Tag: Data

Parking notebook: Fully staffed enforcement crews mean more tickets in downtown Bloomington

Chart of parking citations issued in the city of Bloomington by month.
A parking ticket on a windshield in downtown Bloomington in the first week of March.
A chart of percentages by month for tickets appealed and appeals granted.

Anecdotally, the number of parking tickets visible on windshields in downtown Bloomington over the last couple of months has increased.

It’s not just a gut feel.

Based on data provided by the Bloomington city clerk’s office, in January of this year 4,550 parking citations were issued by parking enforcement officers. In February they issued 5,537 citations.

The combined total of 10,087 tickets for the first two months of 2023 is the highest number of citations in any year for the last 13 years.

The next highest two-month total was 20 percent less—8,051 in 2012. Continue reading “Parking notebook: Fully staffed enforcement crews mean more tickets in downtown Bloomington” →

Restaurant inspection reports for Monroe County now on health department website

The image links to a dynamic map.

What do AraMark at IU Health Hospital, C-3 Bar, Chef’s Table Catering, The Elm, Fairfax Inn, Feast Market and Cellar, Gables Bagels, Inkwell Café-Woodlawn, Oliver Winery, Raising Canes, Brilliant Coffee, Scenic View Restaurant, Serena’s Food Hut, Toto’s Uncle, Trailhead Pizzeria, Uptown Café, and Wings Xtreme have in common?

For last December’s round of visits, Monroe County health inspectors recorded zero violations for all the restaurants on that list.

Another 14 establishments committed at least one non-critical violation, but no critical violations.

But 28 restaurants inspected by Monroe County in December last year were found to have at least one critical violation.

The complete listing of December inspections is available on the Monroe County health department’s website in a downloadable .pdf file.

The availability of an online restaurant inspection report is something new. Continue reading “Restaurant inspection reports for Monroe County now on health department website” →

Pandemic notebook: Adjusted daily data shows downward (and upward) trends a smidgen earlier

Numbers reported in all categories related to the COVID-19 pandemic continue to decline.

A change to the way the state of Indiana is reporting daily case totals hasn’t changed the shape of the trends. Continue reading “Pandemic notebook: Adjusted daily data shows downward (and upward) trends a smidgen earlier” →

Pandemic notebook: Monroe County racks up 100 cases for one day in last update before Christmas

Indiana’s COVID-19 dashboard recorded 100 positive cases for Monroe County on Tuesday, Dec. 21.

That’s the highest daily total the county has seen since early January. It’s the 19th time Monroe County has hit triple digits for a day, since the county’s first positive case was identified on March 21, 2020.

The dashboard won’t get updated again until Monday, Dec. 27. The tentative date for the next news conference hosted by local leaders about their response to the pandemic is Thursday, Dec. 30.

One topic that could come up at the news conference is the vaccination status of local government employees.

A Jan. 4 deadline for vaccination or testing has been set by U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for employers with more than 100 workers. Under the OSHA requirement, employees would have to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4, or get a weekly test for the virus.

Recent judicial activity related to that deadline includes a 2-1 decision by a panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of the Biden administration’s OSHA requirement. Continue reading “Pandemic notebook: Monroe County racks up 100 cases for one day in last update before Christmas” →

Data notebook: Bloomington’s electric scooter ridership at 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels

Measured by scooter rides, life in Bloomington has not yet returned to the pre-pandemic norms.

Numbers available through the city’s B Clear platform show that for August and September of 2021, a total of 106,083 rides were taken on a shared electric scooter, which is 69 percent of the 154,486 rides taken during the same period in 2019. Continue reading “Data notebook: Bloomington’s electric scooter ridership at 70 percent of pre-pandemic levels” →

Mixed bag for direction of Monroe County, Indiana COVID-19 trends

COVID-19 numbers are up for Monroe County, but might have plateaued for at least some measures. That contrasts with numbers statewide, which show a clear upward trend.

The generally higher numbers now, compared to a month ago, are blamed by health officials on the prevalence of the Delta variant of the virus, which is more infectious.

According to Indiana’s COVID-19 dashboard, over the last four weeks, when samples of positive tests were taken and genetically sequenced, about 87 percent of them showed they were caused by the Delta variant.

Two deaths, one each on the last two days of July, brought Monroe County’s total number of deaths due to the pandemic to 180.

