WEBVTT 00:00:00.546 --> 00:00:09.194 - Welcome. We're at six o'clock, so we can officially start. I am Mayor Carey, and I have Director Tim 00:00:09.194 --> 00:00:17.928 - Street with Parks here with me today. And if you're new to these town halls, these are an opportunity 00:00:17.928 --> 00:00:26.834 - really to... I give you an update. I usually invite a cabinet member. We always invite the city council 00:00:26.834 --> 00:00:30.430 - member from the district to come as well. 00:00:30.530 --> 00:00:37.419 - I'll give an update. Tim will give an update. Councilmember Zulek is in this district and unfortunately 00:00:37.419 --> 00:00:44.175 - she couldn't be with us tonight and sends her regrets and wants you all to know that she is available 00:00:44.175 --> 00:00:50.799 - to you. So if you live in this district and we're hoping to see Councilmember Zulek tonight, please 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:52.190 - do reach out to her. 00:00:52.322 --> 00:01:00.994 - She will be with me tomorrow, and I expect we'll probably have low attendance here tonight because tomorrow 00:01:00.994 --> 00:01:09.426 - I have a listening session that is particularly targeted to hearing feedback about the Kirkwood closure. 00:01:09.426 --> 00:01:16.894 - So if you're here tonight and you can't come tomorrow, please feel free to express yourself. 00:01:16.962 --> 00:01:23.971 - I'm hoping not to spend a bunch of time on Kirkwood tonight, though, because I know people have other 00:01:23.971 --> 00:01:31.393 - things they'd like to talk about. So these town halls are really meant for you. I'll give you some updates, 00:01:31.393 --> 00:01:38.265 - Tim will give you some updates, but then, you all get to ask questions based on what you would like 00:01:38.265 --> 00:01:44.862 - to hear more about. We do try to end on time, and my thanks to the Monroe County History Center 00:01:44.930 --> 00:01:51.473 - for hosting us tonight. We do move these town halls around. So we have six council districts. 00:01:51.473 --> 00:01:58.642 - We move them. So we hit each council district throughout the year. And on the months that I don't have 00:01:58.642 --> 00:02:06.298 - town halls, I instead have traveling office hours. And that's a time that you can connect with me one-on-one. 00:02:06.298 --> 00:02:12.702 - We do have you sign up ahead of time for those office hours so that people don't have to be 00:02:12.930 --> 00:02:21.128 - standing around waiting for a turn. You know when you will have a chance to sit down with me. 00:02:21.128 --> 00:02:29.850 - And as always, thanks to Katz for being here and making us accessible to the folks at home. I wanna 00:02:29.850 --> 00:02:32.990 - wish everybody a happy Pride Month. 00:02:33.090 --> 00:02:40.750 - In Bloomington, this mayor celebrates Pride Month. I know we've had a declaration of Pride Month that 00:02:40.750 --> 00:02:48.486 - also came with a proclamation about nuclear families. And I want to tell you that we celebrate organic 00:02:48.486 --> 00:02:55.996 - families here in Bloomington, which is all kinds of families. And love means love here. And we want 00:02:55.996 --> 00:03:03.056 - everybody to feel welcome and supported in Bloomington. And I think our community does really 00:03:03.056 --> 00:03:14.162 - great job of that. Let me start with a few updates, and I'm going to try to keep this super short, probably 00:03:14.162 --> 00:03:21.566 - unsuccessfully. We are celebrating, in May, we had unanimous votes from 00:03:21.698 --> 00:03:30.699 - council following the unanimous vote of Plan Commission earlier in the year for the first phase of the 00:03:30.699 --> 00:03:39.876 - Hopewell development and we are really pleased with that that will provide compact lots some multifamily 00:03:39.876 --> 00:03:44.158 - housing there and of course the core building is 00:03:44.354 --> 00:03:51.036 - close to completion, and we're really excited about that. Hopewell is also home to our farmers market 00:03:51.036 --> 00:03:57.718 - every Tuesday. Tim may mention that as well. So we hope that you come out and enjoy Hopewell Commons. 00:03:57.718 --> 00:04:04.727 - We have it programmed with music every Tuesday night. So it's a great place to hang out, buy some produce, 00:04:04.727 --> 00:04:06.430 - and listen to some music. 00:04:07.330 --> 00:04:16.997 - I want to talk for a minute about SEA 285. That is the statehouse bill that illegalizes sleeping outside 00:04:16.997 --> 00:04:26.479 - on public land. That goes into effect on July 1st, and I am pleased to say that in the past two years, 00:04:26.479 --> 00:04:30.622 - we have taken a really strategic approach to 00:04:30.722 --> 00:04:38.142 - to entrenched encampments. There were more than a dozen when I took office as mayor. When they become 00:04:38.142 --> 00:04:45.853 - unsafe, we have been providing, when possible and almost always it has been possible, we provide a 30-day 00:04:45.853 --> 00:04:50.654 - notice along with outreach to the residents of those encampments. 00:04:50.850 --> 00:05:00.872 - for services and we have successfully closed down more than a dozen of those camps. There's only one 00:05:00.872 --> 00:05:10.895 - remaining and we have already noticed it given the deadline that we have of July 1st. What the state 00:05:10.895 --> 00:05:19.230 - house ruling says is that we can then only give a 48-hour notice and if there is no 00:05:19.362 --> 00:05:27.540 - no alternative place for somebody to go, or they refuse to move, that we are compelled to arrest them. 00:05:27.540 --> 00:05:36.115 - We don't want to be in that situation. So we have, we believe, only seven residents left in our encampment. 00:05:36.115 --> 00:05:44.770 - That is less than half the size that it was when we noticed it. And so, what we've found pretty successfully 00:05:44.770 --> 00:05:47.390 - is when we send outreach workers 00:05:47.522 --> 00:05:57.587 - and work in partnership with the residents of those camps. They do move willingly. We really continue 00:05:57.587 --> 00:06:07.848 - our call for reunification where possible. When people don't have supportive services and network here, 00:06:07.848 --> 00:06:12.190 - we know that they will get services better. 00:06:12.802 --> 00:06:21.488 - if they are close to where their family of origin is or where their most recent supportive network is. 00:06:21.488 --> 00:06:30.006 - I wanna talk for a minute about infrastructure and roads. As I mentioned, Kirkwood listening session 00:06:30.006 --> 00:06:38.270 - is tomorrow, so I'm not gonna talk about Kirkwood closure tonight. It is construction season now. 00:06:38.370 --> 00:06:49.613 - And what I like to say during construction season is sorry, and you're welcome. You will see our trucks 00:06:49.613 --> 00:07:02.046 - out, contractor's trucks out. We are spending this year, as of June 1st, we have already addressed 6,242 potholes. 00:07:02.210 --> 00:07:11.851 - in calendar year 2026, not that we're counting. And we have $4.7 million of improvements along Kirkwood, 00:07:11.851 --> 00:07:21.309 - Rogers Street, Grimes Lane, Patterson Drive, all coming to you this season. That planned work includes 00:07:21.309 --> 00:07:31.134 - street paving, some sidewalk improvements and repairs, accessible curb ramps, traffic signal improvements, 00:07:31.586 --> 00:07:40.335 - We have curb changes and stormwater infrastructure and median islands and bump outs for traffic control, 00:07:40.335 --> 00:07:46.334 - all happening within that $4.7 million. So there's a lot going on in... 00:07:46.594 --> 00:07:55.537 - on various streets this summer and thank you for your patience as we work to improve our infrastructure. 