The city has asked SIUC to conduct a survey of perceived and actual gun violence in Carbondale. You can take it here. Will take about 5-10 minutes to complete.
I was rather surprised to see the city asking the university to undertake something like this. Usually the city prefers to go with an outside consultant, despite the fact that they have the resources of a major university for the asking.
Quite obviously, so many questions were raised recently about their failure to consult SIUC and the tendency to hire expensive consultants (remember Rita Cheng's favorite $1 million a year outside advertising firm?) that they were forced to listen to public opinion. However, this did not stop them installing classical music on the PA system near the railway tracks, the sounds of which would be drowned by passing trains and adjacent business outside PA system. They obviously thought that a touch of culture would attract Republican businessmen and local farmers to enjoy the sights of Carbondale
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of the classical music and brighter lights was to make the hangers on around the square want to move to a more quiet area. Police were averaging 2 calls a night regarding assorted disruptions to that area. Not sure if the music installation has had any effect or not.
ReplyDeleteBut why is the classical music drowned both by incoming trains and p.a. music from many of the venues in the area? It is another example of money badly spent by this City Council that seems to have learned its lesson over the Gun survey. Maybe, with depopulation, they don't have enough money to lavish on outside consultants as Rita Cheng once did rather tha consult faculty and staff whom she held in utter contempt
DeleteI never said it was a great idea. The habitues at the square seem to have adapted to the music fairly quickly and the city got complaints from people living near the Square about the volume so it did get reduced.
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