Friends,
Happy New Year! I hope 2023 will bring you and yours health and happiness.
I’m excited about the next 12 months, my eighth and final year serving as Bloomington’s mayor. We have much to look forward to – continuing our momentum toward the more inclusive, sustainable, and opportunity- and fun-filled city we love.
The year ahead should include some very granular improvements, such as designing city gateways, installing welcome signs at our boundaries, and opening our first scatter garden for cremains in the historic Rose Hill Cemetery, for more sustainable and affordable family options.
The year ahead will also offer some very high-level changes, such as new annual investments in our Climate Action Plan and in our transit system and public safety, and seeing the first new customers connecting to the gigabit-speed open fiber network being built all across the city.
It’s humbling and inspiring to see how many people lean into the projects that will make Bloomington among the very best small cities in America. Change is always difficult to embrace, and steer. Yet I am consistently energized by how many institutions and innovators are at work to take us to the next level.
A good mayor must clasp two somewhat contradictory imperatives. On the one hand, embrace idealism and high ambitions – reach for the stars and aim for our highest values. And on the other hand, prize pragmatism – do what can be done today and recognize that compromise and incrementalism help people live better lives one day at a time. That’s a wonderful thing about this job – welding together high ideals with practical results. And it’s what so many people in Bloomington do day in and day out: aim high and make incremental improvements in that direction.
I’m looking forward to the upcoming city elections with lots of talented new faces involved. And I’m so pleased that former deputy mayor Don Griffin has put his hat in the ring for mayor. He brings the optimism and idealism of a visionary along with the practical experience of a decades-long local entrepreneur.
Let's all welcome the next chapter of leadership to take Bloomington even further.
Democratically yours,
John Hamilton
P.S. Mark your calendars now for the evening of Thursday, February 23rd, my 8th and final “State of the City” event. We’re hosting this one at the spectacularly refurbished Waldron Arts Center, and you won’t want to miss a gala evening!! Please join us!