Daily Archives: February 3, 2006

Social Justice

U2’s Bono challenges nation at National Prayer Breakfast

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Say what you want about rock stars who have a “cause,” but I thought Bono’s speech at the the National Prayer Breakfast was really inspired. Not inspired like the Bible is inspired, but certainly inspired by the Bible. He talks a lot about social justice, which is something you don’t hear much about in conservative circles, which is odd since a lot of conservatives are Bible-believing Christians.

In fact, many of my conservative friends who listen to a steady diet of Rush Limbaugh scoff at the idea of social justice. They seem to think that everyone who is poor is poor by their own choice and should just pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. I won’t deny that that’s true in some circumstances, but even so, haven’t we all made some stupid mistakes in our lives? Do we really want to be judged the way someone like Limbaugh judges the poor? I don’t.

I wouldn’t ally myself with everything Bono says, but probably about 95% of it. If you have the time, I encourage you to read his speech and see if it doesn’t put in perspective what it means for us to love our neighbors as ourselves on a national scale. I’ve reprinted it here for you so you don’t have to go searching for it. It’s kind of long, so I’ve put it on a separate page. Just click the “Read the rest of this entry” link below.

Continue reading U2’s Bono challenges nation at National Prayer Breakfast →

Heart of Peoria Plan, Traffic

Make Adams and Jefferson two-way

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Back when downtown had lots of retail shopping and there were lots of people converging on downtown every day, it made sense to increase capacity along Adams and Jefferson streets by converting them to one-way.  But today, this configuration is unnecessary.  And with the I-74 redesign, this configuration makes even less sense.

It used to be that you could enter I-74 east or west from Adams.  This made sense because Adams was one way heading out of the central business district.  You could hop on Adams and zip down to the expressway.  However, the entrance ramp to 74 east was too short and, thus, dangerous.

So now the entrance ramp to 74 east is on Fayette between Jefferson and Adams.  So, if you’re leaving downtown, you now have to loop around to hit it.  If you’re going north on Adams, that means you have to go left on Bryan, left on Jefferson, left on Fayette, and voila! you’ve found the on-ramp.  Not very efficient traffic flow.

It’s just one more reason why we should change these streets to two-way.

At-large councilman Chuck Grayeb suggested that very thing back in October, but the idea was pooh-poohed by Public Works Director Steve Van Winkle.  But check out his reasoning:

Public works director Steve Van Winkle says a conversion could actually hurt one of the Heart of Peoria Plan’s principles of a “pedestrian” downtown. “There is a desire whenever possible to make streets narrower. You virtually give up that option if you go two-way. It’s much easier to narrow a one-way street because you usually have excess capacity.”

Sounds great, doesn’t it?  Sounds like he’s really bought in to the Heart of Peoria Plan principles, right?  One problem: the Heart of Peoria Plan actually recommends — specifically — converting Adams and Jefferson to two-way streets.  On page III.14, they have a whole project called “Conversion of One-Way Streets,” complete with discussion.  Here’s an exerpt:

According to the transportation consultant, the typical 60 foot wide street section in downtown Peoria is far too wide for one way traffic, given either the existing or the proposed travel demand. Traffic flow, at the levels indicated by the available data, is simply not a sufficient justification for continuing the one way pattern.
Recommendation: Reconfigure Jefferson and Adams Streets for two-way traffic, with on-street parking.

This makes me question whether Van Winkle has even read the Heart of Peoria Plan.  But, seriously, this isn’t a difficult decision that needs lots of justification from consultants and traffic experts.  Just go downtown sometime and tell me whether, based on your experience alone, you think it’s really necessary to have four lanes of one-way traffic, and whether the traffic flow to enter the interstate heading out of downtown makes sense to you.

It’s time to make Adams and Jefferson two-way.

Uncategorized

Today’s Stench Index: 8

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Peoria is especially stinky this morning.  I walked out my front door to get the paper today and literally gagged.  It smelled like a cross between burnt electrical equipment and body odor.  I think the radio stations really should warn citizens when it smells this bad outside. Maybe they could develop a “stench index” or “stink factor” with “1” smelling like a meadow of wildflowers and “10” smelling like your head is poked inside an ADM smokestack.

There’s quite a bit of talk about “quality of life” issues these days — mitigating the smell of ADM would be a good one to work on.  I understand I live in the city and don’t expect the stench index to ever be “1” where I live.  But can’t we find some reasonable middle ground?  Aren’t there any emission standards that regulate the smell of these plants?

Peoria Public Schools

As the stomach turns

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Polly ate lunch at a District 150 school recently.  Actual menu: breadsticks with marinara sauce.  Oh, and unidentifiable “fruit.”  You know, when I was in school, lo these many years ago, we used to make fun of the food (which I recall was more or less like a TV dinner), but we were never served anything as austere as breadsticks with marinara sauce.

I looked up the District 150 menu, and it appears Polly could have opted for the Turkey Ranch Pita Pocket, but wasn’t it the bread wrap that was suspected to be responsible for all the illnesses lately?  Can’t blame Polly for opting for the lesser of two evils.

You know, if I fed my kids breadsticks and sauce and they were going to the hospital with food poisoning every few weeks, how long do you think it would be before DCFS paid me a visit?  And possibly the police?

I’m generally in favor of preserving historic buildings if at all possible, and I’ve been critical of District 150’s plans to tear down eleven schools and build six more.  But I swear I would personally swing the sledgehammer into as many buildings as they want to level if it would give the district enough money to provide these children a decent meal.

And that means, one way or another, District 150 needs to dump Aramark (NYSE: RMK), the sooner the better.  Aramark says on their website (which, incidentally, touts their brand-new, 53,000-square-foot “Innovation Center”), “We understand the impact of good nutrition on student performance, and have been helping the K-12 market increase student productivity through high quality food service programs.”  If breadsticks with marinara sauce is “high quality,” I’d hate to see what they consider “low quality.”

Oliver Twist ate better.

Heart of Peoria Plan, Peoria Mayor

Despite Museum Square debacle, HOPC appears to be on front burner

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It’s no secret I’ve been disappointed with the Museum Square design and its complete lack of adherence to the Heart of Peoria Plan, which the city council adopted “in principle.” Nevertheless, I have been encouraged by Mayor Ardis’s “City Issues” articles for Interbusiness Issues the last couple of months.

In the January issue, Ardis mentioned his hope that the Heart of Peoria Commission (HOPC) would write and implement Peoria’s Form-Based Code. I went to a public meeting on this subject last October when Ferrell Madden Associates were in town. Form-Based Code is basically an alternative to our current zoning laws that allows for mixed use and puts tighter control on the form, or physical characteristics, of the built environment. The concept makes sense to me, but I can see why it would be a lot of work to actually write the parameters. Let’s just say I “appreciate the complexity of the task.”

This month, Ardis devoted the whole column to giving a complete overview of the HOPC. Granted, he didn’t write it alone, but at least he credited the new HOPC chairman, Bill Washkuhn, for “helping assemble this information.” Regardless of who did most of the writing, I think it’s significant that Ardis devoted the column to HOPC.

Jonathan Ahl predicted (during a year-in-review broadcast of “Outside the Horseshoe”) that the HOPC would be eliminated this year. I can understand why he might think that –they haven’t been terribly effective so far. But there has been quite a bit of turnover on the commission of late, several council members seem to be in favor of the HOP Plan, and Ardis appears to be pushing them to be on-task and productive. If the commission fails, it won’t be for lack of support from the city council.