00:07:55.537 --> 00:08:04.480 - You might also notice that we have a new raised sidewalk or crosswalk across Rogers near near Switchyard 00:08:04.480 --> 00:08:11.294 - Park. If you don't notice the signage before you go over it, you will certainly 00:08:12.034 --> 00:08:22.967 - notice the raised walk. So that is to encourage people slowing down and pedestrian safety there. 00:08:22.967 --> 00:08:34.576 - And again, if you don't know this already, we will be closing College Avenue so that they can complete 00:08:34.576 --> 00:08:36.830 - the overpass there. 00:08:37.506 --> 00:08:45.364 - And so that's gonna be about a month-long closure. And I know that's a hassle. I am sorry, and we'll 00:08:45.364 --> 00:08:53.144 - all be happy when it's done, but we are really pleased to be working in conjunction with the CIB on 00:08:53.144 --> 00:09:00.379 - that, and to be able to do it at one of our slowest traffic times of the year. So hopefully, 00:09:00.379 --> 00:09:07.070 - those alternative routes will work out for you. Talk a minute about community safety. 00:09:07.426 --> 00:09:18.027 - You may have noticed that I chaired a meeting this past week in collaboration with County Councilmember 00:09:18.027 --> 00:09:28.423 - Kate Wilts on the topic of the new jail. To be clear, the jail is paid for and run by the county, and 00:09:28.423 --> 00:09:33.214 - there may be some things, while it is a county 00:09:33.378 --> 00:09:41.275 - project, it's obviously a concern to our whole community. I engaged because it's a community impact 00:09:41.275 --> 00:09:49.566 - project, and really, we needed to make sure that the county knows and that we're at the table when we're 00:09:49.566 --> 00:09:57.541 - needed, that we're willing to partner in any way we can to facilitate the planning that they need or 00:09:57.541 --> 00:10:00.542 - other things that may help facilitate 00:10:00.674 --> 00:10:09.040 - ease of finding a new location for that jail. So not our project. I did chair the meeting. I will be 00:10:09.040 --> 00:10:17.737 - on the working group. I am looking forward to this renewed collaboration with the county. We collaborate 00:10:17.737 --> 00:10:26.682 - on many things. This is a new work topic for us, and I'm really hopeful that we'll make some good progress. 00:10:26.682 --> 00:10:28.670 - Fire and police are all 00:10:28.770 --> 00:10:36.715 - increasing their staffing. Fire is now fully staffed. Police is getting very close. We have a goal of 00:10:36.715 --> 00:10:44.815 - getting police fully staffed by the end of this calendar year, so I'm very hopeful that we'll make that 00:10:44.815 --> 00:10:52.604 - goal. Also, just a reminder or a news piece for all of you, if you see people in crisis this summer 00:10:52.604 --> 00:10:53.694 - and it is not 00:10:53.794 --> 00:11:01.044 - actively dangerous to the public, not a not a threat of crime. You see somebody out in the sun that 00:11:01.044 --> 00:11:08.657 - looks like they're having a health crisis, you witness somebody having a mental health crisis, the right 00:11:08.657 --> 00:11:16.270 - place to call is stride. So again, no imminent public danger. Desiree at the table over there has stride 00:11:16.270 --> 00:11:18.590 - cards. It's a great idea to put 00:11:18.722 --> 00:11:26.555 - that in your wallet so that you have the number handy, or you can just plug them right into your phone 00:11:26.555 --> 00:11:34.159 - 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. They have mobile outreach. They will go to the person who 00:11:34.159 --> 00:11:42.144 - is in need and help them, or people can stop by. Again, 24 hours, 7 days a week. They have mental health 00:11:42.144 --> 00:11:46.174 - professionals there. They are the right place to go. 00:11:46.434 --> 00:11:54.853 - If it's not criminal activity that's imminent threat to the public, please do call Stride because we 00:11:54.853 --> 00:12:03.189 - have been much more successful, ultimately, at getting people the help they need by using Stride. I 00:12:03.189 --> 00:12:11.525 - am going to turn things over to Tim with one final shout-out. We have lots of great things going on 00:12:11.525 --> 00:12:14.526 - this weekend. Friday is Juneteenth. 00:12:14.690 --> 00:12:23.705 - a really important celebration, end of slavery. We will celebrate down at Switchyard Park. That goes 00:12:23.705 --> 00:12:32.810 - on from 11 AM to 9 PM, so a good day-long festival at Switchyard. It's gonna be a blast. Always a fun 00:12:32.810 --> 00:12:42.718 - time for the whole family. And that's on Friday. Again at Switchyard, then, on Saturday, we have Grand Faloon. 00:12:42.978 --> 00:12:50.703 - This Saturday, we have Waxahachie giving a ticketed concert. We are really excited about that. And to 00:12:50.703 --> 00:12:57.821 - talk more about all the fun things in Bloomington, our Parks Director, Tim Street. All right. 00:12:57.821 --> 00:13:05.546 - Thank you. Thank you, Daniel. My name is Tim Street. One person applauded. I am the Director of Parks 00:13:05.546 --> 00:13:07.742 - and Recreation. He does not. 00:13:08.802 --> 00:13:13.981 - I am the director of parks and recreation for the city of Bloomington. I have a really great job. We 00:13:13.981 --> 00:13:19.262 - get to make Bloomington healthier, more connected, and more resilient in a lot of different ways. With 00:13:19.262 --> 00:13:24.441 - us tonight is Satoshi Kido, also our sports director. I'll just note that he's here in the audience. 00:13:24.441 --> 00:13:29.723 - Satoshi's a great leader for our sports division and is also available to talk if anyone wants to talk 00:13:29.723 --> 00:13:32.030 - about one of our sports related initiatives. 00:13:32.162 --> 00:13:37.919 - As Mayor Thompson noted, it's a busy time of year. There's a lot going on this weekend. There's a lot 00:13:37.919 --> 00:13:43.732 - going on this season. May and June are probably our busiest months of the year in terms of programming 00:13:43.732 --> 00:13:49.489 - and things going on and preparations. We've launched our Banneker and Allison Jukebox Kid City summer 00:13:49.489 --> 00:13:55.303 - camps. Those are in the middle of going on. We have concerts, a lot of concerts at the Tuesday market, 00:13:55.303 --> 00:14:01.342 - as well as events at Switchard. Just this past week, we completed the Strawberry Shortcake Festival, which 00:14:01.570 --> 00:14:07.734 - It's not our event, but we get to host it. It's a really big day. They had a 5K as well. Also, of course, 00:14:07.734 --> 00:14:13.550 - FoodTrump Fridays are going on through the summer. We've had a lot of great crowds and great energy 00:14:13.550 --> 00:14:19.424 - at Switchyard with everything going on. It's also a busy season because it's the season where we are 00:14:19.424 --> 00:14:23.262 - most stretched, trying to keep up with e-reports and tree growth. 