By: Diane Benjamin
Nothing coming from this Council or Tari’s Downtown Task Force should surprise anybody. Vote for Big Spenders and you get the same policies that has the State with $15 Billion in unpaid bills! (after the tax increase)
The people Tari appointed to plan downtown spending think just like him. (Are any on “medical related” leave?) NOBODY on this Task Force knows or cares about the MILLIONS of DOLLARS already thrown away trying to make downtown into something other than what it is.
Tari’s buddies-Downtown Task Force members:
Justin Boyd – Tari’s campaign chairman
Tricia Stiller – formerly of the Downtown Business Association (DBA) that was supposed to be self-sufficient years ago. Now a City employee
Joe Haney – recipient of thousands of downtown TIF dollars
Carlos Robustelli – frequent free lunch buddy and Democrat County Board member
Jamie Mathy – downtown business owner who campaigned on downtown spending
Kim Bray – New Council member who Renner and Painter recruited to run
Mike Manna – downtown business owner
Bobby Vericella – frequent free lunch buddy and recipient of tax money – partners with Fred Wollrab
Amelia Buragas – Renner’s Council pet who never says no to any spending
Nobody on this Council cares about your streets, only the people now howling at the suggestion of moving the library care. More than four years of promises and all citizens get is “the roads will take time”. Meanwhile moving a library and tearing down a parking garage won’t.
Maybe this group is the replacement for the Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus that no longer exists.
They:
– Jump through hoops for Renner
– Want to tame wild beasts downtown
– Dance around the issues citizens care about
– Paint on happy faces for the public
– Swing for the sky (at your expense)
(do they know the circus went out of business because people didn’t attend the shows)
Maybe if more people had bothered to vote last April the show would be better. Instead, the people who did vote for this nonsense outnumbered the ones opposed.
I think it’s also the Connect Transit transfer waiting room.
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This is just PART of the “3 rings of sheer stupidity”!! I heard on the local socialist station this a.m. that the “Task farce” has tossed out these ideals as being viable to downtown.
Parking meters
a statue park?
a street mall
other such nonsense!
HOW in the name of progress can a STATUE park bring in economic development?
Maybe people WILL pay to have their picture taken by Stonewall Jackson AFTER the socialists are done!
Crowds will be needed to destroy the statues! Brings people downtown.
1. NASCAR museum
2. Rush Limbaugh Cigar Shop
3. Movie Theater showing old news reels.
4. The Norman Rockwell Art museum
5. A sci-fi experience where kids can lay in an Iron Lung or talk on a rotary phone
6. Ronald Reagan Square
7. Millennialis: The restaurant where you can chastise the employees as they cook and serve your food.
8. Rascal rental
9. Everything is Made in the USA store
10. Colonic clinic
These ideas would be right up your alley. I’m sure the task force would love to hear them.
Bobby Vericella’s company did the loft conversions of the upper floors of the buildings downtown. https://www.rjvproperty.com/about
Every person on the Task Force with the exception of Alderwoman Bray lives or works downtown or an immediately adjacent neighborhood. Alderwoman Bray has only lived in Bloomington for 9 years and like most residents has no clue about the history of attempted downtown revitalization and the associated expense.
The presentations given to the Task Force were provided by the Assistant City Manager, the Economic Development Coordinator, the Director of MCRPC and the Community Development Director–none of which have lived in this area for more than 5 years (remember the culture change.)
According to the agenda for Tuesday’s noon meeting, the Community Development Director was to present SEVERAL “catalyst” projects. Of course, the meeting was not streamed–you had to be able to attend at noon. Why is it that the garage/library proposal is the only one reported? Approximately $2.4M was spent to purchase vacant land in FY2017–N. Main and the Frontier properties–for the purpose of some unknown future redevelopment projects…hmmm.
The Library is an independent taxing body. Wouldn’t the Library Board make the decision as to where the Library should be? How will relocating the Library to the north end of downtown help with the lack of parking for the Library?
