Speaker 1
Yeah. Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren this week. We're with Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton. Hello, welcome to the show.
Unknown Speaker
Good to see you again. Joe. Nice to be with you.
Speaker 1
I know you have a busy week. I'm out of town. So really appreciate you fitting this in today. I hear Bloomington is hosting a group of mayors this week. What's What are they in town for?
Speaker 2
We are Joe the Indiana Conference of Mayors. That's a subset I suppose of the statewide advanced Indiana municipalities the kind of the interest group that represents all of us, cities and towns, has the occasional meeting of mayors and they asked if Bloomington would host it and we said sure bring them on. So over two or three days this week, we'll have a few dozen mayors. I haven't seen the final list. Mostly it's a program that's run by the statewide organization. But we do get to give him a two hour bus tour of Bloomington and join him for some some dinners and such. So I'll be showing him showing off Bloomington a little bit to a bunch of other mayors.
Speaker 1
What are a couple of the highlights that you want to show because I know when I go to other cities, they a lot of them and my good friend, Mayor Greg Good night. I remember him from Kokomo used to always talk about how he'd come down to Bloomington because he wants to steal all the good ideas Bloomington.
Speaker 2
Well, you know, every city has something to learn and something to teach. And we're going to take them I think to switch Art Park probably not a surprise talk about that conversion will take the mayor's to hope well, the you know, the hospital site, which we're actually doing a groundbreaking later this week to for the first infrastructure investments there. I think we're going to take them to the to the Waldron, that converted City Hall now in Art Center and the garage next door, I think we'll ride them along the B line, I don't know if we'll I'm sorry, the seven line the new connection off of the B line that will take us over to IU. I think we're going to do a little IU stop little town gown stuff and then end up at the mill and talk about the trace district. So there's a lot to talk about in two hours. But they'll probably have a lot of questions too.
Speaker 1
So we have to at least mentioned that the storm damage I know it's been quite a month severe storms that was it who How was the cleanup going?
Speaker 2
Yeah, you know, we had I was talking to public work. So they had some personnel working 8090 hours that we were picking up dozens and dozens, I think I think maybe 80 downed trees that we had that we had to clear off of streets and sidewalks. So it was a rough couple few days because we had to kind of two separate episodes for four or five days apart. Of course, a lot of people were without power. Duke I know had to struggle to deal with that there were people without power for multiple days. I want to thank our crews, they did a fantastic job cleaning up all that damage, and appreciate the patience of the community. Luckily, you know, compared to some of what's going on around the country, we haven't borne the worst of it. But it certainly was a challenging six days or so there a few a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1
Now FM resident sees a tree down and not sure is that my tree is that my neighbor's tree is in a city tree? Is it? Is it a county tree where what's the first place they could go to try to get that cleaned up?
Speaker 2
Well, they can always call City Hall. Or, you know, if you're worried about danger, you know, the electric wires in my fire chief reminding me that, you know, you don't always know what the wire is. You can get you can get injured, not even just touching the wire but getting near it. So just be super careful when that happens. And if you have any risk, worry of danger call 911 and they can steer you that way. But, you know, basically if it's a city street and we have something blocking it will clean it up. If it was a city tree that is something on public property that fell. We handle that if it's private. If it's on private property, we generally don't come onto your property and clean things up. But we certainly can help advise on that.
Speaker 1
Is this something we're going to see more of in the future? I talked with Terre Haute, Mayor Duque Bennett to talk about reporting on climate change and and so forth and we're seeing more of these storms. Is this something that's on your radar so to speak.
Speaker 2
Every meeting I go to Joe we talk about with mayors and around the country the changing climates the extreme weather events you know heck we didn't I it was not on my radar that we were going to have Canadian forest fires dramatically change our weather patterns are healthy air But boy, it hit the Midwest and the East Coast and it's gonna continue. So these are definitely ever these are present consequences of changing climate. Intense rainstorms, forest fires that cause difficulty, of course, flooding that can result storms, storm events with wind damage, these are all things we're having to plan for get used to changing water availability. Luckily, we have very good water availability, but the patterns can change over the years. Evaporation and, and, you know, Storm again, it's all it's it's constant being prepared for these extreme events.
