Carbondale Main Street Contest

 Carbondale Main Street is currently running a contest. Find the store with the Santa Saluki and fill out an entry form for a chance to win some of a pool $500 worth of gift cards from downtown stores.  if you read this, one of the Santa Salukis is at Castle Perilous until this Friday.  

Madigan Pardon

 I see Rep. Bost has bravely come out in opposition to a pardon from President Trump for former Speaker Mike Madigan. Pardons for former Governor Rod Blagojevich , drug lords and people who ripped off veterans and nuns, he was fine with, but Madigan he draws the line at.

West Walnut Razing

Two of the houses on West Walnut turned over to the city voluntarily have been razed. That makes three in the past year by my count. It is certainly a shame the landlords who own them did not want to put the money into their upkeep, instead letting them become blights and forcing their demolition, leaving space to infill along West Walnut.

Busy downtown

 I guess parents are in town picking up students and students are out for one last good time before leaving for the semester as downtown parking is packed. The depot parking is full and so is on street parking all along S. Illinois, as well as the Big Chill parking.  

Also saw a pair of buskers playing in front of Hangar 9, which is not something I see regularly. Who knows, maybe the late night food carts will make a comeback too.

Free Parking in Downtown

 Free parking in downtown Carbondale from today until the middle of January. I would certainly like to see the kiosks gotten rid of completely. Downtown does not have the problem with people taking p spaces for hours on time as it did when the meters were first put into place back in the 1990s. Back then, it was students parking in the 710 parking lot for hours at a time to avoid the cost of paying for an on campus parking sticker. With the decline in student population, that does not seem a problem any more.  Maybe the city has some more information that I am not aware of regarding the parking situation.

Aban Kitchen

 According to this post on their Facebook page, Aban Kitchen has found a buyer. The new owner will take over in January of next year. I am glad to see the restaurant is staying open as it certainly fulfills a niche in Carbondale.

Letter on tourism

 Letter to the Editor of the Carbondale Times that ran in the Nov. 20th issue

Carbondale attracts a surprising  number of tourists which I found surprising given the city is not a particularly attractive tourist destination on its own. The only particularly photogenic parts of town are the SIUC campus and the north and west sides of the Town Square. What Carbondale does have and what brings tourists to town, besides SIUC and SIH, is access to over 450 square miles of outdoors and outdoor activities. Nearly every weekend, I speak with people staying in Carbondale, in one of our hotels or B&Bs, who are using the city for a home base while they visit Giant City State Park, the River to River Trail or the Shawnee Wine Trail and who are looking for other activities and places to visit. Unfortunately, with the closure of the Carbondale Tourism office, there is no place to direct them for information. Both the Civic Center and Carbondale Main Street office have knowledgeable people and information but they are not always available . I hope the city greatly expands the information kiosk in the new multi modal facility, perhaps adding some form of self guided screen to help direct visitors to places to eat and visit in Carbondale and the surrounding environs.