Hello and welcome to ask the mayor on WFIU. We are on location in Bloomington with Mayor Kerry Thomson. Hi, welcome. Thanks. Hi, Joe. Nice to have you back.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, it's a delight.
Speaker 1
Let's just get right to it. We don't have much time. But I did want to get a quick update on the Eclipse, you can really feel the steam starting to roll behind. It's only what 22 days away.
Speaker 2
That's right. We are really excited at the city. And it's been a great opportunity for us to partner with our friends at IU and visit Bloomington, of course and throughout the county. And so we have public safety, as you probably already know, we did a press conference on that about two weeks ago. And our teams have have really partnered well to create great public safety plans. So with that in place, it's about really getting to experience the all of the eclipse and and so the visit Bloomington site is a great one to go to, to, to figure out where you're going to be and, and how you want to engage with the eclipse. The schools are closed, of course, city has gone all remote work except for those who are essential to keeping city services running. And we're just really excited to host the visitors here and to really get to experience a spectacle like the Eclipse together. This is a this is a coming together of our entire community. Really,
Speaker 1
it must be really hard, you know, graduation weekend, maybe football weekend, you've done this before, you kind of have an idea. I've heard populate or numbers up to 300,000 people, but I mean, does anyone really know?
Speaker 2
Nobody really knows. And, you know, we've we've heard 300,000 people, we certainly want to be prepared for that. Which is bigger than a football weekend, obviously. And I think it'll be somewhat weather dependent. The Eclipse goers know what they're doing and maybe tracking the weather and going someplace that it's likely to be. Have a clear day, no matter what the weather we have. Even if we have a rainy day, it's gonna get dark. It's really going to be an experience for all of us. Early
Speaker 1
forecast today, I saw overcast on April 8, it's way early. That's
Speaker 2
early. This is Indiana. They could forecast overcast for tomorrow and still get it. We could miss the boat on that one.
Speaker 1
Let's move on to where developers want to bring about 4200 homes commercial space to an undeveloped land. Bloomington southwest side, I believe it's called summit district mix of housing, which is something very important. I know in Bloomington it's everywhere we talk about on the show the need for all kinds of housing. nearby residents seem to be upset, of course, you know, not in my backyard. Their concern, you know, traffic infrastructure people, one from one resident described it like putting the city of Martinsville in her backyard or Bedford in her backyard. So what are your thoughts on this? And how do you move forward knowing that there's opposition to a big plan like this?
Speaker 2
So, you know, housing is is critical, not just to Bloomington, but to our country right now. We're really challenged with housing. And this is the last significant tract of developable land in the city of Bloomington right now. So, yes, it's a very large development, and that's why we have not been rushing with it. It is, you know, it's been under discussions for more than a year now, even more than that, actually. And there's been a traffic study done, we want to make sure we get the infrastructure in the traffic, right. And do this with a lot of intention.
Speaker 1
What is the communication process, then? We'll be like to the people who live in that area.
Speaker 2
The the communication to people in that area, I think, will be, you know, much like other processes that that my administration is putting forward, which is that, that we will post information as it comes available. We will really strongly encourage the developer and the builders of the project Ultimately, to engage with neighbors and keep them as up to date as possible. You know, in in this age of communication, we're so deeply grateful for what you do, because it's hard to get the information out to people. So we'll do our best at the city to push the information out that we do have. I do start my traveling town halls actually this evening. And and we intentionally are doing it at some elementary school so that we can answer questions about this development. We'll continue to look for outreach opportunities like that, to engage with it neighborhoods and ensure that everybody has the information that they are looking for.
Speaker 1
Just a study this past week from the Kelley School of Business was showing population in the state of Indiana growing about I think, 30,000 people, some rural areas are starting to grow. Of course, the metro area around Indianapolis is the fastest growing, which I guess I guess makes sense. But the Bloomington metro was one of the three that lost population in 2023. So I don't know if you've had a chance to look at this report. I know you have a lot going on right now. But we're wondering why you wouldn't think Bloomington would be losing population? Well,
Speaker 2
it's a it's a great question. I actually haven't seen that data set yet. But what we are seeing in municipalities like ours that has really not adding a lot of a lot of housing for people who work here is that people are committing it. And so it may be true that we're losing residential population. We've seen a lot of student housing go up in the past eight years, we haven't seen a lot of housing being developed for people who live and work here permanently. And so what that does is it it gives people no other choice than to live outside of Bloomington and commute in. Again, I haven't looked at that exact data set. But I would theorize that that is having an impact.