Speaker 1
Let's get to that gigabit now that broadband infrastructure, the city is working on getting high speed internet to residence, and then I know the HT. Our newsroom reported Now this was a couple of weeks ago, but the delivery service that was promised is not happening. So if it was promised, why isn't it happening and what's being done? What do you know?
Speaker 2
Well, it is happening, Joe. I mean, this is a big project I just checked a couple days ago, there's almost 90 miles, maybe now over 90 miles of conduit that had been installed. And the first customers are now live. Handful I know. And another 500 customers are being offered the service. And the expectation is that every month there will be hundreds more, if not 1000s. More over the next couple of years. Now it is a it's a two year project. And that means it's going to take some time to get to all the neighborhoods but there's been a lot of construction going on. I know we hear from people who see that happening. And sometimes it affects things in their in their vicinity. But gigabit now, which is the internet provider, that is providing a home service business service through the conduit that Meridiam who's your fiber network is installing has has lit up customers I know I'm I'm waiting for them to offer me that I'm not in the first group so far. But we've we've started to see hundreds and hundreds of potential customers and and of course, it's up to each person, each each household each business whether they want to take the service, but I'm looking forward to the two gigabit up and down. And we're also very excited about the digital equity program, which will offer essentially free internet service to hundreds and hundreds of our residents and households. 1000s really will be offered. And it's you know, it's kind of like painting a house or remodeling a lot of the hard stuff at the beginning. You don't you don't see as much. And then when it starts to roll, it starts to roll. And it's now starting to roll.
Speaker 1
How was the response then? Are you getting residents interested? Are people signing up?
Speaker 2
We are significant numbers. I think I think the company is pleased with the uptake of those who who want to switch? I'm not sure the exact number of that what percent but I know it's they're pleased with the with the numbers so far. And according again, it's an individual decision on whether you want to take advantage of this and we'll see they're going to be you know, they've entered our marketplace. They're going to compete for customers and they have to deliver good service and we hope they will do that. Well.
Speaker 1
Alright, on to another topic. since we've last talked the Monroe County Commissioners approved to CIB a couple of weeks ago to manage operate the convention center expansion. That's a move forward project that hasn't seen much progress but haven't heard much of on the city on this part of it. Do you have a response to that? Monroe County Commissioner CIB?
Speaker 2
Well, as I think, you know, Joe, we have been working for seven plus years on the convention center. It's been a really long road. We we've been frustrated from the city that we weren't able to move more quickly. We really should should have been completed in construction, almost it would have been a good time during the pandemic to be building it but that we weren't able to do that. I continue to be focused on really making sure that we can build a a transformative, efficient, beautiful convention center expansion right downtown. And that's been my focus from the beginning. I still am concerned that you know the county move forward with the Capital Improvement Board without agreeing. We had we had been wanting to negotiate an inter local to set out some of the details. They didn't want to wait for that but have kind of charged ahead with this with the Capital Improvement Board. I did have a meeting last week before last with a county commissioner We've been trying to sit down for a long, long time more than a year and talk about options. And so I'm hopeful that that can continue. You know, we have resources, we have demand for this. It's a great opportunity to help strengthen our downtown during the weeks, particularly, you know, Bloomington has millions of visitors a year, but many of them are on the weekends. And a convention center can kind of help balance that out with more visitors during the week, who will then go to downtown restaurants, downtown events, arts events in support the hotels, of course, too. So I'm a big supporter, we still have some things to be worked out. And I'm going to keep focused on trying to make sure that we invest this money wisely, efficiently, without too many cooks in the kitchen to make sure we can produce a great product.
Speaker 1
So that would that be the next step that is an interlocal agreement? Is that the next step that you need to work on with the county?
