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Ask The Mayor: Bloomington's Hamilton On Homeless Shelter Needs

John Hamilton 101716

The city is rolling out downtown safety and civility initiatives, the city budget is passed and new sanitation fees are drawing concern.

On this week's installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton addresses these issues and more. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.

Hren: You've started downtown initiatives for safety, civility and justice - in particular it's the panhandlers and homeless situation that's causing concern. May you give us an update?

Hamilton: We're going to be working on this for some time. It's complicated and there's no simple solution for this. Beverly Calendar-Anderson is leading an intensive effort with community support and participation to look at how we address this in all the different facets. We did put up some signs - and some of those signs disappeared - which is not unheard of in a college community, or an active community.

We've had a lot of focus groups going on behind the scenes. Police activity has resulted in significant arrests about drug transactions going on. I'm glad we're moving forward, but no one should expect quick answers because these are forces coming at us in all different directions.

Hren: Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett is demonstrating his interest in how the criminal justice and social service communities can work together with the Reuben Engagement Center. It's a place for the homeless to go. Are we in need of a center like this one in Bloomington?

Hamilton: I do know we have an intensive network of social service providers including day services for homeless folks at Shalom that provides job training and healthcare, counseling and access to all kinds of services. The connection between the criminal justice system and the rest of us in the social service world is very important. As mayor I don't oversee the criminal justice, the jails, the prosecutor - I do think and we are working together with that is very important.

Hren: What's been the response to the sanitation changes you want to make? I know this was a priority you talked about it in your first state of the city address, but some are not happy with the change in the fee system.

Hamilton: Well, we're all paying for trash sanitation now, the question is how do we pay for it and how do we pick it up. We can't keep doing what we're doing because it's tearing our people apart. So the budget includes bond funding to help buy new trucks that we need, buy the new carts that we need. We're still in a process to identify the exact details of this approach, for example what kind of trucks, mix of carts and even the exact fees. So all that is in process, but we are moving away from the stickers.

Hren: This is an e-mail from Chris. He wants to know what factors are used to prioritize the repaving of certain city streets versus others? In particular, is city bus traffic a factor that is considered? Some secondary streets see city bus traffic 17 hours a day and seven days a week. In places where buses use only one side of the street, one can see how the pavement on the used side decays more rapidly.

Hamilton: Well that's good data. I appreciate people paying attention to that kind of data. I just got on my desk the first round of the overall condition index for our streets that measures on a scale of zero to a hundred what is the condition of each foot of street. Our paving decisions are based on what needs repaved. We never have enough money to repave all the streets that we want every year. Anyone that wants to share road information please use uReport or call us up.

Hren: There's been some news regarding Switchyard Park in terms of the city looking to buy property surrounding the area, and then the crosswalk that would be needed from the new trail through Walnut street – which is a busy four lane road. Where are you right now?

Hamilton: We want to be sure we get it right as we're looking at property in, around and near the park. We're trying to assess some of the details on how that park interacts with the community around it. You'll be hearing more details about the Switchyard in the months ahead.

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