Monthly Archives: October 2008

2008 Campaign, The Peoria Chronicle

Welcome, Rotarians!

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Today, I had the privilege of speaking to the Peoria North Rotary. Matt Jones invited me to speak about the role of blogging in politics and public advocacy. This was the first time I had ever been to a Rotary meeting. I’ve always wondered what Rotary was all about; I’ve heard of it ever since I was a little kid and my grandfather would talk about being part of it.

So, to Matt and all the other Rotarians, thank you for having me; I had a very nice time and enjoyed meeting you.

And to the gentleman who asked me where Obama got his data for the assertion that “98% of small businesses make less than $250,000 a year,” it appears no one knows. But the New York Times thinks he may be correct:

According to figures compiled by the Small Business Administration, there are fewer than six million small businesses that actually have payrolls. The rest are so-called nonemployer firms that report income from hobbies or freelance work done by their registered owners, earning as little as $1,000 a year.

Of these, according to a calculation by the independent, non-partisan Tax Policy Center, fewer than 700,000 taxpayers would have to pay higher taxes under Mr. Obama’s plan. But even some of these are not small-business owners in the traditional sense; they include lawyers, accountants and investors in real estate, all of them with incomes that put them in the top tax brackets.

So are there “millions more like Joe the Plumber,” as Mr. McCain contended? Probably not. Mr. Obama may well have been correct when he stated that “98 percent of small businesses make less than $250,000.”

Meanwhile, those who use the Small Business Administration’s guidelines come to a different conclusion:

The US Small Business Administration (SBA) defines a “small business” according to its average annual receipts or the number of its employees. Here are examples from the SBA’s Table of Small Business Size Standards setting forth the maximum average annual receipts by industry that a business can have and still be classified as a small business:

Crop production of all types — $750,000
Animal production except for cattle & chicken/eggs — $750,000
Cattle feedlots — $2.5M
Chicken/egg production — $12.5M
Forestry & logging — $7M
Fishing — $4M
Irrigation, sewage, water supplies — $7M
Housing construction — $33.5M
Heavy and civil engineering construction — $33.5M
Dredging and cleanup — $20M
Concrete, framing, and other housing contractors — $14M
Car dealers — $23-29M
RV, motorcycle, & boat dealers — $7M
Furniture, hardware, clothing & sporting good stores — $7M
Electronic stores — $9M
Supermarkets, gas stations & department stores — $27M
Pharmacies — $7M

There are many more examples at the link. In addition, most of the industries in the Table […] are considered small businesses based on their total number of employees instead of average annual receipts. In those industries, the cut-off between small and large businesses ranges from 500-1,000 employees per business/industry.

It’s difficult for me to imagine a business that has 50 or more employees (let alone 500-1,000) that has receipts of less than $250,000 per year. And, given the SBA definitions of “small business,” it seems likely that many small businesses in a wide range of industries have receipts of more than $250,000 per year.

So, like I said, nobody knows, and Obama isn’t telling where he got his figures.

Museum Block

Museum unveils planned river displays

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From a press releases:

Peoria Riverfront Museum’s Illinois River Encounter to Share Living and Working River

Peoria – Some 15,500 years ago, a huge surge of glacial meltwater swept across Illinois. The result: the Illinois River and its broad floodplain—and a complex eco-system of which humans have long been a part. And that’s just the beginning of the fascinating story visitors to the Peoria Riverfront Museum will experience at The Illinois River Encounter.

At a media event on Oct. 15, Lakeview Museum President and CEO Jim Richerson shared the components of the museum’s Liberty Street Wing and specific plans for The Illinois River Encounter, a major gallery in that wing. “Without the Illinois River, Peoria would not be Peoria,” he said. “It was the river that first drew native people to this area 12,000 years ago. And it is the river that continues to offer commercial and recreational opportunities today.”

Doug Blodgett, director of the Illinois River portion of the Nature Conservancy, has been working extensively with museum designers and shared details of what The Illinois River Encounter will offer. “The gallery will feature parallel, interactive exhibits,” he explained. One side, known as The Living River, will focus on the river’s natural history and habitats. The other side, The Working River, will highlight the changing human relationship to the river over the years.