Speaker 2
Yeah, we really need to agree on how's this going to work, I mean, you can create a board but but you have to have a plan going forward. And the county doesn't have a plan yet. And they've kind of gone ahead to create the board. But we really need to have a plan about how it's gonna get done. These are complicated big projects. I sometimes remind the county that you guys, you know, you need to build a jail, you need to focus on getting that done that criminal justice reform is also complicated. And we want to make sure we have the team, the plan and the structure that will let us do this convention center. Well, it will be good for downtown Bloomington and the whole region. There are a lot of people who want to come here. We got a bunch of mayor's showing up as we said this week. They love having conferences in Bloomington. So it's a good it's a good thing. We got some work to do still
Speaker 1
mccsc wants another referendum after having one passed last year, this one last year as teachers staff funding this one is more for student equity. From what I understand. Are you do support and obviously you're not on the school board or have that decision. But as mayor, do you support this extra referendum?
Speaker 2
I do, Joe very much. Look and I used to serve on the school board. I've supported every referendum we've had I think they're, you know, the school systems excellence, the school systems an anchor for our community. Unfortunately, it's not funded enough at the statewide level. So we need to do this locally. The key for me with this new referendum is yes, it's supporting equitable access with with making sure every student and family has covered for textbooks and testing requirements and those kinds of things. But the most important thing, it's offering pre K for four year olds all across the school district and for the the income needy three year olds, and that is a huge thing. We are one of the few states in the country that doesn't have a substantial free pre K program for four year olds and and adding three year olds this is this is transformative for the city. I really do. I'm a strong supporter of this. I think it's a great thing for the public schools to lead on if you if you think about how valuable it will be for a family here, Joe, that you know, they want to work. They have kids daycares often a big challenge access to daycare, this investment will mean every four year old gets access to great daycare, and all the needy three year olds and that also loosens up the current daycare system to help cover the more gaps in the infant to infant to three year old range. So I think is a great plan. I think it's a great investment for our community and I'll be a strong supporter because I think it's really helpful for Bloomington future.
Speaker 1
Your take on the 6000 housing development proposed on the west side is huge for the city that's having a hard time or everyone every mayor I talked to has a hard time with housing. Of course Bloomington has difficult terrain to build on. This proposal had some at a recent meeting concerns about traffic roads, neighborhood character. Have you had a chance to look at the proposal and do you think that should move forward?
Speaker 2
I have had a chance Joe this is another project we've actually been working on since I began this area of the city Sudbury kind of in the southwest quadrant is the largest undeveloped land in in the city of Bloomington. It's a wonderful location for a lot of people to live as you know, we have housing pressures like most communities, we want to help people live in the city close to amenities close to work close to schools close to entertainment close to transit, and all this. This fits all of that bill. So for a long time, we've been hoping for developers who could who could move this board and we I think we have a good potential partner here investor that really has a vision consistent with the city's comprehensive plan. Of course there are issues anytime with a with an investment like this with traffic and with density. But look, we need more people being able to live in Bloomington. We have employers who are seeking employees. We have lots of people who want to live in Bloomington, Nate and they can't find a house. So this is a great opportunity. This like hope well, this is probably a an eight or 10 year kind of build out project. But it's terrific that we have the private investors ready to move forward. They see the market they know this is a community people want to live in. I will tell you I talked to a school superintendent said last a lot more kids for our school system and we got to make sure we have room for him. But that's a good problem to have. And I'm I'm looking forward to our process public comment reviewed by the Planning Commission and city council and hopeful that we can move this forward.
Speaker 1
When I wanted to piggyback off the hope will neighborhood groundbreaking that's this Friday. It's the site of the former hospital. Not many cities have a chance to totally redevelop a huge parcel of downtown's. This groundbreaking is is a big deal, isn't it?
Speaker 2
It is a big deal, Joe and we've been working on this course with IU Health, we negotiated the purchase of the 24 acres they built their half billion dollar new complex on the east side with IU which is which is terrific. And we now are breaking ground on the first investments in that 24 acres. It's we're starting from the east side really right next to Kroger the Beeline between first and second. And we'll be re basically remitting the street cred. So we're going to be building kind of the regular blocks of city streets so that we can then work again with investors to repopulate that. It's it's an amazing opportunity. Once in a century, as we've talked about for a city to get to do this. It's very exciting. We have a great master plan developed with the public. Were looking for affordable housing right out of the gate at the oldest park the core building there to advance that as well. You know, we didn't mention but that other large development of 6000 units five or 6000, we want to see a lot of affordable there. So we have a full range of options for people and come on out Friday at 330. If you want to see the groundbreaking to get that construction started at Hopewell, it's very exciting day.
