Bloomington expands private security to 7 more parks across city, including B-Line Trail

[EyeCarry]

I read it in the Bedford museum

Thank you.

 

[JTScribe]

I was mostly curious as to why Bloomington would need security in the parks, but with this new source from another thread at my fingertips I now see why...

View attachment 150468

Holy crap.

By way of comparison:

 

[jolly rancher]

As Life long resident of B-Town I have over the last 40 years watched the decay which started in the early 1970’s went IU students were allowed to vote in local election. The students shifted the balance of power to the Left and B-Town as been in decline ever since. Gone are the Towny blue collar jobs and the major employer is IU which always pays below scale. Then in the last 10 years the homeless problem has exploded with the city government only encouraging “homelessness” as if were a growth industry. Now we have the homeless everywhere and a growing gang problem in the northwest “Hill” section of the city where shootings are becoming common. B-Town is becoming a smaller version of Portland and it is sad to see.

 

[Mr. Habib]

As Life long resident of B-Town I have over the last 40 years watched the decay which started in the early 1970’s went IU students were allowed to vote in local election. The students shifted the balance of power to the Left and B-Town as been in decline ever since. Gone are the Towny blue collar jobs and the major employer is IU which always pays below scale. Then in the last 10 years the homeless problem has exploded with the city government only encouraging “homelessness” as if were a growth industry. Now we have the homeless everywhere and a growing gang problem in the northwest “Hill” section of the city where shootings are becoming common. B-Town is becoming a smaller version of Portland and it is sad to see.

Been here nearly as long as you. Couldn't agree more.

 

[GIJEW]

Trained monkeys at best.... In many cases, the trained monkey would be better.

cuz monkeys BITE!

 

[KLB]

cuz monkeys BITE!

And throw

 

[bwframe]

Just like the big city lefties, this crap is self feeding. Bloomington will never ever have a republican elected local government, because the dems are so entrenched in every aspect of oversight, from votes allowed to vote counting to the legal system that judges any challenge.

 

[Ark]

As Life long resident of B-Town I have over the last 40 years watched the decay which started in the early 1970’s went IU students were allowed to vote in local election. The students shifted the balance of power to the Left and B-Town as been in decline ever since. Gone are the Towny blue collar jobs and the major employer is IU which always pays below scale. Then in the last 10 years the homeless problem has exploded with the city government only encouraging “homelessness” as if were a growth industry. Now we have the homeless everywhere and a growing gang problem in the northwest “Hill” section of the city where shootings are becoming common. B-Town is becoming a smaller version of Portland and it is sad to see.

Yep. It's not like Indy is an improvement, but I'm not sad to be gone. The rot is there for all to see and they simply do not appear interested in solving it.

 

[Wanderer]

Oh buddy, let me freaking tell you about Bloomington and security contracts...

So Lake Griffy used to be the city's water source before Lake Monroe existed, right? Well, at the base of the dam, there was a small water treatment plant serving what used to be small town Bloomington. The plant was closed after the new one was built at Monroe, and it just sat there. No real barriers or security, you could just wander in and look around at the decaying building.

A couple years ago, somebody does a survey of the site and finds out it's full of lead and PCBs like a lot of older water-related infrastructure. The mayor absolutely freaks out at the prospect of some criminal trespasser getting lead on their boot soles from going in the building, and declares we must Do Something.

The "something" turns out to be the most wasteful security contract I think I've ever heard of. I never found the actual dollar value, but we were paying at least $100k a month to rent fencing and park a guard or two at the site 24/7. Then they figured out the site was, you know, dark at night, so something had to be done about that. Out came the light towers and generators, which ran out of fuel, so a whole rota of city workers had to be pulled off their regular jobs to shuttle out there and refuel them. Sometimes the rota would get screwed up and people would have to be called in at night and paid full overtime to go fuel up generators.

Eventually they coughed up the money to have Duke wire the place up so they could get rid of the generators. I think this went on for over a year until they finally knocked down the empty shell of the building and cleaned it up.

Bloomington will absolutely make it rain money on the dumbest stuff.

I was actually one of the guards who did regular shifts at that place, between late 2018 and when the building was finally torn down in May of last year. When one of my co-workers told me roughly how much the city was paying my boss for that contract, I thought he must be joking. I'm still not sure how my boss was able to negotiate such a favorable deal for his company, and can only assume he has some good friends in high places in the city government. Of course, we guards were paid scarcely above minimum wage, though personally I can't really complain given how incredibly easy the job was (which is precisely why I was shocked at how much the city was paying for it).

