Daily Archives: February 13, 2008

Kellar Branch

WSJ: Railroads generate development

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Here’s an article from the Wall Street Journal I hope hasn’t escaped the notice of the Journal Star, Junction Ventures, the Sierra Club, and Maloof Realty (not to mention the City of Peoria and Village of Peoria Heights):

Railroads are generating development in the same way they spawned towns and industrial sites over a century ago. Warehouse complexes are popping up next to new rail yards designed to load and unload trains carrying containerized goods. Major distribution operations have opened or are planned in places like Elwood, Ill., Kansas City, Mo., and Columbus, Ohio.

The social consequences are evident in developments like AllianceTexas. In the late 1980s, Hillwood Development Co., founded by Ross Perot Jr., son of the former presidential candidate, built a cargo airport outside Fort Worth, thinking that would be the best way to attract companies to 17,000 acres of land north of the city. As an afterthought, the company says, it made room for a rail yard.

A decade later, it’s the rail yard that has attracted huge warehouses, for companies such as J.C. Penney Co. and Bridgestone Corp. These and others get container loads of jeans, electronics, tires and such from Southern California ports. “I never would have thought having a rail hub in the middle of our development would have attracted so much interest,” says Thomas Harris, a Hillwood senior vice president.

The development, which employs 27,000, has spawned a nearby minicity of shopping centers, a golf course, a racetrack and 6,200 houses. More than 300 of the homes are high-priced models in gated communities.

Railroads have found friends among environmentalists, who see moving freight by train rather than truck as a way to reduce fuel burning and emissions.

Isn’t that interesting? A rail hub in the middle of the development. Attracted huge warehouses. Employs 27,000. Spurred retail and residential development. Not just cheap residential development either — “high-priced models in gated communities.” Helps the environment by reducing emissions. Too bad we don’t have something like that.

Oh, wait….

Train crossing Prospect on Kellar - photo by Ed Sanders
General News

Farewell, Red Zin

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I hate it when local restaurants close. The Journal Star article implies that Red Zin is folding because of competition with all the new restaurants in East Peoria. I’m not convinced of that.

It might be their prices or the quality of their food or the consistency of their service. For example, the last time my wife and I visited Red Zin, we were served baked potatoes that were stone cold. Not lukewarm. Not even room temperature. Cold. At the prices they were charging, it didn’t motivate us to visit again anytime soon.

Maybe that was just a bad night. Or maybe there were a lot of bad nights, and customers got turned off. Who knows? One thing’s for sure, they weren’t losing business because people are scared off by the HRA tax. You might choose the East Peoria Steak n’ Shake over a Peoria Steak n’ Shake if you’re about the same distance from both when you decide to go. But if Red Zin is among your options for dinner, the tax rate is not likely to be high on your list of concerns.

So what’s next for this location?

I say, bring back The Grill. Or, better yet, have a ground-level restaurant that’s like a sports bar and restaurant where people can hang out before/after Rivermen and Bradley games whether they’re with their buddies or with their family, and put the highfalutin upscale restaurant at the top of the twin towers where diners can get an aerial view of the city while they eat. I’ve never quite understood why Peoria puts all its fine dining establishments in the basements of its downtown buildings.

Peoria Civic Center

Little-known law of the universe: Civic Center lots must charge more than other lots

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If anyone can explain this to me, I’d appreciate it:

If nearby city-owned garage fees are hiked $1 per vehicle for concerts, hockey and basketball games next year, the Peoria Civic Center then might have to increase its parking costs. … “We’re usually 50 cents ahead of (the garage fees) . . . we’ll have to look at it,” [Civic Center General Manager Debbie] Ritschel said. “Usually people are willing to pay more when you are closer.”

Huh? Why the moral imperative that the Civic Center lot must cost more than city parking garages? And what’s Ritschel’s definition of “closer”? I would contend that the city garage across Jefferson is just as close as the Civic Center lot across Monroe. How curious.