Speaker 1
What will people first start to see there after the groundbreaking I guess what's the first phase there?
Speaker 2
You know, it's kind of like it's underground. First there's gonna be water, there's gonna be sewer, there's gonna be roads. So first, it's gonna be that infrastructure that you've got to do the less sexy stuff but you need to put in those roads and sidewalks now that we are doing a greenway to a really cool new public park that will come off of the beeline to the west, it'll kind of link softly to the building trades Park north of Second Street. You know, it's going to be a great neighborhood. I'm so excited to be able to cheer it on. I'll be cheering it on over the next eight or 10 years. But the first things you'll see you go there now you'll see a lot of grass as after the demolish areas and you'll start to see earthmoving and infrastructure. And then we hope in the next year or so we'll start to see some buildings going up on some of the some of the areas. But this isn't a long term project. It's a great opportunity for the city. And I'm excited to kick it off writing.
Speaker 1
Again, thank you so much for your time. I always like to end though with any announcements or any word from the mayor.
Speaker 2
You know, Joe, we're looking forward to students returning the summer rhythms of Bloomington are a little different. And we're excited about that. I'm excited about continuing we got a new budget to develop and that'll be a big a big effort over the next couple of months. But we can we can talk about that in future future meetings too. Thanks so much for telling people all about what's going on in our cities here in our area.
Speaker 1
Thank you and if you're joining us, you can also send in a comment or question to any of our mayor's on Twitter at Ask the mayor and of course our email news at Indiana public media.org. Have a great week. Good luck with the mayor's Mr. Mayor, and we'll see you next month.
Unknown Speaker
Thanks a lot Joe.
Unknown Speaker
You tonight
Yeah. Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. I'm Joe Hren this week. We're with Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton. Hello, welcome to the show.
Unknown Speaker
Good to see you again. Joe. Nice to be with you.
Speaker 1
I know you have a busy week. I'm out of town. So really appreciate you fitting this in today. I hear Bloomington is hosting a group of mayors this week. What's What are they in town for?
Speaker 2
We are Joe the Indiana Conference of Mayors. That's a subset I suppose of the statewide advanced Indiana municipalities the kind of the interest group that represents all of us, cities and towns, has the occasional meeting of mayors and they asked if Bloomington would host it and we said sure bring them on. So over two or three days this week, we'll have a few dozen mayors. I haven't seen the final list. Mostly it's a program that's run by the statewide organization. But we do get to give him a two hour bus tour of Bloomington and join him for some some dinners and such. So I'll be showing him showing off Bloomington a little bit to a bunch of other mayors.
Speaker 1
What are a couple of the highlights that you want to show because I know when I go to other cities, they a lot of them and my good friend, Mayor Greg Good night. I remember him from Kokomo used to always talk about how he'd come down to Bloomington because he wants to steal all the good ideas Bloomington.
Speaker 2
Well, you know, every city has something to learn and something to teach. And we're going to take them I think to switch Art Park probably not a surprise talk about that conversion will take the mayor's to hope well, the you know, the hospital site, which we're actually doing a groundbreaking later this week to for the first infrastructure investments there. I think we're going to take them to the to the Waldron, that converted City Hall now in Art Center and the garage next door, I think we'll ride them along the B line, I don't know if we'll I'm sorry, the seven line the new connection off of the B line that will take us over to IU. I think we're going to do a little IU stop little town gown stuff and then end up at the mill and talk about the trace district. So there's a lot to talk about in two hours. But they'll probably have a lot of questions too.
Speaker 1
So we have to at least mentioned that the storm damage I know it's been quite a month severe storms that was it who How was the cleanup going?
