A light display once visible to planes landing at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and passing cars on Highway 77 is returning.
A grand oak tree on Meadowview Road in Bloomington will once again be dressed with string lights, shining through the holiday season. The last time a passerby could take in the glow was over 10 years ago, when Bob and Julie Little owned the home.
WCCO spoke with Bob Little the year he put his home and the beloved tree up for sale. He always hoped the new owners would take up the tradition.
“Now that we’ve had the house for about 10 years, we decided why not try to light it again,” Marlena Hemenway said.
The Hemenways own the house and now run Geneva Suites, an assisted living facility there. Caregivers support six residents.
“I was just showing [the residents] the pictures today and they’re like, ‘Wow, it’s going to be a Christmas miracle.’” said Hemenway.
She looks forward to bringing some seasonal joy to them and the greater community. But Hemenway says the price of this holiday hobby is steep.
“At least 40,000 [lights] and that’s where the big-ticket items start coming in,” she said.
They’re asking the community to donate and help shoulder the thousands of dollars it will take for the tree to make a full return.
Some have already stepped up. Hemenway called it a blessing when two outdoor lighting companies, FCR Lighting and Cleaning and Boulder Bridge Outdoor Services, offered to help with the labor.
Hemenway says they hope to light the tree in early December and keep the lights on through January.
“People mention that it just brings them so much hope and so much joy and that’s really what we’re hoping to continue to inspire,” she said.
Those traveling to and from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport this weekend are encouraged to plan ahead due to some big closures along Interstate 494.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation says starting Friday at 10 p.m., the westbound lanes of I-494 will be shut down between Highway 77 and Highway 100. The ramps along that stretch will close at 8 p.m. Westbound lanes are expected to reopen by 5 a.m. Monday.
As a detour, MnDOT says westbound motorists can use northbound Hwy. 77 to westbound Hwy. 62, then southbound Hwy. 100 to westbound I-494.
Then Saturday at 10 p.m. the eastbound lanes of I-494 will close between Interstate 35W and Hwy. 77 for utility work. All ramps will also be closed. Eastbound lanes are expected to reopen by 5 a.m. Sunday.
MnDOT says eastbound motorists can detour via northbound I-35W to eastbound Hwy. 62, then to southbound Hwy. 77 to eastbound I-494. All detours will be posted.
The work is being done to “allow crews to continue construction along I-494 and prepare for winter configuration,” according to MnDOT.
The Bloomington Ice Garden in Bloomington, Minnesota, has reopened after roughly 200 days of construction, unveiling a $37 million renovation that city leaders say modernizes the beloved arena while preserving its history.
“I couldn’t be more excited than to be here, the Bloomington Ice Garden, opening up this Saturday with our grand opening,” Bloomington Mayor Tim Busse said on Monday. “You can see there’s already folks on the ice. Just thrilled that we’re back in here after only 200 days closed between closure and reopening. And the amount of work we did here was amazing.”
The project is funded through the city’s half-cent local option sales tax as part of the Bloomington Forward plan. Busse said the 1970s-era building needed both mechanical upgrades and a better fan experience.
“We knew the building was open in 1970. It was tired. It needed some work done … not only the nuts and bolts kind of mechanical stuff, a new roof, new ice-making equipment and so on. We just needed to improve the user and visitor experience in this building, and to bring it up to the iconic status that it is,” Busse said.
A key change is that the main sheet was resized from Olympic to NHL dimensions, bringing all three sheets to standard size for games and tournaments.
“Practically speaking, it made more sense to shrink it down to an NHL-sized rink, and now we have three sheets of ice standard-sized, and we can use them for different tournaments,” Busse said.
The renovation also adds seating and improves viewing sightlines.
“There’s plenty of room in here for fans. Now, in fact, we fully expect to host more tournaments, more section finals for the state hockey tournament, just, it’s a better fan experience on a number of different levels,” Busse said.
Chad Nyberg, activities director at Bloomington Jefferson High School, said the upgrades help players and keep the building’s character intact.
“From a high school perspective, having rink one, which was our old rink three, downsized to an NHL-size rink is tremendous, seating on both sides that will help us get good visual angles,” Nyberg said. “And from a high school player perspective, having locker rooms underneath the stands is, is a huge plus, not having to drag your bag around and things like that.”
“I think there’s, again, when I was walking around, like you could still feel some of the old right on top of the new, or the new on top of the old, and still have that sense of nostalgia for sure,” Nyberg added. “But it’s going to feel different in its own way, and it’s going to create new memories for people.”
This season also marks a new chapter for high school hockey in the city, with the Bloomington Kennedy and Bloomington Jefferson Hockey programs skating together.
“It’s great to see that the two schools came together and found a solution to the dwindling number of players over at Kennedy,” Busse said. “I’m so very glad that they’re going to be part of the Jefferson program now, and we can continue that great tradition of great high school hockey in Bloomington.”
