[0:02] That's a good way to start, isn't it? With that being said, I will call our city council listening session to order. It is Monday 17 March. Thank you all for being here. We have the following people pre registered to talk tonight. We have Ronald Cliffton. Is Ronald here?

[0:20] I don't see Ronald yet. Jeffrey Prayer, Robert, I see you. You're here. Marrier I see you. There she is. Laurence Button. All right. And you had signed up as well. I did. And your name? Dennis. Dennis, if Rod.

[0:40] Excuse me and Jeffrey, don't make it, we'll get to you, but we're gonna push them to the back of the list right now, but that puts us about five people and 5 min each and I just want to make sure that we everybody gets a decent chance to talk. So why don't we start with Rod, come on up. Yep, you're up 1st man.

[0:57] You know the drill, identify yourself and we've got about 5 min for a speaker so we can make sure that everybody gets a chance to talk. So good evening and live. Hello council. My name's Robert Coalman. I wanted to talk today about public transportation and parking at the new Community health and wellness centre. When I was looking, I've talked to.

[1:17] Yeah, Council member mula briefly about this, but the the schematic for the new community Health and minor center is quite inconvenient when it comes to public transit.

[1:29] For some of the bus stops that people would be arriving from throughout the city to the site, they would have to walk a thousand to 1200 ft to get to the main entrance. And it really seems like the layout of the site is not like transit riders are an afterthought, for sure. When, like a lot of.

[1:49] When I go to a site that I've never been to on transit, like I look around, and if I.

[1:55] When the new health and wellness center is there I look and I see, you know, glass windows, back wall, I don't see an entrance, right? You have to walk all the way around. And if you have like, if it's raining, if it's snowing, then that's quite a while to walk. There's NO, like you can't put a bush shelter like on the northeast corner cause it's like a.

[2:14] It's a free write, you can't put a shelter there to block vision. And I think that it's, it being an afterthought is really a big issue when you guys consider that it seems like you guys are having a parking problem, and when it comes to, the ways that you guys are incentivizing people to use.

[2:34] Transportation to reach the community health and wellness center. It seems that like all of the eggs are in the driving basket, right? There's, there is a sidewalk, there is like outdoor bike parking, but that's like the minimum that city code requires but what you do have is a bunch of free parking, and we all know that free parking.

[2:54] Parking isn't actually free. Like when people like me, we take the bus, we walk, we bike to different businesses in Bloomington. The cost of that parking, we pay it NO matter what, because it's factored into the rent of the building, it's factored into the, the cost of the goods and services that we spend at those places, and it's an equity problem, right? Because.

[3:14] Even though we are the people who like we choose to not drive or we can't afford to, we're forced to pay for that anyway. And that cost is going to be factored into the, the, the day passes, the cost of the rooms at the Committee Health and illness center. And I think that cost recovery on the parking arging for.

[3:34] Parking, you know, maybe it's $0.50 $0.75 an hour, and instead of charging that, to like the day pass for the the building or the room cost.

[3:46] Spreading that to the people who actually use the parking because the way that it's currently working is that there is an incentive to drive, but there's like a negative incentive for people to do anything other than that. So the people who are doing the right thing, who walk, who aren't using your parking, you know, isn't taking that expense from the taxpayers of.

[4:06] Of the cost of parking, they aren't using it. We're doing the right thing by walking, we're biking, car pooling, you know, taking a senior shuttle. And we're.

[4:16] We're it's a disincentivizing that, and I think that if you guys I'm not sure exactly what the situation is with the property acquisitions like it kind of seems like maybe buying some of those properties to move the parking there and just to have more space on the site. I think that it's a real blind spot to not be considering, hey.

[4:36] This site is going to have the most transit that it has ever had, like at least since the nineties as far as I can tell with network now by the time that this opens, and I think that it's a real blind spot. I really hope that you guys will, before moving forward with buying these properties to really think about, hey, if we charge for parking, the demand.

[4:56] It will be lower and you don't have to build as much parking, and it will be more equitable equitable because you will be instead of charging that parking to everyone NO matter what they use, NO matter if they, if they can't afford it, actually charging it to people who choose to drive, maybe, you know, they'll decide, hey, I don't want to take or maybe we.

