By: Diane Benjamin Last Monday City Manager Jeff Jurgen announced there was plenty of parking downtown – Just hit Play: . Mayor Brady is quoted in this WGLT story stating the opposite: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-12-16/bloomington-considers-downtown-trolley-service-during-parking-crunch Brady wants a trolley service when big events are going on because parking near the places holding events is limited. Which is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Connect Transit employees, who are members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, have been working without a contract since June 30. Public comment at the Connect Transit Board meeting featured the union’s president and financial secretary/treasurer. Union members also attended respectfully and held signs. According to the speakers, the Connect Transit attorney has […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you want to buy something and then find out the cost is more than twice what you expected, what do you do? If you’re the Town of Normal and want to save 50 feet with an underpass that vehicles can’t even use, you plow ahead and look for more money from […]
By: Diane Benjamin Last night Nick Becker, Jenna Kearns, and Kent Lee didn’t attend the meeting. That is 1/3 of your elected representatives not representing their wards. Since every vote is pre-planned it doesn’t really matter anyway. Democracy! PSCRB Board member Surena Fish wants to make sure the public knows about this meeting tomorrow: https://granicus_production_attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/cityblm/2f098c7371fcadaa33ede54dd302dbd50.pdf […]
By: Diane Benjamin Surrena Fish was back with an update on Tent City. She claimed there is a waiting list now and police had to be called to break up a fight. Just hit play to hear her comments. The Connect Transit update on the downtown transfer station isn’t that long. If you don’t want […]
By: Diane Benjamin Bloomington has been tired of spending money on the Market Street Garage for many years, but I certainly don’t remember a vote to hand it over to Connect Transit. That garage belongs to Bloomington residents. I can’t wait to see how they make this one legal. An Intergovernmental Agreement will probably appear […]
By: Diane Benjamin Congrats to Connect Transit for figuring out a way to be transparent. I don’t know if this is a permanent change or only because Tim Gleason was attending remotely. What they accomplished was getting slides and remote speakers on the video instead of just on the screens in the room that can […]
By: Diane Benjamin March 28, 2023 meeting: https://www.connect-transit.com/file/1222/03%2028%202023_BoT%20Meeting%20Packet.pdf Connect had an operating deficit in March of $1,231,478. Every Fixed Route passenger was subsidized $5.13, celebrate though! February was $6.23. Every ride on Mobility was subsidized $34.75. Celebrate again because in February it was $34.90. Read the Congressional Update starting on page 13. It details the […]
By: Diane Benjamin Don’t feel sorry for the Pantagraph if Connect Transit decides to use Bloomington’s parking garage on West Market for their new downtown transfer station. They sold it in 2016. Feel sorry for Oak LLC, they own it: From the Recorder’s website: Bloomington is tired of repairing the Market Street garage and they […]
By: Diane Benjamin When Connect transit was trying to decide where the downtown transfer station should be, they stated many riders use the bus to get to the Laws and Justice Center or the Library. The location they picked is the farthest from either. Buses could have dropped people where CII East is now, it’s […]
By: Diane Benjamin Obviously Connect Transit isn’t building a simply downtown transfer station with your tax dollars. Those State and Federal grants they received are TAX dollars even though that term is never used. All a transfer station needs are lanes for buses to enter and exist and some building to protect riders who are […]
By: Diane Benjamin Not wanting to vote against the Welcoming America initiative, Jenn Carrillo and Jeff Crabill were MIA last night. Next week they will present their own Welcoming Ordinance, a parade of illegal immigration supporters will appear. Carrillo sent the below to the aldermen she thought she could influence. Her attempt failed, they all […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-SgGF0uzhIlXeWqdYlJ0blXEhDPLrrfh/view I could write the same story as every other month. Expenses for October were over $1,1 MILLION, Income was a little less than $59,000, meaning a loss for ONE MONTH of $973,317. No big deal since government keeps throwing them millions of dollars to them to run empty buses. Of course […]
