Cyclists face danger on local roads
Friday, Oct. 28, 2016
IDS Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
By Christina Winfrey cawinfre@umail.iu.edu | @tinawinfrey33
Graduate student Mitzy Colletes was biking her usual route down Third Street on Tuesday afternoon when a car turned in front of her. It pulled into the bike lane and stopped, forcing Colletes to brake quickly. Her bike flipped, and instead of checking to see if Colletes was harmed, the car then left the scene. The accident left Colletes with a broken jaw, split chin and missing teeth. Though not all bikers will suffer such serious injuries on campus, cyclists are often forced to bike in situations where drivers and pedestrians are unwelcoming. Still, many students choose to bike in and around campus. Freshman Forrest Gatrell said he cut his daily travel time in half after he decided to purchase a bike when he started his off-campus job. Gatrell, like many other students, chooses to ride his bike to places like classes, friends’ houses and his offcampus job instead of walking. While bike riding on a crowded campus comes with issues, he said he loves the experience. “It’s made life a lot better,” Gatrell said. “I get places exponentially quicker. I can get across town in like 15 minutes.” Right after he got his bike, Gatrell said his friend and fellow biker informed him that he must register his bike with IU Parking Operations. He took a trip to the Atwater parking garage to fill out the necessary forms. Amanda Turnipseed, director of IU Parking Operations, said students must know the make and color of their bike as well as the serial number in order to register it. Students must also pay a one-time fee of $10. She said registering a bike allows IU Parking Operations to notify the owner when their bike has been found or impounded or if the bike needs to be moved. Having bikes registered was useful when IU Parking Operations had to move the bike parking area by the School of Public and Environmental Affairs from Tenth Street to the opposite side of the building. “We were able to only notify the owners of bikes that had a permit on it to advise them that their bike would be moved by a certain date and where they would find it,” Turnipseed said. Once he arrives at his destination, Gatrell said he parks his bike on one of these bike parking racks located around Bloomington. He can usually find a spot, but sometimes at buildings like SPEA, he cannot find a space. “I usually park it on a handrail,” Gatrell said. “I know I risk getting a ticket if I do that.” SEE BIKE, PAGE 6
CROSS-COUNTRY
IU competes for Big Ten title this weekend
LEAH CARTER | IDS
John Baker stands in front of one of his train cars, which is part of the haunted train car museum he runs in south Bloomington.
Trains of fear At Baker’s Junction, a haunted train car museum, every day is Halloween By Leah Carter leafcart@indiana.edu | @the_leah_carter
Out front, a sign covered with ivy reads, “All are welcome except commie planning and zoning pinheads.” Behind it is a series of rusted train cars. Look a little closer, and there’s a real hearse with a skeleton in the driver’s seat. The property is owned by John Baker, a one-legged Vietnam veteran whose life’s work is turning those rusted train cars into a haunted train museum. Among the exhibits on his property in south Bloomington are a horse drawn hearse and a homemade mausoleum called the “Time Castle,” which contains his granddaughter’s ashes and a time capsule, which he says will outlast him by a thousand years. Every one of his train cars is filled with dark collectibles, such as an old dentist’s chair, and an entire room devoted to
The Big Ten Championships are finally upon us, and IU crosscountry is in the thick of the teams competing to win this weekend in Minneapolis. The men are ranked No. 19 in the latest national poll and are coming off a fifth-place finish at the Pre-Nationals meet two weeks ago in Terre Haute, Indiana. The women come into the meet unranked and fifth in the Great Lakes Region after placing 15th at Pre-Nationals. “We’re certainly one of the top three teams in this race on the men’s side, and on the women’s side we have a chance to be the best we’ve been in recent years,” IU Coach Ron Helmer said. Both teams have swept all their races before the last meet at PreNationals, and the women’s team has proven it can compete with the elite teams in the country as well. It finished ninth in the Big Ten Championships last season but will be competing this year without senior Amanda Behnke, who is out for the rest of the year with a leg SEE IUXC, PAGE 6
SEE JUNCTION, PAGE 6
All-female cast to perform Shakespeare By Mallory Haag mjhaag@indiana.edu | @MalloryHaag
By Michael Ramirez michrami@indiana.edu | @mramirez9
blacklight posters and glow-in-the-dark planets. He developed his interest in trains when he was a child when both of his parents worked for the railroad. In 1976, when he saw the Indiana Railroad was going to scrap some of the old trains, he built his own trailer and bought the train cars to build the museum. “I had bone cancer, and they told me I probably wouldn’t live through it, and I just happened to be by the train station,” Baker said. “I figured it would be a nice thing to do with my life.” However, maintaining both the property and relations with local government has been a very expensive process for Baker. He is even selling part of his own index finger for $5,000 to pay for a new roof on the train depot. “I was running the steel saw over my head, cutting out the top of a window, and the thing just came off. They said they
Bloomington’s Halloween weekend will mix the spooky with some sonnets as the Cardinal Stage Company performs Shakespeare’s “Merchant of Venice” at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Ivy Tech Whikehart Auditorium. The play tells the story of Bassanio, a young man who is attempting to marry a woman but lacks the money to do so. A man named Shylock lends him the money but demands either the full amount in return or a pound of his friend Antonio’s flesh. Originally, Shakespearean plays cast exclusively male actors, meaning men would have to dress
as women and play those roles as well. Cardinal Stage Company’s “Merchant of Venice” plays with this idea by casting all roles with female actresses, meaning women will play all of the show’s female roles and the males roles as well. “What’s interesting in ‘Merchant’ is that all of the people in the play, the women actors who are playing males and women who are playing women also get to play men,” Director Randy White said. “Their characters cross-dress as men, so everybody plays a male at some point.” Shakespeare originally used cross-dressing to give the play humor, and Cardinal Stage’s adSEE VENICE, PAGE 6
KATELYN ROWE | IDS
Yadira Correa and Caitlan Taylor speak to each other during a dress rehearsal for Cardinal Stage Company's presentation of “The Merchant of Venice.” Correa and Taylor played Gratiano and Bassanio, respectively, in the production.
Groups discuss domestic violence prevention By Dominick Jean drjean@indiana.edu | @Domino_Jean
In light of October being Domestic Violence Awareness month, different community groups and Bloomington locals met Oct. 21 to discuss how Bloomington could
better understand the issue and help victims of domestic violence. These different groups form the Monroe County Domestic Violence Coalition. Bloomington Police Department Sgt. Pam Gladish, a member of the coalition who has worked on
domestic violence cases for about 15 years, said domestic violence is a scary issue for people to try to discuss. “It’s bad,” Gladish said. “We don’t want to talk about it.” Gladish pointed out statistics that showed in January 2015, more
than 6,000 United States troops had been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. She compared that figure to the more than 14,000 women and almost 4,000 men who were victims of homicide from domestic SEE ABUSE, PAGE 6