Houses

 The city has razed about half a dozen houses so far this year.  From what I understand, they were taken for non-payment of taxes by the owners after multiple attempts to collect and were considered too unsafe or run down to allow occupancy.

Given the desire to get more people to move to Carbonale, instead of demolishing them, why not offer them to people for $1 plus a stipend equal to the cost of demolition on the condition that they rehab the house and occupy it for a minimum amount of time. If no one accepts the offer, then demolish it. Maybe I missed them, but I saw no indication that those buildings were up for sale or demolition. maybe there were notices posted online but that involves someone actively going online and searching for notification.  Putting a sign in the front yard at least catches the eye of people driving by.  Lord knows I am not an expert in the field but it seems demolishing the building makes it much harder to infill the space.

Bank of Carbondale Building

 The empty Bank of Carbondale building on East Main has either rented or sold as there is a large sign replacing the Bank of Carbondale sign proclaiming the building is now the Carbondale Elementary Schools Adminstrative Office building. Glad to see another empty building getting reused.

Lost Cross 40th Anniversary

A number of places are helping Lost Cross celebrate its 40th anniversary.  Indigo Lounge had a punk/industrial DJ playing vinyl and tape on Thursday night,  and PK's and Booby's both had shows last night as did the Robbie Stokes Memorial stage.   The Buckminister Fuller Dome Home had an event this afternoon and tonight West Elm is blocked off at the intersection with Beveridge for a concert going on late. Here are the events tonight and on Sunday

Attendance Up

 I see SIUC fall attenance is up over 12,000 this fall, reaching12,066.  While not historic, as the press release says and certainly a far cry from the rumored 2000 I heard last month. 281 students is still, as far as I am concerned,  within the standard deviation andnot large enough and not enough to be pointed to as evidence of a turnaround. After all, for a couple of decades, the university kept losing about that amount each semester and the administration said it was not large enough for concern.

Get an increase of 10% or better and the administration could point to their actions as having an actual effect.

Shooting Arrest Made

 Carbondale Police have made an arrest in the shots fired case in the Arbor District area over the weekend. Lalyn Frais, 19 of Carbondale, was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a weapon and resisting a police officer. Happily, although there was damage to a building in the area, no people were hurt.

Saluki Way Tax

 Back around 2009, city council passed the Saluki Way tax, increasing local sales taxes by .25% to help fund the replacement of McAndrews Stadium, remodeling of what is now Bantera Arena and helping cover the cost of the Studnet Services Building (which is not currently named after anything). The tax is supposed to raise about $1 million a year to help with repaying the bods issued to pay for all the contstruction and is scheduled to expire in 2027 or 2029. 

I certainly hope the council does not pass a resolution keeping the tax in place. Our current sales tax rate is higher than about 90% of the other sales tax rates imposed by other communities throughout the state and I have heard from several local restaurant owners they have lost catering business to restaurants in Marion and Murphysboro due to their lower tax rates.

Off Premises Signage

 The city approved 6-1 an amendment to an ordinance at its last meeting allowing for the placing of off premises signage along East Main and East Walnut between Washington Street and Lewis Lane. However, the businesses wanting to place off-premises signage must have frontage along those right of ways.

The same ordinance was a major point of contention when the city was working to get Kohl's to open a storefront in Carbondale. One of the things Kohl's insisted on was an amendment to the same ordinance allowing it to place a sign on Highway 13 pointing towards the Kohl's location on Giant City Road.