By: Diane Benjamin
Tomorrow the stacked Downtown Committee is holding a listening session – public comment at 5:15 in the Council Chambers.
In case you forgot who is on this committee: https://blnnews.com/2017/05/03/taris-downtown-task-force/
Showing up and telling them downtown isn’t worth reinventing won’t help (The town moved east, but they haven’t noticed). The Committee has three Council members so whatever they dream up will easily pass the rest of the Council.
Downtown is for lawyers during the day and bar hoppers at night. Millions of dollars won’t change that unless the Council is willing to force the bars to evacuate by massively raising fees. That won’t happen because the City needs to revenue those bars produce.
The Committee’s job is to recommend spending the City can do now. It’s way too late to change the trajectory of this Council. Citizens must not have noticed the last Council was on the same path.
Everybody wants to think their leaders aren’t wasting their money and they truly want to serve the citizens.
The joke is on you, your roads will remain in poor condition for many years to come. Revitalizing downtown is much more important.
See the Agenda and Minutes from their last meeting HERE
Interesting that Mathy and Manna didn’t show up to their first meeting. Then again, I think Mathy missed a council meeting too. Considering his personal financial interests in this committee, I didn’t forecast Mathy missing meetings already.
Mathy knows all on the Task Force (Commission) will fight to the death for downtown redevelopment. Plenty of the discussions are taking place outside of the meetings so he doesn’t really need to attend all of them. He probably was on vacation.
The last GOOD development of downtown took place June 19th 1900! Since then it has been a “booming” places in the 50’s and 60’s then the politicians wanted to “grow it” and instead they killed it. Remember the ONE WAY streets that were SUPPOSED to make downtown easier to get around in, that lasted 20 years, and now it’s Taris turn. of course Amelia will want flowers, bumblebees and hummingbirds!
And Johnee will want a 5 mph speed limit and bike blond-go will want lanes on the sidewalks
JUST PEACHY!
Boulder/Louisville looks better ALL the time! Wonder IF their mayor is at the American communist mayors meeting in Miami??
If the business owners downtown caref they would fund the DBA instead of taxpayers. Maybe they know that would be throwing money away
What sort of downtown do YOU want, Diane? Public-private partnerships are about the only way redevelopment deals move forward anymore. Does this community save it or let it crumble? Do you really think continued sprawl is the answer or should the city focus on redevelopment?
Seems payoffs keep going to the same people yet the Front and Center building still sits empty. If the market needed downtown developers would be flocking there. Since they aren’t what does that tell you? Tari needs to create artificial demand? Coliseum 2.0?
Actually Bob this city is saturated with empty buildings all over in case you haven’t noticed. Why would I as a business owner want to locate there with limited parking? I can find an empty place near the west side Walmart for example with plenty of “free” parking.
I mentioned this before, the city should be looking at growing the employer base with good paying jobs. They are wasting time and money concentrating on that downtown area that won’t provide good paying jobs. Retail stores are closing right and left creating even more empty retail space to compete with that downtown.
LOL I like the comment about June 1900 by another poster. Isn’t that the truth! I remember the change to the one way streets. How did that work out? Even I can remember my parents frustrated with that move. We all loved it when Eastland Mall opened.
Downtown is dead! Get over it and move on!
Only two things will truly thrive downtown: bars and restaurants. It’s all about nightlife and entertainment. Let the free market take care of it. People will go downtown for that, those who won’t, will stay away. Plain and simple. There will be plenty that will venture downtown, spend a lot of money on food and booze, and the tax money will roll in that Teri and co. can spend on their stupid bike lanes or whatever B.S. they want to do elsewhere, but probably not on the streets 🙂
Too bad the kings of Bloomington-Normal can’t say no, like Urbana just did…
http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-06-26/urbana-nixes-hotel-renovation-project.html
That helps explain why that area is doing better than here.
I could never understand the fascination with boutique hotel’s. Maybe in a town like Galena, IL. One need only look at the bomb that Waukesha, WI got involved in.