City to build kiosks along Kirkwood

It shouldn't be long before local bands will again be able to post fliers advertising their shows in the downtown area. City officials said they plan to put up kiosks along Kirkwood Avenue by the end of the year.\nFor the past month, the city of Bloomington has enforced a long-standing but obscure ordinance banning the posting of fliers on telephone poles and other public property. The crackdown followed complaints by local merchants that the ubiquitous and often colorful fliers marred the attractiveness of the downtown shopping district.\nDespite the 1984 ordinance, local musicians have long relied on "fliering" as a a cheap means to promote their shows. It's touted as a way that unknown groups can draw dozens to their gigs with little more than a $20 bill and some tape or a stapler.\nThe city sent local venues letters that informed them violations of the ordinance would result in $25 fines the first day and $50 fines every subsequent day. Although complaints have poured in, Public Works Director John Freeman said the musicians and nightclub owners have been compliant.\nThe city has yet to levy a single fine, Freeman said.\nBy as early as the end of August, the city hopes to have kiosks at the recently renovated Peoples Park on Kirkwood. The Parks Department removed the original kiosk during the extensive $4 million project, which involved radical streetscaping.\nThe Parks and Recreation Department had planned to eventually install four "totem-pole structures" at the corner of Kirkwood and Dunn Street to maximize space for handbills and fliers. But the sudden, unexpected city crackdown has put the project on the fore.\n"It's something we planned to do after we resolved some more streetscaping concerns," Parks Department Director Mick Renneisen said. "But now we realized that we should stop dawdling our feet on this."\nRenneisen said the corner location would make the kiosks highly visible to passers-by. It's an aesthetic issue at heart, he said.\nThe parks department doesn't want to stick a kiosk in the middle of the park, where it hopes to plant more trees. Such placement would also conflict with an ongoing mosaic project, Renneisen said.\nPeoples Park is only the tip of the iceberg. By the end of year, the city hopes to construct kiosks along Kirkwood, Renneisen said.\nLocal musicians remain apprehensive. Secret Sailor Bookstore, which draws in much of its revenue through weekend shows, intends to introduce a petition asking for kiosks at Wednesday's city council meeting. And a fledgling local record company, Combustible Records, plans to sponsor a "statement" in which a man will walk through the downtown area with fliers plastered to his body.