company and naming that company leads one to believe State Farm Ins. supports and approves any project and in which case they may not at all. It could PO a lot of policy holders.
You can mention a company name so long as you are not suggesting the company is providing their support. It’s no different from say a Pop Warner football team mentioning that they want to be like the Green Bay Packers on their FB page. It’s free speech. Having said that, the developer must think State Farm will keep growing in Bloomington if they spruce up a few buildings. State Farm’s growth strategy is not in Illinois. The city is somehow convinced we can be like Chicago. We will never be like Chicago. Businesses do not seem to want to move anywhere without incentives. Bloomington cannot afford anymore breaks without jacking up other fees and taxes. Rauner just gave a tax incentive gift to ConAgra to move to Chicago. But they are cutting jobs in Naperville and Omaha to do it. Who comes out ahead?
State Farm Ins. is an interesting company at least when I worked there. When I would go to conferences we were instructed not to endorse or really give out our names or who we worked for.
The endorsement angle I understand. You want to not appear to be in cahoots with a vendor. Most conferences list your name and company on the name tag. There may have been some concern that people would be head-hunted. Mainly by competitors.
State Farm could care less about Bloomington period!
I think Bently may have started this page or a tech savvy alderman. The “other developer” didn’t have any site plan drawings. Someone should start a FB page with cover photos of the pot hole filled streets imitating the phrase “We attract what we are…” and requesting emails be sent to the city. I agree with Marc. Companies are driven by the bottom line.