[5:16] It won't take two cars. We'll, we'll take the extra 5 min to go home pick up somebody instead of taking two cars to the community health and wellness center. Or like, hey, we, we live like three bucks away. Do we really wanna spend, you know, a couple bucks on parking?

[5:32] Maybe we'll decide not to do that. We'll decide to walk, right? And I I think that it seems like a real miss opportunity. Just one quick question here because we're we're right at time here. So I've not written the bus there, obviously I can walk from my house. But I mean the bus stops are basically at 90th and pen on those.

[5:52] Four corners correct at various spots, and so I mean is your suggestion to turn the building, to move the bus stops? That would be tricky, all would be tricky. I know.

[6:02] It, the best way to do it is if like there was like a best appeal where like we could stand there, it's climate controlled, we can watch to see if the bus comes and then quickly jump out. Like there's a door there, so not necessarily move the building or the bus stop, but maybe some way for us to wait there, right? Like.

[6:22] Thank you for the current. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, we'll pass it on. We'll share that with our folks on the the design team and mr. Mayor we did actually have a conversation about that, I think a couple of meetings ago and it was brought up just the idea that the, That from the the street side, it doesn't look like you can get in anywhere because it's all the way on the other side, and so I know we've taken that.

[6:42] Getting that feedback before, so appreciate that. Yep. Great. Thank you much. Thank you.

[6:50] I am ready. We are ready for you? So.

[7:05] What is missing in the proposed health and wellness center is the acknowledgement that people are composed of body mind, and spirit, not just body physical, as seems to be the emphasis on the current status of the project.

[7:23] There's already more than enough emphasis on body fitness. Or maybe you would like more right to be called the health and fitness center. What I'm getting at is it's called the health and wellness. Wellness implies the whole human.

[7:41] Not just an emphasis on physical, which certainly is what's happening right now. So I represent our group. It's made up of artisms or crafters who use their skills that have been developed over their lifetime to create beautiful and useful objects that they share with others through their sales.

[8:00] Their efforts provide physical, mental and emotional benefits. The US surge in general has identified as an epidemic isolation of loneliness among senior citizen population, not just among senior citizens, but.

[8:18] Mean but very largely an issue in the senior citizen population. Involvement in the botique does much to counteract that isolation and loadliness with what is provided.

[8:34] Socialization, satisfaction, creative stimulation, whether it as an artisant, a volunteer or a customer. The customer's benefit, we might be the only person that this customer talks to all day.

[8:50] So what we're asking for is assurance of more space than what is currently being proposed in the new building. Our current room at Creekside is about 800 sq ft. What is being proposed is not even 10 % of that.

[9:09] So we are not happy. We want and need more footage to function as we have for more than 40 years, completely run by volunteers and that is.

[9:27] What I have to say? Thank you. Thank you for taking 5 min. You didn't take 5 min. I appreciate revity. I like that. Quick question. With regards to the botique, are you open or have you thought about how people that maybe weren't just trying to sell their stuff?

[9:46] Could utilize that space as an example, one of my kids favorite stores is Michael's, and they do lots of arts and crafts, but I don't know that they'd be interested in selling anything, but they maybe interested in using a similar type of space to do those types of things, those crafting activities.

[10:06] Have you thought about trying to envision or expanding how that could be used?

[10:14] Throughout the day and with other groups as well. Teaching crafts? Teaching are just providing a space to do it? It's a group right now at Creekside is for crafting. They have all kinds of supplies.

[10:31] Of course, it's for seniors. Yeah, and that's and that's that's my thought is there's a lot of people that enjoy arts and crafts outside expand and broaden that as well as make it maybe not just specific to this otique sales portion, but also to the things that you talked.

[10:51] About is the socialization, the the mental health aspects of it to broaden that base so that it wasn't as particularly narrowly focused of a use in that one area.

