Bikes

 Carbondale is a bike friendly community. We are on one of the major cross country bike routes, although I see far fewer cross country bicyclists today than I did 20 years ago. It would certainly be nice if the city acknowledges this with more wayfinding signage for bicyclists, including signs showing them where the repair stations are and how to negotiate through Carbondale while avoiding the heavy traffic on 13.

Tower Road

 According to the agenda for the next city council meeting, The city plans to spend $500,000 patching and repairing Tower Road and another $500,000 doing the same to Pleasant Hill road. I do not drive Pleasant Hill much but Tower Road can certainly use the work. 

30 mph

 30 Miles Per hour is the speed limit along Highway 13/ Walnut and Main streets through downtown. Of course, very few people actually abide by that limit, ususally speeding through the residential areas of both streets at speeds of 40 and 50 mph. There are not a lot of pedestrials along either street but the lackof following speed limits makes it pretty unsafe for those that do walk along either street. 

The city currently has a speed monitor installed on Walnut Street, about 50 years before the Walnut and Poplar intersection. Unfortunately, I see very few people slow down as a result of the sigh indicating they are going too fast. Maybe some speeding tickets handed out to violators along either street would give people an incentive to slow down. 

Blocko's

 It looks as if a new restaurant is going into the location briefly occupied by Kat's Krab and Go at the corner of Illinois and Mill. A sign in the window announces the grand opening of Blocko's on April 1. Hopefully it is not an April Fool's joke

Suspect arrested

 Carbondale police announced they  have arrested the primary suspect in an unprovoked attack that took place Sunday night in the Wal-mart parking lot. From what I have heard, the suspect struck a woman in the parking lot and may have attacked her with a knife. From the press release, it does not appear the victim required hospitalization.

foot Traffic

 If I were going to locate a business in downtown Carbondale, I would see about finding a spot at the south end of Illinois Avenue, somewhere between Mill and Grand. The reason for that is that most daytime foot traffic is concentrated, as far as I can tell, in that area.

Legal Smile pulls in quite a few people, as do Harbaugh's Cafe and Kampus Kuts. I am not sure how well Nacho Fries is doing, but the other three do generate plenty of foot traffic, which is something a new business can draw upon. Most of the rest of the business north of Mill are either service busiensses, such as hair stylists, or restaurants and bars, which pull people to tht location but once they eat or drink, they leave, rather than shop at other locations.

Potholes

 Here is the list of streets that the city plans to work on this year. Looks like 8 projects will be tackled. I really hope they also fill the potholes on Old 13 East of Lewis Lane as there are some really bad ones there. It is difficult to use See Click Fix there as the street does not allow any on street parking and the stretch is pretty busy during the daytime

Bike Signs

 The bike path from the town square to SIUC was finished about 3 years ago, more or less. There is still no sign posted there to draw anyone's attention to it. i realize most people can check such things on their smartphones but it is still difficult to do so while cycling. Also, i fCarbondale wants to develop the image of a bike friendly commnuity , putting up signage indicating bike backs and other amenities would certainly help

Dairy Queen

 In a sure sign of spring for Carbondale, the downtown Dairy Queen has opened for the season. I have already seen short lines for delicious soft serve.

Town Square Sign

 I have commented on this before but the sign on the town square directing people to the offices of Carbondale Main Street, the Chamber of Commerce and the Station Carbondale railroad museum could certainly be positioned better.  While quite visibel to anyone driving east on Marion, anyone driving north on Illinois Ave. cannot see it until right in front of it. Even then it is difficult to see unless you are sitting in the passenger's seat. Turning the sign 90 degrees would make it much more useful.

Carbondale and SIUC

 Is Carbondale a college town? One would think so, given the large footprint of SIUC in the community but you do not see much of a signin the city that th eUniveristy is here. there is the Welcome to Carbondale sign mentioning SIUC on the east side as you drive in on Westbound 13 but nothing at the other three entrances. 

There are the small green directional signs but one would think a large sign pointing in the direction of the Univeristy would be in place. The city has flag holders on light fixtures to hand banners promoting Halloween, Lights Fantastic and Black History Month but no generic SIUC flags that should be up at other times of the year.

the mural at the intersection of 51 and Mill is primarily due to work by the Chamber of Commerce and the university. The proposed murals in collaboration with Arstpace 301 focus more on community history with little reference to SIUC.  It just seems more acknowledgement of the importance of SIUC to the community should be mande.

