Case Date:

6/13/2024

I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to bring a concerning incident to your attention. As a Clinical Case Manager with Centerstone, one of our clients recently disclosed an encounter with a city employee named Charles. According to the client, Charles, who was working after hours but who was not wearing a police uniform, took the client's bottle of whiskey and traded it for a pack of cigarettes. Unfortunately, this client had to be sent to the Emergency Room later that day due to withdrawal symptoms. Due to HIPAA regulations, I am unable to disclose the client's identity. Despite potential risks to my position, I felt it was important to share this information with you. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Case Date:

8/12/2024

Opposing making Green Acres a Conservation District: I am writing today as a member of the real estate community here in Bloomington having been an agent for close to a decade. I'm also writing from my experience as a commissioner of both the Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals for the past several years. I can very much value and appreciate the history and architectural history of the Green Acres neighborhood. I thank the residents who put in the work and told the story of how Green Acres has evolved from the beginning. Stories like these are worth telling and being displayed to the public as much as possible. As far as the petition itself to deem Green Acres a conservation district leading to full fledged historic district designation, I believe is a very broad overreach of the intentions of historical preservation. Having lived several years in the Near West Side/Prospect Hill neighborhood as well as having owned several properties in historic neighborhoods in other cities I can speak to the impact of this type of designation personally as well. Talking about a select handful of houses, which are notable and can be kept as such, and expanding that to include several hundred that have little to no historic significance is where the overreach comes into play. As a real estate agent and investor myself, I fully understand where many are coming from who oppose this broad reach. The point of historic designation is to single out properties that carry a story all their own, not to lump an entire neighborhood, with a large rental population and no historical significance, and confine the expansion and development that is desperately needed to support a growing University and the city as a whole. I've been a part of many discussions on the commissions which I serve about how we can balance preservation with expansion and development and I've seen cases where that blends very well together and is a win-win. This is not one of those cases but since it has been presented as such I'm strongly opposed to it. I believe the intentions are misguided and really crosses a line into government intrusion into the livelihood of many tax paying owners in that neighborhood who want to continue to house students and families at a time when more housing density, of any kind, is very much needed. There are checks and balances in place already to prevent what many are referencing as the Kmart type development here and I fully support the expansion of this neighborhood. I think the goal here should be to keep the current historically significant houses in Green Acres just as they are and work to preserve other individual properties one at a time. Not taking a very broad stroke and misusing the point of preservation in the first place and thus bottlenecking an area ripe for future development. Thank you for your time.

Case Date:

7/18/2024

Heard Green Acres wants a conservation district. This is an inappropriate use of historic preservation protections. Historic preservation should be to preserve history, not to prevent development as a NIMBY tactic. This area should be able to grow and evolve to meet the density and environmental priorities of the City. There are other areas that have superior and unique historic structures. Don't make a joke of historic preservation. Please include this in public comment in the packet. The City needs a plan for historic preservation of choosing key areas of the City to protect. Blocking general development helps no one. Areas adjacent to campus should maximize student housing for the benefit of all residents.

Case Date:

1/16/2024

We live just a few blocks north of Bryan Park. At 4:09AM Saturday, Jan 15 my family was woken to what sounded like 8 gunshots, followed by two more a few minutes later. These noises sounded like they originated only a couple blocks south. Then there were 2 more shots (much fainter) at about 4:19AM. I never heard any sirens. Anyone have any insight into this occurrence? What is going to be done about the current state of affairs in regards to violence and drugs in the city of Bloomington? My wife and I have been increasingly concerned with the general state of "health" in Bloomington for the last few years. We have had random weapon-bearing tweekers and would-be thieves wander/stumble into our yards and onto our porches, we have had packages stolen from porches and mailboxes, we have had items stolen from our vehicles and property. My wife even witnessed a man masturbating in public! We now have cameras set up on our property to monitor 24/7 and I have a baseball bat next to my bed that I have already had to use once to run off a potential thief. We are two productive members of the community who pay our taxes and contribute to the local economy. But, we are considering moving due to the eroding quality of Bloomington. We know many others who feel the same way. In the last week alone we have heard of at least one stabbing death and one gunshot death. And upon a bit of reading of the Bloomingtonian it appears that Bloomington is doing rather poorly overall in this category. According to BPD Chief Mike Diekhoof, from a March 2023 article in the Bloomingtonian, in 2022 in Bloomington a gun crime occurred every 2.77 days. And someone shot at someone else every 5.2 days! And this is an upward moving trend. What the hell is going on here!? The previous mayor seemed to care little about this. Is the new mayor working with you to do something about all this? What do you plan to do about it? thanks. Ian Miller