Speaker 1
That's very interesting, because even just driving over here now to 10 minute drive, I still can't believe how many housing projects are going up or under construction. There's one right here around the corner. Right. So the It seems like if anything, housing is becoming there is more coming into the city. That's right.
Speaker 2
And it's targeted at students, right. And we love having the students here. We're really grateful for the university and that vitality that the students bring. And we also need housing for people who work here.
Speaker 1
We have an email from Andrew, he says Bloomington has multiple creative spaces for the performing arts, but none for the visual arts. There's funding and support leads coming to the city from the Indiana Arts Commission. What are you doing to balance the city for the visual arts please. So
Speaker 2
we actually have funding, public art funding, etc. That goes to visual art projects by and large. And our Arts Commission here in Bloomington does, I think a really great job of trying to balance the the myriad of talented artists that we have here and attract also other artists to to share their gifts here in Bloomington. So we do our best to balance things. Obviously performing arts need a venue in order to perform. And so that may be more visible to people in terms of a structure dedicated to arts, but every publicly funded project in the city also comes with public art.
Speaker 1
So people like Andrew are looking for more or more funding for the visual arts, what would you advise him to do?
Speaker 2
Well, you know, I think if Andrew is a resident of the city of Bloomington, I would encourage him to apply to be on our Arts Commission. That's where a lot of those decisions are made.
Speaker 1
How much is meant touch really briefly over overall because I remember this in the mayoral debate this past year or so about all of the arts in Bloomington and that maybe they had been taken a little bit of a step down but it's such a big Bloomington just known for when you think about the Lotus Music Festival and all the arts. That's that's here. Is that still something that's part of your priority here in Bloomington? Absolutely.
Speaker 2
I think the arts are critical to a thriving city. And in fact, the arts are what allow us really to engage at a common level with one another frequently better than anything else does. We can share a performance we can go to an art show. I think we're all really proud of our What's happening with First Fridays and the many galleries that are engaged with that, and Bloomington really is known as, as an arts town. And we we are looking for ways to incubate artists as well. And, and hope to have some plans to towards that end soon.
Speaker 1
You know, we've done some reporting about possible conversion of Kirkwood to a bit more of a pedestrian way. You know, of course, it's it's since the pandemic has been close to traffic during the summer. Of course, you've said nothing's going to happen without much, much planning and public discussion. We've done that reporting so far. But I would like to know a bit more about what your thoughts are on where you'd like to see. Kirkwood Avenue become.
Speaker 2
So I think that we many of us have really enjoyed the outdoor dining on Kirkwood. And I think there's a real vibrancy about our city, when we have that happening. And it's a it's again, it's a way that people are coming together and experiencing one another in in ways that we don't if everybody's inside dining. We do you need to look at how accessible things are for our patrons who have limited mobility, and emergency services. And to my knowledge, I know that there was some reporting about permanently closing Kirkwood, to my knowledge that hasn't been discussed, what has been discussed is a longer term seasonal partial closure of Kirkwood, so that we can get better infrastructure for hosting that summer outdoor dining.
Speaker 1
Has there been any thought about Fourth Street, you have restaurant row that almost kind of has that Kirkwood feel as well, it's just one block away, but yet doesn't maybe have that Kirkwood feel? Is there any thoughts or plans for that area?
Speaker 2
I don't know that we have discussed that. You know, as we move further into city planning, we have a new planning director coming the first of April. So just two weeks away, we're really excited for David to join our team and and get started. My vision really is to to ensure that we have a vision of what we want Bloomington to be, and that our built environment supports that we are just getting started with our comprehensive plan. And so that now is a good time to start that visioning. We only do that once every decade.
Speaker 1
So is the movement on a comprehensive plan? Is that something that's starting now?
Speaker 2
We're starting to look at the at the contractors who can facilitate that conversation right now. Yes.
Unknown Speaker
Okay. So that last one was done.
Speaker 2
It's been it's been, I don't know, nine years or so this is a, at least a year long process. So it's time to get started, get started. And, and really, it's I'm glad that it ties into the beginning of my administration, because it's a great time to to provide all of the input that I've gotten that the listening sessions and that I'll continue to be getting at the town hall. And also to facilitate some, some more conversations that are a little more workshop charrette based so that our community can vision together for where we're going to be in 10 years.
Speaker 1
And something great to follow up on here. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker 2
And we have so much happening. You know, we have the convention center, we have hope well, and so of course, this Kirkwood plan should and and will impact the overall vision of Bloomington.
Speaker 1
So one of the Bloomington Sister Cities is in Santa Clara, Cuba, let's state lawmakers added a little tweak blocking locals from joining six adversary countries into a bill with property taxes this past session, that does include Cuba. So now we don't know it's hard to tell if that's retroactive or doesn't apply to certain cities or agreements. We're just wondering if you've heard anything, I'll be at very close now of to the end of the session.
