By: Diane Benjamin
The County, Bloomington, and Normal rely on data collected by the McLean County Regional Planning Commission to make plans. MCRPC did surveys so much of their data is determined by who answered the survey. Remember Bring It On Bloomington that has a dismal response rate but became the GOLD standard anyway? https://blnnews.com/2014/09/19/bring-it-on-bloomington-flops/
There is A LOT of data in the Long Range Transportation Plan. If you haven’t at least scanned it you need to know local governments are planning based on this document:
PDF page 59:
The sources used for this data are listed at the bottom of the page.
The reasons for the declining population projections are out migration and low birth rate.
Since out migration continues across Illinois for lower tax and business friendly states these projections are likely right.
This note is on PDF page 58:
The data is already out of date because of the Rivian employment. Of course State Farm employment has declined so Rivian has replaced the lost employment.
The condition of the roads is mentioned numerous times by survey participants. So far I don’t see a plan to address that problem.
Scan the document! It’s long but a large part if the survey in multiple languages.
What a report! I don’t know whether it should be considered pie in the sky or paralysis by analysis. Let’s shut down the government for a year or two so they have time to produce all the reports that are expect to come out of this monstrosity. One thing for sure, if all of what’s in it are anywhere close to being incorporated, they need to at least double the projected costs.
One example that I would call pie in the sky –
Strategy 3 – Follow emerging technologies that may not reach fruition until beyond the plan horizon, or which in the plan’s first five years may still be unsupported by a functioning enterprise and untested as feasible, including but not limited to:
Task – Personal Air Vehicle, including eVTOL
Task – Drones for personal/passenger transport Task – Supersonic Passenger Jet
Task – Sub-orbital commercial passenger flight Task – Others as they are announced or subjected to study under Federal rules.
Performance metric – Monitoring of data and analysis acquired.
Why is Rivian not listed as a major employer if 3,000 work there? The real reason for the population declines present and future is little to no economic opportunity in BN. Leaders never worried about addressing economic diversification. Working folks see this over time and along with paying exhorbitant taxes for no reason get frustrated and leave. It will continue because leadership continues to bury their collective heads in the sand and think trendy industries will carry the day. These people are beyond ignorant.
Data is old, Rivian is up to around 7000
Wouldn’t believe a word from their p.r. department but go ahead. From my sources, it’s a revolving door. Latest word is the tires are lucky to last 10,000 miles. But hey, it’s BN’ s future.
Odd isn’t it. The rural areas are losing population while BN has several high density developments in the works. The leftist progressive marxist democrats will live in, and are being encouraged to move to BN, vote to make and keep the county blue.