Penny for your thoughts.
Monthly Archives: March 2008
Double standards
Last October, Second District Council Member Barbara Van Auken made a motion to spend $183,750 of the $200,000 that was budgeted in the 2007 Capital Improvement Program for use on the Sheridan Triangle project. That motion was defeated 6-5. Why? Well, there were lots of concerns about the fact that starting this project would require money to be spent in subsequent years to complete it, and “the Council needed to recognize their limited resources” and “decide how to execute strategy to complete projects,” according to the Oct. 9 minutes. There was also a desire to “determine what the priorities were for the entire City” before committing to this project. So it had to wait until after the next budget cycle to get passed.
But my, how things are different when we get to the fifth district’s road project that was approved last night:
The $3.3 million project – $1.175 million of it paid by the city [emphasis mine], $1.175 million paid by Peoria County, $1 million from Northwoods Community Church and $150,000 from developers of the area – targets a road improvement of Wilhelm from Northtrail Drive to Allen and also on a stretch of Allen.
It’s not mentioned in the article, but Van Auken and First District Councilman Clyde Gulley asked Public Works Director Dave Barber if this was budgeted in the Capital Improvement Program budget. Answer: some of the cost was, but not all of it. And furthermore, they won’t know the total cost until after the project goes out to bid. Nevertheless, it passed 10-1. By voting for this project, the council committed itself to spending 2009 dollars above and beyond what the council agreed to budget in the last negotiations, even though the city is projecting a deficit in 2009.
Strangely, on this fifth-district road project, there was no concern raised about the city’s limited resources, or about setting priorities or executing strategies. There was no delay. There was no CIP budget amendment. There was no discussion on where that extra money is going to come from in 2009, whose funding was going to get cut to make up the shortfall.
This all begs the question: Why the double standard?
Colleen Callahan ain’t gonna win
The Democratic candidate in the 18th Congressional District race, Colleen Callahan, has revealed her platform. See if this sounds familiar (transcribed from a WCBU report, which you can hear on Billy’s blog):
“It’s time to work together to create change. It’s time to refocus on middle-class values.” […]
Callahan says her top issues are ending the war in Iraq, improving the economy, increasing access to higher education, and repairing health care.
Who does that sound like? I’ll give you a hint, she’s a presidential candidate. Her talking points sound strikingly similar to Hillary Clinton’s. “Strengthening the middle class,” “providing affordable and accessible health care,” “ending the war in Iraq” — the rhetoric is practically identical.
And that’s why Callahan will lose in November. She’s running in a Republican district. In fact, the district is specifically gerrymandered to pick up as many Republican votes as possible (just like the 17th district cherry-picks Democrat voters). If she wants to win, she’s going to need crossover votes. She needs Republicans to vote for her.
Her platform is not going to get any crossover votes (except, apparently, for Carol Miller — the one self-described “moderate Republican” WCBU managed to unearth who said she’d cross over for Callahan). Why? Because it’s a liberal Democrat platform. It’s Hillary’s platform.
Schock has already proven how popular he is with Republican voters (he won the primary with over 70% of the vote in a three-way race). Callahan is going to have to hope that they all stay home and that all the Democrats come out to vote. And we know that’s not going to happen.
Schock can order his Congressional stationery now.
Proposed Northmoor Road Improvement Project Neighborhood Meeting March 18
From a City press release:
An informational meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 18th at 7:00 p.m. at the Expo Gardens Youth Building, concerning the proposed Northmoor Road project to discuss the section of the proposed improvement between University Street and Allen Road.
City and County engineering staff, city officials, Senator Dale Risinger, and Representative Dave Leitch will present project information and take input from the community.
For questions regarding this News Release, please contact Office of the City Engineer 494-8801.
Open Thread Tuesday
I’ve got too much to do and not enough time to do it, so please use this space to share your thoughts. What’s on your mind today?
Pundit tries out Blog Talk Radio
I caught a little bit of Billy Dennis’ online talk radio show Sunday. It was very interesting. Billy’s guest was John Bambenek of the Illinois Citizens Coalition and the topic was whether Illinois voters should approve a Constitutional Convention (or “con-con”) to rewrite Illinois’ constitution.
I heard about the last half hour, and plan to listen to the first half the first chance I get. I encourage you take a listen.
With a little help from my friends
Another Bradley student is dead, the victim of horseplay. Once again, the perpetrator was an underage drinker:
According to police reports, the two friends were walking on the sidewalk along the west side of University with about five other people when [Robert] Hurt was allegedly pushed into oncoming traffic and struck by the passenger side of a southbound car near the intersection of Russell Street….
Hurt was taken to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center with severe head injuries and died about an hour later, according to Peoria County Coroner Johnna Ingersoll…. After interviewing witnesses, police arrested [Brandon] Gish. He was also ticketed for consumption of alcohol by a minor along with Brooke A. Rumbold, 20.
Hurt was 21; Gish is 19.