Speaker 2
Yeah, you know, we had I was talking to public work. So they had some personnel working 8090 hours that we were picking up dozens and dozens, I think I think maybe 80 downed trees that we had that we had to clear off of streets and sidewalks. So it was a rough couple few days because we had to kind of two separate episodes for four or five days apart. Of course, a lot of people were without power. Duke I know had to struggle to deal with that there were people without power for multiple days. I want to thank our crews, they did a fantastic job cleaning up all that damage, and appreciate the patience of the community. Luckily, you know, compared to some of what's going on around the country, we haven't borne the worst of it. But it certainly was a challenging six days or so there a few a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 1
Now FM resident sees a tree down and not sure is that my tree is that my neighbor's tree is in a city tree? Is it? Is it a county tree where what's the first place they could go to try to get that cleaned up?
Speaker 2
Well, they can always call City Hall. Or, you know, if you're worried about danger, you know, the electric wires in my fire chief reminding me that, you know, you don't always know what the wire is. You can get you can get injured, not even just touching the wire but getting near it. So just be super careful when that happens. And if you have any risk, worry of danger call 911 and they can steer you that way. But, you know, basically if it's a city street and we have something blocking it will clean it up. If it was a city tree that is something on public property that fell. We handle that if it's private. If it's on private property, we generally don't come onto your property and clean things up. But we certainly can help advise on that.
Speaker 1
Is this something we're going to see more of in the future? I talked with Terre Haute, Mayor Duque Bennett to talk about reporting on climate change and and so forth and we're seeing more of these storms. Is this something that's on your radar so to speak.
Speaker 2
Every meeting I go to Joe we talk about with mayors and around the country the changing climates the extreme weather events you know heck we didn't I it was not on my radar that we were going to have Canadian forest fires dramatically change our weather patterns are healthy air But boy, it hit the Midwest and the East Coast and it's gonna continue. So these are definitely ever these are present consequences of changing climate. Intense rainstorms, forest fires that cause difficulty, of course, flooding that can result storms, storm events with wind damage, these are all things we're having to plan for get used to changing water availability. Luckily, we have very good water availability, but the patterns can change over the years. Evaporation and, and, you know, Storm again, it's all it's it's constant being prepared for these extreme events.
Speaker 1
Let's get to that gigabit now that broadband infrastructure, the city is working on getting high speed internet to residence, and then I know the HT. Our newsroom reported Now this was a couple of weeks ago, but the delivery service that was promised is not happening. So if it was promised, why isn't it happening and what's being done? What do you know?
Speaker 2
Well, it is happening, Joe. I mean, this is a big project I just checked a couple days ago, there's almost 90 miles, maybe now over 90 miles of conduit that had been installed. And the first customers are now live. Handful I know. And another 500 customers are being offered the service. And the expectation is that every month there will be hundreds more, if not 1000s. More over the next couple of years. Now it is a it's a two year project. And that means it's going to take some time to get to all the neighborhoods but there's been a lot of construction going on. I know we hear from people who see that happening. And sometimes it affects things in their in their vicinity. But gigabit now, which is the internet provider, that is providing a home service business service through the conduit that Meridiam who's your fiber network is installing has has lit up customers I know I'm I'm waiting for them to offer me that I'm not in the first group so far. But we've we've started to see hundreds and hundreds of potential customers and and of course, it's up to each person, each each household each business whether they want to take the service, but I'm looking forward to the two gigabit up and down. And we're also very excited about the digital equity program, which will offer essentially free internet service to hundreds and hundreds of our residents and households. 1000s really will be offered. And it's you know, it's kind of like painting a house or remodeling a lot of the hard stuff at the beginning. You don't you don't see as much. And then when it starts to roll, it starts to roll. And it's now starting to roll.
Speaker 1
How was the response then? Are you getting residents interested? Are people signing up?
Speaker 2
We are significant numbers. I think I think the company is pleased with the uptake of those who who want to switch? I'm not sure the exact number of that what percent but I know it's they're pleased with the with the numbers so far. And according again, it's an individual decision on whether you want to take advantage of this and we'll see they're going to be you know, they've entered our marketplace. They're going to compete for customers and they have to deliver good service and we hope they will do that. Well.