Locals know the rink by a simple nickname.
“Of course, this is Bloomington Ice Garden, but everybody in town calls it BIG, and that’s all you have to say,” Busse said. “And everybody knows what you’re talking about.”
This month, the Bloomington Economic Development Corp. (BEDC) celebrates 40 years of advancing economic vitality across Monroe County, Bloomington and Ellettsville. Since 1985, our work has been about more than announcements and headlines. It has been about the steady, often behind-the-scenes efforts that shape the foundation of our community’s prosperity.
Monroe County has seen commitments of over 900 new jobs and more than $1 billion in capital investments through 11 BEDC-supported projects since 2020 alone. These numbers are not abstract statistics. They represent higher wages for our residents, new opportunities for local businesses and greater local tax revenue to support essential services.
We recently had a strong reminder of economic development’s impact. In August, Simtra BioPharma Solutions announced a $241 million investment to redevelop the former GE manufacturing plant it purchased from Cook Group — a project supported by the BEDC. Projects like Simtra’s not only grow a global life sciences company; they also advance the broader ecosystem that makes Monroe County a hub for innovation. Each new manufacturing line that Simtra develops will represent about 90 new jobs with annual compensation averaging $70,000, significantly above the county’s median household income.
When companies grow here, they help our community address key needs like sustainable wages and rising costs. Their projects spark positive ripple effects — from redeveloping old industrial sites to improving infrastructure and increasing community revenue.
These results aren’t accidental. The BEDC works to grow key industries and attract complementary businesses that raise wages and drive innovation, including life sciences, advanced manufacturing, defense, tech, and others. This helps our region stay competitive, resilient and prosperous.
Much of the BEDC’s work happens behind the scenes. We connect businesses with resources, inform development policy, support housing and infrastructure and serve over 100 members and partners who employ local residents. This shapes today’s decisions and tomorrow’s opportunities.
Economic development requires strong collaboration. The BEDC partners with companies, governments, property owners, utilities, education and workforce groups, and local businesses to support job growth and new investments.
This work also requires a proactive strategy for business retention, expansion and attraction. Our new Blueprint for the BOLD initiative is a vision and toolkit to market employment sites, track progress and position the community for future growth.
As we mark 40 years, we invite the community to take pride in our shared progress, including past challenges that led to new opportunities. Projects like Simtra’s expansion and the redevelopment of former Otis Elevator and Thomson Consumer Electronics sites are now home to employers including Novo Nordisk, PHOENIX and Almvoy.
The question isn’t if Monroe County will grow, but how we’ll guide it. We must stay ahead of industry shifts, support quality jobs, and align housing and quality of life with smart growth. This fall, our work will be more visible, with billboards highlighting BEDC’s impact. Once called the best kept secret, we’re now putting economic development front and center.
As we look ahead, our message is don’t miss out on the next 40 years. At BEDC, we’re committed. The next 40 years are ours to shape — boldly and together. Contact Stacie Marotta at the BEDC to learn how you can support this mission and get involved. Together, we can ensure Monroe County continues to be a place where innovation and community prosperity thrive.
Jennifer Pearl is president and Stacie Marotta is communications and membership director of Bloomington Economic Development Corp.
MINNEAPOLIS — While most of the Election Day attention this year will be on the presidential election, there are plenty of downballot items deserving of attention.
In Minnesota, there are a few interesting local ballot measures of which voters should be aware, including how lottery money is allocated, subsidizing money for child care and more. Below is a breakdown.
Want a look at everything on the ballot in Minnesota this year? WCCO has you covered.
Should lottery money keep going to state’s environmental fund?
Every voter in Minnesota will see this Constitutional amendment on their ballot.
Forty percent of lottery proceeds go to the state Environment and National Resources Trust Fund, which funds projects like Dakota County’s Thompson Park. Every 25 years, voters must reaffirm the amendment.
Here’s how the question will look on your ballot:
“Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to protect drinking water sources and the water quality of lakes, rivers, and streams; conserve wildlife habitat and natural areas; improve air quality; and expand access to parks and trails by extending the transfer of proceeds from the state-operated lottery to the environment and natural resources trust fund, and to dedicate the proceeds for these purposes?”
If you skip this question, your vote will count as a no.
St. Paul: Child care subsidy
A ballot measure in St. Paul would create a special tax levy (meaning a rise in property taxes) to subsidize child care costs for low-income families. It would be the first city in Minnesota to attempt such an approach.
The levy would bring in $2 million in the first year and scale up to $20 million by the tenth year of implementation for a total investment of $110 million over a decade.
Supporters believe it’s a step in the right direction to find solutions to a persistent problem facing young families. Detractors, including St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, believe the plan over promises but will under-deliver. Carter told the City Council last month that city staff would not be able to implement the subsidy program should it pass.
