Tag: Alex Crowley

Bloomington mayor-elect Kerry Thomson names most top staff picks, cascade of caucuses could result

Kerry Thomson
Gretchen Knapp
Jessica McClellan
Kurt Zorn
Jason Moore
Andrew Cibor
Jane Kupersmith
Margie Rice
Beverly Calender-Anderson
Sharmaine Pechac
Rick Dietz
Tim Street
Mike Diekhoff
Adam Wason
John Langley

In a Friday morning news release on the first day of December, Bloomington mayor-elect Kerry Thomson announced most, but not all, of the department heads who will be a part of her administration starting on Jan. 1, 2024.

Replacing Larry Allen as deputy mayor will be Gretchen Knapp, who is head of operations and marketing for The Mill.

Returning will be some familiar faces: Mike Diekhoff (chief of police); Jason Moore (fire chief); Adam Wason (director of public works); Andrew Cibor (city engineer); Tim Street (now interim director of parks and recreation); and Rick Dietz (director of IT).

Returning on an interim basis will be Beverly Calender-Anderson who is head of CFRD (community and family resources department).

Coming on board only as interim to serve as head of city of Bloomington utilities will be John Langley. According to Thomson’s news release, Langley, retired as the CBU’s deputy director in 2019, is a former deputy mayor, personnel director, and housing code enforcement officer.

That means Vic Kelson will not be returning as CBU director.

Also not returning are HAND (housing and neighborhood development) director John Zody and planning and transportation director Scott Robinson. But Friday’s news release does not name interim or permanent replacements for those two departments. Continue reading “Bloomington mayor-elect Kerry Thomson names most top staff picks, cascade of caucuses could result” →

Bloomington’s econ development commish OKs tax abatement report, city council review next

From upper left counter clockwise: ESD staff Andrea “De” de la Rosa and Alex Crowley; EDC members Malcolm Webb, Kurt Zorn, Vanessa McClary, Geoff McKim, Matt Flaherty; and assistant city attorney Larry Allen.

On Friday, Bloomington’s five-member economic development commission (EDC) approved a report from city staff  on about a dozen tax abatements  that have been granted to companies over the years, as well as a couple of tax abatements that have been approved, but not yet claimed.

The pending abatements are for Real America, the affordable housing developer of the former Night Moves site on South Walnut Street, and for Catalent, the pharmaceutical company. Continue reading “Bloomington’s econ development commish OKs tax abatement report, city council review next” →

Bloomington concedes: Simple tickets can’t be given to scooter companies for bad parking by their users

A part-time temp worker documents an improperly parked scooter at 6th & Walnut streets Oct. 11, 2022
North Walnut Street Feb. 21, 2023 (This scooter was reported to the city and moved out of the ADA ramp by The B Square.
North Walnut Street Feb. 23, 2023. These scooters were reported to the city and moved out of the sidewalk by The B Square.

In late 2021, The B Square reported that no citations had been issued to scooter companies for violating the parking regulations laid out in a local ordinance, which was approved by the city council in July 2019.

When no ordinary parking tickets were issued to scooter companies, that came as a surprise to some residents—given the number of scooters they routinely encountered blocking ADA ramps and sidewalks in the downtown area, or in their residential neighborhoods.

The lack of any citations was especially unexpected, in light of the assurance given by city attorney Mike Rouker on July 31, 2019— the night the city council enacted the scooter ordinance. Rouker said that if scooter parking became a problem, parking fines would be imposed on scooter companies whenever the city saw a parking problem.

In August 2022, The B Square raised a question to Bloomington’s corporation counsel, Beth Cate, about the enforceability of the city’s ordinance that regulates shared electric scooter parking. That email went unanswered.

But last week, six months later, Bloomington’s director of economic and sustainable development, Alex Crowley, wrote in response to an emailed question from The B Square: “[T]he language in the ordinance needs to be tightened up, to give us the flexibility to impose fines on [scooter company] without having to impound.” Continue reading “Bloomington concedes: Simple tickets can’t be given to scooter companies for bad parking by their users” →

Bloomington OKs $400K for promotion of Trades District development, tech center construction

Looking north from the top of the Trades District parking garage. Cutting across the foreground is 10th Street. The Mill, with its sawtooth roofline, is visible to the right about mid-way up the frame. (Jan. 28, 2023)

The now open space in downtown that’s roughly bounded by 10th and 11th streets, and Rogers and Madison streets, will get some renewed focus and attention for development.

The area is known as the Trades District, which is a 12-acre portion of a larger area comprising Bloomington’s certified technology park.

The real estate was purchased by Bloomington’s redevelopment commission more than a decade ago.

At its meeting last Monday, Bloomington’s redevelopment commission (RDC) approved an agreement that pays The Dimension Mill, Inc. $200,000 each year for two years to “advance the City’s objectives for the Tech Center, Trades District and Bloomington’s innovation ecosystem…”

The Dimension Mill, Inc. is a non-profit corporation that operates the coworking space known as The Mill, in the former dimension mill of the Showers Brother furniture factory.

A key part of the agreement with the RDC is that The Mill will hire an executive director for the Trades District and technology center, to focus on development of the district, construction of a new technology center, and recruitment of tenants for the center. Continue reading “Bloomington OKs $400K for promotion of Trades District development, tech center construction” →

Lots more electric scooters in Bloomington, but not as many more rides

Compared to late summer last year, there are 50 percent more shared electric scooters staged around Bloomington, waiting for prospective riders.

But the 50-percent bigger fleet has generated just 13 percent more rides.

Those numbers are based on the city of Bloomington’s public dataset of scooter activity. Included in the dataset are daily records of the number of rides and the number of available scooters for each of the three scooter companies that are allowed to do business using the public right-of-way.

By the numbers, between Aug. 14 and Sept. 14 of 2021 the total average number of available scooters (counting all three companies) each day was 454, compared to 690 for the same period in 2022. That’s a 50-percent increase.

Between Aug. 14 and Sept. 14 of 2021, the total average number of rides given (counting all three companies) each day was 2,051, compared to 2,309 in 2022. That’s a 13-percent increase.

That means the three companies overall are generating fewer rides per available scooter.

The rides-per-available scooter stat is important, because it’s part of the contractual agreement between each scooter company and the city of Bloomington.

If a company doesn’t hit a minimum number of rides-per-scooter each calendar month, the city is supposed to be able to reduce the allowable number of scooters the company can make available in the public right-of-way. Continue reading “Lots more electric scooters in Bloomington, but not as many more rides” →