As the Bloomington mayoral election seemed to be uncontested with Amanda Barge suspending her campaign, Nile Arena, a Bloomington resident, announced that he will run for mayor as an independent candidate.

Arena says that he was planning to run for mayor to address issues such as parking, rising living costs, lop-sided growth and local businesses leaving, even before Amanda Barge suspended her campaign. Arena says that he thinks that these topics weren’t being discussed much at the city level in recent years. However, Arena says that his concern of an uncontested election also pushed him forward to run as a candidate. “it’s not much of an election if there isn’t at least a little bit of a contest,” he said.

Arena says that he hopes his campaign can be an opportunity to start a public conversation. “Part of the great thing about civics and being in a smaller city and having a dialogue is that you’re able to address folks that otherwise you couldn’t be,” Arena said. “It’s very hard for us to go to Washington D.C. and talk to our congressmen or senators, but here in town there should be a kind of transparency and ability to communicate.” Arena says that he doesn’t have ambition to be a politician, but he is running for mayor in hopes of having a conversation and collaborative input with the city he already loves living in.

Arena says that he decided to run as an independent candidate because he thought he didn’t have a high chance of winning the primary vote as a Democrat and was worried that he wouldn’t be able to have the public conversation for which he was hoping. In addition, he says that he thinks there is a better chance to have a wider conversation by running as an independent candidate. “I’m interested in hearing from everybody, and I think that there is a chance no matter where you see yourself on the political spectrum to have more of a voice and more of a chance to talk,” he said.

Arena doesn’t have any political background but he says that he has a lot of experience in working with people. He says since his generation  grew up through the great recession, he had several jobs and knows the importance of teamwork. Arena says that he hopes that he can inspire collaboration with the people in Bloomington.

Arena says that one of the reasons he is running for a public office is to show people how simple it is to get involved with city politics as a citizen. “I wanted to show how simple it is to get involved and that it is not as daunting and scary to seek office, so someone smarter, better and younger than me can do it as well,”  Arena said.

Arena needs to collect 509 signatures from city residents, who live in the city limits, by July 15 to be included in the ballet.

People who seek to support Arena’s campaign can visit his YouTube channel or email to arenaformayor@gmail.com