By: Diane Benjamin
FYI: The Council that hired Tim Gleason and that mayor are long gone. Gleason was hired to revitalize downtown because he revitalized Decatur’s (sort of). After 5:00 very little happens in the closed up downtown businesses. It is nothing like Bloomington’s downtown that exists for lawyers, people accused of crimes, homeless people, and bar patrons. Did anyone ask Tony’s Tacos why they left downtown?
After the April elections the Council needs to meet and decide what Bloomington needs and what the City Manager’s job is now. Bring It On Bloomington was a HUGE flop. The few that responded to that survey are driving the agenda anyway. They want downtown revitalization, the rest of the City would prefer drivable roads, sewers that don’t back up, and lower taxes.
To be fair the current Council wants to be the infrastructure council. They are throwing a lot of money at the problem but decades of failing to fund essential government projects won’t be fixed this decade.
Now for the Coliseum:
In May of 2021 the Convention and Visitors Bureau agreed to rent the second floor of the Coliseum for $2100 a month for 5 years.
PDF page 245: http://bloomingtonil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=1&ID=1116&Inline=True
Meanwhile Bloomington pays them more than the rent – this is just ONE payment:
Besides IHSA events, Riverman Hockey, ISU Hockey, Farmers Markets, and an occasional other event, the Coliseum now has a new use:
That facility (including interest) plus all the repairs and maintenance including millions to make it ADA compliant has to have racked up bills close to $100,000,000 since the early 2000’s.
Maybe a bunch of the 831 employees Bloomington has now are getting ready to retire. Every single new hire makes the pension debt worse. That makes the Coliseum is a fitting place to hold a job fair.
It isn’t Grossinger Motors Arena – the naming rights agreement expired in June of 2022.
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This is a job fair for the many seasonal jobs listed on the city’s website.
https://www.bloomingtonil.gov/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/15796/17?curdate=2-26-2023
These aren’t going to be pension earning jobs.
Why do they continue to refer to it as Grossinger Arena? It should be called Markowitz Arena. It’s her fault that it’s there, as well as the Idiot Bloomington council who voted yes inspite of the TAX PAYERS voting NO.
The place went downhill when Miller’s Tru-Value Hardware closed and the monkeys were gone. I’m old enough to remember it being about where the “Elephant Dome” is at.
Someone needs to come in and bulldoze the whole area and level it all. Open up some green space with new buildings with better parking.
You know it was used as a warming center last winter and this winter for the homeless!! They were allowed in the suites to stay.
I wonder who was paid to babysit them?