Speaker 1
Alright, on to another topic. since we've last talked the Monroe County Commissioners approved to CIB a couple of weeks ago to manage operate the convention center expansion. That's a move forward project that hasn't seen much progress but haven't heard much of on the city on this part of it. Do you have a response to that? Monroe County Commissioner CIB?
Speaker 2
Well, as I think, you know, Joe, we have been working for seven plus years on the convention center. It's been a really long road. We we've been frustrated from the city that we weren't able to move more quickly. We really should should have been completed in construction, almost it would have been a good time during the pandemic to be building it but that we weren't able to do that. I continue to be focused on really making sure that we can build a a transformative, efficient, beautiful convention center expansion right downtown. And that's been my focus from the beginning. I still am concerned that you know the county move forward with the Capital Improvement Board without agreeing. We had we had been wanting to negotiate an inter local to set out some of the details. They didn't want to wait for that but have kind of charged ahead with this with the Capital Improvement Board. I did have a meeting last week before last with a county commissioner We've been trying to sit down for a long, long time more than a year and talk about options. And so I'm hopeful that that can continue. You know, we have resources, we have demand for this. It's a great opportunity to help strengthen our downtown during the weeks, particularly, you know, Bloomington has millions of visitors a year, but many of them are on the weekends. And a convention center can kind of help balance that out with more visitors during the week, who will then go to downtown restaurants, downtown events, arts events in support the hotels, of course, too. So I'm a big supporter, we still have some things to be worked out. And I'm going to keep focused on trying to make sure that we invest this money wisely, efficiently, without too many cooks in the kitchen to make sure we can produce a great product.
Speaker 1
So that would that be the next step that is an interlocal agreement? Is that the next step that you need to work on with the county?
Speaker 2
Yeah, we really need to agree on how's this going to work, I mean, you can create a board but but you have to have a plan going forward. And the county doesn't have a plan yet. And they've kind of gone ahead to create the board. But we really need to have a plan about how it's gonna get done. These are complicated big projects. I sometimes remind the county that you guys, you know, you need to build a jail, you need to focus on getting that done that criminal justice reform is also complicated. And we want to make sure we have the team, the plan and the structure that will let us do this convention center. Well, it will be good for downtown Bloomington and the whole region. There are a lot of people who want to come here. We got a bunch of mayor's showing up as we said this week. They love having conferences in Bloomington. So it's a good it's a good thing. We got some work to do still
Speaker 1
mccsc wants another referendum after having one passed last year, this one last year as teachers staff funding this one is more for student equity. From what I understand. Are you do support and obviously you're not on the school board or have that decision. But as mayor, do you support this extra referendum?
Speaker 2
I do, Joe very much. Look and I used to serve on the school board. I've supported every referendum we've had I think they're, you know, the school systems excellence, the school systems an anchor for our community. Unfortunately, it's not funded enough at the statewide level. So we need to do this locally. The key for me with this new referendum is yes, it's supporting equitable access with with making sure every student and family has covered for textbooks and testing requirements and those kinds of things. But the most important thing, it's offering pre K for four year olds all across the school district and for the the income needy three year olds, and that is a huge thing. We are one of the few states in the country that doesn't have a substantial free pre K program for four year olds and and adding three year olds this is this is transformative for the city. I really do. I'm a strong supporter of this. I think it's a great thing for the public schools to lead on if you if you think about how valuable it will be for a family here, Joe, that you know, they want to work. They have kids daycares often a big challenge access to daycare, this investment will mean every four year old gets access to great daycare, and all the needy three year olds and that also loosens up the current daycare system to help cover the more gaps in the infant to infant to three year old range. So I think is a great plan. I think it's a great investment for our community and I'll be a strong supporter because I think it's really helpful for Bloomington future.
Speaker 1
Your take on the 6000 housing development proposed on the west side is huge for the city that's having a hard time or everyone every mayor I talked to has a hard time with housing. Of course Bloomington has difficult terrain to build on. This proposal had some at a recent meeting concerns about traffic roads, neighborhood character. Have you had a chance to look at the proposal and do you think that should move forward?
