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.