00:14:23.554 --> 00:14:29.912 - limbs that overgrow trails, and all the things that come up during the course of a season that our staff 00:14:29.912 --> 00:14:36.028 - are out there really working tirelessly to clean, to trim, to maintain. And we know every May, June, 00:14:36.028 --> 00:14:42.205 - we get a little behind. We have to triage and get through things, and then we'll catch back up as the 00:14:42.205 --> 00:14:48.260 - summer goes on. So apologies if there's some branches and things like that. We're doing our best to 00:14:48.260 --> 00:14:48.926 - get to it. 00:14:49.090 --> 00:14:54.580 - We are really excited about the new partnership with IU for concerts at Switchyard. This is a really 00:14:54.580 --> 00:14:57.406 - great new mutually beneficial partnership to bring. 00:14:57.506 --> 00:15:03.558 - Grand Faloon to Switchyard Park to bring more concerts to Bloomington to create a regional profile where 00:15:03.558 --> 00:15:09.322 - people may start to hear about this and recognize the name Grand Faloon even more than they already 00:15:09.322 --> 00:15:15.201 - have and travel to Bloomington in the summer to take in some of these concerts. So Waxahachie is this 00:15:15.201 --> 00:15:20.158 - Saturday. I'm excited about that. I just found out they're going to be doing a little 00:15:20.450 --> 00:15:26.443 - I don't quite know what to call it, but an art light display at the end of the show as well with some 00:15:26.443 --> 00:15:32.318 - of the trees, like an LED lighting of the canopy on the way out. Should be very neat. Then in July, 00:15:32.318 --> 00:15:38.311 - we've got Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch. And in August, we've got hometown band Duran Jones and the 00:15:38.311 --> 00:15:42.718 - Indicators. Looking forward to that. We're dealing with a lot of facility. 00:15:43.170 --> 00:15:49.000 - things. We have a lot of old facilities. This has been a big focus of our master planning, which we 00:15:49.000 --> 00:15:55.239 - just concluded and adopted to the park board on June 1. A few things with that mills pool has been delayed 00:15:55.239 --> 00:16:01.652 - opening this year because as we were filling the pool, it wouldn't fill, which means it had a leak somewhere. 00:16:01.652 --> 00:16:07.657 - All of that is underground, we had to bring in a leak detection company to look try to figure out what 00:16:07.657 --> 00:16:12.030 - was going on. Analyze of course mills pools from the 60s. There's a lot of 00:16:14.338 --> 00:16:20.937 - Generations of wear on the pool, we'll say. The good news is, while I can't say we fixed the leak per 00:16:20.937 --> 00:16:27.924 - se, we did enough to mitigate it that we are going to plan to open Mills Pool this Friday for the remainder 00:16:27.924 --> 00:16:31.870 - of the season. And we are going to have to look at that more 00:16:32.226 --> 00:16:38.063 - as the season ends, though, and bring in the company and take a look and see how we can really work 00:16:38.063 --> 00:16:44.016 - on that. That, of course, is not our only old facility. Bryan Park Pool is actually even older, 1957. 00:16:44.016 --> 00:16:50.087 - The ice arena, if you know, we had a leak in March, which is something we prepared for, and thankfully, 00:16:50.087 --> 00:16:55.982 - it went as it should have, as we prepared for, but we have a working group of stakeholders that Keto 00:16:55.982 --> 00:17:00.126 - and others are working with to talk about the future of the ice arena. 00:17:00.578 --> 00:17:06.492 - Winslow Sports is another one that we're looking at in terms of just it's been around since the 70s. 00:17:06.492 --> 00:17:12.465 - It hasn't had a lot of investment in recent memory. And things are just showing their age. So we have 00:17:12.465 --> 00:17:18.730 - a lot of needs. We have a very diverse community that uses different facilities and recreates in different 00:17:18.730 --> 00:17:24.703 - ways. Of course, there's pickleball. We always hear more pickleball, too. So what we are trying to do 00:17:24.703 --> 00:17:28.158 - with our master planning and with our community engagement 00:17:28.450 --> 00:17:34.495 - Right now, we are building a list of all of our top capital needs and basically building a menu of options 00:17:34.495 --> 00:17:40.540 - of how we can invest and respond to those capital needs at the pools, at the ice arena, at Winslow Sports, 00:17:40.540 --> 00:17:46.472 - all of those things. And spoiler alert, we don't have enough money to address all of those capital needs 00:17:46.472 --> 00:17:52.235 - at once. So what we are necessarily gonna need to do is work with our board of park commissioners and 00:17:52.235 --> 00:17:57.150 - ultimately probably the city council, office of the mayor, and of course the public on 00:17:57.250 --> 00:18:03.146 - what we are doing to prioritize response to these needs and how we will invest in our community offerings. 00:18:03.146 --> 00:18:08.877 - So our four master plan goals that we came out of our master planning with for the next five years are, 00:18:08.877 --> 00:18:14.938 - number one, we need to have meaningful community impact. That's what I was talking about. We make Bloomington 00:18:14.938 --> 00:18:20.559 - more connected, more resilient, healthier, all of those things. Number two is invest in what we have. 00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:25.022 - We need to recognize now is the time for us to be investing in things we've had. 00:18:25.410 --> 00:18:31.429 - and need maintenance and need care to last for future generations. Number three is financial sustainability. 00:18:31.429 --> 00:18:37.116 - We've talked a lot about SEA-1 and its impacts and looming fiscal implications. And number four is how 00:18:37.116 --> 00:18:42.749 - we do all that, which is with a strong connected parks staff. So that's a sort of internal focus goal 00:18:42.749 --> 00:18:48.271 - to make sure we're taking care of our staff. So I anticipate we're probably gonna schedule, I don't 00:18:48.271 --> 00:18:53.406 - have this yet, but after we get through Bloomington summer and get back to school, having a, 00:18:53.602 --> 00:18:58.663 - I don't know if I'm going to call it a town hall or a public meeting, but a specific parks board meeting 00:18:58.663 --> 00:19:03.724 - about capital investment where we can hear from the public. We can present the preliminary list of needs 00:19:03.724 --> 00:19:08.641 - and start to talk about building a package of investment for what we are able to invest back in these 00:19:08.641 --> 00:19:11.774 - facilities. I'll just mention a couple more things and then I'll 00:19:11.906 --> 00:19:18.043 - turn it back to you mentioned crane balloon. Believe it or not, there's also a Sunday concert at Brian 00:19:18.043 --> 00:19:24.179 - this Sunday. So we have that coming up. If you don't know parks manages for Bloomington, we are a tree 00:19:24.179 --> 00:19:30.137 - city, the oldest tree city in Indiana. We are a bird town USA. Birds are town for not city for some 00:19:30.137 --> 00:19:36.095 - reason. And then we are also a B city. So we manage those three things for the city of Bloomington. 