Blocked Street
810 W 7th ST
- Case Date:
- 1/3/2022
The North/South alley between 810 W. 7th and 804 W. 7th is being encroached upon by gardens, woodpiles, trees/vegetation and possibly the fence and cinder block garage owned by 810 W 7th St.
As a result, the alley traffic is being diverted outside of the alley right of way and onto the private property located at 804 W. 7th. This appears to have been going on for a number of years.
As the new owner of 804 W. 7th St., it is my full intention to re-claim the property/property line currently being encroached upon and proceed with renovations. I request that the Street Dept contact the owner of 810 W. 7th and order the encroachments be removed.
With the assistance of a surveyor, I have located the NW and SW corner pins delineating the right of way and pounded new T posts just outside of the right of way in those spots and plan to post the entire property line once the encroachments are removed.
Were I to reclaim the property line today, the alley would become impassible due to said encroachments. I request your assistance in remedying this situation in a civil and legal manner, as requests to the homeowner of 810 W.7th have fallen upon deaf ears.
I request that you keep me in the loop regarding this issue. I would be happy to meet with a representative of the street dept, with survey in hand, to assist in clarifying and remedying this issue, as renovations of 804 W. 7th will begin in a few weeks.
Thank you for your attention in this manner,
Sincerely,
Rick Laux
Goldfinch Properties LLC
Van Zile LLC
812/606-8332
vanzilellc@hotmail.com
City Performance
301 N College Ave # 301
- Case Date:
- 3/13/2025
The response provided for Case# 201024 (https://bloomington.in.gov/crm/tickets/view?ticket_id=201024) was insufficient and dismissive ("Cases are left open until they comply. A large number of tickets were issued, however, tickets are tracked in a separate system from Ureport."). It is not true that all the "Sidewalk Snow Removal" complaints were followed up with tickets. Rather, they were *all* updated soon after 8am on Wed 26 Feb with various comments such as, "Snow has melted", "No longer valid", etc. There is no reason to lie - better to just ignore requests from residents and go back to whatever it is you do all day long. Eventually, we will get the message that submissions to UReport are a waste of time and we will stop bothering your office with such things.
- Case Date:
- 11/3/2024
Sunday afternoons, even in the downtown area, should be a chance the peaceful enjoyment the premises of one's own abode. Today, however, the noise from the sidewalk musicians who are somehow sponsored by the record store on the east side of Walnut just south of Sixth Street, makes any peaceful enjoyment impossible. I have my windows shut, even though I should be able to have them open on a day as warm as this, and even though the windows are shut, the noise is quite intrusive. Does Bloomington not have a prohibition against this kind of use of the public right of way? Don't you need a permit, or can any business just say: Hey come play the drums and electric guitar out in front of my shop? More maybe they do have a permit. If they do, they should post it so everyone can see that it is allowed. I understand a certain amount of weird noises are part and parcel of downtown living. But this seems like an abuse of the downtown public sphere. Thanks for whatever you are able to do to help make downtown Bloomington actually livable.
Smoking Violation
903 N Smith RD
- Case Date:
- 4/26/2018
Spring has started and the outdoor smoke coming from the Barbecue is in full force at the Short Stop food-mart on North Smith Road. My wife and I had three meetings with the City Council about this issue in 2015. And 2 recorded meetings with the council as a whole and a second meeting a few weeks later. The smoke issue was to be addressed for this location. But Chris Smith sold the store without implementing the standards the City Council had requested he perform. He was supposed to install and indoor smoker by December of (2015) that never happened. And he then sold the business in spring of 2016. As an example of how bad this smoke is. I hung wet laundry outside yesterday (Wednesday 4-25-18). Hoping for that nice fresh air smell when it was dry. Our clothing smelled like we had been next to a campfire. So I had to rewash all of the clothing. This has become a HUMAN HEALTH hazard and it has not been taken seriously. The city did nothing after our meetings to address SMOKE issues from cooking outdoors. I really hate to call the Fire department each time I smell smoke. As the cost to the city will be ridiculous for putting out (3) outdoor smokers. But that is what I am going to start doing. As we cannot breath. She had a lung removed and everyone is turning a blind eye towards this fact. Let me know what the city can do. Our district representative Allison Chopra was at the meetings as she was running for office and won the election. But I was told she had slept since the meetings and did not remember the restrictions placed on the smoke issue. If necessary I can send you the link to the videos of the meetings and what was proposed. Thank You.
- Case Date:
- 6/3/2024
People who are unhoused are leaving their belongings / lots of trash in the alley of our office building. Customers/clients/pedestrians use this alley often.
- Case Date:
- 7/7/2025
There has been a large Rumpke dumpster parked in the exit lane of the parking lot of our apartment complex for 10 days. Hunter Bloomington Property Management gave residents no notice of this dumpster -- or of the two others that have previously been placed in other spots in the parking lot. This makes the necessity of driving the wrong way down the drive lane in the back lot in order to exit even more dangerous. I called their office before end of the day on Friday, June 27th and received no answer. But I haven't been able to get a person on the phone from property management in several months. I also sent an email on July 1 which they also have not responded to.
The dumpsters appear to have been for construction garbage, as one of the buildings was re-roofed last week. But residents have used the dumpsters for personal garbage and with the heat, the smell is quite noticeable, just outside our door. We have not been able to consistently get deliveries to our door since this most recent dumpster appeared. And we are also concerned that the dumpster may block the access of emergency vehicles, which I noted in my email to property managment.
Utilities Construction
1020 S Woodlawn Ave, Bloomington, IN 47401, USA
- Case Date:
- 1/17/2023
From Reddit Bloomington:
Fiber cables damaging sewer lines
We live right next to Bryan Park. About a week ago our toilet backed up, and after multiple visits from our (very honest and reasonable) plumber, we discovered that the city's fiber optic internet contractor had carelessly run an optic cable directly through our sewer line. This caused a ton of debris to get into our drain pipe and completely clog the pipe, necessitating a $10k repair. I called the city and apparently, this is happening to people all over town. (The person in the utilities office said I was the third person to call today with this exact problem, and our plumber said that this contractor got thrown out of Carmel for damaging so many sewer lines).