A local bright spot came when the city of Bloomington announced on Thursday that no employees had tested positive for COVID-19 in the last two weeks. Continue reading “Mixed bag for direction of Monroe County, Indiana COVID-19 trends” →

A closer look at some COVID-19 trends behind re-opening Indiana: Monroe County in statewide context

Barchart COVID-19 admittances

When Bloomington’s mayor, John Hamilton, gave his state of the city address on Feb. 20, just 15 cases of the COVID-19 virus were confirmed nationwide, none of them in the Hoosier state.

Now two and a half months later, 1,132 residents of Indiana have died of COVID-19, out of about 20,000 confirmed cases.

In Monroe County, the count of COVID-19 deaths stands at 8, out of a total of 130 confirmed positive cases. Of the eight Monroe County deaths, three are female, one male and one is unknown. Four were between 70 and 79 years old, three were older than 80, and one was 50 to 59. All eight were White.

An economic shutdown prompted by COVID-19 began with Indiana governor Eric Holcomb’s “Hunker-Down, Hoosiers” order six weeks ago, on March 25.

Now most of the state is preparing for a partial emergence from that shutdown on the morning of Monday May 4.

Under Holcomb’s Friday order, most of the state will see all retail stores allowed to open on Monday at 50 percent of their occupational capacity. Under Holcomb’s order, a week later, on May 11, restaurants would be allowed to open for dine-in service at 50 percent of their seating capacity. The governor’s order includes a series of phases that lead to a mostly complete re-opening by July 4.

But Monroe County health officials, with support from other government leaders, are using their option to keep the county buttoned up a bit longer. Continue reading “A closer look at some COVID-19 trends behind re-opening Indiana: Monroe County in statewide context” →

A peek under the hood of the ISDH COVID-19 data dashboard as Indiana’s health department preps to release race data

At Thursday’s daily press briefing on the COVID-19 public health crisis, Indiana governor Eric Holcomb recited some numbers with literally biblical proportions.

Holcomb led off quoting Matthew 18:20: “It says, ‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I.'”

Holcomb added, “And of course, that’s a pretty powerful reminder that it’s two or three, not 200 or 300 or 3,000.”

Holcomb’s point was to encourage residents of the Hoosier state to celebrate Easter this coming Sunday with their nuclear families, not in large crowds, to respect the strictures that have been put in place to curb the spread of the pandemic virus.

Serving as a kind of statistical reference bible for the press briefings is the website dashboard that’s maintained  by the Indiana State Department of Health for COVID-19 confirmed cases, tests, and deaths.

From the dashboard, Kristina Box, the state’s health commissioner, delivered Thursday’s somber news: 42 more were dead from the virus across the state.

On Thursday, Box previewed some numbers on the race of COVID-19 victims, fielded questions about the way death statistics are presented, and other queries from journalists made possible by the data in the dashboard. Continue reading “A peek under the hood of the ISDH COVID-19 data dashboard as Indiana’s health department preps to release race data” →

Bloomington utilities hopes to report on water main breaks by late August

On Monday evening, a water main broke at 6th Street and College Avenue, on the northwest side of the courthouse square in downtown Bloomington.

Cropped better closeup of water IMG_9818
Looking west down the hill of 6th Street from College Street. July 29, 2019. (Dave Askins/Beacon)

For the month of July, that brought the number of breaks citywide  to an even dozen, matching the total for June.

The City of Bloomington’s Utility Department hopes to have a report on water main breaks ready for presentation to the city council by Aug. 21, according to public affairs specialist Holly McLauchlin.

Added to the 44 breaks through June, the 12 in July make 56 water main breaks so far in 2019, with five months left on the calendar. That means through July, Bloomington has seen at least 20 more breaks, in the same seven-month period, than for any of the previous six years. Continue reading “Bloomington utilities hopes to report on water main breaks by late August” →

Beacon Benchmark: What is this place?

Note: Beacon Benchmark columns are a way for the B Square Beacon’s writer to give readers some regular behind-the-scenes insight into this website, which aims to serve some of the news and information needs of Bloomington, Indiana.  

On Sunday morning, my wife and I ate breakfast at the Village Deli on Kirkwood Avenue. It is a weekly habit.

The server concluded the order-taking ritual with a friendly, “Thanks, ya’ll.”

Hearing that version of the second-person plural pronoun reminded me of a Blaze Foley lyric from a tune called Clay Pigeons: “Tryin’ to hide my sorrow from the people I meet/ And get along with it all/ Go down where the people say ‘Y’all'” Continue reading “Beacon Benchmark: What is this place?” →