“Moving through the gallery will evoke the feeling of a trip along the river—through both time and space,” he added, noting:

  • The first section in The Working River will place visitors in the northern reaches of the river, with exhibits on the Illinois & Michigan Canal and the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal—the beginning of human attempts to control the river.
  • In the middle of the experience, both The Living River and The Working River will focus on Peoria, including its early history as a fishing town, the role of the river in its industrial development and the ongoing work to address the sedimentation problem in the Peoria Lakes.
  • The final exhibits will focus on the river today, with emphasis on the shipping industry and the work being done to restore the river’s health.

The Living River

In The Living River, visitors will experience a simulation of the rushing meltwaters that formed the Illinois and view photos and samples of geological features caused by the torrent. A recreation of an archaeological dig in the river’s floodplain will include artifacts from various periods, including the Peoria Falcon, a 500-year-old embossed copper plate portraying a bird of prey. “This artifact, likely part of a Native American warrior’s ceremonial headdress, was found in Peoria in 1859, not far from the site of The Block today,” Blodgett said.

A timeline of fishing on the river will offer interactive experiences and artifacts, including footage of jumping carp, mounted specimens of native and invasive fish species and tools from the river’s once-thriving fish and mussel industries. “Beginning in 1891, mussels were harvested to manufacture shell buttons,” Blodgett explained. “When the Illinois River reached its maximum shell production in 1909, there were more than 2,600 boats and 15 button factories along the river.”

The Working River

“The Working River will focus on how we have changed the Illinois River over the centuries, connecting it to Lake Michigan and developing it as a channel for transportation and commerce,” said Steve Jaeger, executive director of the Heart of Illinois Regional Port District. Interactive opportunities will allow visitors to experience what it’s like to pilot a barge, control the flooding of the river in a simulation of downtown Peoria, affect the flow of the river through locks and dams and observe the impact of levees on the river channel and floodplain use.

A look at the future will include information on the efforts of conservation groups to restore the river’s natural ecology, including a display showing the progress and goals of the Nature Conservancy’s Emiquon floodplain restoration project, one of the largest restoration projects in the country.
In addition, The Illinois River Encounter will feature an adjacent River Science Lab. The lab will feature hands-on activities, including a boat interactive where kids can float different types of boats to see which create less turbulence and therefore contribute less to erosion and sedimentation problems.

The multifaceted Peoria Riverfront Museum will join the Caterpillar Experience as key components of a planned downtown center for the arts, education and entertainment known as The Block.

And here are pictures of what these displays look like (click on thumbnails for larger images):

Nation/World, Ray LaHood

Ray LaHood on the bailout bill

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You may recall that I called Ray LaHood’s office to ask him not to vote for the pork-laden $700 billion bailout bill. He voted for it anyway, which shows just how much pull I have. Ha ha. Yesterday, I got a letter from him thanking me for the call and explaining his position. I thought you might be interested in hearing what he had to say (any typos are my fault):

Continue reading Ray LaHood on the bailout bill →

2008 Campaign, Aaron Schock

Official misconduct? Who cares?

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The big story now is that Aaron Schock notarized back-dated documents for his father seven years ago. The story states that neither “Schock or his parents benefited financially from using the incorrect date,” but that nevertheless, “using an incorrect date would be misconduct. Under the Illinois Notary Public Act, knowingly committing official misconduct is a Class A misdemeanor. Doing it through recklessness is a Class B misdemeanor.”

Schock’s response to the Journal Star when asked about it:

Schock told the Journal Star the information, released just weeks before the Nov. 4 primary, likely is the work of his “political opposition trying to paint me in a bad light.”

“Obviously, perception is everything and as a public official I have always worked hard and done my best both in public office and in private business. When you enter the public arena everything you do and say regardless of whether it pertains to public office is scrutinized. This is a case in point example of that,” Schock said.

I thought about exploring whether this issue is just political mudslinging or if it really does expose Schock’s character. But then I remembered that nobody cares.

We have a candidate for the 92nd district, Jehan Gordon, who shoplifted, was fined, but then didn’t pay the fine for several years — not until she was running for office. And yet she was nominated by the voters over Allen Mayer.

Schock earlier in his campaign had advocated selling obsolete nuclear weapons to Taiwan to try to intimidate China; he initially stood by his statement, then said it was a joke, then eventually said it was a mistake. And yet he was nominated by voters over Jim McConoughey and John Morris.

So official misconduct as a notary public seven years ago? Whoop-de-do. That won’t even be a blip on voters’ radar screens.