At the time of the 1% sales tax increase to pay for the jail expansion, CT (McCurdy) applied for a TIGER Grant to build a bus “terminal” in conjunction with the expansion. What ever happened to the County’s cooperation with CT? What will happen to all of the bus riders who need to access the government services located on the South end of downtown? Will they become the foot traffic taking advantage of the walkability of downtown?
The same “solutions” continue to be recycled for downtown redevelopment. It is time to think outside of the box. Unless residents who don’t live and work downtown are brought to the table, nothing will change.
If they want people downtown with money, a library and a transit site aren’t going to attract them. #LiberalLogic
Liberals like recycling, especially ideas.
The Task Force also needs to define the “downtown core.” At this point, the included area is too large for reasonable “improvements.” The Task Force is assigned the job to make recommendations for a plan to span 3-5 years AND details as to how to fund the recommendations. I see none of that.
Another thought, Ms. Stiller should resign from her position on the Task Force since she is now a City employee under the direction of the Community Development Director. In other words, she works for and answers to him and the City Manager. But, since when has integrity directed actions?
Correct – the people “in charge” are simply clueless and they live in the typical leftist echo chamber – they have no concept of what “works” . We have clueless people appointing other clueless people who they hang out with to positions of authority and the result is always disastrous.
Maybe another Art Gallery or two, THAT will send them running for downtown – oh or maybe another nice wine bar that Tarry and his lemmings can frequent. That overpriced thing called Satio’s is still there I take it? I wonder what they would be looking for in the way of shops for their “street mall?” My guess is places like someone’s niece and her hand painted tin jewelry or the like – you know the type of place $10.00 for a little snipped out tin square and a pin soldered on the back with a little bird or a symbol painted on it that any 6 year old could draw and the well heeled ladies ooh and aww over how unique and precious it is (The don’t know she just copied it from a 10 rupee thing she bought from from some street market in Kolkata when they visited back in 2008 and took a guided tour) and gladly hand over the 10 dollars which they find very reasonable, and that will be the sale of the day for that place . I need to stop, I’m getting pretty snippy here.
It’s the same thing with Portillos. They sell this as bringing in tax dollars from outside the community. People aren’t flocking to Portillos from an hour away. Peoria will get theirs and Champaign already has theirs. Unless people are driving here from Springfield or up near Pontiac and Dwight, we aren’t getting a huge NEW influx of sales tax dollars. We certainly aren’t getting them to justify the cost. People are not going to flock to Downtown Bloomington from other areas. If they do and spend more, it means they are spending less elsewhere. They’re just spending it in businesses not owned by Tari’s friends. There is a reason this area is getting his focus and the focus of his associates – they benefit the most from it.
Bingo
What downtown needs is a pink flamingo exhibit!
I do not believe these progressive council members, task force members, mayor, city manager and the rest are clueless. They know EXACTLY what they’re doing. This is all part of “the ends justify the means” The End=destruction, bankruptcy of city. Means=Drive the debt through the roof. Accusing them of being clueless absolves them of responsibility. Do not give them that.
And we could have Koala bears with little punk rock outfits ride the flamings and they could do it in sync with Lenningrad Cowboys tunes. Now THAT would be cool!!
or MAYBE an antiquarian bookseller, good antique shops, “UNIQUE” shops that sell out of the mainstream items, like Petrified wood tables and fossil fish wall hangings. Would be better then a statue park. I STILL don’t get WHAT in the name of Aesop a statue park would do for DOWNTOWN. Look what ALL the BRIGHT ideals have done for Uptown! $200 million in debt! But, geez, they have a Portillos-which looks kind of like a supermax jail..
I think they are around $94 million. They paid down $1.7 million last year! Celebrate!
A “statue park” sounds like a way to give a whole bunch of money to some of the “artists” who take up space in some of the downtown properties already – oh geez, I can see it now…tangled messes of wire and chunks of concrete, another tangled mess of maybe steel banding material, then a big rock with a few chips out of it – I’m getting very excited about the statue park already….