parking garages – The B Square

Panorama of convention center looking to the southwest as seen in August of 2022.

Total food and beverage tax revenues by month since the 1-percent tax started getting collected.

Bloomington’s city council has set a work session for this Friday (April 5) at noon, to discuss a project that has been in the works for a few years—the renovation and expansion of the Monroe Convention Center.

The current convention center stands on the southwest corner of 3rd Street and College Avenue.

The work session will likely be closely watched by other elected and appointed officials, because the city council is not necessarily unanimous in its support of every aspect of the planned expansion.

At the end of February, councilmember Kate Rosenbarger voted against the interlocal agreement that lays out the working relationship between city government, county government, and the Monroe County capital improvement board (CIB). Continue reading “Monroe Convention Center expansion: Bloomington city council work session set for April 5” →

This is the opening paragraph of a Sept. 8, 1989 article in the Herald-Times about the BoDeans concert at the Regester Center parking garage.

Morton Street garage elevator.

Sign posted in Morton Street garage ahead of the April 8 solar eclipse.

This red rectangle shows the top floor of the Morton Street parking garage.

On April 8, the day of the total solar eclipse, the city of Bloomington’s four parking garages will be operating, but there will be no access for cars or people to the top floors.

Restricted top-floor parking garage access was a point of emphasis from Bloomington’s director of public works Adam Wason at the Tuesday night meeting of the board of public works.

Wason said, “We’ll be restricting that access for all kinds of reasons.”

Responding to a B Square question, Wason said the reasons include the fact that public works staff does not have the capacity for management of big events that could occur, if access to the top floors were allowed.

There are public safety concerns anytime there’s a large congregation of people in one place, Wason said, adding that there are myriad other places where people can get a good view of the eclipse.

Also a consideration, Wason said, are the structural loads for which parking garages are designed. Continue reading “Off limits for total eclipse: Top floors of Bloomington parking garages” →