00:19:36.095 --> 00:19:37.406 - There are three great 00:19:37.634 --> 00:19:43.776 - certifications that just show what we're all about. But June 21st through 28th is Bee City USA and Pollinator 00:19:43.776 --> 00:19:49.415 - Week and BioBlitz. So we're going to have a few different fun events. There's going to be one at the 00:19:49.415 --> 00:19:55.221 - Lilly Library in collaboration with IU. BioBlitz is going out and identifying certain plants and things 00:19:55.221 --> 00:20:00.916 - like that in areas. So there's more info on our website about that. Of course, we're right around the 00:20:00.916 --> 00:20:05.662 - corner from the 4th of July and the parade. We will have the parade again this year. 00:20:05.826 --> 00:20:11.547 - The parade fell on a Saturday this year and we were kind of trying to figure out how to do market and 00:20:11.547 --> 00:20:17.155 - parade at the same time. The good news is we are doing them at the same time. So Farmers Market and 00:20:17.155 --> 00:20:22.763 - Fourth of July Parade combined downtown on that Saturday, which I think will be really fun. Farmers 00:20:22.763 --> 00:20:28.484 - Market on Saturdays is going extremely well. We love all our vendors, our food and beverage artisans. 00:20:28.484 --> 00:20:34.261 - Attendance is great. We think it's such a lively part of the downtown. This Saturday is also Youth Day 00:20:34.261 --> 00:20:35.102 - at the market. 00:20:35.202 --> 00:20:41.445 - which is really special. We've actually expanded that because it's been so popular where you'll see 00:20:41.445 --> 00:20:47.750 - a bunch of the youth of Bloomington selling their wares, whatever that might be. Lastly, a couple of 00:20:47.750 --> 00:20:54.243 - anniversaries and things coming up. We're going to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sherwood Oaks Park 00:20:54.243 --> 00:21:00.236 - in July. I'm affectionately dubbing that the SO50. So we're just having a little fun with that. 00:21:00.236 --> 00:21:03.358 - And actually, Bryan Park is turning 75 this year. 00:21:03.490 --> 00:21:08.923 - So we're going to do a tree-related event later in the year in the fall, and we're going to celebrate 00:21:08.923 --> 00:21:14.463 - the 75th birthday of Bryan Park. Then lastly, just project-wise, we don't have a lot of active projects 00:21:14.463 --> 00:21:19.843 - right now, but we do have the Powerline Trail going in. That is why we put the raised crossing in at 00:21:19.843 --> 00:21:25.436 - Switchyard is to better connect, not just for the trail, but in general, bringing pedestrians and people 00:21:25.436 --> 00:21:30.975 - safely to Switchyard Park from the west. The Powerline Trail, as you drive by, you'll notice it's going 00:21:30.975 --> 00:21:32.094 - to start to be built 00:21:32.322 --> 00:21:37.841 - back under the power lines heading to the west to eventually connect with the summit development that's 00:21:37.841 --> 00:21:43.147 - out there. But in the meantime, it will connect to RCA Park and the habitat, Osage development. The 00:21:43.147 --> 00:21:48.718 - trail will be about a mile long. And a cool feature of it, because we cannot put vertical infrastructure 00:21:48.718 --> 00:21:54.343 - in the ground because it is underneath Duke Energy power lines, we are going to be putting glow aggregate 00:21:54.343 --> 00:21:56.094 - in the top layer of the asphalt. 00:21:56.194 --> 00:22:02.658 - that will charge up from the sun during the day and then glow for a certain number of hours at night, 00:22:02.658 --> 00:22:08.996 - just to give a little bit of illumination. And I think it's also gonna look really cool. So I think 00:22:08.996 --> 00:22:15.333 - we'll be the second trail like that in the state, which is also pretty neat. I'm very excited about 00:22:15.333 --> 00:22:21.797 - the glow rock. Me too, I really wanna see it in action. Jennifer, can I ask for your help? So we have 00:22:21.797 --> 00:22:25.790 - this handheld mic. Jennifer will help pass it around for your, 00:22:25.986 --> 00:22:39.650 - questions. You don't have to frame it as a question if you just want to hear more about something, whether 00:22:39.650 --> 00:22:52.676 - we've talked about it or not. Now is your time. Do you want to go first? Okay. Is that a bid? I heard 00:22:52.676 --> 00:22:55.102 - you talk about the 00:22:55.362 --> 00:23:01.932 - more police officers now. And so I have a question related to that. As a bicyclist, I've been recovering 00:23:01.932 --> 00:23:08.190 - from being hit by a motor vehicle two years ago, and I've been waiting for the day when Bloomington 00:23:08.190 --> 00:23:14.635 - vigorously enforces its speed limit. And I've been told that we don't have enough officers, which made 00:23:14.635 --> 00:23:21.018 - sense, but now we're getting more officers. But it appears that it's still not being done. So what is 00:23:21.018 --> 00:23:23.646 - it gonna take to enforce the speed limit? 00:23:25.602 --> 00:23:33.675 - Um, so, uh, we do have officers who, um, you know, enforce a speed limit. Um, we don't tend to have 00:23:33.675 --> 00:23:41.910 - enough police to set up speed traps everywhere. Um, but, uh, we are actively pulling people over for, 00:23:41.910 --> 00:23:49.983 - um, speed violations and other moving traffic violations, and, um, I'm sorry to hear that you were, 00:23:49.983 --> 00:23:55.230 - uh, hit. Um, that is a, um, unfortunately, I-I think, um, there- 00:23:55.842 --> 00:24:08.034 - Around the country, we're seeing more of that, and that has to do with many things. Distracted driving 00:24:08.034 --> 00:24:19.871 - top among them. So my encouragement to all of us who do drive is to put down your phones and focus, 00:24:19.871 --> 00:24:25.790 - and there's no need to go beyond the speed limit. 00:24:26.050 --> 00:24:36.343 - And we do have some great bike ped infrastructure here, which doesn't solve all of the problems, but 00:24:36.343 --> 00:24:46.636 - we're trying to do a happy medium. I have a question for each of you. So this is for Tim. I think it 00:24:46.636 --> 00:24:50.814 - was about two years ago when this is for 00:24:50.946 --> 00:24:57.962 - the golf course, Cascades golf course. When Jason was named as the new pro, you had a little celebration 00:24:57.962 --> 00:25:04.978 - ceremony for him. There was talk about improvements to Cascades, and one was going to be like irrigation 00:25:04.978 --> 00:25:11.860 - of the tee boxes, which haven't been done. When the new clubhouse was built, it was wired for security 00:25:11.860 --> 00:25:18.542 - cameras for the parking lot, which have never been installed. So my car got broke into, I had three 00:25:18.542 --> 00:25:19.678 - windows smashed. 00:25:20.258 --> 00:25:27.910 - over a bag that was sitting there with nothing in it. So the wiring's there, and any more cameras are 00:25:27.910 --> 00:25:35.487 - cheap. I have two offices, and one has 12 cameras, one has cost less than $500 for that system. So I 00:25:35.487 --> 00:25:43.064 - wonder what kind of improvements are going to be made to Cascades? And what's the chances of getting 00:25:43.064 --> 00:25:44.414 - security cameras? 00:25:44.770 --> 00:25:49.566 - Great question. I actually have a meeting later this week about security cameras in general that we're 00:25:49.566 --> 00:25:54.408 - talking about, and that's gonna be one of the points that we're talking about to see if we can use some 00:25:54.408 --> 00:25:59.251 - available dollars that we have, not just there necessarily, and I'm just talking about regular security 00:25:59.251 --> 00:26:03.954 - cameras, right, like just video recording. So that will be one location we certainly talk about. I'm 00:26:03.954 --> 00:26:08.750 - sorry to hear about the car. In terms of improvements, things that are on our radar for Cascades right 00:26:08.750 --> 00:26:13.406 - now, and I just wanna say Jason's doing a really fantastic job up there. He's an excellent manager. 