WFHB Bloomington Community Radio
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This is the WFHB Local News for Monday, July 26th, 2021.
Later in the program, WFHB Assistant News Director Jake Jacobson interviews Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton, in today’s edition of a Few Minutes with the Mayor. More coming up in the bottom half of tonight’s program.
Also coming up in the next half hour, the City of Bloomington released its 2021 community survey last week. City residents cited homelessness, affordable housing and policing as issues of concern. More in today’s headlines.
But first, your local news brief:
According to a press release, the results of the third biennial City of Bloomington survey were presented at the Bloomington City Council meeting – showing a decline in positive feedback for some of Bloomington’s government services. From 2019 to now, out of the 3,000 citizens sampled, the positive opinion about Bloomington city police declined 23%. The categories who had less than half of a positive response included availability of affordable childcare, mental health care, health care and housing options in Bloomington, and the government taking care of vulnerable residents.
Two of the pantries from the Little Free Pantry Bloomington have been vandalized the last few weeks, leaving members of the Little Free Pantry to consider relocation. Little Free Pantry Bloomington offers outdoor mini-pantries around the Bloomington area that provide emergency food access. However, locations have faced destruction of glass, the tearing off of the doors, and being struck with a blunt object. In the next few weeks, the Little Free Pantry will be considering new areas to put the pantries to ensure the food stays fresh for those in need.
On Thursday, new IU President Pamela Whitten announced that she has contracted COVID-19 after being vaccinated. While some may say this is a sign of the vaccine being ineffective, however Whitten believes that the vaccine helped aid from the most extreme symptoms. With the Delta variant of COVID-19 becoming more and more prominent in Indiana, the CDC encourages everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Bloomington Historical Preservation Commission
Historic Preservation Program Manager Gloria Colom presented a request for a new building in a historic neighborhood at the July 22nd Bloomington Historic Preservation Committee meeting. Colom discussed the proposed home in the Near West Side Conservation District on West Kirkwood Avenue. She said the staff recommended conditional approval with optional recommendations for the design.
Commissioner Chris Sturbaum questioned the use of non-traditional materials for the front of the building. Petitioner Dawn Gray said she designed the house in a way that would respect the historical neighborhood but not mimic it.
Commissioner Sam DeSollar showed support for the design. He agreed that the petitioner was using materials that reference the historical nature of the neighborhood while allowing the house to look modern.
Commissioners voted to approve the design 5 to 1, with Commissioner Chris Sturbaum dissenting.
City of Bloomington Releases 2021 Community Survey
The city of Bloomington conducted a community survey to gather feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of the municipality from city residents.
According to survey results, Bloomington residents said they were most concerned about homelessness, mobility and affordable housing.
The city tapped the National Research Center at Polco to conduct the survey. In March, the city mailed postcards to three-thousand Bloomington households selected at random.
Of the three-thousand invitations to participate, 527 residents responded. All in all, the survey has a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
According to the survey, 74 percent of residents said homelessness was a major challenge, while 22 percent said it was a moderate challenge. This marks an increase from the 2019 results.
When survey respondents were asked about their opinions for the city to provide supportive housing for those experiencing homelessness, 75 percent strongly supported it, while 22 percent somewhat supported it. This also marks an increase to the 2019 numbers.
In the B-Square Bulletin, local journalist Dave Askins parsed the data into a spreadsheet that showed various demographics of the respondents; including homeownership, time of residency, student status, gender and age.
According to Askins’ analysis of the data, 99 percent of renters said they, “strongly or somewhat support providing assistance in the form of supportive housing.”
Meanwhile, “88 percent, a clear majority of homeowners, also favor such support, but the 11 percent point difference is significant.”
Another issue raised by city residents who responded to the survey includes perceptions of the quality of police services, crime prevention and interactions with the police department.
Overall, the perception of the quality of police services decreased by 15 percentage points compared to the 2019 survey.
Other negative factors included the lack of affordable housing and job opportunities.
As for high marks on the survey, nine out of ten respondents favorably reviewed Bloomington as a place to live, while eight out of ten respondents said they would recommend living in the community.
Bloomington Board of Zoning Appeals
The Bloomington Board of Zoning Appeals continued discussion around the future Starbucks location at South Liberty Drive. At the July 22nd meeting, Development Services Manager Jackie Scanlan had requested information on filled parking spaces from a comparable Starbucks location. However, the petitioner had provided a total number of parking spots instead. Scanlan said city staff had requested parking numbers so they could get an idea of how many parking spots are being used.
Board member Susan Sandberg suggested that the petitioner may not understand what Scanlan was asking for. She said board members needed the additional information in order to make the correct decision.
Board members voted 3 to 0 to continue the petition to the August 19th meeting.
Feature Reports:
Up next, the producers of our public-affairs program, Kite Line, share some prison-related news and announcements. Kite Line airs each Friday at 5:30 p.m. on WFHB Community Radio. The program is available online or wherever you find your podcasts.
WFHB Assistant News Director Jake Jacobson interviews Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton, in today’s edition of a Few Minutes with the Mayor. Jacobson poses questions around outdoor seating on Kirkwood Avenue and the allocation of American Rescue Plan Act funds. All that and more in today’s edition of A Few Minutes with the Mayor.
Credits:
You’ve been listening to the WFHB Local News,
Today’s headlines were written by Katherine Patterson, Kade Young and Jake Jacobson, in partnership with Cats – Community Access Television Services.
Our feature was produced by Jake Jacobson
Kite Line is produced by Mia Beach.
Our theme music is provided by Mark Bingham and the Social Climbers.
Engineer and Executive producer is Kade Young.
Anchors are Don Geyra and Katherine Patterson.
Other Announcements:
The WFHB News Department is seeking a part-time assistant news director. Interested applicants should send cover letters and resumes to [email protected].
If you enjoyed today’s local news, consider listening to our Monday evening public affairs program, Bring It On.
