Column: New gateway design would give Miller-Showers hawks another place to perch? Let’s do it!

The city of Bloomington recently asked for feedback on proposed new gateway designs—for the northern tip of Miller-Showers Park, and for the SR 45/46 bypass pedestrian bridge, near the Arlington Heights Elementary School.

The funding for the work, and the eventual construction, comes from the general obligation bonds that were issued in 2018 by the city of Bloomington and branded as “bicentennial bonds” in connection with the 200th anniversary of the city’s founding.

The total amount of those 2018 bonds was $10 million, split up into three different packages.

I can think of more practical ways to spend money than a gateway.

But if some of that money has to be spent on a gateway for people approaching Bloomington from the north, then at least one of the proposed designs makes sense. It looks like it’s basically an obelisk maybe 40–50 feet tall with “Bloomington” spelled out vertically.

Whatever its aesthetic merits, that design would give the hawks of Miller-Showers Park one more high place to perch, where they can look for tasty snacks, and it is easy for us to admire them.

The lead hawk photos for this column were taken in Miller-Showers Park—two of them last year, but one of them on Saturday (Jan. 7).

Below are more photos of Saturday’s hawks—they were a pair. A couple of the photos show that not every bird at Miller-Showers is a hawk.

As a bonus there’s some photos of a hawk perched on a wire on SR 446. That one flew off in a way that allowed for some good photos.

Photos: Hawks at Miller-Showers Park, SR 446 (Jan. 7, 2023)