I went to the first community forum that was sponsored by MCCSC about the fate of Fairview elementary school, and a friend who saw me there just asked why I had attended. Sitting in the school hall, watching as person after person made some impassioned comment about the Near West [...]
I went to the MCCSC school board’s community forum last night at Fairview and all of the presentations and public comments made me realize that this issue is far more complicated than just a question of the fate of 9th Street Park, or the logistics of school construction. The discussion [...]
A friend handed me a flyer today that said, in bold letters, “Save 9th Street Park!”. The text read:
There has been talk brewing of a “parks-for-school swap” in which 9th street park would be the sacrifice to make way for a new school building to house Fairview and the existing [...]
I was eating my first meal back in Bloomington, at my favorite diner, which reminded me how much I like the institutions of diners in general, this diner in particular, and how, even after seeing a lot of interesting, exciting places, that there are things at your home that you [...]
I don’t own a house in Bloomington, but I’ve now lived here for long enough that I wish I had considered buying a home when I first arrived. A friend, who does own her Bloomington home, recently returned from a summer of traveling to find that her monthly morgtage payments [...]
I was happy to read in the HT today that the farmers market will now accept food stamps. From the article:
Starting Saturday, the Bloomington Community Farmers’ Market will accept food stamps — and will be the first in the state to do so.
City officials announced the “Market Bucks” program Tuesday [...]
I’ve been traveling for a little more than a week, which, between not having steady access to the Internet, being in various modes of motion, and preparing for the trip, is why my posts have been even more sporadic than usual.
I’m in a town in Northern Italy called Mariano Comense [...]
I.
The summer heat has passed from the initial explosion that brought everyone out of their houses and onto the lawns, sidewalks, and streets with both joy and a tense fury, and into the lethargy of the intense humidity of midsummer heat. Perhaps it is perceived by the townspeople as too [...]
Note: I wrote the last post about lawn care, but did so hastily and it didn’t really say what I wanted to. It felt petty, even though it felt like there was something important under the surface. What follows feels much closer to my thoughts surrounding the city’s yard ordinances.
Excessive [...]
Growing up, my father was obsessed with lawn care. I’m not quite sure of the root of his obsession, and when I tried to ask once, he just gave a grumble. I think he said something about the responsibilities of a homeowner, but it felt more like pride than responsibility [...]
The first photo is from a blog post called The Anti-Sit Archives which has some pretty fascinating photographs of various technologies, mostly implemented in New York City, to keep people from sitting on various pieces of publically-ascessible architecture like ledges, railings, [...]
It is easy to think that much of the population of Bloomington is imagined. The faces of the students that line Kirkwood on a weekend night blend together in a noisy blur, and even as they move about the town on a sunny afternoon, it seems possible that they may [...]
Bloomington Hospital’s Olcott Cancer Center is offering free skin health screenings in May. You can call Karen at 812.353.5669 for more info or to schedule an appointment. She gave me the following background information about the screenings in email:
The skin screening clinics are May 8th and 22nd from 5-7 PM [...]
At the forum I mentioned in the last post, one of the panelists mentioned that sexual violence is considered to be such a large social problem, that it is being thought of some as a medical epidemic. In doing some reading while thinking about my last post, I came across [...]
Continuing to think about April as Sexual Assault Awareness month, I wanted to mention Thursdays in Black. Throughout the month of April, people are encouraged to wear black on Thursdays as a visible reminder of sexual assault and other violence. The Middleway House and RAISE (Raising Awareness of Interactions in [...]
Before the freeze, we had been sitting out on the stoop, or rather half sitting, half laying, our bodies extended as if we were solar cells, with each extra inch of sunward facing surface granting us with more energy. He said, pointing lazily towards the white petals blowing across the [...]
