“Share the road” is a slogan popularized by bicycle enthusiasts and their lobbyists. But the Lower Cascades road closing proposal is an example of people in our local government who just think they know what is best for all of us. They are willing to take away our full use the oldest park in the city for a small minority of residents who don’t want to share the road. This is simply wrong and outrageous.
Category Archives: Planning
Hawthorne greenway: A new occasion to oppose Bloomington’s autocratic planning
The proposed greenway on Hawthorne and Weatherstone is basically about bicycle infrastructure — not pedestrian safety. It’s a component of a program to re-engineer neighborhoods to be more welcoming to bike traffic, and it seeks to impose that re-engineering, in top-down fashion, on residents of the affected streets whether they want it or not.
Plan Commissioners Punt Upzoning to the Council — Along With Its Risks
By Peter Dorfman In its April 1 hearing, the Plan Commission — having been assailed by a largely critical audience and obviously realizing they had changed absolutely no one’s mind on upzoning Bloomington’s core — voted 6-3 to send the UDO amendment eliminating single-family zoning to the City Council with a recommendation to approve. ToContinue reading “Plan Commissioners Punt Upzoning to the Council — Along With Its Risks”
Plan Commission Backs Into Hearings on Upzoning
By Peter Dorfman Bloomington’s Plan Commission held its first debate session on the city’s new zoning map and amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) on Monday, March 8. The Commission has mapped out a series of four meetings to address the map and amendments, including what promises to be a marathon session on MarchContinue reading “Plan Commission Backs Into Hearings on Upzoning”
The Revised Upzoning Proposal is On Its Way
On February 10, City Council members received the following notice from the Mayor’s office: CITY OF BLOOMINGTON OFFICE OF THE MAYOR MEMORANDUM TO: Members of the Bloomington Common Council FROM: Mayor John Hamilton RE: UDO Revisions and Timeline DATE: February 10, 2021 Since Planning & Transportation (P&T) staff initiated the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) zoningContinue reading “The Revised Upzoning Proposal is On Its Way”
Zoning is a Sledgehammer; Bloomington Deserves a Form-Based Approach
By Jim Rosenbarger Conventional land use zoning is a blunt-edged tool, especially for existing, unique neighborhoods. Synonyms for “zone” include area, sector, section, belt, region or territory. These terms describe something generic, something broad. Bloomington’s neighborhoods have names: Prospect Hill, Green Acres, Hyde Park, etc. Each has varied street types, lot sizes and shapes, andContinue reading “Zoning is a Sledgehammer; Bloomington Deserves a Form-Based Approach”
Reliving ‘Urban Renewal: Again, Bloomington Risks Its Sense of Place
By Jan Sorby The front page headline of the Herald-Telephone in December of 1959 read, “Wants a Six-Story Building: Tear Down the Courthouse Councilman Turner Declares.” The article reported a suggestion on the part of Councilman Robert Turner “that the county tear down ‘this monstrosity of a Courthouse’ and build a six-story modern office inContinue reading “Reliving ‘Urban Renewal: Again, Bloomington Risks Its Sense of Place”
Put the Brakes on the Latest Round of Misguided Modernizing
By Lori Hoevener I’ve spent many hours, during these months of the pandemic, walking in Bloomington’s lovely old core neighborhoods near where I reside. I’ve always felt immensely lucky that our small city still has that increasingly rare connection with the past that makes present-day Bloomington such an attractive place to live. The term “core neighborhood”Continue reading “Put the Brakes on the Latest Round of Misguided Modernizing”
Don’t Put Workforce Housing Ahead of Rentals for Our Neediest
By Michelle Henderson When the Shalom Center, one of Bloomington’s most important shelters for people experiencing homelessness, was first located at the First United Methodist Church in 2000, we had only one room to provide space for our guests to gather and gain access to services and resources during the day. One of my favoriteContinue reading “Don’t Put Workforce Housing Ahead of Rentals for Our Neediest”
The Boxifying of the Built Environment
By Ramsay Harik There are so many reasons to resist the city’s latest attempts at upzoning the core neighborhoods that it’s hard to know where to begin. Others here have written compellingly on everything from zoning history to basic real estate economics; for my part, I’d like to address what is for me a central considerationContinue reading “The Boxifying of the Built Environment”
The Dissident Democrat 