Overall, Bloomington really has essentially become a typical Democrat-run city, just on a smaller scale. At least the local restaurant & craft beer scene is pretty good.

 

[maxipum]

As Life long resident of B-Town I have over the last 40 years watched the decay which started in the early 1970’s went IU students were allowed to vote in local election. The students shifted the balance of power to the Left and B-Town as been in decline ever since. Gone are the Towny blue collar jobs and the major employer is IU which always pays below scale. Then in the last 10 years the homeless problem has exploded with the city government only encouraging “homelessness” as if were a growth industry. Now we have the homeless everywhere and a growing gang problem in the northwest “Hill” section of the city where shootings are becoming common. B-Town is becoming a smaller version of Portland and it is sad to see.

Born and raised here in Bloomington and yes it is sad.

 

[Ark]

I was actually one of the guards who did regular shifts at that place, between late 2018 and when the building was finally torn down in May of last year. When one of my co-workers told me roughly how much the city was paying my boss for that contract, I thought he must be joking. I'm still not sure how my boss was able to negotiate such a favorable deal for his company, and can only assume he has some good friends in high places in the city government. Of course, we guards were paid scarcely above minimum wage, though personally I can't really complain given how incredibly easy the job was (which is precisely why I was shocked at how much the city was paying for it).

Overall, Bloomington really has essentially become a typical Democrat-run city, just on a smaller scale. At least the local restaurant & craft beer scene is pretty good.

The general suspicion was that the fella that owned the operation had some family or friends in the city government somewhere, plus being in the right place at the right time for a Do Something Crisis.

Easy but must have been boring as hell. The place was a hollow skeleton of a building, nothing of value inside and didn't even have much appeal for the urbex crowd. But wouldn't want them to get lead poisoning while trespassing...

 

[Hoosier Cowboy]

If crime or parks that dangerous in Gloomington then why the hell not armed security??

 

[Mr. Habib]

If crime or parks that dangerous in Gloomington then why the hell not armed security??

Arming security in the liberal utopia of southern Indiana? You must not be from around here. This is the same city that wants to defund the police and replace them with social workers. The same city that once had a candidate for mayor run on a platform of planting fruit and nuts trees along rights of way and in parks so that the homeless people could eat. Guns are bad. Police are bad. We all just need to hold hands, in a non-threatening socially distanced way of course, around a low carbon foot print camp fire. Sourced from fair trade, non GMO, renewable trees. These are the same people that build tent cities in their back yards for 'dwelling challenged community'. Ain't gonna be no guards with guns here. Unless they are outside the mayor's house, he's important you know.

 

[maxipum]

Arming security in the liberal utopia of southern Indiana? You must not be from around here. This is the same city that wants to defund the police and replace them with social workers. The same city that once had a candidate for mayor run on a platform of planting fruit and nuts trees along rights of way and in parks so that the homeless people could eat. Guns are bad. Police are bad. We all just need to hold hands, in a non-threatening socially distanced way of course, around a low carbon foot print camp fire. Sourced from fair trade, non GMO, renewable trees. These are the same people that build tent cities in their back yards for 'dwelling challenged community'. Ain't gonna be no guards with guns here. Unless they are outside the mayor's house, he's important you know.

Sad but very true. The same asshats that wanted to put chastity belts on deer to control the urban deer herd. When these idiots graduate from IU it should be mandatory that they leave.

 

[Pepi]

Unarmed security isnt security. They are babysitters.

Maybe they carry bear spray

 

[Ark]

Arming security in the liberal utopia of southern Indiana? You must not be from around here. This is the same city that wants to defund the police and replace them with social workers. The same city that once had a candidate for mayor run on a platform of planting fruit and nuts trees along rights of way and in parks so that the homeless people could eat. Guns are bad. Police are bad. We all just need to hold hands, in a non-threatening socially distanced way of course, around a low carbon foot print camp fire. Sourced from fair trade, non GMO, renewable trees. These are the same people that build tent cities in their back yards for 'dwelling challenged community'. Ain't gonna be no guards with guns here. Unless they are outside the mayor's house, he's important you know.

This is so spot on it hurts. A whole city run be delusional hippie peaceniks who think the police cause crime and guns cause violence.