Downtown safety and civility recommendations, state take-over of I-69, broken parking meters, Trades District construction and annexation lawsuit moving forward.
On this week's installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington's 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: Have you heard anything more from the state since they took over Section 5 of I-69 through Bloomington?
Hamilton: Governor Pence failed in this effort to privatize and outsource the construction, we've known it wasn't working for a long time, the road should have been completed nine months ago. I've spoken with INDOT commissioner and expressed my concern that the people on the job stay on the job, that they complete this project as quickly as possible, that they support the commitments to the four lanes - two lanes each way being open as soon as possible.
This take-over has meant already a three month delay, but I think it's in the right place now which is to have INDOT finish this road.
Hren: There's been a directive on policing downtown, especially at People's park and Kirkwood regarding loitering, drugs, harassing pedestrians, which I noticed did clear out People's Park, but did it just move the issue around?
Hamilton: It's a complicated problem. We have extraordinary new pressures from opioid addictions, mental illness and poverty and we see the impact of that on our streets. We have a lot of work to do, outdoor toilets is something we're thinking about, more eyes on the street, employment program cleaning up the parks. This isn't getting fixed overnight and we need to try a bunch of different things.
We do have more public presence at People's Park and more programming and other things. No one is asked to leave a park unless you are committing a crime or there's a warrant for your arrest or there's a very short list of people who are not allowed on city parks because of past behavior. That park has changed in the last few days and there's more people eating ice cream or eating lunch over lunch hour, fewer people spending all day there, but I think that's going to evolve.
Hren: Are you able to give us an update on the parking meters? I know a large number of them at one time were not working properly and the city is still paying back the cost of the meters, what is the next step?
Hamilton: We worked with the company that was hired by the previous administration to install these to get these fixed. I'm not confident yet that they got it fixed. We still have meters that aren't working. So we're still addressing it. I believe we'll be doing a pretty intensive comprehensive parking study that's going to look at the meters, the parking lots and the parking structure and really analyzing where are we.
Hren: I have to ask about the annexation lawsuit – that happened just after we left last month. I know last time you said it was hard to sue the state, but you did it anyway...
Hamilton: The lawsuit isn't really about annexation, it's about protecting the right of the community to be treated fairly and be treated as every other community is treated. And I think if the constitution of the state means anything on that issue, it should protect us because that bill was designed exclusively to terminate Bloomington's annexation process.
So the state has asked for extra time to answer and probably will be given. Over the next few months, we'll be able to make the case that says look, if the city of Bloomington is following the laws, it's not kosher for the state legislature to single Bloomington out and say we're changing the law.
