Daily Archives: June 5, 2007

City of Peoria, Museum Block

The incredible shrinking museum

19 Comments

Reading Polly Peoria’s latest post reminded me of a rumor I heard about the Peoria Riverfront Museum: it’s getting smaller.

You know they’ve been having a little trouble raising the money for this monstrosity, the plans for which are antithetical to the Heart of Peoria Plan. Rather than taking that as a hint that maybe people aren’t really as excited about this project as they thought they were, they’ve now (I’ve been told) begun cutting construction costs by making it smaller. Specifically, I hear they’ve cut it down to a one-story building except for the generic-IMAX part. Won’t that look inspiring? Maybe they can put up a weather vane and plant some prairie grass next to it to complete the anatopism.

So let’s think about this for a minute. First, the idea was to use just a portion of the old Sears block for a Peoria history museum sponsored by the Peoria Historical Society. Then Lakeview got involved and it mushroomed into a mega-museum that would include art, history, science, nature, a digital big-screen theater ala IMAX (but not actually IMAX), the African American Hall of Fame, the IHSA Peak Performance Center, and a partridge in a pear tree. All this in only 70,000 square feet. And now they want to make all that fit in an even smaller space?

Why don’t they just admit they bit off more than they could chew and go back to the drawing board? If they root around the drawing board long enough they may even happen upon this:

HOPC, Radio, The Peoria Chronicle

Peoria Chronicle is on the air

Vintage MicCouncilman Bob Manning and I are Jonathan Ahl’s guests on Outside the Horseshoe tonight on WCBU (89.9 FM). I won’t actually be wearing my “blogger” hat for this interview, but rather my “Heart of Peoria Commission” hat, since that will be the main topic of discussion. Depending on how the council votes tonight, this may be my last day as a Heart of Peoria commissioner.

The Journal Star editorial board today came out in favor of keeping the Heart of Peoria Commission. My thanks to them for their support.

City of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools

City and School Board should make a deal

3 Comments

Peoria Public Schools logoI read with amusement the Journal Star’s report on the school board not supporting the proposed TIF districts for the Warehouse District and Eagle View.

The school district, however, is interested in sharing some of the tax proceeds or securing a commitment that some funds will be directed toward the area around a school planned for South Peoria.

So now they want to work with the city. You gotta love a school board whose definition of “give and take” is that the city gives and the school board takes. My initial reaction was that the city should show District 150 as much respect and willingness to compromise as the school board showed the city regarding the location of a new school in the East Bluff.

But on second thought, I think the city should use this opportunity to negotiate. The school board wants the city to share property tax proceeds from the TIFs. The city wants the new East Bluff replacement school to be located on the site of the current Glen Oak School and be urban in design. If the school board will agree to the city’s desires, then I see no reason the city shouldn’t agree to the school board’s desires, do you?

Let’s make a deal!

Bradley University, Ray LaHood

LaHood for President

12 Comments

Ray LaHoodPresident of Bradley University, of course. I’m officially throwing my support behind LaHood’s efforts to get the job.

I understand if Mr. LaHood gets the job, he will resign Congress and a special election would be held to replace him. That sounds like a win-win for everybody.

I’m generally a Republican, but I’ve been disappointed in LaHood for a few reasons. One is his defense of congressional earmarks — a practice I think is corrupt and wastes our tax money. If a project is worthy of federal funding, it should be able to withstand scrutiny as a separate bill or part of a related bill subject to debate. It shouldn’t have to be tacked on secretly. Earmarks grease the wheels for pork-barrel spending.

Another reason I’ve been disappointed is because he’s thwarted efforts to improve transportation in Peoria. He shot down funding for a Chicago-Peoria highway, and he recently spoke disparagingly about plans to try to lure Amtrak back to Peoria. And, of course, he’s been a proponent of mothballing the Kellar Branch rail line and turning it into a hiking/biking trail, even though we need that rail infrastructure to keep businesses in Pioneer Park and lure new businesses to Growth Cell Two.

And then there were his comments during the Mark-Foley/congressional-page scandal. You may remember his solution to the problem was to get rid of the pages. I suppose if there were no pages, there would be no one for Foley to harass, but isn’t that essentially blaming the victims? He also supported Dennis Hastert, then Speaker of the House, who should have taken action against Foley sooner.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

Besides, it appears LaHood is more interested in local politics than national affairs, so having him get a local job seems only fitting. He can still lead efforts to oust Election Commissioners, join forces with the Recreational Trail Advocates on the Kellar Branch issue, and try unsuccessfully to broker compromises between the city and the school board. But he would be out of Congress, and that would give Peoria the opportunity to have a representative with better judgment.