Here’s the full language:
SHOULD THE CITY LEVY TAXES TO PROVIDE EARLY LEARNING SUBSIDIES?
In order to create a dedicated fund for children’s early care and education to be administered by a City department or office that provides subsidies to families and providers so that early care and education is no cost to low-income families and available on a sliding scale to other families, and so as to increase the number of child care slots and support the child care workforce, shall the City of Saint Paul be authorized to levy property taxes in the amount of $2,000,000 in the first year, to increase by the same amount each year following for the next nine years ($4,000,000 of property taxes levied in year two, $6,000,000 in year three, $8,000,000 in year four and so on until $20,000,000 of property taxes are levied in year ten).
St. Paul: Should city races switch to presidential election years?
The measure would switch city races, such as the mayor and City Council, from odd-numbered years to presidential election years.
Supporters say it’s designed to boost voter engagement, since odd-numbered elections traditionally see very low turnout. Meanwhile, opponents like Carter say the city deserves to have its own election conversation separate from big-ticket races that capture the headlines.
If approved, the change would phase in by 2028.
Bloomington: Should ranked choice voting be repealed?
In Bloomington, voters will be asked if they want to repeal ranked choice voting for their local elections, four years after voters chose to implement it in the first place.
Four other cities in Minnesota — Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnetonka, and St. Louis Park — use ranked choice voting in their local elections.
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — A 42-year-old St. Paul woman is accused of stealing a sheep and taking it on a walk alongside a dog over the weekend.
The woman is charged with one count of rustling and livestock theft, according to a criminal complaint filed in Hennepin County on Tuesday.
Charges say on Saturday officers were called to Old Shakopee Road East in Bloomington on a report of a man and woman walking around with a dog and a sheep.
Upon arrival, an officer noticed burs “all over” the woman’s jacket and on the sheep, charging documents say.
The woman allegedly told the officer she had purchased the sheep from an employee and paid $200 for it. However, the man with her said the woman had stepped over the fence to a farm, put a leash on the sheep, then pulled it through the fence. He told the officer she had pulled the leash so hard the sheep had been choking.
An employee and the owner of a nearby farm were able to confirm that the sheep belonged to them and had not been sold to the woman.
Charges say the sheep is a breeding ram worth around $500.
Riley Moser is a digital producer who covers breaking news and feature stories for CBS Minnesota. Riley started her career at CBS Minnesota in June 2022 and earned an honorable mention for sports writing from the Iowa College Media Association the same year.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul and Bloomington questions before voters this fall that would change when and how residents vote in their respective local elections.
In the capital city, voters will be asked to amend the city charter to switch the municipal races to the same year as presidential elections. Right now, the city council and mayoral races are staggered for every other odd-numbered year.
If approved, the change would phase in by 2028. Current council members elected last November will serve a five-year term instead of four, and there would be one more odd-year election for mayor in 2025 for three years before 2028, when voters would weigh in on both the future of the city council and the mayor.
Peter Butler, who helped gather 6,500 resident signatures to get the question on the ballot, said the goal is to boost turnout. Presidential elections historically drive higher turnout.
“I think more people would be involved in voting for city elections if it were easier. It’s not that they’re disinterested or uninformed, but these elections are not very well advertised and people don’t think about voting in odd years,” he said.
But top leaders in the city are against the measure, including Mayor Melvin Carter and Council President Mitra Jalali, who in a post on social media platform X said she strongly opposes it, writing that the city’s elections “deserve the full focus, resources, and smooth, efficient voting process that our residents currently enjoy.”
Carter in a statement echoed those sentiments.
“Local issues have the most impact on our lives, but the least coverage in our media,” Carter told WCCO. “While I am concerned by the possibility of critical issues like neighborhood safety, trash collection and street maintenance being drowned out by the clamor of a national campaign year, the city will follow the will of the voters with regard to this ballot measure.”
Butler rebuffs concerns that residents will lose sight of hyper-local issues defining the city’s races if the timing changes.
“I don’t think city elections are going to get lost. They’re already lost,” he said. “Frankly, people always say they’re going to get overshadowed by the bigger races, but they’re already being ignored if only a third of your voters are participating to begin with.”
In addition to the question about the future of local elections in their city, there is an additional ballot measure that would raise property tax revenue to support child care for low-income families. Carter also opposes that question.
Group in Bloomington looks to repeal ranked-choice voting
Five cities in Minnesota — Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnetonka, St. Louis Park, and Bloomington — use ranked-choice voting in their local elections.
The system works like this: Voters can choose a few candidates and rank them according to their preference. If a candidate gets a majority – 50% +1 — they win outright.
If not, there’s a runoff in which the person with the lowest number of first-choice votes gets eliminated and second choices on those ballots are counted and redistributed. This cycle continues until there’s a winner.