00:26:13.570 --> 00:26:19.707 - The irrigation is number one on our list that we're trying to figure out as part of that capital list 00:26:19.707 --> 00:26:25.363 - that we're talking about. We're discussing using a revenue bond to basically completely redo, 00:26:25.363 --> 00:26:31.500 - which is needed, 18 holes of irrigation. It's very old. Keto, do you remember how old that irrigation 00:26:31.500 --> 00:26:32.222 - is on that? 00:26:35.298 --> 00:26:41.375 - It's 25-ish years old, the irrigation system, for the original 18, because the other nine were added 00:26:41.375 --> 00:26:47.573 - later, as you probably know. I think it's running on, we found out, like, Windows 98 or something like 00:26:47.573 --> 00:26:53.770 - that recently. And that took me back. So that's not where we want to be with irrigation. So right now, 00:26:53.770 --> 00:26:59.847 - we're talking, I was actually talking to the controller this week about it, we're talking with Reedy 00:26:59.847 --> 00:27:05.022 - and Sons about how to work on a revenue bond to use revenue from Cascades to proceed. 00:27:05.218 --> 00:27:11.631 - The other thing we're looking at, we're actually looking at partnering with a private donor about a 00:27:11.631 --> 00:27:18.237 - new on-course restroom. Right now on which nine Keto? Corey and Ridge. So a new on-course restroom out 00:27:18.237 --> 00:27:24.907 - there that would actually be plumbed. And then yeah, the security camera thing is another thing we will 00:27:24.907 --> 00:27:31.320 - absolutely look into. I thought about doing a year report for some of the potholes in the golf cart 00:27:31.320 --> 00:27:34.334 - path. Well, hopefully they're a little better. 00:27:34.530 --> 00:27:40.160 - I am not a golfer myself, so I need to do better getting out there. But I do know we worked with our 00:27:40.160 --> 00:27:45.789 - street department last year to pave quite a few sections. But as you know, it's an endless task. But 00:27:45.789 --> 00:27:51.530 - we'll have to take a look and see if we can get some more of those filled. OK, so I won't do that now, 00:27:51.530 --> 00:27:57.271 - because now you'll know who it is. Yes, no problem. So my question for you. It's OK if we know who the 00:27:57.271 --> 00:28:00.894 - you report comes from. There is no shame in making a you report. 00:28:01.378 --> 00:28:11.189 - how we create a list of what we need to do. Thank you, Tim. So my question is, when there's multiple 00:28:11.189 --> 00:28:21.485 - employees from a department working on a project, what would be a reasonable expected time for a response 00:28:21.485 --> 00:28:31.102 - from them? So if you ask for an update, should you hear something in a week? Should it be a month? 00:28:31.298 --> 00:28:40.044 - is there any kind of guidelines from that? My... my just sort of common courtesy would be that somebody 00:28:40.044 --> 00:28:48.453 - would respond to you within a week to say, we're working on it, at least. I think it really depends 00:28:48.453 --> 00:28:57.282 - how complex the project is and what we're talking about. So a general answer would be... common courtesy 00:28:57.282 --> 00:29:00.478 - is just to respond, I got your email. 00:29:00.866 --> 00:29:07.929 - working on it. But this is a vague question. I can't. Yeah. So then the other part of this was we had 00:29:07.929 --> 00:29:15.131 - to go through city legal. And once they did promise the project was approved, or it should be approved, 00:29:15.131 --> 00:29:22.126 - and we're waiting on a letter from a department. It took us over three months to get a basic letter. 00:29:22.126 --> 00:29:29.258 - And part of that letter, when we finally got it sat on the director's desk for over three weeks before 00:29:29.258 --> 00:29:30.782 - the person signed it. 00:29:31.170 --> 00:29:39.391 - as we're just, like a weekly basis, just say, hey, can we get an update with no response? So just putting 00:29:39.391 --> 00:29:47.303 - that out there that there needs to be a little more communication, maybe, and maybe some oversight of 00:29:47.303 --> 00:29:55.136 - when people respond. Yeah. So, Carol, I'll just invite you. You can send me a note if you're waiting 00:29:55.136 --> 00:29:56.222 - on something. 00:29:56.770 --> 00:30:04.260 - This is very vague, and I can't really follow up on anything this vague, and it's not appropriate to 00:30:04.260 --> 00:30:11.675 - be more specific with personalities in a public setting. So this is probably not the right place to 00:30:11.675 --> 00:30:19.091 - take care of that, but I am happy to follow up on things. And, you know, there may be a reason that 00:30:19.091 --> 00:30:23.614 - something's delayed, and we're happy to try to troubleshoot. 00:30:29.442 --> 00:30:36.439 - This is not a question. It's just a recent observation. In fact, I was meaning to talk to the mayor 00:30:36.439 --> 00:30:43.576 - about it. We live fairly close together. They marked up the street next to my house for a storm sewer 00:30:43.576 --> 00:30:50.644 - excavation. I know for various reasons I won't bore you with. I know what the marking codes are. And 00:30:50.644 --> 00:30:57.641 - I called the city of Bloomington, water and so forth. And I got two calls back within 35 minutes. I 00:30:57.641 --> 00:30:59.390 - was extremely impressed. 00:31:02.626 --> 00:31:12.769 - you're getting good customer service, Ian. I walk my dog past your house almost every night. So he's 00:31:12.769 --> 00:31:22.813 - doing great. Yes, I do just want to... I mean, we are really trying to improve customer service all 00:31:22.813 --> 00:31:31.550 - over the place, but some of these departments literally get thousands of emails a day. 00:31:31.682 --> 00:31:42.102 - So it's a job. Hi. Thank you for having these meetings around town. And I want to do two different things. 00:31:42.102 --> 00:31:52.523 - One, as an individual, I can't come tomorrow night, but I would like to say that having worked in downtown 00:31:52.523 --> 00:32:00.606 - development and redevelopment for many years, I really want Kirkwood to stay open. 00:32:01.090 --> 00:32:09.826 - during the spring, summer, and fall, except when we have special events. That's the way you deal with 00:32:09.826 --> 00:32:18.989 - those kinds of things in my mind. So that's my personal. Secondly, as Glenda Murray, president of Prospect 00:32:18.989 --> 00:32:26.526 - Hill Neighborhood Association, I do want to say we've worked very smoothly with street, 00:32:27.202 --> 00:32:35.680 - the engineering department right now to work on those changes that are happening on Rogers, while Rogers 00:32:35.680 --> 00:32:43.996 - is closed now for 14 days, except that we need some more signage. My husband spent a half an hour this 00:32:43.996 --> 00:32:52.313 - evening helping a giant tractor trailer back up Jackson Street, which is a narrow neighborhood street. 