Case Date:

10/3/2024

Dear Sir/Madam, [ TO BE FORWARDED, only to the (Office of the Mayor)(s), (Bloomington,((IN)/Monroe Co.)), (in office(s):(year(s):(2020/'21)) onward(s); (yr. 2024(A.D)), (Special Assistant to the Mayor, (Mayor Kerry Thompson), ("Office") Telephone no. : 812-349-3406] This is a letter of, ((formal) communication, only), (read:("Complaint"/"Concern")), for informing, Ms. Margaret VanSchaik, (Special Assistant to the Mayor), to contact St. Mark's ("U.M.C":(United Methodist Church)), (Church) office, (812) 332-5788, and possibly make arrangement(s) for (shipping/storage) of, my(personal) belonging(s), (initially, (stored) at the new(bldg./facility), ("I.R.A":( Indiana Recovery Alliance)), ("Far-Westside"), (Bloomington, ((IN)/Monroe Co.)), (since, as communicated , the time-limit of storage, (<1-2 month(s)), Thanking you, Yours sincerely, Ms. Diya B.((email):diybhatt@indiana.edu))

Case Date:

2/5/2024

See tix 187165. Local merchants don’t flood the community with criminals, mental health patients, and drug users that are responsible these carts being abandoned all over town…the city does!! Like all the other issues in this town, local government passes the blame on others (property owners)….hard working tax paying citizens and employers! Stop accepting state money for rehabilitation of all the states delinquents! I highly advocate for people to lawyer up take action against this city with answers like that!!!!

Case Date:

10/30/2015

Parkmobile stickers ripped off of meters on Fourth Street just east of the B-Line

Case Date:

4/8/2024

Using the MyBloomington website, ( https://bloomington.in.gov/mybloomington/ ) It would be helpful to list the historic designation per the SHARD for houses both in and out of historic districts. (i.e. C / Contributing, NC / Non-Contributing, O / Outstanding, etc.) and linked to a page that explains WHAT THAT MEANS in terms of modifications to the outsides of houses, whether or not that structure is in an historic district. Many homeowners come before the Historic Preservation Commission angry and uninformed. Consult with the HPC Program Manager, Noah Sandweiss, on what to put in these blurbs - it changes based on whether the property is in a district, as well which district it is in. (Noah’s email: noah.sandweiss@bloomington.in.gov )

Case Date:

9/22/2024

I’d like to request that the City integrate any grandfathered single family residency occupancy allowances into the mybloomington data for addresses. That is, state in the mybloomington address data that only three unrelated adults are allowed to rent a house at the listed address, or state the grandfathered amount, and if that grandfathered number has been properly maintained or rescinded due to non-renewal. It would help tenants to determine if they are getting a legal lease, and neighbors to determine if more than three adults are legal or not without going through the process of contacting HAND, and potential buyers to understand what they are getting into.

Case Date:

2/2/2024

Some calendar entries require logging into a Google account before info about the public meeting can be viewed. It would be helpful to not require logging into a Google account before display of public meeting information in order to ensure greatest levels of accessibility and participation. For example, on the page at https://bloomington.in.gov/boards clicking on the calendar links displayed on the right side of the page for the Feb 9 meeting of the Metropolitan Planning Organization Policy Committee or for the Feb 12 Board of Public Works Session displays a prompt to log into a Google account if the visitor is not already logged into a Google account. In contrast, clicking on the calendar entry for the Feb 7 Common Council Regular Session immediately displays the associated public meeting information, without first requiring a Google login.