In 2020, 51.2% of voters in Bloomington approved it and 48.8% rejected it. Now coalition Residents for a Better Bloomington hopes residents will reverse course. They gathered enough signatures to get a question on the ballot this fall that would repeal ranked-choice voting.
“It’s confusing, and therefore it discourages people from voting, and it reduces their confidence in the electoral process,” said David Clark, a co-founder of the group. “If they have doubts about how this process works or how the votes are counted, that’s not a good thing for our democracy.”
But supporters say in the two elections since ranked choice voting has been implemented, the process has run smoothly. Laura Calbone, who is working with the “Vote No on Repeal” campaign believes ranked choice voting favors more moderate candidates amid a polarized political climate, forcing those seeking higher office to build consensus.
The system is only for municipal elections, not statewide or federal elections.
“With ranked choice voting, candidates have an incentive to talk to voters that are voting for their opponents and try to earn those second-choice votes from them, and so they’re really incentivized to focus on issues that a majority of voters care about,” she said.
Last year in Minnetonka, there was a similar effort to repeal ranked choice voting that failed.
Only cities with charters can authorize ranked choice voting through ordinance or by voter referendum, which is only 1% of the cities in Minnesota, DFL Secretary of State Steve Simon told lawmakers earlier this year.
A bill that didn’t advance out of the state legislature would have allowed more cities to adopt ranked choice voting if they chose to do so and would have set statewide standards, so there is uniformity in how they implement it.
Caroline Cummings is an Emmy-winning reporter with a passion for covering politics, public policy and government. She is thrilled to join the WCCO team.
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — A family is heartbroken and a driver is on the run after crashing into an Uber carrying Kelvin Conteh back in December.
Police say Conteh died five days ago after being in a coma for months.
Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges says a nationwide warrant has been issued for 20-year-old Eivi Almontes and charges have been upgraded to criminal vehicular homicide.
Fatmata Ndiaye held back tears on the phone as she spoke about her brother Conteh.
“It has just been the worst nightmare- it still doesn’t feel real,” she said.
Ndiaye said her brother immigrated to the United States from Sierra Leone five months before the crash.
“His dream was to establish himself so they (wife and children) could eventually join him in the states,” Ndiaye said.
According to the criminal complaint, Conteh was riding in an Uber that was hit at the intersection of 12th Avenue South and 94th Street in Bloomington around 10:30 p.m. last December.
Ndiaye said he was on his way to work a nightshift at Walmart.
The charging document says a witness saw Almontes’ sedan blow through a stop sign, crash directly into the right side of the Uber and then drive away from the crash.
Evidence and witness testimony gathered by investigators led them to a body shop in New Hope where a vehicle belonging to Almontes was found. The charging document says a piece of the bumper that was left at the crash scene fit perfectly into the broken part of Almontes’ vehicle.
Online court records show Almontes has five speeding tickets and one for driving with a suspended license.
The complaint says social media data puts him in an area near Mexico City.
“The arm of the law is very long and I think it does extend into a country that’s south of the United States” Hodges said. “I would strongly suggest turning yourself in.”
Ndiaye is grateful for all the medical care her brother received and is hopeful justice will be served.
“Do the right thing and come forward and own up to the cowardly act and face the consequences,” she said.
Conteh’s memorial service will be on Wednesday.
Anyone with information is asked to call Bloomington Police at 952-563-4900.
The shot detection sensors are familiarly known as ShotSpotter technology, although it’s unclear if Mall of America will be working with the company that makes ShotSpotter.
Documents from the city of Bloomington say, “In 2024, [MOA] intends to implement a system to immediately detect and to geolocate a critical incident involving a gunshot.”
A contract between the mall and the tech provider describes it as “detection hardware that monitors for an active shooter event at the site, alerting law enforcement and supporting the building lockdown procedures.”
The name of the company on the contract was redacted for privacy reasons.
Bloomington’s police chief, Booker Hodges, says the department supports adding the technology to help them “apprehend criminals sooner than if it had not been used.”
Earlier this year, the city agreed to reimburse the Mall of America up to $1.4 million of the cost.
The mall didn’t immediately return WCCO’s requests for comment, and it’s unclear when the technology will be in place.
David joined the WCCO team in April 2020, previously working at CBS 58 in Milwaukee. Prior to that, he worked in Las Vegas. While there, David covered several stories in the national spotlight, including the October 1 mass shooting and political visits from President Barack Obama and candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Crews are still working Monday to recover a car someone drove into the Minnesota River in the south metro early Sunday night.
Shortly before 8 p.m., multiple agencies responded to a report of a vehicle entering the river just east of the Interstate 35W bridge in Bloomington, according to the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities say bystanders observed an occupied vehicle enter the water on the Lyndale Avenue Boat Launch before becoming fully submerged.