Speaker 2
Right? No, it's interesting what we throw into these bills, you think we're talking about taxes, and then all of a sudden we're talking about Sister Cities. My my reading of the bill and some coverage of the bill is that the intent with the sister cities, tack on there was to protect security. I would say first of all, you know relationships are meaningful and if we are having challenging relationships, it's always good to keep lines of communication open with an eye of course to safety and secure already, but I wouldn't be inclined to sever relationships with another city. These don't have national security implications and municipalities in the end should really be able to determine these kinds of relationships. And
Speaker 1
I mean, that's exactly what I was gonna get your reaction what US Representative Jim banks of Indiana said sister city agreements are to get a foothold here not to help Indiana and obviously you disagree with that?
Speaker 2
Well, I think, you know, when you can work more person to person city to city. It's you know, Cuba doesn't really have a foothold in Bloomington. This is a, this is a city that we can learn from, and they can learn from us. And we really are not making decisions or having discussions that impact security at all.
Speaker 1
I know we just have a couple minutes left. Do you have any announcements, anything else that you'd like to say?
Speaker 2
Well, we will be making an announcement very soon about housing director for the city. And I'm excited about that one does
Speaker 1
this air Wednesday morning. Yeah. Two days. Yeah.
Speaker 2
So we will have it out by then. Okay, so we're, we are excited that Anna Harris has agreed to serve. I'll be appointing her as the Director of Housing and neighborhood development. She has been serving in an interim role. She She comes from a long line of housing providers, and she has vast real estate and housing development experience as well as lots of experience with HUD. So we're looking forward to getting a housing plan together under hid under Anna's leadership. That is one of my campaign promises that we would actually take the studies off the shelf and develop a plan that will be part of of our next year's work to launch a housing plan that is comprehensive and serves all levels of housing. And
Speaker 1
should I assume that this will be in cooperation with the county as well?
Speaker 2
Well, it'll be a city of Bloomington housing plan. That of course, that's what we have impact on. I am always looking for collaborations with the county and and with the region really because no city is an island and our labor shed is is vast, it's regional, not just within the city of Bloomington. This
Speaker 1
goes by so fast. It's well we have a few more. We'll save those for next time. But thank you so much for your time. No
Unknown Speaker
thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it next month. Yes. Great.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, it's a delight.
Speaker 1
Let's just get right to it. We don't have much time. But I did want to get a quick update on the Eclipse, you can really feel the steam starting to roll behind. It's only what 22 days away.
Speaker 2
That's right. We are really excited at the city. And it's been a great opportunity for us to partner with our friends at IU and visit Bloomington, of course and throughout the county. And so we have public safety, as you probably already know, we did a press conference on that about two weeks ago. And our teams have have really partnered well to create great public safety plans. So with that in place, it's about really getting to experience the all of the eclipse and and so the visit Bloomington site is a great one to go to, to, to figure out where you're going to be and, and how you want to engage with the eclipse. The schools are closed, of course, city has gone all remote work except for those who are essential to keeping city services running. And we're just really excited to host the visitors here and to really get to experience a spectacle like the Eclipse together. This is a this is a coming together of our entire community. Really,
Speaker 1
it must be really hard, you know, graduation weekend, maybe football weekend, you've done this before, you kind of have an idea. I've heard populate or numbers up to 300,000 people, but I mean, does anyone really know?
Speaker 2
Nobody really knows. And, you know, we've we've heard 300,000 people, we certainly want to be prepared for that. Which is bigger than a football weekend, obviously. And I think it'll be somewhat weather dependent. The Eclipse goers know what they're doing and maybe tracking the weather and going someplace that it's likely to be. Have a clear day, no matter what the weather we have. Even if we have a rainy day, it's gonna get dark. It's really going to be an experience for all of us. Early
Speaker 1
forecast today, I saw overcast on April 8, it's way early. That's
Speaker 2
early. This is Indiana. They could forecast overcast for tomorrow and still get it. We could miss the boat on that one.
Speaker 1
Let's move on to where developers want to bring about 4200 homes commercial space to an undeveloped land. Bloomington southwest side, I believe it's called summit district mix of housing, which is something very important. I know in Bloomington it's everywhere we talk about on the show the need for all kinds of housing. nearby residents seem to be upset, of course, you know, not in my backyard. Their concern, you know, traffic infrastructure people, one from one resident described it like putting the city of Martinsville in her backyard or Bedford in her backyard. So what are your thoughts on this? And how do you move forward knowing that there's opposition to a big plan like this?
