By: Diane Benjamin
The actual City Council meeting was only about 30 minutes long. The video is about 43 minutes because the City plays commercials before and after now.
Surena Fish spoke at Public Comment. The downtown business owners held a meeting last night with the Bloomington police concerning the problems with vagrants downtown. Listen to her short clip:
There is no purpose in creating a downtown TIF when regular people don’t want to be there because it isn’t safe.
City Manager Jeff Jurgens reported that camping along Constitution Trail crosses a line. He has instructed staff and the police to fix it, downtown must be fine because he didn’t mention them:
h/t a reader
Tents are springing up at other places too, these aren’t downtown. The red tent is close to the armory. The middle picture is on Center Street by Advanced Auto. The right picture is the old Pantagraph Building, I think that space has been occupied for a long time.
I still don’t have pics from Normal. There are more tents on the west side of town by McDonald’s.
Google “tent city” in California or even Milwaukee. Progressives are wreaking cities by allowing public camping and calling it compassion. It isn’t compassion to enable criminal behavior to feed addiction. If tent dwellers have no consequences for their behavior the behavior will continue and will grow. Bloomington will look like a 3rd world country. These people are homeless by choice.
If you don’t buy that, blame local, state, and federal leadership for the terrible economy.
Entire meeting:
The “tent city” problem of Bloomington is a nationwide problem for predominantly “Blue cities” and “Blue States”. The problem has been created through various political and economic policies. Having these “blue states, blue counties and local governments” being ran by Democrats that voice their alleged “social or moral” goals, of social justice. While simultaneously, destroy the local economy through taxation, create an atmosphere that is anti-business, and increase government bureaucracy spending, manpower, and inefficiency to ensure citizens cannot afford to complain. As well as in a combination of ineptness (Connect transit Electric bus “investment”, fiasco and total waste of tax dollars), incompetence (EV investments without electric infrastructure in place), total ignorance (nepotism, cronyism), purposeful elitist policies to control the masses (minimum wage increases to keep them happy, provide welfare to the poor that barely allows them to survive, just enough to keep them “on the Democrats plantation”.
Typical socialist ideological policies that utilize government resources and programs. Marx 101: Create the problem, offer the solution, make sure to maintain control/dependence afterwards.
Now the problem has reached epidemic proportion, tents, drugs, crime, homeless families. With the Democrats unwilling to do anything for fear of losing “political clout”. Can’t be tough on crime, can’t support the police, have to be passionate and give free drugs and alcohol (California) to the addicts or the Democrat politicians will be eaten alive by their own party.
It’s time to let the adults make the decisions. Vote Republican this November and end the past 100 years of Socialist Party destruction of our Country, State, County and Town.
Well said Chad
To think homelessness is a D problem and not a R problem just shows your biasness. Ever been to Dallas or Oklahoma City? Their homeless populations are some of the worst in the nation and not only are they Red states but also Red cities. Same with Omaha, Miami, and Tulsa. All some of the worst…and red…..
The people living in tents aren’t homeless. They choose to do it, easy when do-gooders feed them and others hand them gift cards they sell for cash.
The occupant of the old Pantagraph building doorway literally serves as an ironic reminder of how far “Journalism” has fallen !