Crews searched until 10:30 p.m. on Sunday and resumed the search on Monday.
Due to high water and strong current, the sheriff’s office says divers could not be safely used.
The sheriff’s office water patrol unit was able to locate the car using sonar but has been unsuccessful in attempts to pull the vehicle out of the water.
Authorities have not provided any details on who may have been inside the vehicle.
Riley Moser is a digital producer who covers breaking news and feature stories for CBS Minnesota. Riley started her career at CBS Minnesota in June 2022 and earned an honorable mention for sports writing from the Iowa College Media Association the same year.
Benjamin and Christine Granillo bought their 2.25-acre property in San Bernardino County four decades ago. They built their home by hand and surrounded it with a lush grove of avocado, orange and lemon trees.
“We thought we’d be here for the rest of our life,” Christine Granillo, 77, said as she tended to her trees on a recent afternoon.
But their neighborhood in unincorporated Bloomington is rapidly transforming, as developers convert the 10 Freeway and its adjacent communities into a logistics corridor connecting goods shipped into Southern California ports with online shoppers across the nation. An industrial real estate company based in Orange County is demolishing 117 homes and ranches in rural Bloomington to make way for more than 2 millionsquare feet of warehousing space. The project will serve as yet another distribution center dedicated to storing and moving the vast array of products consumers want delivered to their doorsteps.
Benjamin and Christine Granillo, who built their home by hand in rural Bloomington, will soon look out on a sprawling online fulfillment center.
All the neighbors across the street from the Granillos sold their homes to the developer, and many have already been bulldozed. The Granillos opted not to sell — and now look out their stately front gate at the rubble, soon to be supplanted with a 479,000-square-foot fulfillment center. Their street will become a busy truck route. Next door will be a parking lot with hundreds of truck and trailer stalls.
Christine Granillo mourns the loss of her neighbors and her view of the San Bernardino Mountains. But, she added, “What can you do about it? There’s really nothing you can do about it.”
In November 2022, San Bernardino County supervisors voted 4-0 to approve the Bloomington Business Park, a 213-acre industrial park that promises to bring several thousand jobs to Bloomington, a majority Latino community of 23,000 residents.
The deal came with trade-offs familiar to the Inland Empire communities being asked to shoulder the massive distribution centers integral to America’s online shopping habit: An environmental impact report found the development would have “significant and unavoidable” impacts on air quality. But it would bring jobs to a working-class community in need of them, and Howard Industrial Partners has pledged to provide millions of dollars in infrastructure improvements: new streets with traffic lights and sidewalks; a modern sewer system in an area that still relies on aging septic systems.
And because the warehouse project would be about 50 feet from Zimmerman Elementary School, the developer agreed to pay $44.5 million to the Colton Joint Unified School District in a land swap that will usher in a state-of-the-art school nearby.
Joaquin Castillejos, with the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, advocates for residents whose neighborhoods are targeted for warehouse projects. But he said people are feeling the impact of years of poor planning.
Gary Grossich, a member of Bloomington’s Municipal Advisory Council, recommended that supervisors support the development. Surrounding cities like Rialto and Fontana are embracing warehouse development, he said, and this was an opportunity for Bloomington to reap the benefits of a booming industry.
“The warehouse industry was the hot market,” he said, “and that was the only way that myself and others could see that we were going to get to the greater good, which is to get more sheriff’s deputies, more public safety, more services for our community and eventually balance our books.”
Mike Tunney, vice president of development at Howard Industrial Partners, said the developer shares those goals. “Overcoming these types of challenges and opportunities are the fundamental tenets of our development philosophy,” Tunney said.
But the project has left Bloomington fractured, with a stinging sense of winners and losers: Many who sold their homes say they got a good price and were happy to move on, while many of the neighbors left behind see a future with more concrete and semi-trailers and a hollowing out of the community’s rural culture.
Esmeralda Tabares, left, calls the conversion of rural neighborhoods to industrial developments “just a complete shift in the culture and lifestyle” of Bloomington.
Esmeralda Tabares, 23, part of a group called Concerned Neighbors of Bloomington, described the transition from rural residential to industrial development as “just a complete shift in the culture and lifestyle we have.” Many Bloomington residents ride horses; her family owns a plant nursery.
She questions why San Bernardino County is relying on a developer to provide the community with critical infrastructure such as sidewalks and sewers.
“It’s just easier for them to shift to a warehouse and say, ‘Well, we’re going to let them come in and take over your community,’” she said. “But now what community is that going to be? Because they’re taking people out, and soon who’s going to go to the school? Who’s going to live here?”
Agents associated with Howard Industrial Partners approached Raquel Diaz several years ago about selling her home in a Bloomington neighborhood a mile south of the 10 Freeway with an offer that wouldn’t go through until the county approved the project.
