Eclipse Traffic

 Caught on the news last week that there was so much traffic in southern Illinois for the eclipse that traffic monitors did not show traffic in Illinois getting back to normal until around 8 p.m. that night. That's a whole lot of people exiting the area.

Hotels Cancelling

Geez, I hope this is not widespread but I have heard reports of at least one hotel in Carbondale cancelling room reservations 3 days before the Eclipse. These were reservations mad a year to a year and half ago when rooms were going for $90 a night. Now that rooms are renting for $400 a night for the eclipse, rooms reserved by families over a year ago are getting canceled and those people are either having to scramble to book rooms at much higher prices or cancelling their trip altogether. 

I figure there will be some lawsuits filed as cancelling reserved rooms without a good reason just to rebook at a higher price is, as far as I know, illegal.

Paducah Eclipse

 Heard today that, despite having a full year, Paducah, which is in the path of the eclipse's totality, only started planning for events a bit over a week ago. Makes me feel a lot better about what Carbondale is doing.

Revised Trash Schedule

 The city of Carbondale is treating Eclipse week like a holiday week. Although city offices will be open as normal, the trash pick up schedule will move to a holiday schedule with pick up dates a day later than normal. I imaging they expect to have a lot of extra trash to collect after all of the events of the weekend. I remember anemic crowds on Friday and Saturday with far more traffic on Sunday and Monday and a flood of traffic out of town on Monday afternoon.

SpringFest

 Vendor event with music in the Washington Street Event space this Saturday and Sunday. I remember this took place in the same area during the last eclipse and was pretty poorly attended, but then, IFRR, it took place on Friday and Saturday. Since most eclipse attendees did not show up until Sunday, primarily locals attended the event. Hope it pulls a bigger crowd this year but it is competing against Eclipsecon at the Student Center and The Shawnee Eclipse Fest at Shawnee Cave.

Banks Closed for Eclipse

 Stopped by Legence Bank this week and the staff happened to mention that the bank, and apparently most banks in Carbondale, will close at 11 a.m. on April 8th for the eclipse and not re-open until the next day. they want to both let the staff see the eclipse and get home without having to deal with all the crowds.  In 2017, Highways 13, 51 and 127 were all backed up for miles as people left town right after the eclipse. I would be willing to bet something similar happens next year.

Carbondale Doomed

 Should Carbondale be flattered that it is the subject of a conspiracy theory (belief?  Very few conspiracies survive enough testing to qualify as theories)?  According to one thought floating around the internet, since Carbondale is in the path of totality again and it has been 6 years, 6 months 6 weeks and 6 days since the last one we are due by a disaster of epic proportions. 

Or, more likely, nothing happens and the conspiracists move onto the next shiny object.

Eclipse Hotels

 Looks like hotels in Carbondale and the path of the eclipse are 99% sold out the weekend of the eclipse with rooms going for up to $850. The city apparently still has space available at Evergreen Park for $500-$700 for the weekend. and apparently still has space available As the Eclipse gets closer, though, I would expect them to sell out, though not without some grumbling.

Carbondale Eclipse

 Carbondale city government has posted a roundup of events taking place in the city to celebrate the upcoming total eclipse. Looks like a concert featuring the Woodbox Gang on the Sunday night before the Eclipse and then street busking at a number of locations on the day of the Eclipse. wonder if this year will be a replay of 2017 when everyone came into town on the day before the Eclipse and then left immediately after, causing such a traffic jam that it took about 3 hours to get from here to Marion and about 6 hours to take 51 north to the interstate.

SIUC Eclipse Rentals

 SIUC is renting rooms in University Hall over the eclipse period for $750 for a 5 day, 4 night period, which works out to $188 a night and come with 2 beds and linens, meals not included.  Parking passes are $25. For that price, one would think the university could throw in a free parking pass per room rented.

Eclipse Campsites

 The cityis offering short term campsites in Evergreen Park for the weekend of the Eclipse.  Prices range from $500 to $800 for the period, which seems a bit steep but I remember the asking prices for hotel rooms during the eclipse weekend last time and I see at least one local hotel asking $700 a night for rooms that weekend.

Eclipse

 Received an email from Carbondale Main Stree regarding promotions the store is having to tie in with the upcoming eclipse. I sent in a couple of items but it rather bemuses me that the city does not have signage up all over the area promoting Carbondale as a prime viewing spot for the eclipse. I was in Southeast Missiouri this week and saw several signs adventising the Eclipse and, when I was in Indiana just before the end of the eyar, a number of signs promoted various locations along the interstate as prime viewing locations. The city should have had signage up last year touting Carbondale as a prime location. At least something near the Stadium since that is where I expect the center of the viewing to take place.

One thing that did concernment about the survey I received was questions about my hours over the weekend prior to the eclipse. if you remember, the city hosted a festival back in 2017with concerts and other activities that were poorly attended. Comparatively few people came to town until the day before the eclipse and they within an hour or so after it was over, with a traffic jam from here to Marion.

I know the university is hosting Eclipsecon (a renamed Salukicon for the year) at the Student Center the weekend before the Eclipse which generally brings in a couple of thousand people so we may see people in for that and have them stay the extra day for the eclipse.

Eclipse

 Well looks as if the "ring of fire" eclipse viewing was a bust as clouds covered Carbondale all day.

However, you can still attend the final "Off the Rails" concert of the year at the Washington Street event space. Concert goes on until about 10 tonight. Maybe sometime next year the planned stage will be installed but I would be willing to bet not until 2025 after the multi modal transport center is completed.

Eclipse

 In case you want to watch the partial "ring of fire" eclipse tomorrow, SIUC will host events at Saluki Stadium from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Did not keep your glasses from the 2017 eclipse?  SIUC Will have free glasses available

Eclipse Preparation

 Maybe there is work done behind the scenes but it doe not seem as if either Carbondale or SIUC are doing much to prepare for next years eclipse. This was spraked by hearing a list of eclipse themed activities taking place soon in Cape Girardeau on WSIU this morning. Nothing similar that I have heard for Carbondale. When I drove through Perryvill Mo a couple of weekends ago, the city had a large sign posted in their park "Eclipse Viewing Site".Carbondale and SIUC are at the epicenter of the eclipse so how hard would it be to put up a similar sign near Saluki Stadium to build awareness of the event.

Lunar Eclipse

Preparing for the second solar eclipse in 2024, SIUC will host a lunar eclipse event starting at 7:30 p.m. on May 15 in Saluki Stadium. The eclipse itself starts about 9:30 with totality occurring about 10:30. There will be a number of astronomy related activities taking place around the field and related documentaries playing on the scoreboard.

Eclipse Co-ordinator

Hopefully the city will hire a full, or at least part time, eclipse co-ordinator in 2018. The city has 7 years to plan for the next eclipse so they cannot say they didn't have any advance notice and having someone working on it now means they can start cor-ordinating with stakeholders such as SIUC and Walker's Bluff, which both operated pretty independently of the city's plans this year, at least as I can tell. One comment I heard during one of the wrap up meetings was that SIUC's activities ended at the campus boundaries and were focused on keeping people on campus as much as possible. We will probably have another 50,000 people coming to town, more than any other event Carbondale puts on will draw so now is not too early to start planning.

State of the City Speech

A couple of comments on Mayor Henry's State of the City Speech:

1.  Carbondale's crime rate is the lowest it has been in 2 decades. This needs to be emphasized in everything the city sends out to people. One of the major comments I hear from people who live in Marion and Murphysboro (and other areas in Southern Illinois) is that it is not safe to come to Carbondale. It even came up in the rebranding sessions the city hosted.The perception that Carbondale is dangerous is wrong and the city needs to work to counter that perception.

2. 50,000 people in town for the Eclipse. Great numbers and pretty close to what was projected. We got a lot of people into town for 2 or so days. Now, what do we do with that? I have no idea how much contact info was gathered during the period but I hope Carbondale Tourism has a lot of those names and will be emailing or otherwise contacting them regularly. We have another opportunity in about 7 years and should take this time to figure out what we did wrong, what we did right and what we could do better.

Turning The Corner

One of the terms I kept hearing people use during the after-eclipse forum was "turning the corner", as in the eclipse traffic helped downtown turn the corner towards revitalization. We shall see but SIUC's administration has used the same phrase to describe university enrollment and strategy for almost two decades now and the only result I have seen is the continuing decline in enrollment. While I was happy to see the traffic and emphasis on downtown prior to the eclipse, it looks still to early to say if downtown has "turned the corner" yet or not.

Another Eclipse Session

The city will host another listening session for feedback about eclipse events and handling at the Civic Center on Sept. 13 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Some things I hope they incorporate sooner than 7 years from now:
1.  Annual welcome back concert for students the Saturday before SIUC open
2. More open container weekends, with significant police presence
3. Planning for the next eclipse starting NOW.