Candidate Forums

 IF you want to quiz the candidates for city council and Mayor, there are a couple of Zoom sessions comin up in the next month.  Details below:

MAYORAL CANDIDATE FORUM ONE WEEK FROM TODAY!

The Carbondale Mayoral Candidate Forum will be held on Tuesday, February 21, on Zoom, at 6:30pm. 

CITY COUNCIL FORUM NEXT MONTH

The Carbondale City Council Candidate Forum will take place on Tuesday, March 7 at 6:30pm, on Zoom.

Please see the attached for more information and to register at the Carbondale Library site.  The Carbondale Public Library's website is: https://carbondalepubliclibrary.org.

See Click Fix

 If you have not downloaded this app to your phone yet, I recommend it as a way to report problems to the city, especially with streets and lights. On several occasions over the past few years, I have used it to report potholes and have generally seen them repaired in a matter of days. This past week, I submitted a photo of potholes in the 200 block of West Willow on Wednesday and the city had repaired them, or at least filled them with asphalt, by Friday afternoon.

Phoenix Cycles

 Looks as if both the Phoenix Cycles building and business are for sale. I have seen "for sale" signs in the various storefronts of the building for a month or better. However, a sign on the side of the building adversises both it and the business for sale. Would not be a bad investment as four of the five store fronts in the building currently host businesses but the new owner would have to find staff convercent in bicycle to keep Phoenix Cycles runnin.

Suicide Intervention

 a number of people reported 9 or 10 Carbondale Police cars in the Mike's Music/Hemp n' Stuff parking lot on East Walnut this morning. According to this press release, someone had barricaded themselves inside a car in the lot and was threatening to kill themselves. Police resolved the situation and took the person into custody without incident.

Church

 Construction crews worked from late afternoon until about 9 p.m. last night leveling the remaninder of the original section of the Walnut Street Baptist Church. Currently, the left lanes of South University and East Walnut are blocked due to the rubble. All of the upper stories of the older section have been leveled

Walnut Street Church Fire

 The older section of the empty Walnut Street Baptist Church caught fire this morning and that section of the building is a total loss with demoltion of that part of the structure taking place tonight. The building has sat empty  since the congration moved to a new facility located on Old Highway 13. There was an attempt to repurpose the building as affordable housing several years ago but that fell through when the company planning the project failed to secure loan guarantees from the state.

According to the minutes of the last city council meeting, the city has appropriated money to demolish part of the building, although from what I have heard, the plan was to demolish the newer part of the structure and leave the  original part of the church building standing.

Founder's Park Meeting

 The Founders Park Subcommittee of the Preservation committee will meet at 5  p.m. on Feb 7 in the Civic Center. Planning on what to do with the property behind the Civic Center where what became SIUC first stood. I have  heard plans of putting in a stage for historical presentations which seems a case of guilding the lily, since I would be we would see very few of them. If someone wants to put on historical presentaitons there, renting a stage for the event seems a much more cost effect use of dollars.

The Founders Park Committee, a subcommittee of the Preservation Commission, will hold a meeting at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 7, 2023, at Carbondale City Hall/Civic Center.  The agenda for the meeting is attached.

Veterans Airport

 Appears that Cape Air, due to rising costs, has asked to put the contract for serving Southern Illinois and Veterans Airport up for bid. There are three regional carriers bidding on the contract. One is Cape Air, hoping to get it for a somewhat higher bid. The other two are Contour and Southern Airways. Apparently, an enticement for Contour's bid is direct flights from Veterans Airport to Chicago, which the other two airlines do not offer. You can look at the proposals and complete a survey on your preference here. 

Streetlights

 Noticed the same two blocks of streetlights off last night, the stretch between Walnut and Main along Illinois avenue. They were off the previous night as well but on earlier this evening. Will be sure to check and see if they are on when I head home tonight. 

When they are off, it certainly  emphasizes how brightly the other lights illuminate the rest of the Strip.