She and her family had purchased their home in 2012 for $140,000. It was the first home for her family of five, she said, and they were “super excited.” But the three-bedroom house on Locust Avenue quickly became a nightmare.
The house flooded whenever it rained. It reeked of moisture, and she and her husband worried about raising young kids amid mold.
Their street had no sidewalks, but that didn’t stop people from speeding by in their cars. Accidents were alarmingly common, she said. Her kids were forbidden from checking the street-side mailbox or taking out the trash.
“We ended up with a lemon of a house,” she said. “We were happy to be in Bloomington, and it just didn’t end up working out for us.”
By the time the county approved the warehouse development, home prices across Southern California had skyrocketed. Diaz said the developer encouraged them to find a home they wanted to buy — even if it cost above the price they had originally negotiated — and to make sure it was on a hill. The company would cover the cost.
Unincorporated Bloomington is transforming, as developers look to raze neighborhoods near the 10 Freeway to create a logistics corridor dedicated to online shopping needs.
They selected a five-bedroom, five-bathroom home in Highland, a nearby suburb at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains, and closed on the property in January 2023 for $1.05 million. The 3,800-square-foot home has a pool and views. It’s on a sewer system, and while their residential street doesn’t have sidewalks, the nearby roads have sidewalks and bike lanes.
“It still feels unreal where we ended up,” she said. “It’s beautiful. I completely love where I live.”
Diaz has heard other residents say that homeowners were harassed and pressured to sell. She is adamant that’s not the case.
“No one is forcing me out,” she said. “It was a blessing to get the opportunity to be able to have a new start.”
Carolina Rios also saw the developer’s offer as an opportunity.
Rios and her family paid $225,000 for their Bloomington home and lived there about 13 years. She has fond memories of the three-bedroom house on Laurel Avenue: She threw her daughter’s quinceañera there, and she and her husband were married in the yard.
But the house was old, and instead of storm drains, the homes on her street had pipes under the driveways that flowed into ditches. The street flooded every time it rained. They had to walk atop pallets and bricks to cross the yard.
“Across the street, their ditch was 24/7, 365 days a year full of water and mosquitoes and raccoons and snakes and all sorts of fun wildlife to go to the zoo and look at,” she said. “But not in my house, around my kids.”
She agreed to sell in 2016; she said the developer adjusted the purchase price in 2023 — to $1.4 million — after the county approved the project, in recognition of rising home prices. In late December, she closed on a new house in Riverside with an extra bedroom, a swimming pool and an enclosed patio. She paid $1.2 million in cash.
She knows some people are opposed to warehouse development, but she says the industry is bringing good jobs. Her oldest children, ages 27 and 24, both work at a FedEx warehouse in Bloomington, where they have flexible hours and get frequent raises, she said.
Jessie Ortiz practices roping skills in the backyard of his family’s Bloomington home.
While some homeowners seized on the opportunity to move out of Bloomington, Felipe and Blanca Ortiz felt blindsided when their landlord agreed to sell the ranch home they were renting.
The Ortizes and their four children have lived on the two-acre property for more than a decade. They’ve maintained their family traditions from the Mexican state of Morelos, raising horses, goats and chickens on their small property.
They loved riding their horses through the hills behind their home, and regularly traveled to other cities to ride their horses in parades, decked out in traditional Mexican cowboy and cowgirl attire. They organized 100-horse processions as fundraisers for neighbors in need.
“It’s their entire lives,” Felipe Ortiz said, as he shared TikTok videos of his kids performing on horseback.
Felipe Ortiz and his family are being evicted from the ranch home they have rented for more than a decade.
In February, the family got a notice informing them their rental agreement would end in 60 days. It came from a company connected to Timothy Howard of Howard Industrial Partners — the only indication the family had that their rental home had been sold.
That same day, footage from the Ortiz family’s security camera shows an excavator knocking down the chain link gate in front of the ranch. The two youngest Ortiz kids, ages 6 and 12, were home at the time. The family viewed it as an act of intimidation.
Tunney, with Howard Industrial Partners, said it was “regrettable” that the previous owner didn’t disclose the sale to the Ortiz family.
“Additionally, it was not disclosed to us that there were occupants on the property,” Tunney said. “The incident with the excavator was inadvertent as the operator was scheduled to work at a nearby site and confused the addresses.”
Several months later, the family is still living in the home, waiting out the eviction process. Ortiz says he is struggling to find another property that will accommodate the family of six and their eight horses. As their search wears on, he said, his kids are traumatized. His youngest returns from school each day wondering if their home has been knocked down.
“Every day, the machines pass by here to knock down homes behind us,” Ortiz said. “And you’re left with the fear that they are coming to knock down our house.”
As homes are demolished in rural Bloomington to make way for a warehousing project, the neighbors who remain look out at rubble.
