The farmers' market long time director is retiring, more racial-profiling is being reported, the mayor's evolving relationship with civil rights activist Vauhxx Booker, and how to enforce a mandatory mask ordinance.
On this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor John Hamilton addresses these issues and more. Listen to the full conversation with Indiana Newsdesk anchor Joe Hren by clicking on the play button above, or read some of the questions and answers below. A portion of this segment airs 6:45 and 8:45 a.m. Wednesday on WFIU. Here are some highlights.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
Hren: Let's start with the alleged Vauhxx Booker attack and investigation. Just yesterday the other side of the story came out from the White men, how do you respond as mayor to that side of the story?
Hamilton: Well, Joe, I don't think it's surprising that in what I expect will be criminal case and probably civil litigation too. Eventually there's going to be some back and forth and disputing I guess. I would emphasize a couple things. One, we know and I know I saw the just awful racial epithets and and physical attacks that happened near Lake Monroe. And those were a gut punch to me to see the video of that - of one of my residents going through that. So I know that that happened there.
The second thing I know and maybe this is most important, is that racism is very real, that structural racism persists in my community and across our country and that racism is real among us too. And that's kind of the key point is to remind us all the work we have still to do, to remedy structural racism that's present in our criminal justice system, in our education system, our health care system, our housing system, and economic system, all that needing attention as we also continue to try to bring justice in individual instances.
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Hren: Vauhxx Booker protested during your State of the City Address a few years ago and other rallies against the city's purchase of an armored vehicle. How has your relationship evolved with Booker over the years?
Hamilton: The important thing is Vauhxx Booker lives in Bloomington. He's a resident of my community and anytime a resident of my community is subject to inappropriate treatment or violence, I care deeply. It's true that Vauhxx Booker and I have have crossed paths. We haven't always agreed on every municipal policy. But none of my residents agree on all municipal policies. And the key point here is, Mr. Booker was terribly attacked on the weekend of July 4, and I want to be sure - like I will for every resident of mine - that they get justice.
And I think it would be relevant to say, I've been on a number of media appearances in the last 10 days, Mr. Booker himself would urge don't just focus on what happened to me, let's talk about racism and what it means. And that was, the racism was so evident in that tape. It's it's hard not to feel nauseated, but also I hope motivated to do some things about it.
Hren: What's your reaction to long time Farmers' Market Director Marcia Veldman stepping down?
Hamilton: Marcia was the kind of the master of the market for many, many years. I'm really sorry to see her retire. I haven't spoken directly with her. But no doubt the stress of the market over the last two seasons has been very difficult for those involved in it, from Marcia to her colleagues, and the parks department as well as the parks board and others. So, I do want to thank Marcia, she helped create the state's best farmers market and many award winning seasons and serving our community very, very well.
We're going through some evolution at the market, as the community has responded and others and I certainly wish Marcia all the best.
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Hren: Let's move on to COVID-19. The big test is coming up with public schools and of course, thousands of students coming back to Bloomington. Cases are going up, although deaths have gone down, but are starting to creep up some. So we're getting a lot of questions in the newsroom, are we going to be safe this August?
Hamilton: Well, that's a good question. We need to do all we can to protect safety. We, you know, Monroe County is still in a good spot. We've done good work together as a community since March, to really try to limit the spread of the disease and flatten the curve. There are some recent bumps in the curves going the wrong direction, particularly for 20 to 29 year olds, kind of that young contingent.
I've been a vocal advocate for mandatory masks for some weeks. And for stricter restrictions, as we see two things. One, we know tens of thousands of students are going to be coming back to our community from all over the country, so there's a real risk of resurgence. I've been an advocate and I expect, Joe, that we will see in the next week or so, some substantial orders coming from county health that will apply to the whole county that will help us to keep people safe. I've always been ready to do this as a city if the county doesn't move, but I really think it's better if we have a county wide approach. And I'm confident that that's coming quite shortly.
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Hren: Are mandatory masks coming to Monroe County?
