Thomson says she has a good relationship with IU president Pamela Whitten, housing balance needs to tip to workforce housing, and why the hanging lights on Kirkwood are down.
In this week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson addresses these issues and more during a visit to City Hall. 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: A lot as gone on since last month including the IU protests. How did you think the university handled that situation?
Thomson: I stand firmly with my belief that that we should be de-escalating and allowing people to conduct free speech protests. And that whenever possible, we should remove protesters with the least force possible. And, I think it was unfortunate. The optics of what happened, were unfortunate. It really was. It was traumatic for our community.
There's no two ways around that we had police helicopters overhead for three days. There was a rifle with a spotting scope on it on the top of the Union. These are threatening and I understand from the state police's perspective, they felt like they needed to take those safety measures, but certainly, I think that we did not do all in our power to de escalate first.
Read more: Behind closed doors: What Whitten and Hunter told faculty at listening sessions
Hren: I saw reports with the State Police Superintendent saying that he had good communication with the city and with the university. But he says there wasn't any really communication between the university and the city, should there have been? Was there communication?
Thomson: We were invited to briefings. We were not part of the decision making. We were notified what the university was going to do, that is within their rights. It's their jurisdiction, we appreciate being partners at the table, when we can be. It's my role to lead the city and, of course, it's the university's administration's role to lead the university. We did not have complete direct communication with the state police about this. In the days following the removal of the protesters, the State Police Superintendent did reach out to me to explain his point of view.
Hren: What is the relationship like between the city and the university? We've called that town and gown. Have you had a chance to talk to President Whitten?
Thomson: I have, and I would say we have a very positive relationship between the city and the university. We are working together on how we're going to form officially this town gown relationship and how we can partner better together, especially in the future. I would say that this particular incident didn't go in an ideal way, from a partnership perspective. And my hope is that we can improve that in the future.
Hren: Last time after I left, I learned about a new student oriented housing complex that would be over in the stadium neighborhood. What is your stance on these what people call big box student complexes? Are they needed?
Thomson: My perspective is that what we really need right now is workforce housing, and we need housing at all levels. But we've had a lot of student development lately and the university has been growing their undergraduate enrollment. I don't expect that to continue. And these significantly sized student housing developments that are really targeted to undergrads not to grad students will eventually need to pivot if they don't fill.
My hope is that the buildings themselves and the management are flexible enough to want to lease to other people when the time comes. But my goal and my priority is ensuring that the development the city partners on and incentivizes is really targeted at meeting the needs of people who work here.
The reports we get is that these housing complexes are well over 90% full. And so as we build more, I guess we'll see if those numbers change.
Read more: Bloomington city council OK’s proposal for 4,200 new homes, with conditions
Hren: I went through that development packet and saw more than $3.4 million is a required contribution to the affordable housing incentives for that developer to get approval. That's going back to the city for housing, right?
Thomson: That's right. So we are working on our comprehensive plan right now. And that will include this. We write one every 10 years. This go round, we will add on a specific housing plan for the city of Bloomington. And I intend to write a strategic plan for how to use that Housing Development Fund to incentivize the housing that we do want.
Hren: So the annexation bench trial wrapped up just a few weeks ago, I was there every day and you were there and testified. Should the residents that testified those last three days read into the fact the mayor was not there?
Thomson: I don't think they should read into that at all. I wanted to be there for the presentation of our case, there was some significant testimony, especially from our expert witness, who really is an expert around the country on annexation and so it was important for me to be there to support them.
If the annexation happens, I am really eager to listen and engage with our new city residents, before they become city residents. I have met with several of them and heard their concerns. The city's not going to come in and you know, make you put a sidewalk in your front yard if you don't want one. And so there's a lot of misperceptions out there, and so it's important to me that we have some open listening sessions and that I can do my best to meet the needs of any new residents that become part of the city as a result of this.
Hren: The Capital Improvement Board is moving ahead with the expansion of the convention center. I see you all have a big meeting coming up. What's that about?
Thomson: The city council had intended to have a meeting about their desires and design and forward progress with the convention center. And I suggested that perhaps a collaboration meeting would be great with the city and county together and invite the CIB.
I think we can be a little bit like kids at Christmas with our wish lists, but really we're building one convention and civic center and one hotel and getting in the same room and coming to a shared vision should be part of what we are trying to do so that we're not giving something to the CIB that is really too much to handle and instead have a collaborative conversation about what's realistic, and what our shared vision is, with the understanding that our ideas probably can improve one another's.
Hren: I noticed the hanging canopy lights on Kirkwood Avenue have all been taken down. Is that experiment done?
Thomson: The hanging lights were part of the COVID closure of that street and trying to kind of do some placemaking there. So they just had been up a while and having to get some construction equipment, down Kirkwood. And it just doesn't make sense to keep them there. And the streets going to stay open this year, because of the construction near Indiana Avenue. So that was just time to come down.
There are discussions about how we will or won't make a longer term seasonal closure of Kirkwood. And so I expect all of this will be part of that conversation.
Read more: City may study permanent closure of Kirkwood to cars, department head says
Hren: You were one of the mayors selected to participate in a special session of the Mayor's Institute on city design in New York City. Right?
Thomson: It was fabulous. Seven mayors were selected. We each brought a case project with us. I brought the B-Line district that goes from the Trades District down to Hopewell. And there was a team of 12 resource professionals that all fed into the case study. There'll be sending us their formal feedback in the next couple of weeks, but got really incredible feedback that I think will hopefully impact the convention center. But we'll certainly impact how we're thinking about Trades and Hopewell, and the district in between. We want a really safe trail. And we want a trail that's really alive and vibrant at all hours of day and night.
