5/20: Initial Thoughts

Being a lifetime resident of the Bloomington/Normal area, any progress is great in my opinion. For as long as I can remember, Downtown Bloomington has been the "place to be" and a lot more inviting to pedestrians than the Normal area. One of my biggest complaints of Normal has been its driving traffic. Granted the uptown area should encourage more walkers and bikers, with current transportation trends, it still must accommodate cars. Street lanes have always been extremely tight, with little parking, and extremely sporadic traffic control (which led to a traffic citation towards me on once instance)!

The new turnabout,widened streets, and less-clustered/parallel parking actually seems to decrease the congestion and making driving through the uptown area quite a bit easier. In turn, I believe this creates a more inviting and comfortable atmosphere for pedestrians when cars are whizzing by and turning around to avoid one-way streets. Hopefully the not so great drive-ability of the area will encourage people to utilize the trail or walk to uptown normal in the first place.

I like that uptown is trying to clean up the area and make it more sustainable. This gives community citizens a place to hangout without the congestion of vehicle traffic, and also encourages commerce and attracts many businesses and residents to the area, reviving the entire district. It compliments the nearby universities very well and provides an atmosphere that is diverse and generally representative of the entire community. Uptown Normal is very easily accessible from any direction especially utilizing the trail which enters the area north at the turnabout and extends in all directions. The activities available seem plentiful and quite diverse. My family and I, still have yet to go "hang out" in the area though, so it must not yet be appealing to everyone.

While I think the efforts are a great start and initiation, the area still could use some improvements. It's possible the development is still well underway, but I see little attempt to incorporate green space, trees, vegetation, etc. As well, the walkways aren't so large, plentiful, and inviting that they will be utilized like some of the downtown areas exemplified in class. Also, with so much renovation, I would think it would have easy and quite cost effective to utilize more energy efficient options such as living machines, on-site energy production, waste management, etc. The energy supplies and means still seem quite conventional and non-sustainable. These are improvements that could definitely be incorporated to make it a more sustainable area.

I think its location and accessibility contribute greatly to its sustainability. Also, the LEED building plans help. The actual land area isn't that large in comparison to other downtown districts, but the space is fairly well utilized. It is also a multi-use space and has accommodations for guests. I think what generally keeps me and my family away, is that it is not yet as popular. Possibly its just the norm to hangout in Downtown Bloomington, but I like to be around people I know, which aren't in uptown Normal. The Pub II is a hotspot that I go to sometimes, but it is not connected very well to the uptown area, so most visitors don't make it past the bar.