Attended yesterday's forum/discussion/reflection on how Carbondale dealt with the eclipse and traffic generated by it. Overall people were pretty happy with it. Dairy Queen, Town Square Market, McDonalds, Longbranch, and P. K.'s all reported the best sales days in their history and other restaurants reported doing triple what they would over a typical weekend.
City staff and the police department received kudos for the smoothness of operations and the amount of personnel out on the street. Attendees attributed that presence to the ease with which the relaxed alcohol was enacted (only three arrests to my knowledge) and the little litter left on the ground, "less trash than after the Lights Fantastic parade" one person commented.
One regret commonly expressed was that there was not more outreach to students and co-operation with the university. It appeared to a number of people that student involvement with eclipse events stopped at Mill Street.
Some things people indicated they would like to see carry forward from eclipse weekend:
1. More police on foot patrolling the downtown area. They are there, but often sitting in vehicles watching passerby.
2. More opportunities to relax liquor regulations, allowing people to leave a restaurant or bar with a cup of beer or glass of wine.
3. Some sort of "Welcome back" festival the weekend before classes start at SIUC, to encourage both students and locals to go downtown.
City staff and the police department received kudos for the smoothness of operations and the amount of personnel out on the street. Attendees attributed that presence to the ease with which the relaxed alcohol was enacted (only three arrests to my knowledge) and the little litter left on the ground, "less trash than after the Lights Fantastic parade" one person commented.
One regret commonly expressed was that there was not more outreach to students and co-operation with the university. It appeared to a number of people that student involvement with eclipse events stopped at Mill Street.
Some things people indicated they would like to see carry forward from eclipse weekend:
1. More police on foot patrolling the downtown area. They are there, but often sitting in vehicles watching passerby.
2. More opportunities to relax liquor regulations, allowing people to leave a restaurant or bar with a cup of beer or glass of wine.
3. Some sort of "Welcome back" festival the weekend before classes start at SIUC, to encourage both students and locals to go downtown.
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