With surprisingly little discussion, the City Council quietly rejected almost all suggestions to add more land to the proposed Warehouse and Eagle View Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts.

Lately — especially since the most recent budget was passed — people have been asking, “is this council any different than the one they replaced?” I think this is an example where they are indeed different. This council showed restraint when presented with suggestions to expand a TIF, and I thought their performance tonight was commendable.

Another area where they’re different: the council approved only a one-year intergovernmental agreement with the Park District to do programming for Riverfront events instead of rubber-stamping another five-year agreement. They’re trying to wean the Park District off of city funds and push them toward making Riverfront events self-supporting. This is practically a paradigm-shift from the previous council.

It was a good, fiscally-responsible council meeting.

City Council, City of Peoria, TIF | 4 Comments »

Tonight, at the same time the City Council was meeting, the Civic Center was hosting WWE wrestling. Not a big deal, except for one little problem: both events were using wireless microphones and there was a bit of “interference.”

Specifically, we in Peoria could hear the wrestling event in the background during the meeting on TV and radio and, better yet, millions of people got to hear our city council meeting in the background of the nationally-televised Smackdown! All over America tonight, confused wrestling fans are Googling Lori “Blackbelt” David….

I have to say, the wrestling underscore really made the council meeting more entertaining. I wonder if they can work that in every week? Maybe they could get Michael Buffer to read the consent agenda….

City Council, City of Peoria | 1 Comment »

The Journal Star’s “breaking news” department has a story on the rumored petition drive to reverse the Park Board’s decision on siting a new school in Glen Oak Park:

A group of neighbors across the street from Glen Oak Park are circulating a petition to get the Peoria Park Board to reconsider its rejection of a school there.

Teresa Larson, who feels “ashamed” she didn’t speak out sooner, said she and several of her neighbors have collected about 30 signatures this week.

So, there you go. The “silent majority” is finally speaking — a whopping 30 people! Of course, they live “across the street from Glen Oak Park,” so they’re some of the only people in the East Bluff who would be unaffected by putting the school in the park. It will be interesting to see how many residents from the rest of the Glen Oak attendance area sign the petition.

Considering this is the so-called “silent majority,” people should be lining up around the block to sign.

City of Peoria, Peoria Park District, Peoria Public Schools | 4 Comments »

In today’s Journal Star I read this headline: “Peoria woman has purse stolen in West Bluff.”

Well, that’s my neck of the woods, so I wanted to know what happened and where. Imagine my surprise when I next read this (emphasis mine):

The 34-year-old victim told police shortly before 11 p.m. that while she was headed west on Nebraska Avenue approaching Peoria Avenue, the men came up on her from behind.

That would be the East Bluff. You know, it’s this kind of sloppy reporting that will get some reporters/editors fired when Dave Ransburg buys the paper.

City of Peoria, Peoria Journal Star | 14 Comments »

PeoriaIllinoisan has a great blog entry today about Krug Park in St. Joseph, Missouri, and its similarities to the Peoria Park District. Check it out!

And speaking of the park district, I’ve been hearing rumors that there’s a petition drive on the East Bluff — an attempt to identify the “silent majority” that wants the Glen Oak/White replacement school built in Glen Oak Park. I guess they want to petition the Park Board to reconsider their recent decision to not allow park land to be shared for a school site at Prospect and Frye. If this rumor is true, it will be interesting to see how many people sign the petition, if all the signatures are valid, and if Jim Stowell and David Gorenz consider these activists to be a “very vocal minority.”

Blogosphere, Peoria Park District | 5 Comments »