By: Diane Benjamin

I’m just now getting back to Bloomington’s Monday night meeting!

The other big item on the agenda was the 5 year plan for Community Development Block Grant Funds (CDBG). Screen shots from the video:

The City of Bloomington conducted a citizen survey. Look at all the staff time spent trying to elicit responses:

See 37:00. The survey was available in 3 languages and took place from April 2nd to September 1st this year. Note: 5 months.

How many completed surveys did all those staff hours produce?

1408

Staff was thrilled because the last survey only had 774 responses. See 41:34.

I don’t see this presentation on line where the slides would be clearer.

See 42:45. A lot more females responded to the survey than males. It would be nice if the respondent’s Time Lived In the Community was clear. It looks like more than half have been here at least 6 years, a large percent for over 25 years.

Jump to 43:13. 26% can not find adequate housing, 45% do not have the ability to cover emergency expenses. That slide was prominent in the Council decision to keep the property tax levy flat later in the meeting.

The slide that follows is barely readable, but many reported their homes are in need of repairs.

Below are the top 8 priorities from the survey:

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The next slide shows the areas identified for revitalization. The City shouldn’t be surprised West Bloomington had the highest percentage. Downtown has a much lower percent. Notice how the City has spent decades trying to revitalize downtown instead of the west side?

A series of slides follow that tell how priories were arrived at. 47:17 lists those priorities. I don’t see a correlation between the below and the 8 priorities above.

Free Federal money comes with lots of regulations. All of this was required to keep getting it. This was just a presentation, it didn’t require a vote by the Council.

Just hit play to hear: