New School Open House

Next Thursday:

-Carbondale New School is hosting an Open House on Thursday, May 19 from 5-7 p.m. This event is open to the public. Current and potential families will be able to view a variety of creative and unique student work ranging from science, history, art, and Spanish. Please play on our large Certified Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom!

 The teachers and Director will be on hand to answer questions regarding Carbondale New School. Light refreshments will be served

Parking

The problem with parking in downtown Carbondale is not that there is none. There is plenty of parking. The problem is that it is not convenient parking. If they cannot see the entrance of the business to which they want to go, the average customer is likely to only want to walk about 30 to 40 yards or approximately 100 feet on average. With the exception of the parking on the Town Square and that in front of the Campus Shopping Center and University Plaza, downtown parking is all rather hidden between buildings facing Illinois Avenue and the railroad. Putting up more signage indicating directing people to public parking and maybe modifying the meters so as to give people two hours of parking for a quarter, allowing them the time to dawdle over a meal or spend time in a bar without having to worry about feeding the meter.

Lot Swap

Not sure exactly which two lots are getting swapped since there is no lot, of which I know, at the southwest corner of East Mill and S. Washington. Maybe the southeast corner at the same location? Still a good move though as the East Grand lot sits half a block away from the main SIUC campus, providing more close-in parking to that area. SIUC has plenty of parking, it is plenty of convenient parking that the university lacks.

The swap works out well for the city as it puts a large number of parking spaces within a block of downtown Carbondale. While not as good as having a large block of spaces bordering or just off S. Illinois, only a block away is still pretty convenient, as long as the city puts signage up informing drivers the spots are there.

Hilton Groundbreaking

Ground was broken for the new Hilton Home 2 Suites in downtown Carbondale today. When completed, the building will occupy the 200 block of West Elm, just south of PK's and stretching from Illinois Avenue to University Avenue. Members of the community have been anticipating a downtown hotel for over a decade so pretty great to see one actually coming to the area. If I might kvetch a bit though, downtown does have quite a bit of open space already, just waiting for someone to infill it with development. Instead, the developers are taking up a parking lot and pulling down two existing buildings to replace with the hotel.

Aban Kitchen Temporarily Closed

Aban Kitchen, which only opened about six months ago, posted this sign on the front door this week, indicating that they are temporarily closed for "renovation". I hope that it all it is but, given how long it took them to get open and to have to close for renovation so soon after opening doesn't look good.

Coolz

I see a building permit has been filed for Coolz Ice Cream and More for 1400 West Main, likely in the little strip mall located across from the west side Subway. I don't think the Neighborhood Co-op sells ice cream by the scoop so there has been no place to get ice cream on the west side since Baskin Robbins closed almost a decade ago.

Carbondale Police

Happened to be driving on University north of Main St. on Saturday and happened to spot 3 Carbondale PD officers tossing a football around with a group of kids. People have been saying the PD needs to reach out more to the community, especially on the north side, and this looks like a good example of such outreach.