Speaker 2
So, you know, housing is is critical, not just to Bloomington, but to our country right now. We're really challenged with housing. And this is the last significant tract of developable land in the city of Bloomington right now. So, yes, it's a very large development, and that's why we have not been rushing with it. It is, you know, it's been under discussions for more than a year now, even more than that, actually. And there's been a traffic study done, we want to make sure we get the infrastructure in the traffic, right. And do this with a lot of intention.
Speaker 1
What is the communication process, then? We'll be like to the people who live in that area.
Speaker 2
The the communication to people in that area, I think, will be, you know, much like other processes that that my administration is putting forward, which is that, that we will post information as it comes available. We will really strongly encourage the developer and the builders of the project Ultimately, to engage with neighbors and keep them as up to date as possible. You know, in in this age of communication, we're so deeply grateful for what you do, because it's hard to get the information out to people. So we'll do our best at the city to push the information out that we do have. I do start my traveling town halls actually this evening. And and we intentionally are doing it at some elementary school so that we can answer questions about this development. We'll continue to look for outreach opportunities like that, to engage with it neighborhoods and ensure that everybody has the information that they are looking for.
Speaker 1
Just a study this past week from the Kelley School of Business was showing population in the state of Indiana growing about I think, 30,000 people, some rural areas are starting to grow. Of course, the metro area around Indianapolis is the fastest growing, which I guess I guess makes sense. But the Bloomington metro was one of the three that lost population in 2023. So I don't know if you've had a chance to look at this report. I know you have a lot going on right now. But we're wondering why you wouldn't think Bloomington would be losing population? Well,
Speaker 2
it's a it's a great question. I actually haven't seen that data set yet. But what we are seeing in municipalities like ours that has really not adding a lot of a lot of housing for people who work here is that people are committing it. And so it may be true that we're losing residential population. We've seen a lot of student housing go up in the past eight years, we haven't seen a lot of housing being developed for people who live and work here permanently. And so what that does is it it gives people no other choice than to live outside of Bloomington and commute in. Again, I haven't looked at that exact data set. But I would theorize that that is having an impact.
Speaker 1
That's very interesting, because even just driving over here now to 10 minute drive, I still can't believe how many housing projects are going up or under construction. There's one right here around the corner. Right. So the It seems like if anything, housing is becoming there is more coming into the city. That's right.
Speaker 2
And it's targeted at students, right. And we love having the students here. We're really grateful for the university and that vitality that the students bring. And we also need housing for people who work here.
Speaker 1
We have an email from Andrew, he says Bloomington has multiple creative spaces for the performing arts, but none for the visual arts. There's funding and support leads coming to the city from the Indiana Arts Commission. What are you doing to balance the city for the visual arts please. So
Speaker 2
we actually have funding, public art funding, etc. That goes to visual art projects by and large. And our Arts Commission here in Bloomington does, I think a really great job of trying to balance the the myriad of talented artists that we have here and attract also other artists to to share their gifts here in Bloomington. So we do our best to balance things. Obviously performing arts need a venue in order to perform. And so that may be more visible to people in terms of a structure dedicated to arts, but every publicly funded project in the city also comes with public art.
Speaker 1
So people like Andrew are looking for more or more funding for the visual arts, what would you advise him to do?
Speaker 2
Well, you know, I think if Andrew is a resident of the city of Bloomington, I would encourage him to apply to be on our Arts Commission. That's where a lot of those decisions are made.
Speaker 1
How much is meant touch really briefly over overall because I remember this in the mayoral debate this past year or so about all of the arts in Bloomington and that maybe they had been taken a little bit of a step down but it's such a big Bloomington just known for when you think about the Lotus Music Festival and all the arts. That's that's here. Is that still something that's part of your priority here in Bloomington? Absolutely.
Speaker 2
I think the arts are critical to a thriving city. And in fact, the arts are what allow us really to engage at a common level with one another frequently better than anything else does. We can share a performance we can go to an art show. I think we're all really proud of our What's happening with First Fridays and the many galleries that are engaged with that, and Bloomington really is known as, as an arts town. And we we are looking for ways to incubate artists as well. And, and hope to have some plans to towards that end soon.
Speaker 1
You know, we've done some reporting about possible conversion of Kirkwood to a bit more of a pedestrian way. You know, of course, it's it's since the pandemic has been close to traffic during the summer. Of course, you've said nothing's going to happen without much, much planning and public discussion. We've done that reporting so far. But I would like to know a bit more about what your thoughts are on where you'd like to see. Kirkwood Avenue become.
