By: Diane Benjamin
Readers: I’m proud of you! Most of people who read yesterday’s story watched the short video: https://blnnews.com/2020/01/12/i-need-1-minute-and-17-seconds/
Next we need to talk about “Right Fit”.
Without any qualifications or authority, both Bloomington and Normal use “Right Fit” because they want to control the means of production. Businesses need the ability to succeed or fail on their own instead of government picking winners and losers.
I’ve heard stories over the years of entrepreneurs who were either discouraged or prevented from starting a local business. I know of one building in Heyworth right now because Normal was too difficult to work with. I know another guy who attempted to develop a property in Normal and abandoned plans because of the red tape.
Why did Bloomington buy the North Main property where the Mennonite School of Nursing used to be? There was no good reason except to control who ended up with the property. This May it will be for sale for a year, Bloomington is attempting to control who buys it and what is built: https://blnnews.com/2019/05/24/more-proof-capitalism-is-dead-in-bloomington/
Bloomington is even offering TIF incentives, no takers yet: https://cbcdr.com/property/request-for-proposals-downtown-bloomington-illinois-wesleyan-land/
Here’s what I need:
Stories from people who weren’t the “Right Fit” and either discouraged or denied the ability to start or expand a business in either Bloomington or Normal.
Maybe the permit process was too burdensome. Maybe staff was less than helpful. Maybe the requirements for getting permits was ridiculous.
I don’t have to have names, but this project would be better if the person I’m working with could talk to you.
Either comment below or send me an email: [email protected]
There are 10,000 stories in the naked city. Tell Diane yours!
I live and work in the country for a reason!
In reality, one need NOT even do all this. just drive through Bloomington and “uptown” and SEE for yourself ALL the rental space (commercial) that is available! MOST of Bloomington west of Center and north of Front st. MOST of Eastland mall?? (do they still have a store other then Kohls?) and others which have been torn down. How about the Burned out gas station next to Steak N Shake on veterans? Maybe mr Koos can tell us what’s going on THERE? It’s been empty over a year. Right fit??
NOT to mention ONE uptown circle joke. Maybe the Mariott being sold will bring MILLIONS of tax dollars?? WAIT, isn’t that a J.B. Pritzker company? So much for taxes there..
A list of entities who have left would show the story. GE, Admiral, Eureka, Sears, Penney’s, the Corvette show, the list is long. Downtown Bloomington has a chance to grow, but if you water your flowers too much they die.
NOT to mention we USED to have ONE of the BEST air shows in the U.S.!
And a BUDGET surplus..
Thanks, it started as a hanger dance with a one plane air show, got big, and lost its’ beautiful aircraft. If you are looking for political hanky-panky take a look at the Bloomington Airport Authority which for the last sixty years has been an unbridled taxing body.
They aren’t the only one.
Far be it from me to defend either of the cities or the airport authority, but the loss of the high speed jet air show is at least 95% because of the new residential development surrounding the airport property to the North, South and East. I remember some family friends who where scheduled to be married at St. Patrick’s of Merna during the last airshow held at CIRA. The FAA and the airport folks forced them to delay their wedding until later in the day, after the military demonstration team was done performing (can’t remember which), because St. Pats was in the flight path and turning radius for the F-16s or F-18s, whichever, and was required to be unoccupied during the show. Now there are subdivisions with hundreds of homes in that same radius, so it would be impossible to safely have a jet airshow.
“Without any qualifications or authority, both Bloomington and Normal use “Right Fit” because they want to control the means of production.”
Bloomington and Normal want to control the means of production? How do they want to control the means of production? Does Bloomington own State Farm? Does Normal own Rivian? Does Bloomington own all the businesses downtown? The same with Normal. They clearly do not own the “means” of production. Which would include owning farms and ALL property and utilities. You just write that with no evidence so that you can scare your readers that local government is some sort of socialist boogeyman. You clearly have no idea what your talking about when you’re discussing local government. If both Bloomington and Normal actually OWNED GE, Admiral, Eureka, Sears, those corporations would still be in business. The fact that they are not, means that those corporations made business decisions based on capitalism not some far fetched “control means of production”. That is still happening in both towns capitalism.
Thanks for playing
“because they want to control the means of production.”
Excuse me you wrote that not me. My one question was and still is how is either town controlling the means of production? You are clearly insinuating that both towns are Marxist socialist enclaves that somehow are “producing” something you don’t like. “Production” means something that’s tangible, goods, either manufactured or grown. “Control” means that they dominate the distribution of said products usually in held in common rather than by the individual in capitalism. You seem to insert tropes that you don’t understand. “Control of the means of production” was part of the philosophy of Karl Marx which he wrote about extensively. It’s pretty clear that you have no understanding of Marxism, neither do your readers, or you wouldn’t have written the above assertion about controlling production when that’s not happening in either town. It’s pretty sad that if someone writes a reasoned comment, they are accused of smoking weed. They are also called “buffoons”.
You clearly do not pay attention and haven’t read here very much. Bloomington prints “Right Fit” in their council documents. If they don’t approve forget about locating your business here. Normal pays the businesses they want to see and discourages the ones they don’t want to see. Both are Marxist controls of the economy. Free market capitalism isn’t allowed to flourish in either city. Ask some local business owners what would happen to them if they criticized either town. I know they keep their mouths shut because they would be tortured for doing so, Go live in your dream world elsewhere.
What a buffoon!
We just came off a full men and it is obvious Ben Lux is still feeling the effects….plus maybe a little bit of that new legal weed. No doubt a friend of Tari and Chrissy.
When the town arbitrarily decides whether you pay sales tax or not, whether you pay more than literally-couch-cushion-change for property, whether you pay any rent, whether you have to follow ‘right fit’ building codes, whether you are liable for a mistake They made over a decade ago, whether you have to pay all your payroll expenses, whether you can charge well above market rates and still get contracts, and so on, that’s not exactly ‘capitalism’.
True, ‘Crony Capitalism’ isn’t exactly Marxism either. I’d more say it’s Fascism. But rather than distract from the real issue by arguing specific terminology, the good and honest among us should be able to agree
It’s Wrong.