Monthly Archives: February 2006

City Council

Council Roundup: Peoria loses federal funds; reduces staff

The city is two employees leaner after tonight. 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reduced the amount of money it provides the City of Peoria in the form of three grants: the Community Development Block Grant, HOME Investment Partnership Act grant and Emergency Shelter Grant.  The grants were reduced by 9.5%, 6%, and 0.5%, respectively.  That’s a lot of lost funding — in fact, it’s a $260,000 drop from last year, and a $903,000 drop since 2002.

That means that the city has to do something to make up for the shortfall.  They decided tonight to take several steps, including a cut in staff.  The Planning Department will lose two employees and funding for specific programs was moved around or reduced. 

Additionally, one staff position will be moved from the Equal Employment Opportunity office to the Inspection Department.  This generated quite a bit of discussion, as Councilman Gulley was opposed to it.  He questioned whether there was enough remaining staff to comply with EEO requirements.

The recommendation passed on a split vote, 6-4.

City Council

Council Roundup: Mail call — we’re demolishing your property

When the city identifies an unsafe or dangerous building in Peoria, it can move to have it demolished.  Part of that process is sending a letter to the owner of the property telling them the city is going to be tearing it down.  Up until tonight, the City of Peoria has been mailing those notices via certified mail.  After tonight’s vote, those notices will be served via regular mail.  It will save the city maybe $300 a year and shave three weeks off the demolition process. 

Not very significant, as Gary Sandberg and others pointed out.  But it’s some movement, so it passed, 6-4.  Something that didn’t come up in the council discussion, but was included in the Request for Council Action, is that this decision means Peoria will be following the State of Illinois statute on the same issue (65 ILCS 5/11-31-1).  So it’s not like Peoria is an oddball community by serving these notices via regular mail.

Ray LaHood

It brings in the pork to my district, so it’s good

Ray LaHood defends the “earmark” system in today’s Journal Star:

He said some high-profile problems with earmarking, such as the so-called “bridge to nowhere” in Alaska, are projects “put in at the 11th hour by some powerful person, and nobody ever sees it before it’s voted on.” Such appropriations are “a perversion of the system,” he said.

He says later that he approves of earmarks as long as they’re done in a “transparent way” — meaning “people get to see it before they vote on it.”

Notice he doesn’t mention anything about reforming the system.  He wants to keep it in place, even if there is some abuse, because it brings in the pork.  He cites the Lincoln Presidential Library (Springfield) and a new law enforcement communications center (Lincoln) as examples of how he used earmarks to benefit Illinois.  He didn’t mention his recent earmark that gave Firefly Energy a $2.5 million military contract.

CNN recently reported (“Can this elephant be cleaned up?” by Perry Bacon Jr., Mike Allen, January 18, 2006; 7:16 p.m. EST, cnn.com, permalink gone):

Lobbyists are paid to land earmarks; Abramoff used them to get money for his tribal clients. The number of those earmarks mushroomed from close to 2,000 in a highway bill in 1998 to more than 6,000 in that bill last year. Practitioners say the boom is a major factor in the doubling of the number of lobbyists in Washington over the past five years, to almost 35,000, and Bush points to the popular practice as one of the reasons curtailing federal spending is so difficult.

Bottom line, earmarks are power. They allow congressmen to push money to their districts — sometimes benefitting specific private companies (like Firefly).  None of the senators, LaHood included, want to give that up. I understand that.

But some senators are talking about significant reform of the earmark system — beyond just getting to see the legislation before they vote on it.  Boehner, according to the CNN report, wants to “try to prevent federal dollars from going to private entities for exclusively private purposes,” for example.  Another plan “would identify the sponsors of earmarks and force members to defend them, eliminating the many mysterious entries that now bristle in the budget.”  McCain favors limits on earmarks as well.

In the Journal Star article, LaHood comes across as a defender rather than a reformer of the earmark system.  His reason:  it’s bringing home the bacon to central Illinois.  That’s not a very compelling defense when you consider every other congressman is bringing home the bacon to their states, districts, and private companies as well.  It’s a broken system, and LaHood should be working to reform it instead of defending it.

