Mayor focuses on economic development

Mayor Mark Kruzan plans to emphasize economic development by strengthening the ties between community entities, promoting workforce development and cultivating the distinctive character of Bloomington. \nThe mayor will unveil his plan for the new year with City Vision 2006, this year's name for the annual State of the City address 5:30 p.m. Thursday at City Hall.\nIn an effort to foster stronger ties between city, county and township government, the school corporation, local businesses and IU, Kruzan intends to set up joint committees and collaborative projects -- a few of which will be made public at Thursday's address.\n"One thing I feel we haven't done enough of is work in partnership with other community entities," Kruzan said. "Sometimes we the city will be the driving force behind a collaboration, sometimes we will be in a partnership with another entity and other times we will simply be a sponsor, endorsing or funding projects."\nThe goals of collaboration include cost savings to both the city and taxpayers and the development of better communication between government and the community. \nAs for economic development, Kruzan's opponents have criticized his administration for concentrating on arts and social services development to the detriment of traditional businesses. While still believing strongly in the arts economy and the non-profit sector, he intends to rectify the area of criticism. \n"We're going to try to return to basics," Kruzan said. "I don't want people to believe that we don't value traditional economic development."\nKruzan will start a monthly informal industrial tour of the area in order to network with local business leaders, trade ideas and strategies, and stress workforce development to the big employers. \nThe mayor also hopes to collaborate with the Chamber of Commerce, the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation and others in providing assistance to the unemployed and unemployable, retraining the existing work force and encouraging those just entering the work world to stay in Bloomington.\nIn the effort to keep Bloomington distinctive, the mayor plans to continue to support small businesses, especially downtown, keeping the chain stores out as much as possible, while aggressively pursuing ideas to stimulate downtown vibrancy.\n"Competitive pressure being put on locally owned small businesses from the big chain stores is tremendous," Kruzan said. "Every time we lose one of those, not only do we lose an alternative to having a generic dining or shopping experience, but we lose a little bit of our community character, which is the strength of our economy."\nThe mayor anticipates furthering the renaissance of recent years, and dreams of a 24-hour downtown Bloomington, providing services, jobs and entertainment possibilities all through the night.\n"I want to see our downtown continue to be an attractive place to live and to work," Kruzan said. "I want to see a level of excitement that will attract people, and it's the student population that will drive that."\nKruzan's vision of a public arts district is still very much on his mind. During his election campaign three years ago, he touted an arts district as a magnet for small businesses, restaurants, apartments, markets and recreation. Just weeks ago, the city acquired the old CSX rail line running through the downtown district. Its eventual transformation into a paved urban trail will fit into the mayor's plan for an arts district, moving toward the goal of a reinvigorated, vibrant downtown. \n"The rails to trails project will become one of the city's greatest economic development projects in our history," Kruzan said. "The trail will be a defining piece of our community identity, and I hope will serve as a destination point for people coming from outside to come and eat, shop and spend time here in Bloomington"