[11:07] You don't have to answer right here right now, I'm just throwing it out there because I think there's a wider audience for that type of use that may help create that space if we can see that that can be a wider audience used by by more hours in the day. So I think that's one of the things we've been looking at is utilization throughout.

[11:27] So, just, just throwing it out as an idea. So we've got two years.

[11:32] Over a little over two years to look under that. Yeah. I mean, in the interim, we're gonna have a small little kiosk Over. Yeah, thanks. I'm curious if I don't know if you know the answer to any of this, so a big fan of the boutique I've been over there myself, I've got some stuff for Christmas and everything.

[11:52] We also have a space here in set of closet that I deal is completely underutilized for sales and everything and it's down there where the artistry teams are. So I'm very interested in seeing how we can do something really innovative there. That's one of the ideas that I've pitched to the parks and rec team. But I'm curious, do you know, do you know like.

[12:10] Do you have the numbers on the boutique since you all participate in it so much? I've not seen them and I'm just curious about them. How many people buy, what, how many sales are done every month, you know, that kind of thing. Do you have any of that? I I'm just I'm assuming you do. I was just curious if it's been shared. Yes, we do. Yeah I would love to see it if you don't mind. No, available Yes, I know you've seen.

[12:30] Previous emails to city council. If you don't mind sending that information, it would be helpful just to have an understanding of like what the actual transactions and activities are. Yeah. Okay. That would be very helpful. I'd appreciate that. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for the time so we're thank you appreciate it.

[12:46] All right. Great, welcome. Great. Great name's mayor Busy and council members.

[13:05] My name is Lawrence Leviton, my wife and I recently moved from Stevens point Wisconsin where we live for many many years, and currently we live across from Dred Scott fields under just a few minutes from the river and have access to nature, lovely dog walks, nickle ball, and a wonderful coffee shop. The quality of life is terrific.

[13:25] Here. We have taken advantage of public transportation. We took the light rail to see the links and the finals in the fall. About ten days ago I took the orange line downtown. Let's see if I can do without my glasses, to see a concert at the presiderian church on market street. It was.

[13:43] Quick, it was easy and as a senior was cheap. The only issue was that I had to drive 15 min to get there from Grett Scott. I would have loved to be able to walk 5 min from my house to get downtown, but currently I cannot do that. In Stephen's point I was involved in transportation advocacy. I served on the bike ped commission.

[14:03] We have a good bus system there and I'm an avant. Cyclist, and I'd like to say that I can get anywhere in town at Stephen's point in five to 10 min. So it was kind of a learning curve and an adjustment moving to Bloomington to get to Minneapolis or st. Paul, everything is 30 min and that seems to be the minimum in the car. And then of course getting from small city driving shops to big city.

[14:27] I grew up in Chicago, but nevertheless I've sort of lost those. So we avoid 4904 as much as we can. I recently had coffee with older Olderman Nelson to discuss this and it was very informative and wonderful at Perth's, one of our favorite places. But I do realize that that.

[14:47] Work now is in the final stages of implementation. I'm a little bit late to the game. We were trying to sort of get the lay of the land in the fall and I didn't know that they were doing all this public commentary and it's closed. All of the Nelson directed me to your January meeting where mr. Harrington presented the final stages and I.

[15:07] Did send him an email and council member Patico who I think represents our part of town. I haven't heard back from them.

[15:18] But my question to the mayor in the council is whether these decisions are final and set in stone. I'm aware that there's a shortage of drivers and that the route along auto club Road was not generating sufficient revenue or traffic for metro transit especially with the COVID interruption.

[15:36] And that experienced planners had to make very tough decisions about what services to expand and which ones to eliminate. But based on my short time here, I've observed that seven months out of the year Dread Scott hosts hundreds of folks daily. Scoops, ice cream must have had hundreds of folks on open.

[15:56] Day on friday. I was one of them and as a musician i enjoyed their father Rocky flavor was delicious. And if my pizza opens, we talked about this. I don't know if that's indeed happening. Our family are very excited about it. That little mall will be a destination place at west Bloomington.

