Pwdorfman

Wake Up. It’s On. Again.

Advocates for urban density have launched another push to turn Bloomington into Ann Arbor, in the vapid hope that shoe-horning more, smaller apartments into already-dense areas will improve housing affordability through the fairy dust of supply and demand.

Bloomington Dissident Democrats 2024 Endorsements: Thomas, Githens, Deckard, Munson

For County Council and Commissioner seats, Bloomington Dissident Democrats urges primary voters to resist the challengers’ entreaties to replace the incumbents with new commissioners who will promote dense housing development.

Mayor Thomson: Tell us your new-found secrets

Whatever it was that you found in a locked desk drawer when you moved into the mayor’s office…please share it with the rest of us so we can figure out what we’ve all been missing.

The Easiest, Fairest Resolution for City Council District 5

For the District 5 City Council seat, we endorse Jenny Stevens.

A New Year, A New Focus: Bloomington vs. Its Neighborhoods

It’s official: Kerry Thomson will be Bloomington’s Mayor in January 2024. We get a new cast of characters in the serio-comic spectacle that is our City Council. John Hamilton will leave City Hall without having consummated his hostile takeover of the suburbs, closed the road through Lower Cascades Park or erected his aluminum cutta atContinue reading “A New Year, A New Focus: Bloomington vs. Its Neighborhoods”

John Hamilton’s Middle Finger

Another Voice of Sanity: More Housing ≠ Cheaper Housing

By Peter Dorfman Iam cautiously optimistic that the administration that takes over Bloomington’s city government in January will at least tap the brakes on its predecessor’s lust for growth. Incoming Mayor Kerry Thomson has repeatedly taken the position that we can have a better city without necessarily making it bigger. Until further notice, I’m takingContinue reading “Another Voice of Sanity: More Housing ≠ Cheaper Housing”

Kerry Thomson: On the Record

I haven’t shared this material before, but Thomson’s victory in the primary makes it germane. These are her positions on policy issues as of early March. Those positions may have evolved since then, but they were provided on the record and evidence a fair amount of research and introspection. Even if there is no actual general election for mayor — if no Republican or independent challenger emerges — these are important perspectives to have on the individual who, we presume, will lead the next Bloomington administration.

Hamilton and his planners propose to take another shot at densification this year

The winner of the 2023 Democratic Primary, and the runner-up, both publicly opposed further densification of the core. Tweaking the UDO, again, to push his poorly rationalized agenda to defy the Comprehensive Plan and densify Bloomington’s neighborhoods should not be the prerogative of a lame duck mayor whose handpicked successor came in a weak third.

The 2023 Democratic Primary: Our Closing Argument

For the last 7+ years, the Hamilton Administration and a determined minority on the City Council have pulled Bloomington in the wrong direction. The 2023 citywide election provides Bloomingtonians a real opportunity to put the city on a more realistic and less divisive course – if we seize that opportunity.