I’ll be interested to hear more specifics on this case as the details unfold. The paper says Gish pushed Hurt into oncoming traffic — this leaves me with many questions. Was he just trying to push him generally, and Hurt lost his balance and fell into oncoming traffic? Did he get pushed into the street in time to get back on the sidewalk if he would have reacted quicker? Or did Gish deliberately push Hurt in front of a car, thinking that his friend wouldn’t be badly injured from the incident, but might walk away with some bumps and bruises? Or some other permutation of these options?
And what about the alcohol? Was it a factor? We know it impairs judgment and reaction time. It had to have played some part in the incident. Bradley has already formed a committee to develop a comprehensive alcohol action plan; it was formed after a previous incident where a student died as the result of a prank involving roman candles.
One thing we know for sure: this is a tragedy, and my sympathy goes out to everyone involved and their families, but especially the parents of Hurt. My deepest condolences to them.
City ready for next snowstorm
From a news release:
About 700 tons of our Canadian salt order has been delivered to Scharf’s pit in East Peoria. Over the next two days, the salt will be loaded onto trucks and taken to Dries Lane.
Ethical? Maybe. Stupid? Definitely.
My experience (limited as it is) with journalists in the Peoria area has been that, when you state that something is off the record, it’s off the record. I haven’t experienced personally or heard from others that journalists in this town have deliberately printed any off-the-record remarks. So I just thought that’s the way it works with all journalists. Then this quote from The Scotsman was published recently:
“She is a monster, too – that is off the record – she is stooping to anything,” Ms [Samantha] Power said, hastily trying to withdraw her remark.
Power is a Pulitzer Prize winning author for her book “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide” and a foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama. She has now resigned due to the publication of her comments.
There has been quite a bit of outcry against the paper for publishing her remarks when she very clearly asked them to be off the record. The paper and other journalistic sources I checked defended the paper. Typical is The Scotsman’s official response, which basically says that an agreement to be “off the record” must be reached in advance — it can’t be invoked retroactively to take back unguarded comments. The Scotsman’s editor Mike Gilson:
[W]e are certain it was right to publish. I do not know of a case when anyone has been able to withdraw on-the-record quotes after they have been made. The interview our political correspondent Gerri Peev conducted with Ms Power was clearly on an on-the-record basis. She was clearly passionate and angry with the tactics of the Clinton camp over the Ohio primary, and that spilled over in the interview. Our job was to put that interview before the public as a matter of public interest. It was for others to judge whether the remarks were ill-judged or spoke of the inexperience in the Obama camp.
Doesn’t he sound pious? Of course, the purpose of the interview was to promote Power’s new book, “Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World,” so all the Obama campaign talk was off the subject, and may explain why she forgot to request that her comments about American politics be off the record until it was evidently too late.
So, did the Scotsman break any ethical rules? Most, though not all, of the sources I’ve consulted say no. Were they jerks for publishing it? Yes. Does it make their reporters look like predatory journalists and their paper look like a tabloid fish wrapper? Yes. Will candidates, aides, and advisors agree to any more interviews with The Scotsman? Not likely.
Sheridan Triangle renewal underway
A public meeting was held Wednesday night at Columbia Middle School to talk about streetscape and intersection improvements in the Sheridan-Loucks Triangle form-based code area. It’s a small stretch of Sheridan road, bounded by the south side of Hanssler on the north, and the north side of McClure on the south.
The process for making changes is outlined on this document that was distributed at the meeting. In addition to public meetings like the one Wednesday where anyone can give input, a Citizen Advisory Group (CAG) either has been or will be established that will include key stakeholders and presumably will require a greater time commitment (i.e., more meetings). I don’t know who is on the CAG, but I will try to find out. Currently, I know that no one from the Heart of Peoria Commission is on it, but perhaps there are plans to appoint someone.
If you can’t make it to the meetings, but would like to give some input, page two of the aforementioned document is a Community Context Audit Form. It needs to be returned by next Wednesday, March 12, which doesn’t give you a lot of time, but it will give you an opportunity to have your voice heard by the design team.
This project is not going to happen overnight. The timetable is spread out so that the final recommendation won’t come before the council until late September this year (tentatively). That may sound like a long time, but it’s only six months, and it will fly by quickly. The important thing is that progress is being made. Everyone’s hope and expectation is that this will be a successful implementation of the Heart of Peoria Plan, form-based codes, and public-private partnerships to revitalize an older area of town, and that it will be a model for the rest of the Heart of Peoria Plan area to follow.
I arrived at the meeting a little late Wednesday, but found the presentations and question and answer time very interesting. There were about 50 people in attendance, including District 150 Superintendent Ken Hinton, which I thought was notable. The best part was after the presentations when we got to interact one-on-one with the consultants and city staff. Throughout the gymnasium, there were several stations set up with maps, engineering drawings, artists’ renderings, etc., that explored different aspects of the planning process, including one station that had a computerized traffic simulation of the area.
I’m encouraged by what I’m seeing as this project moves forward.