00:32:52.313 --> 00:32:56.350 - And he turned at our house, and I think he looked 00:32:56.450 --> 00:33:03.434 - I went running out, because I thought, he cannot do this. We've seen this before. And I was yelling, 00:33:03.434 --> 00:33:10.557 - no, no. And he went straight south on Jackson Street, which is a narrow street. And then he was stuck. 00:33:10.557 --> 00:33:16.988 - So he had to back up. And it took a long time. And Patrick was even helping him go this way, 00:33:16.988 --> 00:33:24.318 - go that way, to get out so that he could go again. So we just need some more signage for the detours. OK. 00:33:24.482 --> 00:33:33.815 - I, too, have experienced this summer with a contractor not having any signs up until it's too late, 00:33:33.815 --> 00:33:43.334 - and you have to U it. There's not enough advance notice for a detour coming, or there's not enough to 00:33:43.334 --> 00:33:51.454 - tell you where to go, or both? Right now, I mean, Rogers is closed as of this morning. 00:33:52.034 --> 00:34:00.122 - And I was thinking by mid-afternoon, not too bad so far. We saw a whole lot more people on Jackson Street, 00:34:00.122 --> 00:34:07.680 - which is a narrow one-way, not two-way street. But there's not much signage to say where to go when 00:34:07.680 --> 00:34:15.239 - you can't go down Roger Street. Okay, great. We'll get some there. Thank you. Hopefully by morning. 00:34:15.239 --> 00:34:19.774 - Thanks for letting us know. Thanks. And you can always call 00:34:20.066 --> 00:34:28.490 - If there is an issue like that, our teams can get out there quickly. And we don't want the traffic backing 00:34:28.490 --> 00:34:36.520 - up because people don't know where to go. So thank you for letting us know. Good evening. I just have 00:34:36.520 --> 00:34:44.708 - a quick question for both of you. Let's start with the mayor. How are we doing on the Meridian project, 00:34:44.708 --> 00:34:46.046 - the gigabit now? 00:34:46.210 --> 00:34:55.986 - as far as how much is laid down and subcontractors and all that issue? So Meridian Project is back. 00:34:55.986 --> 00:35:06.349 - After a long pause, we got... we, they got new subcontractors to do the install, and they've been working 00:35:06.349 --> 00:35:10.846 - first on fixing problems that were left over, 00:35:10.946 --> 00:35:18.947 - And then we'll be moving on to laying new cable and getting things done. I don't know off the top of 00:35:18.947 --> 00:35:26.870 - my mind the anticipated completion date, but there is one now. So I can follow up with you on that, 00:35:26.870 --> 00:35:35.030 - Christopher. But this has been really a marked difference from the last contractor. We've been working 00:35:35.030 --> 00:35:39.070 - really closely with Meridian. You may know that I, 00:35:39.522 --> 00:35:47.877 - issued several stop work orders on the last contractor. And we're really pleased to have somebody new. 00:35:47.877 --> 00:35:56.070 - And, Tim, I appreciate your candor on some of the capital projects and the financial difficulties in 00:35:56.070 --> 00:36:04.345 - SEA 1. Is it on the table from the Parks Board that maybe unloading some of the public land or coming 00:36:04.345 --> 00:36:09.374 - up with new fee structures that benefit residents of the city 00:36:09.506 --> 00:36:15.463 - Because I've seen a lot of when the financial struggles come that deferred maintenance term comes in 00:36:15.463 --> 00:36:21.597 - and it really destroys a parks department Which we've seen a lot of examples over the years, especially 00:36:21.597 --> 00:36:27.671 - with the the Great Recession from 208 Yeah, actually The 2008 reference is spot-on because Bloomington 00:36:27.671 --> 00:36:33.038 - like many municipalities you can go back There was actually it was a study. I think it was 00:36:33.038 --> 00:36:36.990 - out of Pennsylvania somewhere. I want to say Penn State they did a 00:36:37.186 --> 00:36:43.984 - a combined aggregate study of municipal park department budgets from, like, 2000 to today. And healthily, 00:36:43.984 --> 00:36:50.525 - you know, in the early 2000s, there was typically, you know, maybe a 15%, 20% reinvestment in capital 00:36:50.525 --> 00:36:57.003 - every year. And when the Great Recession hit in 2008, 2009, what happened with a lot of budgets, and 00:36:57.003 --> 00:37:03.865 - we see it with the National Park Service, we see it other places, in order to continue to operate services 00:37:03.865 --> 00:37:06.494 - at a certain level, personnel, supplies, 00:37:06.850 --> 00:37:13.448 - contracts, services, the capital line is what was cut. And the percentage across the country of what 00:37:13.448 --> 00:37:20.307 - municipalities were putting into reinvestment in terms of capital, dollars, equipment, things like that, 00:37:20.307 --> 00:37:26.708 - went down, down, down. And Bloomington was no exception. Bloomington was part of that same trend. 00:37:26.708 --> 00:37:33.502 - So now, almost 20 years later, here we are, reaping what was sown with that lack of capital investment. 00:37:34.978 --> 00:37:40.627 - It's a tricky challenge because when you have a bunch of deferred maintenance, how do you get out of 00:37:40.627 --> 00:37:46.388 - it? How do you break the cycle and start fresh with keeping up with something apart from just building 00:37:46.388 --> 00:37:52.036 - something new? Building something new is really exciting. You can get all people on board excited to 00:37:52.036 --> 00:37:57.629 - build it, but you've got to also account for the ongoing expenses for it. So that's the puzzle that 00:37:57.629 --> 00:38:03.390 - we're working on right now. And I'm sorry, I'm trying to come back to the first part of your question. 00:38:08.930 --> 00:38:15.004 - Give me the first part again. I was stuck in the second part. So we haven't talked specifically about 00:38:15.004 --> 00:38:21.078 - unloading public property. That would be a pretty drastic step if we said, you know what, we're going 00:38:21.078 --> 00:38:27.032 - to take this land out of the public trust and we're going to sell it, for example. We have explored 00:38:27.032 --> 00:38:32.094 - that a little bit with some of our assets that are more private or rental in nature. 00:38:32.194 --> 00:38:38.404 - and are exploring that possibility. We end up being stewards of a lot of different things for the city, 00:38:38.404 --> 00:38:44.376 - but not in terms of just parkland or trails or anything like that. Fee structure, that is something 00:38:44.376 --> 00:38:50.646 - very much we're working on is our cost recovery. Oh, and resident, nonresident. That was the other point 00:38:50.646 --> 00:38:56.618 - I wanted to come back to. We already do have a fee structure in place that is cheaper for resident, 00:38:56.618 --> 00:39:00.798 - nonresident in some ways. In some ways, it's a challenge to implement 00:39:02.242 --> 00:39:07.935 - because our software is also antiquated. So we are also looking right now at updating our software that 00:39:07.935 --> 00:39:13.463 - we use to register for parks programs to one, make it easier and cleaner and quicker to register for 00:39:13.463 --> 00:39:19.156 - parks programs, sports leagues, things like that, to encourage growth and good business and stewardship 00:39:19.156 --> 00:39:24.740 - and everything like that. But we're also looking at our cost recovery goals in different areas. So an 00:39:24.740 --> 00:39:29.502 - area like the golf course, for example, that is largely private benefit is expected to 00:39:29.602 --> 