Accident at Main and Illinois

 Accident at the corner of Main and Illinois this evening.  This corner, the corner of Main and University and the intersection of 13 and Giant City Road are the places most likely one will get into a wreck in Carbondale.  It appears so bad that the city has installed camerals at the Main and Illinois and Main and Universtiy locations.  Not sure if they have one at the Giant City location but, given the number of accidents there, I would be suprsied if they do not.

Chick-fil-A

 SIUC's Chick-fil-A closes tomorrow, which if I remember correctly, leaves only Starbuck's as the sole national chain in the Student Center. Fear not, though, as the 1868 Grill will open later this year.

7 Brew

 Article on 7 Brew, which just opened a Carbondale location, has only been around since 2017 and follows the Scooter's Coffee business model more than the Starbuck's one. 7 Brew's business model focuses on drive through and walk up and keeping prices low while Starbuck's is refocusing on atmosphere and recreating the local coffee shop vibe of its early days.

Stix

 From the agenda for this week's city council meeting, it looks as if the owner is planning to do work on the long shuttered Stix building. I certainly hope so as that would be one fewer building getting dilpaidated in the downtown area.

Also on the agenda is a similar request for a TIF agreement at 213 N. Washington, just south of the  WDBX radio station. and for 108 East Oak, which is the WDBX station.  Since these TIF requests are all part of the consent agenda, unless a council member requests an item get considered individually, they will all get passed with one motion. 

Memorial Day

 For those wanting to attend tomorrow's Memorial Day celebration at Woodlawn Cemetary, here are the specifics.

Silver Bicycle Friendly Award

 The City has received the Silver Bicycle Friendly Business Award from the League of American Bicyclists.  I have questions:  1) is there a Gold Bicycle Friendly Business Award or is the Silver one the highest we can get?  2) I can see being a Bicycle Friendly Community but what is meant by A bicycle Friendly Business Award. Do we have bicycle friendly businesses? If so, what makes a business "bicycle friendly"?

Today, the League of American Bicyclists recognized Carbondale Civic Center/City Hall with a Silver Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) award, earning it a place alongside more than 1,100 businesses across the country contributing to the movement to build a more Bicycle Friendly America for everyone. 

SauSea's

SauSea's Seafood was scheduled to open yesterday. However, according to this post on their Facebook page, soem internal problems have caused them to postpone the reopening until next Wednesday, May 27.

Postcards

 Every once in awhile I get a customer in looking for Carbondale postcards.  I found a very few at the Carbondale Main Street office.  I imagine ther are some in the Univeristy Bookstore but one would think the city could print some up and make them available in the Civic Center and the Multi Modal station for incoming travellers.  heck, put some stamps on them and have a post office drop box in the station so that people can fill out the card and drop it off while waiting for the train or but.

Oak Street Closure

 Oak Street and the sidewalks near the tracks will close next week from the 18th through the 22 to allow for repairs to the tracks.Access to the parking lots on either side will not be affected. According to the press release, there are no repairs scheduled to the street, just to the tracks

Starting Monday, May 18 through Friday, May 22, Oak Street and the sidewalks will be closed on either side of the railroad tracks for railroad repairs.  

The closure will not impact access to the parking lots for businesses in the area.  

Tourism

 Carbondale gets a lot of tourists. Not tourists coming to see the city but rather to see things around the city. Carbondale is fortunate to have SIUC, SIH and to be located on the edge of the Shawnee National Forest. People come to Carbondale primarily for these reasons and use the city as a home base, for want of a better word. Carbondale needs to do a better job of promoting the support services in town, specifically the restaurants and other entretainment venues that these visitors can visit during their downtime from whatever brought them to the city.

Marketing Study

 the city is going to be conducting a marketing study later this year. It would certainly be cost effective and a show of confidence in SIUC, if the city would engage the Marketing Research class at SIUC to conduct the research. That class has done research for both Quatro's and Carbondale Main Street. since we have such a resource, it would make sense to make use of it.

SauSea's

 According to their social media, SauSea's Restaurant on south Illinois will reopen on May 20th.  Apparently the restaurant is connected with the Paducah Fish Market, meaning they have a consistant source of fresh fish for the menu.  Hopefully the restaurant lasts longer this time than last and I also hop they put up a sign on Illinois Avenue indicating there is parking behind the building. If you do not know it is there, that parking is easy to miss.

South Grand

 Looks like the city has restriped South Grand.  After resurfacing the street last month and their restriping it for that it had four lanes, now the ciy has restriped it so that there are 2 main lanes, 1 center turn lane and bike lanes on either side of the street, as the proposed plan anounced in 2024 called for.

Good. South Grand did not neeed to be a four lane street and this new sriping should slow down traffic and make bicycling safer along the street.  Maybe eventually, the cty will put curbs or poles up to further protest cyclists.

Homeless Center

 The city will be getting $2 million to apply to the Homeless Shelter Facility Rehab Project.  I assume this will go towards the property on West Mill the city is negotiating to receive from NeroRestorative as, from what I have heard, it would cost far more than that ro rehab the East College facility.

The City of Carbondale will soon receive $2 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the City’s Homeless Center Facility Rehab project. 

Earlier this year, Senator Duckworth, on behalf of the City of Carbondale, submitted a Congressional Directed Spending request for the City’s Homeless Center Facility Rehab project for $2 million that was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act.  

H.R. 7148, Consolidated Appropriations Act, was signed into law on February 3rd, 2026. 

The funding for the Homeless Center Facility Rehab Project will be used for the shelter improvement initiative that will provide updated amenities and accessibility.  

Tedrick Welcome Center

 I got the opportunity to attend the open house this past weekend for the new Tedrick Welcome Center on the SIUC campus and  I must say it presents a much more agreeable "face" to the university than did the now demolished McAndrew's Standium or the large parking lot that was there. Still, did the university need that much addtional meeting space? By my estimation there are three floors of rooms there, much of which I will bet are either going to be used for meeting rooms or offices.  It would be nice to see some funds directed to repairs of other buildings on campus, though reparis are not nearly as flashy as new buildings are.