City Council, City of Peoria

Enterprise Zone now to include all of Glen Hollow

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On July 22, the council approved a huge addition to the city’s Enterprise Zone (EZ). Click on the thumbnail to the right for a map of the parcels added then. You’ll notice that those parcels include, among other things, Westlake Shopping Center, all of the “convenience loan” establishments along University, Wal-Mart, Auto Zone, Comcast Cable, and Best Buy.

But that apparently wasn’t enough. It’s back on the agenda this week with eight more parcels added. What poor, blighted businesses are getting the benefit of EZ status this time, you ask? The entire Glen Hollow shopping center. You know, blighted stores like Target, Petsmart, Cub Foods, Lowe’s, Wendy’s, Barnes & Noble, Hometown Buffet. Slums, all of them. And how were they added? According to the council communication, “At the request of one of the City’s Planning Commissioner’s [sic]….” Not all of them; not even a majority of them. One of them. I guess that’s all it takes.

Once again, the city communication makes this comical statement:

These areas are located within the core of our City and property owners have encountered challenges in attracting investment since many businesses are choosing to move to the northern parameters of the City.

And I’ll point out again that one of the reasons they’re choosing to move there is because the City is incentivizing it through annexation and, yes, even EZ status. So now they’re using the Enterprise Zone in the 2nd and 4th districts to compete against the Enterprise Zone in the 5th district. What other self-defeating strategies will the City dream up?

City of Peoria

City take your signs? Switch to handbills

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As I mentioned earlier, the city is cracking down on signs in the public right-of-way. (For those of you who are wondering, the citation in the municipal code is 17.10.a.(8), “Private signs are prohibited in the public right-of-way.”) I believe this is to cut down on visual clutter and, arguably, litter.

So it’s ironic that on Tuesday’s council agenda, there’s this little item:

ITEM NO. 3, H. Communication from the Interim City Manager and Corporation Counsel Requesting Adoption of an ORDINANCE Amending CHAPTER 13 of the Code of the City of Peoria Pertaining to HANDBILLS.

What is the amendment, you ask? It’s to repeal a law against distributing handbills under windshield wipers. Why? Because the laws on the books against distributing handbills have been found unconstitutional:

In August, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held ordinances exactly like Sections 13-50 and 13-51 to be unconstitutional because the City of Granite City, Illinois had not done a study to determine that the ordinances actually reduced litter.

Section 13-50 makes it illegal to put handbills on vehicles, primarily being directed at the placement of handbills on windshield wipers. Section 13-51 prohibits depositing handbills on unoccupied premises. Repeal of these ordinances places the City in compliance with the constitutional requirements. Should repeal of these ordinances lead to an increase in litter, then a study can be done and the ordinances can be re-enacted based upon findings by the City Council.

So now, instead of driving by signs for this or that cause or candidate, we’ll come back from a couple hours’ worth of shopping to find those same messages under our windshield wipers instead.

And do you know what we should do with those handbills when we receive them? If I’m reading this court ruling correctly, it appears the proper thing to do is throw them on the ground.* That way, the city will find that distribution of handbills increases litter, and thus make a prohibition against them constitutional.

Don’t worry about the littering.* City Crews can pick that up while they’re out gathering signs.

*Note: For those of you who are sarcasm-challenged, I’m not literally advocating littering. I’m just demonstrating the absurdity of the situation.

City of Peoria

More signs collected

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From a press release:

City Crews continue to collect signs that have been placed in the right of way.

Today, crews removed 80 signs from locations throughout the City. The locations included University, Knoxville, MacArthur Highway, McClure, Forrest Hill and Madison.

Crews will continue to collect signs. Citizens can assist the City by calling our PeoriaCares line at 494-2273, and letting us know about signs that may be in the public right of way.

Since we now know that “City Crews” (an interesting title given its capitalization yet lack of specificity) have the time for this effort to purge our right-of-ways of the scourge of illegal signage, might they also be available for other, perhaps more important, city-improvement initiatives? Like code enforcement, for instance?

City of Peoria, History

More historic landmark applications a good thing… mostly

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According to this week’s “Issues Update” from the City, historic landmark applications in Peoria are up.

“In the past two years, 2007 and 2006,” the report states, “a total of two landmark applications were filed for Irving School and Glen Oak Park.” In 2008, however, there have been four: Amvets Post #64 (237 NE Monroe), Hamilton Boulevard, 401 NE Monroe, and Family House Peoria (1509 N. Knoxville).