As the demolitions proceed, a coalition of environmental groups has sued San Bernardino County and Howard Industrial Partners, trying to halt the project. The lawsuit, alleging violations of state environmental and fair housing laws, seeks to vacate the county’s approval and require a more “meaningful” review.
Adrian Martinez is deputy managing attorney for Earthjustice, the group representing the plaintiffs. He called their effort a key moment in “the fight against the freight industry and its disregard for public health.”
“There are people who don’t want these warehouses in their communities and they just want to be left with peace,” Martinez said. “I think the inflection point is this kind of misguided notion that to give a community resources, you have to stuff thousands of trucks in the community and air pollution. And there’s no place in the country that this story is more robust than the Inland Empire and Bloomington in particular.”
A hearing is scheduled for later this month in San Bernardino County Superior Court.
“Everyday, the machines pass by here to knock down homes behind us,” Felipe Ortiz says of his family’s plight. “And you’re left with the fear that they are coming to knock down our house.”
Meanwhile, just a couple miles away, residents in southeastern Bloomington are starting to hear from developers interested in building more warehouses in the area.
Daniela Vargas, 24, said her parents bought their house there more than two decades ago. For her parents, both Mexican immigrants, it’s a deep source of pride to own a home they could pass down to their four children.
Vargas’ family raises chickens on their land, but the surrounding area is pockmarked with industry. Just a short drive from the family’s home is another warehouse complex, a railroad and the 10 Freeway.
Recently, they’ve received phone calls and “strange-looking mail” from developers interested in buying their home, Vargas said: “It looks like a check that says, ‘Here’s X amount of money, call us to make it real.’”
She said her family doesn’t want to leave, but it feels inevitable that their neighborhood will be the next to transform.
“Anyone that moves out of Bloomington, it’s all valid reasoning,” Vargas said. “My family is really prideful. But if the decision comes that warehouses are going to be developed here and everybody is leaving, we can’t remain with so much pollution around us, with so much traffic and with no real neighbors or neighborhood amenities.”
This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative,funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to addressCalifornia’s economic divide.
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Sometimes it only takes one person’s persistence to make a change.
That’s the case in Bloomington, where the city’s parks are switching out non-ADA-accessible portable restrooms in favor of ones that are more accessible.
The change is the outcome of nearly a year of dedication for one Twin Cities mom.
“I think it’s important to remember that as a community member, you are in a position of power, always,” said Dani Indovino Cawley of Bloomington. “I really, truly believe that people want to make their communities a better place – sometimes it just takes a little bit of pushing.”
Indovino Cawley said she first noticed the need for accessible bathrooms at city parks when planning an event last summer.
“When I got here to do the walkthrough, I noticed it was a non-accessible porta potty,” she said. “I was surprised, and it made me a little sad. I had a friend who went to an event at a park here. Her daughter is in a power wheelchair. She lives in Richfield, and came to this event, and they had to leave early.”
It wasn’t long until Indovino Cawley decided to email an elected official.
“I asked, like, do you know that the porta-potties aren’t accessible,” said Indovino Cawley. “That you don’t have an accessible bathroom here? I think they were as surprised as I was.”
Indovino Cawley says for those with mobility or sensory issues, accessible bathrooms can make a world of difference.
The city has since responded, adding the ADA-accessible bathrooms to nearly every park and playlot.
“It wasn’t something I had thought of, but as soon as it was given to me, I thought, wow, what a great opportunity to make our parks more inviting,” said PJ Skusa, the city’s Park Maintenance Supervisor. “It’s been great, people have been really happy that we’re doing this – I think it’s just a step in the right direction for Bloomington in general.”
“Often, when you’re the person that notices, other people have noticed it,” said Indovino Cawley. “Taking the moment to speak up and be a voice for something that’s so important, it’s just one of the best things you can do.”
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Security measures are being enhanced at a Bloomington mosque after shots were fired in the parking lot Saturday night, police said.
Officers responded to Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center around 10:40 p.m. on a report of shots fired, the Bloomington Police Department said. As they arrived, several vehicles were leaving the mosque.
Witnesses told police several people started arguing inside a bathroom. They were asked to leave and escorted outside, where the gunfire then occurred, according to police.
No injuries were reported and the suspects left the scene before officers arrived, police said.
WCCO
Anyone with information is asked to call BPD at 952-563-4900.
The mosque said the individuals involved in Saturday’s incident are not known to the community.
The mosque posted on its Facebook page that police assured them the area is now secure. The mosque also said prayer services will continue as usual. Those prayer services hold extra meaning for the community during Ramadan happening right now, which is considered one of the holiest months of the year for Muslims.
In 2017, there was a bombing at the Dar Al-Farooq Islamic Center. Several worshippers were inside for morning prayer when it happened, but they were not hurt.
Two Illinois residents admitted to throwing a pipe bomb inside the building. A third person is also serving time for recruiting those men to carry out the attack.