City Council, Heart of Peoria Plan, Museum Block

Museum Square Revisited

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The boomerang-shaped building is back.  And it wants more money.

Apparently the underground parking deck is going to cost $3 million more than planners thought, so now they want to set up a TIF to pay for it.  The Journal Star editorializes that the city should give them the money because it’s a “signature development of this generation.”  They reason that it was the Heart of Peoria Commission’s recommendation that led to the idea of putting the parking underground, so the city should accept responsibility for that action.  After all, they argue, “Would City Hall prefer that Museum Square have a suburban-style surface lot on its riverfront?”

That’s a rhetorical question, of course.  But it’s also a false dichotomy.  There are several other options in reality.  In fact, this could be just the opening the city council and Heart of Peoria Commission needs to revisit the site plans overall.  Let’s look at just a couple of other options:

Do We Really Need More Parking?

One thing to consider is whether additional parking is necessary on that block at all.  There’s a parking deck and surface lot directly across Water Street that gets very little use during the day.  And since, under the current design, Museum Square will only be active during the day, wouldn’t that parking suffice?  You have to figure, they’re only developing a little over a third of the square footage on the old Sears block, and the museum design doesn’t include any residential or restaurant component that would keep people there past 5:00 when the museum closes.  Why the need for more parking?

Change the Building Plans

One of the reasons the underground parking is going to be so expensive to build is because it’s a rectangular parking area partially underneath the building and partially underneath a courtyard.  In other words, the footprint of the building and the footprint of the parking deck don’t line up.  That adds to the cost.  So, I think it would be reasonable to suggest that developers consider modifying their building plans. 

Why not?  Museum backers are wanting to change the financial details of the plan; why isn’t it fair game for the council to turn the tables and ask the developers to change the physical details of the plan?  There’s more than one way to save $3 million. 

There’s plenty of justification for this idea that goes beyond the parking situation.  As I’ve written previously, the current design for Museum Square is totally contrary to the Heart of Peoria Plan, which the city council adopted “in principle.”  The Heart of Peoria Commission unwisely chose not to make a recommendation when the site plan came before the council back in November.  But maybe this new wrinkle will give them and the council a second chance.

If Museum Square were to follow the Heart of Peoria Plan, the parking deck wouldn’t be an issue:

  • The style of the buildings would be in keeping with the surrounding architecture, meaning (among other things) they would be more rectangular in shape, making it possible for the footprints of the building and underground parking to coincide.
  • There would be more density on the block.  Instead of only a little more than a third of the block being developed, over two-thirds would be utilized; a larger building footprint means more room for parking underneath.
  • There would be residential (or hospitality), retail, and restaurant components included in the plans, which would generate additional revenue for the development and keep the block active 24 hours a day, seven days a week, justifying the need for more parking in the first place.

The Journal Star is right about one thing.  This will be the “signature development of this generation.”  So isn’t it important that we get it right?  I know some may balk at the idea of sending the planners “back to the drawing board” at this point when they’re so far along in the process.  But until the buildings are in brick and mortar, all they have to change is their paper drawings, and that’s not going to cost $3 million.

Now is the time to revisit this and get it right.

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.

Uncategorized

It’s Groundhog Day . . . again

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today, so there will be six more weeks of winter.  Of course, we all know there are always six more weeks of winter whether or not Phil sees his shadow (March 21 is six weeks away), but it’s, um, fun (?) to go through this ritual every year.

As an interesting aside, while it’s still going to be winter here in the states, Canada is expecting an early spring, based on their forecasting rodents.  Not to be outdone by the U.S., they get a consensus of two woodchucks with whimsical, alliterative and difficult-to-spell names: Wiarton Willie (Ontario) and Shubenacadie Sam (Nova Scotia).

So, I’m not sure what a city like, say, Detroit should expect.  Three more weeks of winter, perhaps?