Hamilton: I expect we're going to see three things. In some, I don't know the exact specifics, we're still talking about those, but yes, a requirement for mask wearing in most circumstances for most of us. We know that really helps. Second, tighter controls over commercial establishments where you might have a lot of people indoors close together. Think about bars, where you can have real tight packing or a super spread event. And then the third area I think we're gonna probably see some work on is social gatherings. Because those two we now know are really a source where the virus can can erupt and move quickly.
And we really need to stop that, particularly for the next three months. We don't want to have to move dramatically backwards over the next three or four months and there's real risk of that as we've seen across the country.
It doesn't need to be this way. We've seen stories around the world where countries did better, had better controls, better testing, more consistent messaging that got them through this virus much better than we have. It's been a shortfall of failure of national government, national leadership. States have tried to pick it up, but they vary too much. And we now the United States is a poster child for how not to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
READ MORE: Monroe County Mulling Mask Ordinance
Hren: How do you enforce mandatory masks?
Hamilton: Well, let's be realistic. What we're trying to do with all of these is play the the averages - is trying to reduce the risk of major outbreaks, no system is going to be perfect. But it is absolutely clear there are 21 or more states that have mandatory mask orders in place. They really make a difference, compliance goes way up.
Will there be issues of compliance? Sure, there will be but, most of the issues of compliance will be handled in establishments in a in a business at a drugstore, in a restaurant, or at a gym, or other places where the owners of those establishments will need to assure that people comply.
We're not going to have roving bands of masked checkers running through the parks. But the point is to significantly increase the percentage of us wearing masks in so many places. And I know our people have shown interest in doing this and doing it well. If there are individuals who refuse then law enforcement mechanisms can respond to that. But the evidence around the country is that when these are put in place, these mask orders, the vast majority of us want to comply and want to help protect public safety.
Submitted Questions:
Cindy: We are planning a trip to drive to Brownsburg, Indiana at the end of July coming from Colorado. Is it safe to stay at a hotel?
Hamilton: Good luck on your trip. that's a long travel. Yes, I think it's generally safe to take precautions. It depends what your own risk factors are, of course, as an individual. If you have risk factors, you need to be particularly careful. I think it's always good as a customer and a health consumer these days to ask institutions like hotels, what's your protocol? How do you clean? Do you assume everybody has the virus and do you have masks when you're coming in and out of the elevators and that kind of thing.
Barbara: Can our healthcare system handle that influx of the IU students returning?
Hamilton: Well, all we're doing is to try to help make sure that is the case. We certainly had all those students here in March when the outbreak started and our health system helped manage it. Of course, some of them did leave. IU has announced that they're going to require every returning student have a negative COVID test in the days before they come back. And that will help identify those who bring an immediate threat but I think we can expect we'll see more cases.
Here, our healthcare system is is well positioned and they're very careful to try to make sure we have the resources of beds, equipment, ventilators, if needed. We don't have the testing we need, let's be clear about that. We're way behind on that. But in terms of hospital beds, I think the medical profession works really hard to make sure we've got the capacity.
Jack: I would like to know if the two Bloomington firemen testing positive were potentially exposed at the recent BLM protests?
Hamilton: The the two firefighters that were exposed, it appears to have been not work related at all. It's interesting actually, there's not much evidence that suggests that outdoor masked major marches produced a big surge of cases with the contact tracing that I've seen, it didn't suggest that was a problem that firefighters both appear to have gotten infected in their home life. And then we were very glad that doesn't seem to have spread to any other firefighters.
READ MORE: 5th City Of Bloomington Employee Tests Positive For COVID-19
Vicki: If protesters weren't allowed on top of each other maybe this wouldn't be happening?
Hamilton: It does not appear to be. I want to give credit to the organizers of that march back on June 5. They were very explicit and careful provided masks. I saw the march from a distance, I didn't get in the middle of it, but I was there on the edges and it seemed to me 90% or more people were masked. So far as I know from our health experts, there does not seem to be any eruption or resurgence from that event, which now is well over a month ago. So we would we should have seen it by now. Instead, it's it seems to be other social events. Where people are close together particularly indoors non-masked that we're starting to see some spread. I heard of a pool party at one major apartment house that produced some and some other concerns like that.
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