Kalamazoo, Mich. is among the most underrated “Third City Markets” in America, according to a recent … [+] whitepaper examining tertiary cities from Graceada Partners .
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The confluence of rising rents, historic inflation rates and the availability of remote work has opened new opportunity in so-called “Third City Markets” (TCMs) in the U.S. These tertiary markets provide robust potential for workers seeking lower costs of living and better quality of life.
By extension, they offer opportunity as well to real estate investors.
Those are the findings of a recent whitepaper from Graceada Partners highlighting 20 undervalued tertiary markets, from Kalamazoo, Mich. and Bloomington, Ind. westward to McMinnville, Ore. The list is topped by Cheyenne, Wy., Rapid City, S.D. and Redding, Calif. The cities on the list make the grade based on livability, affordability and proximity to major urban hubs, as well as being home to between 100,000 and 200,000 people.
Graceada Partners identified the most undervalued TCMs by analyzing data from the U.S. Census, as well as AARP livability statistics and metrics from CoStar. The aggregation of these benchmarks allowed the firm to select and rank the Top 20 TCMs from a field of 65 target markets broadly fitting the company’s TCM definition.
Affordability rules
Among the highlights of the whitepaper is the identification of two primary trends fueling the investment worthiness of TCMs. They are an increasing lack of affordability in the multifamily markets within secondary cities (think markets like Austin, Texas; Charlotte, N.C.; and Sacramento, Calif.), as well as industrial expansion in TCMs. Investors interested in TCMs see them as havens for workers with lower incomes leaving larger cities burdened by ever-larger housing costs.
That makes TCMs fertile soil for investors seeking to strategically diversify their real estate investments, a Graceada Partners official asserted in a prepared statement.
Growing interest in industrial development in TCMs is part of the “Amazon warehouse halo effect,” according to the whitepaper. Secondary markets have grown increasingly institutionalized, resulting in tertiary markets – particularly the 20 TCMs identified in the paper – being poised to witness outsized expansion.
The surge in remote work is a significant factor in the rise of tertiary markets. But a longer-standing force in this move is the seemingly unceasing hike in housing costs.
For instance, the whitepaper points to the contrast between big-city Seattle and much smaller Yakima, Wash., one of the Top 20 undervalued TCMs it identifies.
Citing figures from RentCafe, Graceada notes that average Seattle rent has reached $2,334, more than $1,000 a month above national averages, and about twice average rent in Yakima.
Comparative affordability, when combined with high quality of life, elevates other markets to the list. LaCrosse, Wisc., which placed in the Top 10 TCMs on Graceada Partners’ list, didn’t have the lowest rents or home prices, but did notch a 64 on AARP Livability Index, higher than every other of the Top 20 TCMs.
Spillover effect
Recall that one of the qualifications defining TCMs is proximity to primary urban markets. Residents of high-ranking TCMs are able to reach a major hub within a few hours’ drive or a short plane ride, the Graceada whitepaper authors report.
Proximity has fueled the growth of nearby secondary cities, as when San Franciscans began resettling in more affordable Sacramento.
The same spillover effect is likely to benefit cities like Redding, Calif., just 162 miles from the California state capital and 217 miles from the City by The Bay. The fact that Redding could be “next in line” to accept residents leaving higher-cost markets helped lift it to the No. 3 spot on Graceada’s list.
The report concludes investors may want to focus attention on tertiary markets that wouldn’t have been on their radar screens a few years ago. The regions where the paper’s authors see the greatest potential: The Heartland, Cactus Belt, and Western Interior, all poised to benefit more than, say, the Deep South or New England.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — An Indiana man has been sentenced to 65 years in prison for abusing his 12-year-old son and starving the boy to death.
Monroe Circuit Judge Christine Talley Haseman said Friday that nothing could justify the physical abuse and withholding of food and water that Luis Eduardo Posso Jr. inflicted on his young child.
Before issuing her decision, Haseman detailed the brutal treatment that Eduardo Posso endured and showed photographs of the boy taken just a few years apart.
By the time of his death in 2019, Eduardo was the size of a typical 4-year-old and had been punched, slapped, kicked, shocked with a dog collar and chained up by his father and stepmother, Haseman said.
Posso’s behavior was “incomprehensible, heinous and cruel,” she said.
Posso pleaded guilty to murder in June and prosecutors agreed not to seek life in prison without parole, along with dismissing charges of neglect, criminal confinement and battery.
His wife, Dayana Medina-Flores, pleaded guilty to murder and received the same sentence in 2021 tied to her stepson’s death.
The Herald-Times reports that people sentenced to the maximum 65-year prison sentence for murder in Indiana typically serve three-fourths of their sentence — about 49 years.
Posso’s attorney, public defender Kyle Duffer, said he will appeal the judge’s sentence.
