Burger King

West side Burger King closed on Saturday as promised. Today there is a chain link fence surrounding the site. Maybe they plan to raze the building and replace it with a newer one. Or maybe just do some extensive remodeling.

Saturday Night Downtown

 Went through downtown last night abou 9:45 and was plesently suprised at all the the activity. While not at the level of the 1990s, there were a lot of cars parked and most of the squar parking across from Mary Lou's was filled. Did not see much traffic at Trax or Hangar 9 but a short line extended out the door at Stix.

Saw no house parties taking place but the damp weather may have ended them. I did see evidence, from the number of red cups around, that there had been a couple in the West Cherry area but no sign of any of the parties of 200 to 300 people that took place during previous Polar Bear Weekends

Polar Bear

 Carbondale Police say they will be out checking during this weekend's Polar Bear parties. Pinch Penny Pub was always the prime focus for Polar Bear events with competing bars running Puck Finch events. Now, a quick search of local events shows one taking place at Hangar 9 and nothing at any of the other bars. Likely some house parties but not near the level that it was when Pinch Penny hosted it.

Street Resurfacing

 city announced that it will receive $2 million to resurface S Wall Street from East Walnut south to East Park Street and to slim the street from 4 lanes to 2 lanes with a turn lane in the center and bike lanes on either side. the resurfacing  will cover the section of Wall running south of the eastside Walgreens to about a block south of the intersection of Grand Ave. and Wall Street. projected start date is summer of 2024.

Street Lights

 Noticed the street lights are out for a two block stretch between Walnut and Main along S. Illinois. North of Main and south of Walnut the lights are fine. Been out for a couple of days now. It is remarkable how much darker the streets are without those high intensity lights.

Burger King

 According to their sign, the West Side Burger King will close for the winter this Saturday and re-open in the spring, much like the downtown Dairy Queen. Either sales have dropped off a lot or they are still having staffing problems. Maybe the cost of heating the building outweighs potential sales?

Neighborhood Alliance Meeting

 The Annual Neighborhood Alliance meeting takes place on Feb. 4  starting at 10 a. m. at the Carbondale Public Library. Neighborhoods and community organizations will update interested parties, including city leaders, on how they are meeting the past year's challenges and (I assume) plans for the future.

Arbor District Meeting

 Arbor District meeting at 3 p.m. on Jan 22 in St. Francis Xavier Churches' Xavier Hall, corner of Walnut and Poplar. Topics will be, among others, Halloween decorations, large gatherings of students in parking lots in the area (a recent one at the corner of Main and University ended with shots fired. No one was hurt, thank goodness), effects of zoning, immigration, transportation and renewable energy

Forclosure Addresses

 since I was asked, here are the addresses first Bank and Trust is forclosing on:

409 East Mill, 1130 Walkup Street, 201 S. Oakland,802 S. Johnson, 408 and 408 1/2 N. Springer, 1114 W. Walkup Street,710 N. Carico, 405 East Mill, 702 West Walnut, 502 West Freeman,514 S. Beveridge, 510 S. Beveridge

There may be some more but that would require digging into more fine print.

Home Rentals Forclosures

 According to the classifieds in the current issue of the Carbondale Time, the First Bank and Trust Company of  Murphysboro is forclosing on at least a dozen properties owned by Lindsey Fisher. With the exception of one on North Carico, all appear located south of Walnut Street.

Choices

 I see that Carbondale made the front page of Politco's website due to the Choices clinic opening here and the number of people coming here to make use of the clinic's services. 

On a related note, the clinic protestors appear very weather sensitive as inclinent weather tends to keep them away from the protests.

Arbor District Meeting Video

 In case you were not one of the approximately 100 people that showed up for the recent meeting on shootings and other violence in the city, with an emphasis on the Arbor District, you can watch the video here.

According to State’s Attorney Joe Cervantes, a good number of the shooting and violence in the Arbor District area, esp. on South Forest, was due to feuds between three "gangs" of young men between the ages 15 and 28. Two of the gangs were based in Marion and one in Carbondale. Since November, Cervantes' office has arrested most of the members of two of the gangs as well as the member that first the most recent shots on S. Forest, prompting the meeting

Resiliance Hub

 Ran across the term "resiliance hub" in my reading recently and, from the description, it sounds very similar to Carbondale's "cooling center" as the civic center gets called when the termperature gets high. A resiliance hub offers air conditioning, drinkable water, wifi and personal electronics charging, just as the civic center does, although, the last time I checked, the building's wifi access was password protected. Have not tried to use it in a couple of years so no idea if this is still the case. If it is, the policy should be changed, with maybe a 2 hour limit put on use before the user has to log on again.

Walker's Bluff

 Planing to focus on the casino, I guess, Walker's Bluff announced the shuttering of the Walker's Bluff General Store. I imagine they will move most of the General Store operations into the casino once it opens.Never visited the place but it always seems off the beaten path to me. I never heard anyone speak of eating there and it was on the wrong side of Highway 13 to take advanges of Shawnee National Forest tourist traffic.