Scam

 Anytime someone calls you, claiming to be some sort of official representative, and asks for any sort of payment, especially to keep you out of jail, hang up and call the office they claim to represent. 95% of the time the call is a scam.

Successes and Highlights of 2022

 Here is a list of what the city considers its successes and highlights of 2022. A lot of them seem to be developing plans, taskforces and website improvements.  Giant City road is much better and the streetscape project makes downtown more attractive. Hopefully, if the city has funds, it could use some of them to attract businesses into downtown, maybe by subsiziding the first six months of rent, assuming landlords get more reasonable in their rent asks. The population does not reflect the 1990s anymore.

Univeristy Mall

 Took a walk through University Mall and I estimated at least half the storefronts were empty. The only large stores remaining were Ultra Beauty, Old Navy and Shoe Dept. None of which are large enough to serve as anchor stores. I hear rumors that Bath and Body Works may vacate the Mall to move across the stree with Old Navy, leaving two more gaping holes in the retail mall storefront.

Lights

 I noticed the city added more lights to the town Square this year. One of the trees to the east of the freight depot has lights running through its branches and up its trunk. Not as showy as the one at the corner of Springer and Main but nice nonetheless.

Streets

 Carbondale only received about an inch of snow so the streets are generally passable but for some reason, people wanted to congest the downtown area around the civic center. On Illinois and University in that area, drivers teneded to all line up in one lane, even though the other two lanes had almost no cars in them. Granted I can see not wanting to get into the left hand turn lane but ehy were  avoiding the center lane as well. Slowed down traffic a whole lot.

Choices

 Noted protestors in fron of Choices with a "Check in Here" sign, trying to get visitors to stop off before going to the clinic proper so they can have a chance to talk them out of getting an abortion. Someone should post a sign next to them reading "Not-affiliated with Choices Clinic".

New Kahala

 According to this post on Facebook, New Kahala will close from Dec. 28th through Jan. 1 and for maybe a few more days. apparently there is something going on that may require closure for the extra days.

Emergency Vet Hours

 According to a Facebook post, Starting Jan 3 Striegel Animal Hospital will start emergency vet hours from 5 p.m. - midnight on Tuesday and Wednesday. Apparently those are the only times not covered by Lakeside Emergency.

Buildings for Sale

 In case you are interested in investing in downtown Carbondale, the building that formerly housed Sound Core and the one currently housing Phoenix Cycle are for sale.  Not sure of price but the Phoenix Cycle building currnely has all of its spaces rented.

Mall Rent

 Talked with a representative from the company trying to recruit businesses to move into Univeristy Mall. According to him, they are looking at other types of businesses beyond clothing and jewelry stores and are willing to offer rent of $1 per square foot and other incentives to get buisnesses to move in. to the space.

Quatro's Sold

 According to this, it appears that long time Quatro's owner Steve Payne is selling the business as the corporation that owns Quatro's has notified the LCC of a complete change in the officers of the business with the Paynes stepping down as officers.

Old Navy Moving

 From what I understand, both Old Navy and Ultra Beauty will move out of their spaces in University Mall into the old Best Buy location under renovation on the north side of Highway 13. That will only a collection of small retail storefronts in the mall, with no large stores to draw in shoppers. If this trend continues, I could see SIH as the only tenant at Univeristy Mall by 2025.

We're Number 14

 According to this round up from Broke Scholar, Carbondale is the 14th most affordable college town in the country. Carbondale actually ranks bettter than most of the other communities surveyed in terms of demongraphics (high percentage of single young people) and and is also more affordable than all but two of the other cities ranked higher on the list.

Carbondale gets hit badly in terms of entertainment and opportunity though. We ranked poorly in terms of density of bars, unemployment rate and Walking and biking availablity.

Notcho Fries

 However there is a new restaurant open in the old China Express location at the south end of the Strip:  Notcho Fries. Build your own bowl appears the focus of the establishment as customers start with a base of fries or chips and add toppings. 

Kirkland's

Joining other businesses that have recently announced closure, such as Party City and Bed Bath and Beyond, I hear that Kirkland's on the east side of Carbondale will soon close its doors. Granted I was never its customer base but I never saw the demand for the store here.

Similarly, I am suprised that Party City stayed open as long as it did. Even when Carbondale's population exceeded 25,000, there never seemed enough demand int he region for a superstore dedicated to party supplies. I figure such a store would need a city with at least a pupulation of 50,000 to 100000 to provide enough customers to justify the store's continued operation

Sidewalks

 Were the sidewalk upgrades worth it?  I know somebody questioning the money spent on them. I think money spend improving the appearance of downtown is money well spent and, since the city was upgrading them, they also had to make them ADA compliant, which does make it a bit more difficult to get to the sidewalk from a parked car. 

What I will like to see is more infills in place. The city has a bad habit of allowing landlords to let buildings run down to the state that they cannot be repaired and raizing them is a cheaper option, leaving downtown with more open space. We have lots at the corners of Mill and Illinois and College and Illinois that have set empty for years. Buildings there fill in the space and make the downtown more walkable.

Gas Prices

 Driving east to west across Carbondale today, I was struck by the change in gas prices. I did not got so far out as the Reed Station area, which tends to be higher than in town, but prices on Giant City road were $3.44 a gallon. Stations on East Main and East Walnut had prices about the same while they jumped to $3.70 a gallon at the Shell station on the West side of town.

Mayor and City Council Candidates

  Here is the list of candidates for the position of Mayor (4 years term) and the three open council seats  Mayor Henry has elected not to seek another term in office

Mayoral Seat

1)      Harold J. Visser

2)      Nathan Colombo

3)      Carolin Harvey

 

City Council Seats (3)

1)      Adam Loos

2)      Clare Killman

3)      Justin Zurlinden

4)      Lee Fronabarger

5)      Nancy Maxwell

6)      Thomas Grant

7)      Joshua Dalton Liechty

 

SSA Renewal

Received a certified letter from the city informing me that the Downtown SSA is coming up for renewal. Money from the SSA tax helps fund Carbondale Main Street and a number of other city projects. Council will have to vote to extend the SSA so if you are in favor (or opposed), contact city council members.