00:39:38.188 - receive close to 100% cost recovery or more. Whereas when we do community event like the 4th of July 00:39:38.188 --> 00:39:46.688 - parade, that's for everybody. That's not expected to cost recover. So that's some of the work we've 00:39:46.688 --> 00:39:55.444 - been really working on studying and setting new goals. While we're talking about money and repairs and 00:39:55.444 --> 00:39:58.334 - things, I started this evening by 00:39:58.594 --> 00:40:07.886 - talking about how many potholes we've filled and significant projects that we're doing with sidewalks 00:40:07.886 --> 00:40:17.451 - and ramps and repaving. I just want to note that in our state, we have repealed the gas tax. So Governor 00:40:17.451 --> 00:40:27.198 - Braun repealed that gas tax. That is money that we use for these very projects. And so, there may be no... 00:40:27.746 --> 00:40:37.214 - And you may not feel that hit this year, but you will feel that hit in the future. And so, that was 00:40:37.214 --> 00:40:46.966 - done so you don't feel the inflation at the pump as a result of the war that's going on. But I do just 00:40:46.966 --> 00:40:55.582 - want to note, people, you know, send lots of angry emails about potholes and other things. 00:40:55.778 --> 00:41:09.023 - when they happen, and I'm just laying the groundwork. With SEA-1 and no gas tax, it's a double whammy, 00:41:09.023 --> 00:41:22.910 - and you can expect we probably won't be keeping up with roads as well as we have been in the past. Awesome. 00:41:23.746 --> 00:41:30.458 - She was noting that the sidewalks downtown have been repaired and they're clean. Paul. Earlier, I didn't 00:41:30.458 --> 00:41:37.297 - know I could ask more than one question or a follow-up. I really appreciate what you said about distracted 00:41:37.297 --> 00:41:44.137 - driving. Distracted driving and speed, in my opinion, that's 90% of why people get hurt. But I've bicycled 00:41:44.137 --> 00:41:50.721 - about 1,000 miles in Bloomington streets this year so far, this calendar year, and I cannot recall one 00:41:50.721 --> 00:41:53.086 - police officer pulling somebody over 00:41:53.378 --> 00:42:00.921 - that I saw. There may be a philosophical objection to having more policing. I understand that some of 00:42:00.921 --> 00:42:08.834 - my friends don't want more enforcement of moving violations. If that's what your administration's position 00:42:08.834 --> 00:42:16.304 - is, I encourage you just to say that instead of telling us that you're increasing enforcement when I 00:42:16.304 --> 00:42:22.590 - don't see it with my own eyes. Question about the parks. Technical question for you. 00:42:23.010 --> 00:42:29.950 - about glyphosate? Do you know how much of it you use, and are there alternatives? First, let me just 00:42:29.950 --> 00:42:37.166 - volunteer that about two weeks ago, I got pulled over on Walnut for changing lanes without a turn signal 00:42:37.166 --> 00:42:44.175 - with no one around me. So they are out there. They saw me do that. Well, I did not monitor the entire 00:42:44.175 --> 00:42:49.054 - police department. Just I'm volunteering my personal experience there. 00:42:49.378 --> 00:42:57.094 - try to drive safely. I apologize for not using my blinker. Glyphosate is an important tool in our management 00:42:57.094 --> 00:43:04.173 - of invasive species, and we try to balance that, of course, with how we apply it and where we apply 00:43:04.173 --> 00:43:11.251 - it. So near water sources, it's particularly sensitive, and we use a particular type of glyphosate. 00:43:11.251 --> 00:43:14.366 - And pretty much everywhere, we do not spray 00:43:14.690 --> 00:43:21.443 - glyphosate like we are not doing foliar applications of glyphosate. Instead, what we generally do is 00:43:21.443 --> 00:43:28.262 - cut stump treatment. So, for example, when we are taking on Asian bush honeysuckle or autumn olive or 00:43:28.262 --> 00:43:31.806 - some other similar woody invasive herbaceous plants. 00:43:32.226 --> 00:43:38.337 - Staff go through and volunteers, we have a massive weed wrangle program as well who help us go through 00:43:38.337 --> 00:43:44.329 - and cut, identify, you know, get those out of there. And then while it's a fresh cut, the glyphosate 00:43:44.329 --> 00:43:50.321 - is applied with blue dye to the stump itself. So that glyphosate goes directly into the root system, 00:43:50.321 --> 00:43:56.373 - not out and about and around. So recognizing we have an integrated pest management plan that actually 00:43:56.373 --> 00:43:59.102 - we're working on a periodic update right now. 00:43:59.458 --> 00:44:07.768 - Glyphosate's not the only thing we use, but in talking to our urban green space manager and our natural 00:44:07.768 --> 00:44:15.997 - resource manager, and in terms of their keeping abreast of best practices in other places, it is still 00:44:15.997 --> 00:44:24.227 - a very important tool for us to use to combat some of those invasive species. Any final questions from 00:44:24.227 --> 00:44:28.062 - people who have been quiet so far? There we go. 00:44:28.706 --> 00:44:34.451 - I had two things real quick. One, I do not work for Tim, but I have met and worked with him and I do 00:44:34.451 --> 00:44:40.309 - appreciate him, so I did want to put that out there. But I did want to say I really appreciate all the 00:44:40.309 --> 00:44:46.053 - events and happenings at the parks and through the city. The ones I want to go to the most, I always 00:44:46.053 --> 00:44:47.134 - have a conflicting 00:44:47.618 --> 00:44:53.164 - thing going on, but I love being able to see how much is going on, and I really appreciate it. So I 00:44:53.164 --> 00:44:58.766 - just want to let you know I think that is fantastic. I love it. I tell everyone I can, and we try to 00:44:58.766 --> 00:45:04.590 - tell all our visitors to the museum about everything going on at Bloomington. And just having that stuff 00:45:04.590 --> 00:45:10.247 - helps us as well. So I just wanted to say thank you for that. The other question I had, and I realize 00:45:10.247 --> 00:45:16.182 - I may not get an answer today, and that's perfectly OK. As I live on the East Side and I try to frequently 00:45:16.182 --> 00:45:16.958 - bike to work, 00:45:17.218 --> 00:45:23.960 - I know everyone's gonna be shocked. It's always move in and move out. But there are so many times cars 00:45:23.960 --> 00:45:30.572 - are just parked in the bike lane. And I usually, when I'm on my bike, I don't know if I can even get 00:45:30.572 --> 00:45:37.117 - a ticket for texting while biking. I don't wanna find out, but I always feel like when I'm way down 00:45:37.117 --> 00:45:43.794 - somewhere, by the time I arrive here safely out of a way, anytime I'd be able to do that, I feel like 00:45:43.794 --> 00:45:45.758 - by the time anyone got there, 00:45:46.658 --> 00:45:52.455 - the car's not gonna be there, so I'd hate to waste any police officer's time going somewhere where the 00:45:52.455 --> 00:45:58.308 - person is gone, and as much as I'd love to be deputized to be able to hand out tickets to those people, 00:45:58.308 --> 00:46:04.218 - I don't think that's a feasible solution. But I'm just curious enforcement on that, like what's, because 00:46:04.218 --> 00:46:09.846 - it's not, those are the primary two times, but there's times throughout the year people park there, 00:46:09.846 --> 00:46:13.054 - those throw flashers on, and I see someone like checking 00:46:13.474 --> 00:46:20.741 - addresses obviously for delivery of sorts and it's just difficult because I'm not where I'm supposed 00:46:20.741 --> 00:46:28.008 - to be as a cyclist and some of those streets just get narrow. So I'm just curious, that's all. Yeah, 00:46:28.008 --> 00:46:30.238 - so I'll tell you Daniel, we'll 00:46:30.370 --> 00:46:38.542 - We'll take ideas on this. We have had parking enforcement try to patrol those areas more frequently. 