The City of Bloomington, in cooperation with First Assembly of God, hosted a community outreach event Tuesday at the church in West Bloomington.
The historic area where the church is located is known as the Gridley Allin Prickett [GAP] neighborhood. The 57-acre area contains eight vacant lots, as well as disused structures, according to city planner Alissa Pemberton. Residents also cite maintenance problems in existing buildings.
Pemberton billed Tuesday's event as a way to gather the residents’ thoughts, to see what should be promoted and what needs fixing in GAP.
“We [city government] work for the residents of this neighborhood, not the other way around,” Pemberton said. “So if there are specific needs, specific asks that would make a difference, let’s help find them.”
Only about five residents attended, owing in part perhaps to subzero cold. But there were some specific asks, written on posters set up for the event. Some were safety-related, like resuming a neighborhood watch and better lighting at night. Though residents resisted the categorization of their neighborhood as a dangerous place, they acknowledged some crime throughout the years has assigned GAP a stigma.
Other requests were concerned with livability, like improving pedestrian safety and adding more green space. Of concern to many residents was an increasing proportion of landlords they feel are interested in returns rather than the community. Because of the wider housing crisis, residents argued, tenants can be hesitant to speak up about poor conditions or treatment, knowing an eviction would be a dire situation.
Ruth Cobb has lived in the area since 2004 and volunteers at the West Bloomington Revitalization Project.
“You start looking for the owner, and they’re people often from out of town, out of state, sometimes out of the country,” Cobb said. “They’re not from here, they’re not part of this [community]. This is some kind of an investment.”
Attendees looked more favorably upon action from the community itself to improve things, such as by using local tradespeople and DIY remodelers to rehabilitate properties.
West Bloomington resident Meghan Reha is renovating her property with both help from local contractors and skills she’s taught herself.
“I think there’s a sense among my peers, my neighbors, that contractors only want big projects. They’re not interested in working on small projects, and that they’re out of reach financially for some people,” Reha said. "And I think there’s some fertile ground for bridging the gap between understanding how to work with a contractor to maybe do part of a job, the larger, more technical parts of a job, and then being able to finish it yourself.”
In addition to improving existing structures, another theme of the evening was addressing the neighborhood’s vacant space. In this regard, Pemberton said she hopes more resident feedback will bring insights, but the GAP’s unique building code could turn away some developers.
GAP features a form-based code in an effort to preserve the neighborhood’s historic architecture and style. While the requirements aren’t necessarily more difficult to meet, they can be unfamiliar to many developers.
“I love the idea and the goal of preserving the neighborhood,” Pemberton said. “But there’s not a good understanding from what we’ve seen, from developers, on how to use that code. And if that’s creating hesitance on the part of developers, then no wonder the properties are vacant. We either need education or we need a change.”
The city is looking to gather more resident input in the coming months, including through a mail campaign that allows respondents to submit their thoughts online.
Of the many shared beliefs in the room Tuesday, among the most palpable was belief in GAP’s potential. Cobb said developments like the neighborhood’s Friendship Park are proof residents’ desires lead to positive additions. She said those who give the area a chance already tend to come away pleasantly surprised.
“People come for the bike co-op or the tool library, and they go, ‘Wow, I’ve never been here, I’ve never been west of Main Street,'" Cobb said. “And that also says a lot, that they go, ‘I didn’t know you had this here. This is great.’”
The most populated poster in the room tasked residents with describing their neighborhood’s identity. The page was adorned with words like historic, diverse, complicated, and resilient.
