Tourism Display

 I stopped in at the multi modal state to check to see if there was a tourism display there as I remembered and there is a display in the corner. Fairly small one though so I hope the city has plans to put a much larger rack in there when the station gets completed

Chicago Hot Dogs

 According to the sign in the window and the store's Google listing, Chicago Hot Dogs and More has permanently closed. for those who missed it, the business was located in the Nacho Fries location at the south end of the Strip. Neither business managed to last longer about six months.

Tourism Display

 I stopped in at the Civic Center/City Hall to pay water bills today and, whilst there looked around to see what was available for information on the city, especially things to do.  Just inside the east door, there is a double tiered rack attached to the wall with information on city services and flyers on local businesses and activities.  Good but not particularly noticeable.  

Bars

 I was pleasantly surprised to see people out on the sidewalk in front of several bars the last few weekends.  Booby's, PK's and Indigo all had people standing in front of them and if the recently reopened Hangar 9 had not greatly expanded its beer garden, I figure people would be standing outside in front of it. Parking was packed too. Certainly a nice change from earlier in the semester. 

University Baptist Church Letter

 Letter to the editor I sent to the Carbondale Times regarding University Baptist Church

Given that the University Baptist Church has held its last services and Good Samaritan House found itself unable to accept the offer of the facility, the city will likely find itself sometime in the next few years the recipient of yet another large building on which the owner will be unable to or unwilling to keep up with either maintenance or taxes. This is the unfortunate fate of most large buildings in Carbondale once their previous owner no longer has a need for them. The Johnson Hotel, Tuscan Lodge, Peerless Linens, Spires Grocery, Stage Company/ Bank Building, etc. The only ones offhand I can think of escaping this fate are part of the Walnut Street Baptist Church, the National Guard Armory complex and the Coca Cola Distribution facility on N. Oakland.

I would suggest the city reach out to University Baptist about accepting the building and then decide what to do with it, rather than leaving it set empty and unused, a the city will likely wind up in possession anyhow. 

Fire chief

 Looks like the city is looking for a new fire chief:

The City of Carbondale is seeking an experienced and dedicated Fire Chief to lead the City’s Fire Department and Emergency Management operations. The City desires a visionary, progressive, and forward-thinking professional who embraces best practices in modern fire and emergency services management, demonstrates a strong commitment to community engagement, and fosters a culture of teamwork and collaboration. 

Big Chill

 In case you want to hit Big Chill one last time, Mark extended the closing date until tomorrow, 11/18. Says he has more product that he can easily fit into storage so staying open an extra 2 days to lower inventory.

Placer.ai

 the city bought a 1 year license to use Placer.ai back in 2024 and decided earlier this year to extend the contract. Placer.ai   According to this, the Carbondale Police Department has been accessing the information despite Placer.ai's explicit policy against police departments having access to the information.  No idea how the poster got the information about police access to the date or if it is true as people can claim all sorts of things on the internet.

Placer.ai uses publicly available cell phone tracking data to track population movements in covered areas.  According to Placer.ai, all information gathered is anonymized with all identifying individual information stripped out. It allows the user to see high and low areas of foot traffic in the covered region. The report linked in the city council minutes, for example, shows foot traffic downtown during the 2024 Homecoming Concert

Highway 13 Parking

 Not sure how possible it is but I would like to see the left hand turn lane in the 200 block of West Main turned into on street parking. It would really help Thai Taste to have a parking space there for customers picking up orders and parking in front of the store for Nina' Panaderia, allowing customers to park in front of the store in order to run in and pick up their purchases, rather than parking behind the building and climbing a flight of stairs to get into the bakery or walking all the way around to the front. 

Tourism

 Carbondale is not a tourist town. It does not have the attractive and shoppable downtown needed to pull visitors in visit the downtown area.  It does not look "quaint", nor does it have the type of shops that would pull visitors in to the downtown area:  gift shops, artisanal crafters or antique shops.

What it does have, and this is something city government should push extensively, is adjacency to thousands of acres of national forest, state parks and wineries.  We have the lodging in both traditional hotels, motels and B&Bs  to serve as a home base for those coming to Southern Illinois to visit those attractions and the city needs a focal point where visitors can pick up information about local attractions. There is a small display last time I looked in the multi modal station. I hope the city puts in a much more fully stocked display to which we can send visitors.

Entertainment Pavilion

 Scheduled for completion next summer.  I hope, now that the city has spent $1.5 million on it, we get use out of it and that the parking area gets sealed and restriped after the pavilion gets completed.  I would like to see the city's hosting of the Sunset Concerts moved there and that the city never closes the Strip down again for a concert. close Washington Street down and use the stage for any downtown activities and concerts. The city still hasn't come up with a name for it.  From what I recall, when they solicited suggestions, the overwhelming choice was the Robbie Stokes Entertainment Pavilion or something similar , but have not heard anything since then.

Bandana's

 According to their signage Bandana's is reopening in the near future. Aside from a food truck or so, I think that will be the only dedicated BBQ restaurant in town.

Most Expensive Building

 Talking with someone in a position to know during the Homecoming concert, according to them the Multimodal transit center is the most expensive building built in the state of Illinois in the last 10 years, with a cost running around $800 per square foot.

I must say, there is a lot of empty space inside, both horizontally and vertically. There is a lot of empty vertical space inside the architect put in there to comply with the city's downtown requirement of having facades at least 2 stories tall. Instead of putting a second floor in, there is just a lot of open space, which will require heating and cooling.

In addition, there are more meeting spaces in the north end of the building. Did the city need them? It already has space at the Dunn Richmond Center, in the Student Center, in the Civic Center, even the old Train Depot building. Local groups also meet in the Public Library and in various churches. It seems we have far more meeting spaces that we have meeting space need.

Repaving

 Gov. Pritzker was in the city this week, announcing among other things, the awarding of a $2 million grant to resurface streets in the Arbor district. The area covered includes:  West College Street from South Forest to South University avenues; West Cherry Street from South Oakland to South Illinois avenues; and Poplar Street from West Mill to West Oak streets

I really hope the city can then come up with money to resurface the section of Poplar between Oak and Sycamore as that stretch of street is in pretty rough shape. Not to the point that someone driving on it will blow out a time but still bad.

Finish Line

According to their post on social media, The Finish Line athletic shoe store  at university Mall will close on Nov. 15. No clearance sales, just come by stuff before another mall store closes its doors.  I think that leaves about half a dozen still operating out there.

SauSea's Seafood

 According to a banner in front of their closed location, SauSea's Seafood will be reopening soon. No indication as to when "soon" is and no mention of it on their social media. will be glad to see another empty storefront filled though

food Bank donations

 Wile making a donation to the Good Sam Food pantry, I asked them what they could most use at this time and the answer was......cash. That makes sense. while donations of food are certainly welcome, with cash they can buy the food they need for their patrons and likely get it at cheaper prices than donors can get