00:46:38.542 --> 00:46:46.634 - We and we've been trying to notice times of day. It's mostly a problem, you know, things like that. 00:46:46.634 --> 00:46:48.414 - Police obviously will 00:46:48.546 --> 00:46:55.641 - ticket if they see it. But again, it's, you know, even if you stopped and called while you're on your 00:46:55.641 --> 00:47:02.597 - bike, it's probably somebody running into a building to do something and running back, and it's the 00:47:02.597 --> 00:47:10.039 - rudest place to park. So really, if you have better ideas, we've really been trying to step up enforcement 00:47:10.039 --> 00:47:13.726 - on that. Because it's also dangerous. I mean, I know 00:47:14.114 --> 00:47:20.936 - I know all of our cyclists pay attention, but sometimes when I'm commuting, I'm going at a pretty good 00:47:20.936 --> 00:47:27.625 - clip, and I'm sort of like, okay, I'm in a bike lane, and then all of a sudden I look up and there's 00:47:27.625 --> 00:47:34.447 - a car. So it can be very dangerous. So anybody listening at home, please don't park in the bike lanes. 00:47:34.447 --> 00:47:41.401 - That's not what they're for. And again, outside of increasing parking enforcement and police enforcement 00:47:41.401 --> 00:47:43.454 - of that, really open to ideas. 00:47:44.546 --> 00:48:00.572 - It's a challenge. Yeah. Another one here. Hi. Hi. In a succinct nutshell, what is your overall vision 00:48:00.572 --> 00:48:14.398 - for the progression of Bloomington as a whole? Awesome. Bloomington will be a city that 00:48:14.626 --> 00:48:25.509 - where anyone can find a place to belong safely, and we'll have a thriving downtown that has a balance 00:48:25.509 --> 00:48:36.391 - of economic development that supports a great quality of place and quality of life. Is that succinct? 00:48:36.391 --> 00:48:43.006 - Not detailed enough, though. It's very broad. It's beautiful. 00:48:43.202 --> 00:48:53.967 - thriving downtown, people belonging, community, especially in this age, a lot of people are... isolated 00:48:53.967 --> 00:49:04.421 - in certain ways. I know I feel it. So I explore a lot of different places, trying to find connection 00:49:04.421 --> 00:49:12.702 - and warmth, whether it's the park or various spiritual places, and here, today. 00:49:13.538 --> 00:49:22.965 - seeking to kind of forge community, and that's really it, building the bonds of community. And I'm a 00:49:22.965 --> 00:49:32.672 - very spiritual man, so that's... but I think there's a separation of church and state, I guess, in your 00:49:32.672 --> 00:49:41.726 - philosophy. But I like to see our institutions transmit a sacred respect to the land and people, 00:49:42.498 --> 00:49:52.070 - I think that should be imbued in institutions, but something to think about. Yeah. Thank you for coming. 00:49:52.070 --> 00:50:01.551 - I hope you do feel welcomed here and happy to connect with you afterwards. You know, some of the things 00:50:01.551 --> 00:50:09.118 - that you said are really important as we move forward. Our former Surgeon General, 00:50:09.730 --> 00:50:20.776 - our biggest health crisis is a lack of human belonging, right? So we're lonely. And that was exacerbated 00:50:20.776 --> 00:50:31.716 - by a pandemic, of course. But in a city, you know, part of my job is with public safety is to make sure 00:50:31.716 --> 00:50:36.766 - people feel and are safe. So that comes up with 00:50:36.866 --> 00:50:46.663 - with cyclists and pedestrians, but it also comes up with what you believe and what you look like and 00:50:46.663 --> 00:50:56.364 - where you feel like you belong. And belonging is a much more complicated thing. And so, as a person 00:50:56.364 --> 00:51:04.318 - who has been a student of community building most of my life, I really think that 00:51:04.706 --> 00:51:14.197 - things like our parks, all of our sort of third places, so not home and not work. Creating enough of 00:51:14.197 --> 00:51:23.877 - those, but not so many that they're not populated, is really important. And then, having the expertise 00:51:23.877 --> 00:51:33.086 - to think about how those places are built, so that they encourage interaction and belonging, and, 00:51:33.250 --> 00:51:42.576 - you know, as with parks, and maybe a place that you can find some serenity and solitude if that's also 00:51:42.576 --> 00:51:51.630 - what you're looking for. So, you know, we are going to be talking a lot more about how Bloomington, 00:51:51.630 --> 00:51:55.070 - we have branding that is forthcoming, 00:51:55.170 --> 00:52:07.303 - And a major theme in that branding is that Bloomington always has been a place where you can find an 00:52:07.303 --> 00:52:21.118 - amazing array of really gifted people in a million different topics. And you never know. I had one meeting cancel, 00:52:21.218 --> 00:52:28.701 - on Tuesday last week, and I scooted over to the IU outdoor pool to get in a really fast workout. I only 00:52:28.701 --> 00:52:36.112 - had an hour, so that means like a 20-minute workout. And I get in the pool, and I realize I'm swimming 00:52:36.112 --> 00:52:43.954 - with an Olympic gold medalist. And she didn't kick me out of the lane. But these are the kinds of collisions 00:52:43.954 --> 00:52:49.854 - that happen in Bloomington, where a middle-aged person can swim with an Olympian. 00:52:49.986 --> 00:52:59.021 - and where our entrepreneurs bump into professionals who may be researching the solution to the problem 00:52:59.021 --> 00:53:07.880 - that they're trying to solve. And so what we do as a city is to help foster that human potential and 00:53:07.880 --> 00:53:16.126 - help foster those creative collisions. So thanks for that great question. We're trying to get 00:53:16.386 --> 00:53:25.652 - better at it, and we're happy to have more voices at the table. So thanks for showing up tonight. And 00:53:25.652 --> 00:53:34.101 - I think that's a great note to end on. For those of you who want to come to another meeting, 00:53:34.101 --> 00:53:36.190 - tomorrow night, 530 in 00:53:36.290 --> 00:53:43.194 - Council Chambers, and that's in the Showers Building. I'll be having a listening session. So this is 00:53:43.194 --> 00:53:50.098 - not three minutes at the mic, but it is a solution-based listening session on Kirkwood, on the topic 00:53:50.098 --> 00:53:57.070 - of Kirkwood. And I look forward to seeing some of you there. And I'll let Tim say any last things you 00:53:57.070 --> 00:54:04.042 - want to say. He is all good. Tim, on behalf of our city, thank you for running an award-winning Parks 00:54:04.042 --> 00:54:04.862 - Department. 00:54:05.218 --> 00:54:11.977 - I personally wish I could hang out in the parks 100% of my time. So thanks for being here and taking 00:54:11.977 --> 00:54:13.918 - part in improving your city.