Speaker 2
I have had a chance Joe this is another project we've actually been working on since I began this area of the city Sudbury kind of in the southwest quadrant is the largest undeveloped land in in the city of Bloomington. It's a wonderful location for a lot of people to live as you know, we have housing pressures like most communities, we want to help people live in the city close to amenities close to work close to schools close to entertainment close to transit, and all this. This fits all of that bill. So for a long time, we've been hoping for developers who could who could move this board and we I think we have a good potential partner here investor that really has a vision consistent with the city's comprehensive plan. Of course there are issues anytime with a with an investment like this with traffic and with density. But look, we need more people being able to live in Bloomington. We have employers who are seeking employees. We have lots of people who want to live in Bloomington, Nate and they can't find a house. So this is a great opportunity. This like hope well, this is probably a an eight or 10 year kind of build out project. But it's terrific that we have the private investors ready to move forward. They see the market they know this is a community people want to live in. I will tell you I talked to a school superintendent said last a lot more kids for our school system and we got to make sure we have room for him. But that's a good problem to have. And I'm I'm looking forward to our process public comment reviewed by the Planning Commission and city council and hopeful that we can move this forward.
Speaker 1
When I wanted to piggyback off the hope will neighborhood groundbreaking that's this Friday. It's the site of the former hospital. Not many cities have a chance to totally redevelop a huge parcel of downtown's. This groundbreaking is is a big deal, isn't it?
Speaker 2
It is a big deal, Joe and we've been working on this course with IU Health, we negotiated the purchase of the 24 acres they built their half billion dollar new complex on the east side with IU which is which is terrific. And we now are breaking ground on the first investments in that 24 acres. It's we're starting from the east side really right next to Kroger the Beeline between first and second. And we'll be re basically remitting the street cred. So we're going to be building kind of the regular blocks of city streets so that we can then work again with investors to repopulate that. It's it's an amazing opportunity. Once in a century, as we've talked about for a city to get to do this. It's very exciting. We have a great master plan developed with the public. Were looking for affordable housing right out of the gate at the oldest park the core building there to advance that as well. You know, we didn't mention but that other large development of 6000 units five or 6000, we want to see a lot of affordable there. So we have a full range of options for people and come on out Friday at 330. If you want to see the groundbreaking to get that construction started at Hopewell, it's very exciting day.
Speaker 1
What will people first start to see there after the groundbreaking I guess what's the first phase there?
Speaker 2
You know, it's kind of like it's underground. First there's gonna be water, there's gonna be sewer, there's gonna be roads. So first, it's gonna be that infrastructure that you've got to do the less sexy stuff but you need to put in those roads and sidewalks now that we are doing a greenway to a really cool new public park that will come off of the beeline to the west, it'll kind of link softly to the building trades Park north of Second Street. You know, it's going to be a great neighborhood. I'm so excited to be able to cheer it on. I'll be cheering it on over the next eight or 10 years. But the first things you'll see you go there now you'll see a lot of grass as after the demolish areas and you'll start to see earthmoving and infrastructure. And then we hope in the next year or so we'll start to see some buildings going up on some of the some of the areas. But this isn't a long term project. It's a great opportunity for the city. And I'm excited to kick it off writing.
Speaker 1
Again, thank you so much for your time. I always like to end though with any announcements or any word from the mayor.
Speaker 2
You know, Joe, we're looking forward to students returning the summer rhythms of Bloomington are a little different. And we're excited about that. I'm excited about continuing we got a new budget to develop and that'll be a big a big effort over the next couple of months. But we can we can talk about that in future future meetings too. Thanks so much for telling people all about what's going on in our cities here in our area.
Speaker 1
Thank you and if you're joining us, you can also send in a comment or question to any of our mayor's on Twitter at Ask the mayor and of course our email news at Indiana public media.org. Have a great week. Good luck with the mayor's Mr. Mayor, and we'll see you next month.
Unknown Speaker
Thanks a lot Joe.
Unknown Speaker
You tonight