[16:18] So, I mean currently it's a transportation desert. I'm the big metro transit map, it doesn't look like a lot but in in the fall I took from my bike to play pick a ball at Westwood, and it's a good hike on a bike. I can have a cyclist so I can do it to 20 min. But other than that, you have to have a car.

[16:39] So my question again is with the right kind of promotion, can Bus service be marketed to kids seniors, athletes, and families to make it more attractive as an option to move through Bloomington to get to these popular destinations? They talk about this 5 min walkability from your house, I stare longingly at the metro of the red sign.

[16:59] In front of our house, but it says NO longer in service. So this would be a goal that would provide transportation equity and options to those without cars or those who choose not to have a car and especially in our current environment where we really promoting.

[17:15] Different ways of getting places. So, you know, I know it might be mood at this point, but I'm just hoping it's something that can still be considered, so thanks for your time. Well, thank you for your comments and if you, if you watched that meeting in January, I think you heard this entire council pretty much echo exactly what you have been saying in terms of more.

[17:35] Options needed in Bloomington, they need mental transit just in general needs to pay more attention to our city for a variety of different reasons and in a variety of different ways. And I think we.

[17:46] We we spoke long and loud about that and and whether or not we made an impact I'm not sure. I know that we you were pretty united in that and everybody had a say in it, but yes, you're right. They are well down the path right now for their their their planning for their their next rounds of changes and how they're gonna re redo the the the routes and.

[18:06] So on. We can continue our advocacy, but ultimately this is a metro transit decision and and we'll continue I I just saw our council member at a, at an event and talked.

[18:20] Transit with him again last week, so he knows that Bloomington is watching this and is concerned about it. Would it help if we if I got a bunch of like minded people together to come up with, I mean something creative, you know, Scott Bloomington something. I mean it's a great name I've been to go across and look at that sign every day when.

[18:40] It never hurts if you get like minded popes together and and start talking about possibilities Yes, it never hurts. Council member Dallassander very quickly here. One of the things that I'm hoping, thanks mr. Mayork one of the things i'm hoping that we can do is I don't if you remember in that January meeting we had a conversation about the micromobility functionality. They, they're looking at the 98th and, and Lindalle area largely become.

[19:00] Because it's a feeder to the orange line, but you know if that's successful or. You know, there's opportunities for expansion there and that area would be a great place to extend, even if it was for nothing else other than getting you from that area to the 98th area where then you could take the orange line downtown or something like that. So maybe we can be working through that as well, but I keep an eye on the micromobility pilot and see if we get some, some positive out of that.

[19:24] Thanks. Thanks for being here on that, I appreciate it. And we can tell you from Chicago cause you called me all. Yes exactly. Oh NO go. We all knew what you've been said. Haven't heard that terminal. I don't seen Ronald or Jeffrey yet. Thank you. I don't see them yet.

[19:47] Why don't you jump out up? Dennis fun up. Come on jump Dennis. Come on. Did you district your name for the record official? Yes.

[20:07] Yeah I felt. Mayor council members 1st time. I wasn't really expecting to speak, but I just have a couple of issues I'd like to talk about. Number one is the new community system and what appears to be the lack of functions for senior citizens.

[20:28] Some of the activities that are going currently at creek's side, I've used the I've used the white shop. Bern's very good there in helping make it through my wood projects but and I've done some senior exercises there.

[20:44] Every time I've been there it's full. People are playing cards, different tired rooms exercises yogas, carpenters, whatever the group, and I'm just kind of puzzled that there seems to be NO.

[21:00] Functions designed for the senior citizens and the new community centers. It's a great place for seniors to get together and it's I think it's a big mental.

[21:15] Physical exercise, conversations carrying on friendships, that type of thing. And I'm just kind of curious have anybody done any demographics on how many people are.

[21:30] Would use the fitness center, the new fitness center. I'll just address it that way. I'm old, silver sneakers, all the fitness centers, I don't pay for it. It's free. I want you to show my little card and I can go and do what I want, do a swim, do some, use some machines, whatever. So I guess can I address this?

[21:50] With our our past city manager, our value at one meeting one time about the same thing. Who's gonna use the fitness center? How many people there? Well, is the city gonna have to subsidize it to keep it going? Those kind of thoughts.

