By: Diane Benjamin Last night’s Bloomington Council meeting was long and tedious. A Township meeting preceded Council and an Executive Session followed. The meeting video is over 3 hours. It will take more than 1 story to cover the festivities. I will start with the Green Top Grocery extended sales tax rebate: . The current […]
By: Diane Benjamin Agenda: https://granicus_production_attachments.s3.amazonaws.com/cityblm/56f61f2af788b92fa68b9114de6d6e5d0.pdf On the Consent Agenda, meaning this won’t be discussed unless someone pulls it. If your business had “highly favored” status, you might also secure the deal Green Top Grocery receives. Their original “incentive” plan was signed nearly 10 years ago. That incentive was set to decrease and finally end in […]
By: Diane Benjamin Green Top hasn’t met their fundraising goal even with $20,000 from one donor and $5,000 from another. A few people gave $1,000, most of the others are $100 or less: https://www.gofundme.com/f/keep-local-organic-food-in-our-community Some ISU students want their own Green Top but can’t find anyone wanting to participate. Uptown is a food desert according […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.gofundme.com/f/keep-local-organic-food-in-our-community It wasn’t going well until somebody evidently walked in the store with $20,000: Still a long way to go, if you want this business open fund it.
H/T a Reader Green Top in 2020: “To show our solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement we will get permanent signage for our store. We are going to get a Black Lives Matter banner that will hang outside of our store facing Washington Street. We will remove the paper signs taped to the windows.” […]
By: Diane Benjamin Hendricks is running in Ward 6 against Jordan Baker. Ask Hendricks if he’s a closet socialist: Socialist former mayoral candidate Jackie Gunderson supports Hendricks: It appears Vicki Tilton and Tari Renner do too: (talking about campaign group) Willing to cheat to win? Just Funny – Green Top didn’t solve the food desert. […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader A reader gave me a multi-page Green Top ad that came with the newspaper. She told me she’s never seen them do an ad like this before. It rivals what Kroger or Jewel does. Have the investors seen a return on their investment yet? Besides ridiculous prices like this […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you want to see what bills are being paid they are no longer under City Council, probably because the Council never questions them at a meeting. They are now under Finance. The report still shows 970 employees: https://www.cityblm.org/home/showpublisheddocument/28098 Did you know this what your tax dollars pay every month? (Connect Transit) Green Top […]
By: Diane Benjamin If you shop at Green Top Grocery you might want to find a new place for groceries. I’ve been watching this play out on Facebook for awhile, now 25% of the staff claims they aren’t going to show up for work. Evidently one management person is making their lives miserable. There is […]
By: Diane Benjamin Due to Christmas the Bloomington City Council is changing their meeting schedule. They will be meeting tonight. One item on the agenda: It should be riveting to hear discussion of data that is 8 months old. Congrats Bloomington, you aren’t supposed to know any facts in a timely manner. I wonder if […]
By: Diane Benjamin https://www.wglt.org/post/renner-calls-city-rejoin-metcom-system#stream/0 Tari Renner has been mayor for 7 1/2 years. On his way out he finally gets around to calling for Bloomington’s dispatch to return to METCOM! Leaving METCOMN was a boneheaded idea and should NEVER have happened. Think government works for you? Tari, you could have done something much earlier to […]
By: Diane Benjamin h/t a reader Below is what the parking lot at Green Top Grocery looked like around 2:00pm Sunday: The reader told me 8 staff vehicles were parked at the back of the lot. Maybe Green Top customers are too afraid to shop there now, One misstep, say the wrong words, and you […]
By: Diane Benjamin Green Top Grocery has a program called Positive Change. Customers that bring their own bag get and token with which to “Vote” for a non-profit. There doesn’t appear to be any benefit of winning the “vote”. Instead of choosing non-profits that aren’t controversial, Green Top must want to alienate at least half […]
By: Diane Benjamin Diana Hauman is going to represent Bloomington on the McLean County Regional Planning Commission when her term as alderman ends April 30th. The MCRPC site shows two vacancies for representing Bloomington. I do know one of them occurred when Michael Gorman announced he is moving to Chicago. Green Top Grocery will need […]
By: Diane Benjamin This comment is from one of GreenTop’s Facebook pages: I will explain why the comment was made in a minute. GreenTop might be a place to avoid If you believe: you have a right to defend yourself your right to protect yourself shall not be infringed – Second Amendment to the Constitution […]
By: Diane Benjamin I really hope the people who keep throwing money in have requested to see certified financial statements! Trust but verify! From an email yesterday:
By: Diane Benjamin Green Top Grocery claimed they needed $400,000 by November 12th or they would close. So far $52,500 has been raised. Below is the email sent to members yesterday. Yes, eventually other people’s money runs out:
By: Diane Benjamin The live video of last night’s Bloomington City Council meeting wasn’t working for much of the meeting, the Council microphones weren’t working for any of it. The only one that worked was on the podium. Green Top has to wait until the end of August to find out if their customers will […]
By: Diane Benjamin Consultants are always wrong. Human behavior can not be predicted, too many decisions are made under unforeseen circumstances. People and government keep wasting money on them anyway. The sports complex consultants will be wrong too, especially if they think people will drive from the far east side to the far west side […]
By: Diane Benjamin According to Kyle Ham (Economic Development Council) at last night’s Bloomington Council meeting: McLean County lost 2000 jobs between 2015 and 2016 K-12 schools are down 1100 students in the last 5 years which affects aid from the State New housing starts are down 56% from 2000 to today 8 out of […]
By: Diane Benjamin See the Council agenda for Monday night here: http://www.cityblm.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=12388 In case he loses the election, Tari is making sure all the Boards and Commissions are stacked with his people. (He may not realize a few of those aren’t – but I’m not going to tell him which ones) Everything he has planned […]
By: Diane Benjamin There are people in Bloomington who don’t care what high taxes under Tari Renner are doing to the poor. How many Bloomington residents know the City DOUBLED the amount landlords pay to register properties? Who is hurt? Renters – the poor. If any members of the Council complain about high rents so […]
By: Diane Benjamin The City of Bloomington made a BIG deal when Green Top Grocery picked a site to build. Last Monday person after person spoke to the Council about the GREATNESS of this project and how they needed a tax rebate to open. Turns out they don’t have the money to build. All those […]
