The City of Bloomington offered snow cones in exchange for ideas on how to improve three neighborhoods currently under review by a group of international real estate consultants.
Alongside the fruity, frozen treats at Monday's event were face-painting and balloon animals near the Miller Park splash pad, all with the intention of keeping kids busy while parents offered their input.
Representatives with consulting group Counselors of Real Estate [CRE] manned three tables, each one with a different neighborhood map taped to it. Residents could make notes on the maps or use them to point out their specific areas of concern.
Anyone unable to make it to Monday's event can submit feedback via an online survey. City of Bloomington staff said the survey would be open until noon Thursday. Anyone who misses that deadline can email Community Impact and Enhancement staffer Thadden Brown at thbrown@cityblm.org.
The Counselors of Real Estate said they will use that community feedback to help generate recommendations for the Dimmitt’s Grove, Gridley Allin Prickett, and Near East neighborhoods. The group is specifically looking to bring older housing stock back into use.
Shaney Hall is very familiar with Bloomington’s lack of housing.
“I used to live here,” she said while sitting at Miller Park. “I had to go to Normal because there were more properties over there.”
While abandoned and worn-down homes are the focus, Bloomington Community Development Manager William Bessler said the group will take input on other issues that affect quality of life, too, like food availability or access to health care.
“A lot of these things are so interconnected,” Bessler said. “You can’t take health or access to food or housing out of it. It’s comprehensive.”
Bessler said the CRE team is only in Bloomington this week. The group will have preliminary findings at the end of the week, and the final recommendations are still a few months away.
A few years ago, the team did a similar project in Peoria. Two vacant schools had become a neighborhood detraction and posed a safety issue. The city bought the buildings and tore them down.
Other Midwestern projects include Evansville, Indiana, the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago and Traverse City, Michigan.
The consultants also check in at one, two and five-year intervals and sometimes longer periods to monitor progress and offer additional recommendations.
The Bloomington project is one of four currently underway in the U.S., brought here by the Mid-Illinois Realtors Association [MIRA] through the National Association of Realtors' Transforming Neighborhoods Program.
The city made Monday's event multi-purpose. In addition to the CRE and MIRA representatives, Bloomington’s Police and Fire departments were present as well.
BPD showed its drone and let children climb into its armored vehicles and mobile command centers. BFD also displayed its mobile command center.