Speaker 2
So I think that we many of us have really enjoyed the outdoor dining on Kirkwood. And I think there's a real vibrancy about our city, when we have that happening. And it's a it's again, it's a way that people are coming together and experiencing one another in in ways that we don't if everybody's inside dining. We do you need to look at how accessible things are for our patrons who have limited mobility, and emergency services. And to my knowledge, I know that there was some reporting about permanently closing Kirkwood, to my knowledge that hasn't been discussed, what has been discussed is a longer term seasonal partial closure of Kirkwood, so that we can get better infrastructure for hosting that summer outdoor dining.
Speaker 1
Has there been any thought about Fourth Street, you have restaurant row that almost kind of has that Kirkwood feel as well, it's just one block away, but yet doesn't maybe have that Kirkwood feel? Is there any thoughts or plans for that area?
Speaker 2
I don't know that we have discussed that. You know, as we move further into city planning, we have a new planning director coming the first of April. So just two weeks away, we're really excited for David to join our team and and get started. My vision really is to to ensure that we have a vision of what we want Bloomington to be, and that our built environment supports that we are just getting started with our comprehensive plan. And so that now is a good time to start that visioning. We only do that once every decade.
Speaker 1
So is the movement on a comprehensive plan? Is that something that's starting now?
Speaker 2
We're starting to look at the at the contractors who can facilitate that conversation right now. Yes.
Unknown Speaker
Okay. So that last one was done.
Speaker 2
It's been it's been, I don't know, nine years or so this is a, at least a year long process. So it's time to get started, get started. And, and really, it's I'm glad that it ties into the beginning of my administration, because it's a great time to to provide all of the input that I've gotten that the listening sessions and that I'll continue to be getting at the town hall. And also to facilitate some, some more conversations that are a little more workshop charrette based so that our community can vision together for where we're going to be in 10 years.
Speaker 1
And something great to follow up on here. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker 2
And we have so much happening. You know, we have the convention center, we have hope well, and so of course, this Kirkwood plan should and and will impact the overall vision of Bloomington.
Speaker 1
So one of the Bloomington Sister Cities is in Santa Clara, Cuba, let's state lawmakers added a little tweak blocking locals from joining six adversary countries into a bill with property taxes this past session, that does include Cuba. So now we don't know it's hard to tell if that's retroactive or doesn't apply to certain cities or agreements. We're just wondering if you've heard anything, I'll be at very close now of to the end of the session.
Speaker 2
Right? No, it's interesting what we throw into these bills, you think we're talking about taxes, and then all of a sudden we're talking about Sister Cities. My my reading of the bill and some coverage of the bill is that the intent with the sister cities, tack on there was to protect security. I would say first of all, you know relationships are meaningful and if we are having challenging relationships, it's always good to keep lines of communication open with an eye of course to safety and secure already, but I wouldn't be inclined to sever relationships with another city. These don't have national security implications and municipalities in the end should really be able to determine these kinds of relationships. And
Speaker 1
I mean, that's exactly what I was gonna get your reaction what US Representative Jim banks of Indiana said sister city agreements are to get a foothold here not to help Indiana and obviously you disagree with that?
Speaker 2
Well, I think, you know, when you can work more person to person city to city. It's you know, Cuba doesn't really have a foothold in Bloomington. This is a, this is a city that we can learn from, and they can learn from us. And we really are not making decisions or having discussions that impact security at all.
Speaker 1
I know we just have a couple minutes left. Do you have any announcements, anything else that you'd like to say?
Speaker 2
Well, we will be making an announcement very soon about housing director for the city. And I'm excited about that one does
Speaker 1
this air Wednesday morning. Yeah. Two days. Yeah.
Speaker 2
So we will have it out by then. Okay, so we're, we are excited that Anna Harris has agreed to serve. I'll be appointing her as the Director of Housing and neighborhood development. She has been serving in an interim role. She She comes from a long line of housing providers, and she has vast real estate and housing development experience as well as lots of experience with HUD. So we're looking forward to getting a housing plan together under hid under Anna's leadership. That is one of my campaign promises that we would actually take the studies off the shelf and develop a plan that will be part of of our next year's work to launch a housing plan that is comprehensive and serves all levels of housing. And
Speaker 1
should I assume that this will be in cooperation with the county as well?
Speaker 2
Well, it'll be a city of Bloomington housing plan. That of course, that's what we have impact on. I am always looking for collaborations with the county and and with the region really because no city is an island and our labor shed is is vast, it's regional, not just within the city of Bloomington. This
Speaker 1
goes by so fast. It's well we have a few more. We'll save those for next time. But thank you so much for your time. No
Unknown Speaker
thanks for doing this. I really appreciate it next month. Yes. Great.
