Homelessness

As much as I love Bloomington and all that it has to offer, the one big negative about the city is the ever growing homeless population.  It was a problem when Doug and I were students at IU, but nothing like it is now.  It used to be that there were a few homeless hanging out at Peoples' Park near campus on Kirkwood.  That number continued to grow until it became a serious issue while Cal was in college.  The rumor was that other cities such as Indianapolis and Louisville were busing their homeless to Bloomington as they knew that the mayor wouldn't do much to remove them.  I do not know if that is true, but the population of homeless definitely grew in B-Town.  It started to become a real problem as they were shouting at people as they walked by and some were becoming aggressive.  We personally saw drugs being shared and for awhile it detoured us from visiting any of the shops or restaurants on Kirkwood nearby.  

Several years ago, the business owners in Bloomington petitioned the local government to clear out the park.  After lengthy discussions, it actually happened.  Although Peoples' Park was cleaned up, repainted and repurposed, it did not solve the problem.  The homeless started a tent encampment in another park on the south side of the city.  There were the same problems there: drugs, aggressive behavior, refuse etc., but it wasn't as noticeable to those at IU.  It also made it more enjoyable to hang out on Kirkwood again.  As Brett makes a run for city council, I asked him if he could look into the issue and see if there was a plan to solve the problem.  It's a complicated topic and I know it would take a lot of work, but I hope that homelessness does get resolved in Bloomington.  

Meg did make me laugh about the situation recently when I mentioned that I was worried about safety on campus after the Michigan State shooting.  She told me not to worry as they really only have to worry about the homeless and in general, they are not violent. She reminded me of their biggest issues in Bloomington over the past couple of years.  Campus was put on lockdown last fall, so the local police could flush out a homeless person who had barricaded himself in the sewer.  He told the police that he had rifles, guns and bombs, but in actuality he really only had a pole that he was trying to use as a weapon.  He was taken out of the drain pipes and instantly nicknamed "Sewer Man."  The second incident that caused a lockdown while Meg's been at IU was the time that a homeless man locked himself in a room at the IMU threatening to kill the hostages.  It was soon discovered that he did not have hostages or even a weapon.  I appreciated Meg seeing the humor in two current societal issues - safety and homelessness.  Hopefully, there will be an answer to both soon.