[22:07] But I really like to see more, facilities for seniors, play guards, thoughts, and whatever, do exercises. I know you go to a fitness center, but I'm not I'm I'm handicapped and.

[22:23] I'm limited to what I can do for physical fitness. I do what I can. I swim, I go into water, I do some machines, so forth. So that's my concern about the new community center.

[22:41] Second concern is I I'd like to know how involved is the city with the veterans memorial? Is the city connected to the veteran? I'm a veteran and when I 1st read about it, I thought that I emailed and somebody called me back from the committee.

[23:01] And it seems like it's I I don't I hate to say this like an elitist. It's only open to several hundred people, few hundred people, not several, a few hundred people, it's only room for enough dog tags that.

[23:15] The veteran or the veteran's family has to pay $350 to be honored on this thing. I don't need to be honored on it. My friends know I was a Vietnam veteran served four years. I'm good with that. But it is, I know a lot of veterans that are physically handicapped or.

[23:35] Disabled from military action that live in the city. I I did the last demographics.

[23:42] The last cents is 1st of all, let's go to about 2020 5 % of the city are senior citizens. That's a big chunk. I think we need to be looking at our senior it's a better community, maybe a lot of that stage sometime. I've been here for 60 years, my.

[24:02] My Parents were here for since they moved to back in the early sixties but grew up there. My brothers grew up, but here Canada graduates. But anyway, I'm very concerned about Memorial.

[24:22] Seems like nobody will talk about it. I try to contact people just have a conversation. There's 4000 veterans here. I don't know if someone will deceased out in the last census. It's been my experience that the folks working on the, the, the veterans Memorial are about.

[24:42] Let's talk to people in town to be honest. They will talk to anybody at any point. They they had a booth at heard that. They had a booth at the farmer's market I think just about every weekend this past summer, and we're always talking one of your close friends Pamela Palmer is.

[24:57] An appointments and, she's been very very vocal city government. But anyway, she said that too. She knows some of the people I said, Pam, I send emails, I request a phone call. I'm not sure who you might be contacting, but I tell you what. On the your little thing that.

[25:17] If you if you signed in there, if you got your name there, I will I'll I'll talk to those folks because again I know them very well. And I will tell them you'd have a conversation. The origins of this thing is I know it's the two.

[25:29] For reference, a memorial, but we will again if your contact information if your information is there, I will we will pass that on to our our folks there and I will make sure they give you a call for addressing that. And again, think about the 20.

[25:44] 25 % of the citizens that are in Bloomington are seniors. And when I looked at the plan for the community center, I don't see anything for seniors. But we again we can provide you that list of of activities that will transfer. We can get you again we've got your contact information. We.

[26:04] Yep, send it out to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We have one person who came in late. Are you hoping to speak tonight? Yes. Come on up. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to come. My name is Elisette more Orles. I'm sorry?

[26:27] Very nice to meet you. So I don't know if probably you guys remind remember me from past weeks or months I came regarding my neighbor issue. Right now it's everything's going much better, you know, six years of horse is a lot.

[26:42] But my issue is today is that because of my neighbor being harassing me a lot, I feel like he is using the city to harass me back. I've never thought of us like moving out because I lived here for 23 years and this was gonna be 24 years in Bloomington.

[27:02] But, you know, it's like, if I have visitors visitors like they come to visit me, they only tell me that I only can have four vehicles in my home. I understand that. But every year I'm just like since everything happened with my neighbor I'd be receiving letters from the city. Hey, you have too many vehicles in your property.

[27:22] You know, and it's just so hard and it's kind of like frustrating for me because I don't know what else to do. It's like last time I came to the city and I was like, yeah, I do have a visitor. I was like, why do you think it's my vehicle? He's only staying for three months. And I was like instead of you calling me instead of you sending me, you have my contact, I was instead of you sending me a letter.

[27:42] Letting me know about the vehicle, you should have contacted me before and asked me if that vehicle was mine or not.

