At the city council meeting last night, Barbara Van Auken requested that the publisher of the Peoria Times-Observer be allowed to present his suggestion for a tribute to Betty Friedan. He suggested renaming Pioneer Parkway “Betty Friedan Parkway” because it’s a major thoroughfare and Friedan was a “pioneer” in the women’s rights movement.
I’m not really a proponent of renaming streets. It used to be that you honored a person by putting up a statue to them in a prominent place. Peoria has several statues; to name a few: Abraham Lincoln (Peoria County Courthouse), Robert Ingersoll (Glen Oak Park), and Christopher Columbus (Uplands neighborhood). Why not put up a statue to Friedan and leave the street names alone?
I found something almost heartwarming in Tuesday night’s city council agenda.
First, a little background: There are some sewers in older parts of Peoria known as “wildcat” sewers. These are sewers that were developed privately and do not conform to city code. The city has a program, known as the Wildcat Sewer Program, that helps residents abandon their wildcat sewers and connect to the city’s sewer system by paying half the cost of connection.
Well, some Peoria residents on North Machin were connected to a wildcat sewer that had collapsed and was completely useless. But these people were unable to afford even half the cost of connecting to the city’s sewer system, and had resigned themselves to living with the consequences. The city decided to go ahead and connect them to city sewers anyway and pay the whole cost of connection. You can read a more detailed version of the story here.
I’m impressed that the city has been willing to treat this as an emergency repair and help these residents out. Kudos to the city for their random act of kindness!
News and Comment about Peoria, Illinois
