By: Diane Benjamin
The code changes the City needs apply only to landlords. They don’t get City garbage service, they have to contract privately. I have no idea who created this plan, Normal picks up everything including bulk whenever it’s on the curb-not just twice a year.
The problem for years has been landlords cleaning out apartments and dumping the mess on the curb. The City will eventually pick up it up and bill them but not before it trashes neighborhoods.
The City wants to increase the fees and give landlords a deadline before the City steps in. Two weeks was offered, council wants it much less. Expect the changes next week.
This one was easy, the rest of the meeting wasn’t. Stay tuned!
Let’s combine Bloomington and Normal!
We can pick out what each city does “right” and ditch the other approach. I would say Normal provides EXCELLENT trash services! And Bloomington screws around, so Bloomington always looks like crap with trash everywhere. LOL
I use Hensons trash service. Cheaper than city and they pick up bulk waste…usually free of charge as long as its nothing so large it wont fit in their trash truck. If it is something big, like a couch for example, you just need to call and notify them and they send a bigger truck out and I think it’s only like $25 or something like that.
BTW – Trash is another factor that adds to higher rents here!
Because people leave behind a lot of personal items and furniture when they move out, the landlords are stuck paying for labor costs to pick-up and move everything AND then pay for trash removal on crap that is not theirs (and should have never been left behind).
Let’s place the blame where it really belongs =
Which is on the TENANTS who do not properly clean out their apartment or home when they vacate!
And of course, those tenants never think they should be charged for the clean-up of all their crap!
But the tenants won’t pay movers to load up their stuff so they can take everything with them.
At the end of the day – our taxes/fees/costs are so high,
Bloomington should be picking up all of the trash every week.
Normal does a fantastic job of keeping their streets picked up and looking nice!
With what these SLUM LORDS in Bloomington are charging for rent, I would leave my shit behind too. When they are out there charging $1300 a month for a one bedroom shithole, they can afford to remove a shitty couch. I have no sympathy for these people charging rent that’s more than double my mortgage.
What happened to Bloomington’s inspection program?
The Bloomington Inspection program is alive & well…
There are multiple Inspectors on staff (and accumulating their public sector pensions)
My opinion =
“We the people” do not need to employ more inspectors
(More government doesn’t solve problems)
They are checking apartments with nothing wrong but not holding slum lords accountable. It was always pretend enforcement
If the apartment was not to someone’s liking – why would someone rent from a “slum lord”?
I have not seen any 1-Bedroom apartments in Bloomington for $1300 per month…
Do you remember the address of the 1-bedroom apartment for $1300?
Sounds as though you are a homeowner “rent double my mortgage” So you are probably experiencing higher property taxes, higher insurance and higher repair costs to your home…. These costs are all higher for the landlords and attribute to the higher rent prices.
1909 Tracy Drive, Apt 7, 1 Bedroom apartment $1237 a month. Not 1300 but close enough. I was helping a friend and there is nothing under $840 available.
None of this comment is accurate…
1909 Tracy are 2-bedrooms condos, not 1-bedroom apartments
And I see there are many 1-bedroom apartments in the $600-800 range
1909 Tracy Dr is a condo building made up of 2-bedroom and 1-bath units. This means these units have all of the other fees PLUS an HOA fee that is added-in so that drives up the prices of these condo units even higher than a typical apartment.
There are many 1-bedrooms apartments “under $840 available” I just searched.
Here is an example of a 1-bedroom for $625/month that is posted on the Internet & available now =
https://www.trulia.com/building/2214-5-peirce-st-2214-1-2-peirce-ave-bloomington-il-61701-1136751541?cid=shr%257Cwww_desktop%257Crent%257Cpdp%253Aoverview%253Ahero%257Ccopylink
Rents are high because of our high property taxes & fees, insurance rates and high cost of labor+materials….