[27:48] You know, and I feel the same issue again this year. I received this letter today regarding the vehicles that I have in my, my property. I do have a big family. You know, Hispanics are big. I have six kids, two of my older ones are driving. It's my husband me, my mom and my dad, you know, so it's just kind of hard on having.

[28:08] Those vehicles for us to drive everywhere, to work, to school, you know, so it's just.

[28:14] I don't know what else to do. Sometimes I feel like I just want to give up, sell the house and move out of Bloomington Cause I don't know what else to do. You know, I took all his big battle regarding my neighbor and did all the property things that I had to do.

[28:30] You know, 70 firecrackers aiming to my house and the only thing he got is to slap on the back of disorroweet conduct. That's fine. I took him again to court Crashman order again, you know, he was finally served, he got arrested, he got served.

[28:47] Right now it's being seven months of peaceful since September to right now being so peaceful, but I know that every time, you know, when summer starts I know something's gonna happen, you know, and it's, there's a time that I'm, I don't know what else to do with the city. Well I can say with without specific details I can say with.

[29:07] Very strong confidence that those two issues are not related. I I can say that with confidence that's not where the way our city staff works that's that is not that's just not the case. Well, I did, I did or order, you know, like the, I think you go like online and try to order like the like the kind of like the report police report, but it's like Bloomington reports and I.

[29:30] Needs to receive a lot of emails saying that, you know, my neighbor this, my neighbor that, you know, she has too many vehicles. If he's calling in, it's not the city retaliating if he is calling in. I mean if if he's calling in with legitimate concerns, whether you've got too many vehicles or, you know, dogs running for you or whatever it is, I mean if there's a legitimate concern neighbor.

[29:50] Neighbors often do call in and I'm sorry to hear that, you know, if he's using that as a retaliation, that's, that's not good. I agree with that. But at the same time, our, our city staff looks at each case individually.

[30:03] And there, I mean we have rules, we have the the ordinances that we have to follow. Four vehicles per host is is common across the city. And I agree. I mean if you've got an extended family and two kids driving already, it's it makes it a little bit more difficult, but it's it is the ordinance that we have across the city to ensure that we have.

[30:23] That we don't have cars with or we don't have houses with many many cars affecting their neighbors affecting the neighborhood. Now if you again if it's your neighbor calling in and reporting you. Put some sensitive sorry about that. Because like I'm driving or even like I see in my own, you know, walk, I see like a lot of vehicles and their properties and I see in like another block with a.

[30:43] A lot of vehicles, but you know I see every year the same vehicle's there, but in my case it's like ok they send me this letter, I moved one car out and I have my cell a car and tell my son you'll have to find a right to go to work.

[30:56] Why don't I have we gotta get going downstairs, we gotta get a journey here, but why don't I have I'm gonna have we will have folks from our community health department, they're the ones who who look into this kind of thing. Wanted they give you a call and we can have a you can have a conversation with them about ways that some work arounds that might be possible or ways that we could avoid issues where again too many vehicles in the neighbor calling.

[31:16] Yeah, because it's like I asked last time the city, I was like, how do you guys think that vehicle that's in front of my house it's mine?

[31:22] It's not even registered into my name, it's not even registered to that address that place. I was like just because it's parked in front of my house, you think it's mine and it's a good question. He's like, yeah, we don't know if it's yours. It's like, what's not mine? It's like they just come and they park here.

[31:39] So your neighbors parking in front of your house? Just like people that I'm not gonna say because I have a neighbor that has a un company and his employees come and park there and there, but the city already knows about it. They already talked to them, you know, they already had like an agreement with our neighbor next to your neighbor it's like, hey, can you let me park in your spot and the neighbor said.

[31:59] You know, it's just like. We will have, we'll have a favorite community help give you a call and see if we can have a conversation on this ok? Alright, sounds good. Thank you. Thank you so much for your listening to me. Also we're 2 min over. We gotta get downstairs. I look for a motion to adjourn tonight. Motion and a second to adjourn all in favor? Hi. We are adjourned. Thank you all very much for being here this evening, thanks much for.

[32:21] Your input. Thanks for the council discussions and.