Daily Archives: January 14, 2007

Peoria Journal Star

Journal Star joins 21st century, adds comments section

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After reading the Journal Star’s Sunday editorial on-line, I was pleasantly surprised (shocked, actually) to find that they’ve added a comments section to their editorial page; don’t know if today is the first day for that or not, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it.

All I can say is: Welcome to the 21st century, Journal Star! Glad you could join us out here in the interactive media. I’m proud to say I got to leave the first comment on Sunday’s editorial. In case you don’t want to click over to their site to read it, here it is:

First of all, congratulations on adding a comments section to your on-line editorial page!

Secondly, you’re not recognizing the fact that these “naysayers,” as you call them, are indeed for something. For example:

(1) Kellar Branch conversion: The opponents of this plan that I know (including myself) are not against a trail per se, but rather for using this rail line for economic development. The path can be built next to the rail or along a different route, but an asset like a rail line with neutral access to eight line-haul carriers can’t be replaced. The rail line not only serves Carver Lumber, but can attract light industry and manufacturing companies (read: jobs) to Pioneer Park and other points along the line, such as the newly-vacant Cohen’s furniture warehouse in the Heights. Already there are two new companies on the Kellar Branch that want to use rail service. It would be foolish to throw away this asset.

(2) Glen Oak School Siting: The East Bluff neighbors have been very clear that they are for a new school in the center of their neighborhood where the current Glen Oak School is located. They’re advocating for it to be at Frye and Wisconsin, and Bob Manning has even offered the school board city money to help site it there! I would think that kind of community involvement and city support would be celebrated by the paper, not denigrated.

(3) Downtown Museum: I have heard very few who are against having a museum downtown. However, there are many who feel that the museum needn’t take up the entire Sears block and encompasses more disciplines than it can adequately support in the space proposed. The “naysayers” are for an adequately-sized Peoria history museum on part of the Sears block with the rest of the block commercially developed with retail and residential components, just like the Heart of Peoria Plan recommended (in fact, that’s why it’s in the Heart of Peoria Plan that way — because of public input received at the charrettes). All they’re against is the ballooning of the project to an art/history/science/nature/sports/hall-of-fame museum in a building that only takes up 1/3 of the square with the rest of the block set aside for open space.

I don’t know much about the ring road, so I can’t speak to that. But in each of the cases I’ve listed, people are indeed for something, not simply against new ideas.

City of Peoria, Crime

2007 Homicide #2: Virginia K. Mallow

A mere 13 days into the new year, and 12 days after the first homicide of 2007, a 72-year-old woman was found dead in her West Bluff home, and police have determined it was a homicide. WEEK also has this story on their website, and they’re reporting that an autopsy is scheduled for Monday.

The Journal Star identifies the victim as Virginia K. Mallow of 438 W. Doubet Ct. in Peoria. Today would have been her 73rd birthday.

This is just so unbelievably sad. What is our city coming to? What can we do to stop the violence? It must be stopped.

Uncategorized

Whimsical history department: Richwoods

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I was reading about Richwoods High School on the Historic Peoria website tonight, and it reminded me of something I hadn’t thought of in a long time.

In 1987 I was a junior at Richwoods, and the school dress code didn’t allow any students to wear shorts. Fair enough. However, the dress code did allow the girls to wear mini-skirts. Many guys saw this as a double-standard and complained pretty loudly about it, especially as the days (and the classrooms) got hotter.

At one point, several guys actually came to school in mini-skirts. That was funny, and more than a little disturbing. I didn’t participate, being more shy and reserved back then, and I’m relatively certain that Sean Matheson (who was a year behind me at Richwoods) didn’t either.

Well, the administration put a stop to that pretty quickly. So the next course of action, naturally, was for the students to go “on strike.” That’s right, they skipped class and sat out on the sidewalk in front of the school with hand-made signs to protest the “no shorts” dress code policy.

All of this garnered the school a surprising amount of local publicity. I remember seeing it on the news, and Crow Carroll even did a parody song about it to the tune of “Every Breath You Take” by The Police. (If you haven’t heard Crow Carroll parodies before, check out Wayne R. Miller’s site for some samples; “Metamora Girls” is especially good. These were a staple of local top-40 radio when I was in high school.)

Believe it or not, the little student-uprising worked, and Richwoods finally relented and allowed students to wear shorts when it got above a certain temperature. As I recall, we all considered it a great moral victory at the time. Looking back on it now, though, I think we probably could have put our efforts to better use… like, maybe, studying.