By: Diane Benjamin
Nothing citizens said at the Citizen’s Summit mattered.
Nothing Bring It On Bloomington said mattered either.
The Budget Task Force was a joke.
The Downtown Stakeholders meeting held last night was equally for show, except the City most likely bought the food that was served.
The stakeholders nixed a downtown hotel! Therefore, Mayor DowntownHotel will ignore them. Yes, I attended – at least the first 1 1/2 hours.
The participants were handed a 9 page document listing 75 items from the Downtown Master Plan. The night was spent picking what they wanted to prioritize.
The results will get the priority fixing the roads have received.
Economic/Central Planning:
From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_planning
The most notable critique of economic planning came from Austrian economists Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. Hayek argued that central planners could not possibly accrue the necessary information to formulate an effective plan for production because they are not exposed to the rapid changes in the particular time and place that take place in an economy, and are unfamiliar with these circumstances. The process of transmitting all the necessary information to planners is therefore inefficient.
Proponents of decentralized economic planning have also criticized central economic planning. For example, Leon Trotsky believed that central planners, regardless of their intellectual capacity, operated without the input and participation of the millions of people who participate in the economy, and would therefore be unable to respond to local conditions quickly enough to effectively coordinate all economic activity.
Both the left and the right admit it doesn’t work!
Bloomington has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not a million+) writing Master Plans under Renner: http://www.cityblm.org/index.aspx?page=21&parent=8989
Bloomington has SHELVES of plans and no money to implement them.
Of course, they can raise your taxes even more than they already have.
A guy announced he is running against Mboka Mwilambwe just to make sure the plans are implemented!
That race is easily winnable by a common sense conservative. So far none have come forward.
The UNUSED #5 Fire Station was built because “planners” planned for tens of thousands of new residents in that part of town. Taxpayers got stuck with the bills: MILLIONS of Dollars because their “plan” was wrong.
If this Mayor and Council aren’t dumped for leaders without god-like views of themselves, Bloomington will be finished for good.
Meanwhile, Mayor DowntownHotel is traveling to Cuba on $2000 of Bloomington taxpayer’s money. The article in the paper made it sound like he wanted to recruit students. I wonder how the tuition is going to get paid?
From a July 2016 article: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article89133407.html
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I began reading the PDFs and it is very disturbing that Bloomington does not K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid). They spend big bucks for big complicated reports that no one can figure out what the REAL priorities are. How about listing the primary responsibilities of the city government and a separate list of the non-required “wants”? Prioritize items in both lists. Only after all primary responsibilities are met, should any “wants” get funding! BTW, be certain that debt reduction is a primary need and that all taxes that have been created or increased are planned for reduction to the lowest levels that meet primary needs. The final report must K.I.S.S. and should be a grand total of no more than two pages total. Assign each item on the list to the appropriate department head for them to provide a two page report to the manager and the council for consideration. Much will be learned from the dept. sheets, both positive and negative. KISS!!!!!!!
Submitted by
John P. Brown
2006 Foxtail Rd
Bloomington
Are you coming to the Watchdog Training tomorrow?
So when “planners” ultimately come up with THE right plan, we shouldn’t need them anymore, right? And every plan should be the right plan or obviously the plan was the wrong plan. Why are these planners constantly on the payroll? It don’t make no sense.
How about essential services and NOTHING else!
Sometimes I get a chuckle from your articles Diane. Love your new name for Tari by the way. As for his trip to Cuba , I was wondering the same thing…..WHY ??? But then he is contributing $500 of his own! Wow! I’m confident this trip will contribute to our “quality of life” in BloNo.
No worries, he’ll get that $500 back taking his sons to lunch on the taxpayers dime.
Station 5, west of Bloomington, cannot be used. The walls leak when it rains. The HVAC system has never worked, due to poor design and poor equipment specifications and selection. The systems were installed as per details of the design. The controls are unreliable.
The building has two levels on the main floor. Firefighters have to go down a set of steps to get to the trucks. Great if you are fully awake. Dangerous if one is half asleep, getting a early morning emergency call.
Since the building had to be ADA compliant, a small lift had to be installed for disable people to go from the different levels.
Also, there were two hand rails that were in the shape of bicycles in front of the station. They are not there anymore. Very similar ones are in front of the old West Side Clothing Store.
The fire station on Six Points Road IS being used. The Snyder built Harvest Pount Subdivision’ HOA uses it for their neighhood meetings probably rent free.
I think some fire officials hold meeting there too. Probably to avoid OMA. lol