By: Diane Benjamin Received by FOIA. Click on any of the below to see what they wrote: Chamber of Commerce Chris Koos Darin Lahood McLean County Regional Planning Commission Economic Development Council Rodney Davis Tammy Duckworth Tari Renner The cost to taxpayers: No location was identified in the documents I received. How do they know […]
By: Diane Benjamin One more thing from Monday’s Bloomington Council meeting – see 2:45, Tim Gleason’s COVID comments. The City will be implementing a Customer Service Hub at what Gleason calls the Arena, most call it the Coliseum. He claims it will be a one stop shop for citizens. All of these departments will be […]
See response to FOIA below: By: Diane Benjamin First a side note to Tim. Since you have a FOIAable email address I’ll say thanks here. US Representative Rodney Davis was on Cities 92.9 this morning with Steve Suess. Davis was asked about the $8 million grant to Connect Transit for a downtown Bloomington transfer station. […]
By: Diane Benjamin Other items from Monday’s meeting could be covered, but I won’t! Links to all previous stories are here: https://blnnews.com/2020/07/08/story-6-normal-monday/ Isaac Thorne and Julie Hile made a presentation. Start with this screen shot: Thorne proved Pritzker’s budget is a joke by relying on a $5 billion bailout from the Feds AND the citizens […]
By: Diane Benjamin At least the walk will be shorter for Pantagraph reporters if Bloomington City Hall moves some of their offices to the Government Center. Of course we had to find out from the paper: https://www.pantagraph.com//govt-and-politics/bloomington-city-hall-council-meetings-to-move-to-county-government-center You have to read down to find out Connect Transit may chose the old City Hall building for […]
By: Diane Benjamin Contract Transit met on 6/23/2020: Meeting documentation Can supporters of Connect Transit explain why a system of empty buses with deficits that loses close to 1 MILLION every month is a valid use of taxpayer money? Whatever they say can’t possibly justify this abomination that only gets worse with continued spending on […]
By: Diane Benjamin I’ve reported before that Justin Boyd will be running for something on the Bloomington City Council in less than a year. Boyd is best buds with Tari Renner. Boyd was Tari’s campaign manager, appointed by Tari to the Downtown Task Force, appointed by Tari to the Planning Commission, helped collect signatures for […]
By: Diane Benjamin Since the Connect Transit Board failed to meet in March, at the April 28th meeting stats and financials for February and March were presented. April 2020 Board Meeting Packet Ridership was down since the college kids are mostly missing and businesses are closed: A graph like the above was not included in […]
By: Diane Benjamin Question that will never be answered: The main Connect Transit office used to be downtown before they built new offices on the far west side. Why do they need a transfer station downtown now when they abandoned downtown? Poor planning? From the Board Packets: https://www.connect-transit.com/about/trustees/packet.asp Why was there a huge drop in […]
By: Diane Benjamin Some people think Medicare for All would be fabulous. Dig slightly deeper folks, it would be a disaster! Compare Medicare for All to Connect Transit. Some people think access to public transportation is a “right”, these same people think healthcare is a “right”. Neither are “rights” because both require other people to […]
By: Diane Benjamin The people wanting accountability from Connect Transit aren’t going away. They will be at Tari’s Open House on Friday: Details: Join riders, advocates, and concerned community members as we call on Mayor Renner to choose rider representation over favoritism on the Connect Transit Board! With two seats vacating on the Connect Transit […]
Since common sense isn’t allowed on the Connect Transit Board, I can’t ask a simple question. Why not plan routes so people don’t have to transfer buses? I know one answer: No transfer and they don’t get counted twice as riding. From: Jeff Holtke <jholtke@connect-transit.com> Date: Fri, May 17, 2019 at 11:46 AM Subject: CONNECT TRANSIT TO […]
By: Diane Benjamin It should be more than obvious that Connect Transit is not meeting the needs of people who MUST have public transportation. Proof: Buses that are too big to run in places formerly served – mobile home parks, neighborhoods with narrow streets cutting routes and increasing fares political appointments to the Connect Transit […]
By: Diane Benjamin Hit play below to hear Tari’s message. He spoke for around 15 minutes even though he started his speech with it would be shorter than usual. He credits cuts for balancing the budget – solid waste finally balances. (They finally transferred all costs to taxpayers meaning you pay more now) He claims […]
