Have you seen “Junction City Phase II” yet? Here’s the sign with an artist’s rendering:

Doesn’t really look like Junction City, does it? Kinda looks more like the strip mall out by Wal-Mart on Allen Road. Is it just me, or did anyone else expect the new addition to be complementary to the style of the older part of Junction City, with its boardwalks and town hall? This new development looks… generic.

But hey, they’re not breaking any zoning laws or anything. They’re free to build another nondescript, run-of-the-mill, cookie-cutter strip mall if they wish. I had just come to expect something with a bit more style from Junction Ventures.

General News | 26 Comments »

. . . if you’re looking for a way to kill someone and get off easy, don’t use a gun, just push him into on-coming traffic.

City of Peoria, Crime | 16 Comments »

[Said Councilman Eric] Turner, who along with Councilman Clyde Gulley, were the only two to vote against the [Wal-Mart package liquor license] denial. “This is a national corporation trying to create an opportunity to compete with their competitors.”
–Journal Star, 3/26/08

I’ve been sobbing all morning about poor old Wal-Mart being denied that package liquor license at last night’s council meeting. Whatever will the Walton family do? How will they survive? How can they overcome this detrimental competitive disadvantage? Oh, woe is Wal-Mart! Is there no justice for this poor, persecuted store? Boo-hoo-hoo!

City of Peoria | 28 Comments »

The City was poised to raise special event parking rates in downtown Peoria parking decks by one dollar last night — from $5 to $6. But it got deferred. Why? Evidently because they want to make sure such a supposedly draconian increase is warranted; to assess whether parking attendants are capable of making $4 change when presented with a sawbuck; to survey the cost of parking in private decks to make sure they’re not going to lose parking patrons. They’re going to do a study and come back with a report in May.

Oh brother.

The City is operating their parking decks at a loss. They are subsidizing downtown parking by setting their rates artificially low. So if they find that private parking decks are matching the City’s parking rates, that’s going to mean one of two things: either the private decks have figured out how to run a profit at that rate (in which case one should ask why the City is running such a huge loss), or else the City’s low rates are artificially depressing the rates private parking decks can charge. I can guarantee you it’s the latter. It has caused several private parking decks to close since the city started getting into the parking business.

So the City’s plan is, apparently, to base its rates on the rates of private parking decks, whose rates are artificially low because of the subsidized rates charged at City decks. Brilliant! A perfect defense for further parking subsidies downtown that the City can ill afford.

City of Peoria, Parking | 3 Comments »