For those of you who can’t picture these buildings, here they are — respectively, the Amvets building, Family House, and 401 NE Monroe:

Generally, I see this as a good thing. Too much of Peoria’s history has already been razed. What’s left really should be preserved — presuming, of course, that it meets reasonable standards for preservation. Most of these properties do.

The one exception would be Hamilton Boulevard. This is on the council’s agenda for Tuesday night. What they are actually proposing be given landmark status is “the built median component of the right-of-way, located within Hamilton Boulevard, from Monroe Street to Glendale Avenue, and Randolph Avenue to North Street.” To which I ask, The median? Really?

The justification for this appears to be the fact that the street was laid out by William S. Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton (you remember Alexander Hamilton — the guy on the $10 bill, first Secretary of the Treasury, died after famous duel with Aaron Burr). Okay, sure, William Hamilton is a prominent historical figure in Peoria. But he also laid out Water, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Liberty, Main, and Fayette. Should we also landmark all of those streets?

Besides, they kind of undercut their whole preservation argument when they removed the portion of Hamilton that is slated to be changed for the Methodist Hospital expansion. Les Kenyon of the Central Illinois Landmark Foundation (CILF) is quoted in the Historic Preservation minutes as saying:

…they [CILF] are satisfied that Methodist Hospital will provide a beautiful environment for patients, medical staff and visitors as they travel on the Hamilton corridor. He went on to say that for this reason, they have amended their original position with regard to Methodist Hospital’s plans and withdraw any objection to the Methodist Plan regarding landmarking Hamilton Boulevard through the Methodist campus and want to remove the Methodist campus from their landmark request.

But Methodist Hospital is removing the built median that CILF wants to see landmarked on the rest of the boulevard. So, is it historic or not? And Methodist is narrowing Hamilton where it passes their institutional zone. So, is the width of the street worth preserving or isn’t it? If Methodist’s plans for Hamilton don’t destroy the historic nature of the boulevard, then nothing does, and thus it needn’t be landmarked.

But don’t get me wrong. Even though I question this one landmark request, overall I think preserving Peoria’s built history is important. I was recently reading some newspaper clippings about the razing of the Rialto Theater to make way for the Civic Center, and it made me sad. It was one of Peoria’s original vaudeville houses. Originally called the Hippodrome, it housed many famous acts, as did the Palace Theater which was also razed about the same time. Whereas other cities, like Chicago, preserve their historic theaters, Peoria tore theirs down and felt the Civic Center theater was an adequate replacement. What a shame.

I’ve often joked (morbidly) that any history museum in Peoria should include an interactive exhibit where visitors can sit in a little crane and swing a wrecking ball into models of Peoria’s historical landmarks. It would be an object lesson in how little we value our history.

City Council, City of Peoria

Updated budget information now online

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Want to know what’s happening with the City’s budget? You’re in luck (the following is from a press release):

The City’s budget website – www.peoriabudget.com – has been updated to include the entire preliminary budget documents. The Mayor and City Council charged staff with creating a budget process that was more transparent, more open to public involvement and built more alignment with Council goals and priorities. For the first time in the City’s history, the preliminary is available for download by citizens, businesses and other interested parties.

The updated website includes the following information:

  • Budget message (the transmittal the accompanies the presentation of the preliminary budget)
  • Overview Presentation to Council (given 10/7 by Henry Holling)
  • Revenue Presentation to Council (given 10/7 by Jim Scroggins)
  • Budget tables for the operating, debt service and Community Investment Plan portions of the budget
  • Budget calendar

In addition, the entire preliminary budget packet for each department has been placed on-line. This is normally a document of over 400 pages, but has been broken into individual files by department.

The Peoria City Council is committed to gathering citizen input on the upcoming budget. In addition to the recently released “Report on Citizen Budget Input” (also available on the website), citizens are invited to address Council at any budget meeting. Upcoming meetings include:

  • October14—Regular Council Meeting (City Hall, 6:15 pm): Community Investment Plan (CIP) budget
  • October 21—Special Council Meeting (City Hall, 5 6:15 pm): CIP budget, operating budget
  • October 28—Regular Council Meeting (City Hall, 6:15 pm): Operating budget
City of Peoria

What’s your sign?

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Whatever it is, if it was placed in the public right-of-way, chances are it’s now at the City’s Public Works facility:

City crews have picked up a total of 69 signs that were placed in the public right of way. The signs are being stored at the City’s Public Works facility on Dries Lane. Signs can be retrieved from Public Works over the next 10 days. After that time, the signs will be discarded.

Pride is picking up in Peoria.