“If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places.”
Monthly Archives: July 2010
OSF planning more development; TIF will help
On “Outside the Horseshoe” this week, WCBU News director Tanya Koonce interviewed Ron Jost, Vice President of Strategic and Facility Planning for OSF St. Francis Medical Center. You can hear a podcast of the show here.
The broadcast focused on the proposed East Village Growth Cell and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District. OSF has offered to front the money for the required studies to establish a TIF. Koonce asked Jost why OSF would want to do that — what’s in it for them? Jost gave several reasons.
First, he emphasized that OSF itself is a “neighbor” in the East Bluff and Near North Side and, like any neighbor, they would like to see their property value increase and live in a safe, stable, viable neighborhood. He also said that, while the hospital is not-for-profit, there are “certain aspects” of their business that do not qualify for tax exemption, and they do pay about $1.1 million per year in property taxes.
Finally, he explained that OSF is looking at further expansion. Specifically, they’ve acquired the White School and Irving School buildings from District 150, and they’re planning to build a 100,000-200,000 square foot building to house a simulation/conference center for training purposes. They’d like to expand south of Greenleaf Street. Jost also said they would be interested in seeing if there are “other parties” who would be willing to develop and provide housing that could replace OSF’s current dormitory.
That last statement explains why OSF would be especially interested in establishing a TIF. Developers would be unlikely to redevelop this area without tax incentives.
Also on the program was Bobby Gray from the City’s Economic Development Department. He emphasized that the boundaries of the “East Village Growth Cell” represent the study area, and may not be the final boundaries of the TIF.
Opponents of Comcast-NBCU merger speak out at hearing
The Federal Communications Commission held a public hearing in Chicago Tuesday on the Comcast/NBC Universal merger. Free Speech Radio Network has a good overview of the hearing. I particularly liked this comment from Josh Silver of the Free Press:
He says the merger would be yet another giveaway to industry giants at the public expense:
JOSH SILVER: Policymaking at the behest of the largest companies across industries is threatening our economy, our oceans, our security and the very viability of our democracy. Just look at the ongoing recession or the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico for the most recent examples.
It’s telling that this hearing was attended by only one FCC commissioner, Michael Copps. He spoke in opposition to the merger, but industry experts expect the FCC to ultimately approve it, with conditions. Copps was interviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer and made a good point:
Copps warned that other media companies would seek government approval for their own mergers if Comcast were allowed to move forward with its proposed acquisition of NBC Universal. And that, he said, could lead the nation down a dangerous path of diminished newsrooms and fewer independent voices on television.
“If you let our competitor get big, you have to let us get big” would be the attitude among Comcast’s competitors, Copps said. Control of the Internet could consolidate into the hands of a few big corporations, in a manner similar to control of radio stations across the country, he said.
NL beats AL in All-Star Game
For the first time since 1996, the National League beat the American League in the MLB All-Star Game. The final score was 3-1. The game was played at Angels Stadium in Anaheim, California. The win gives the National League home-field advantage in this year’s World Series.
Liveblogging the City Council Meeting 7/13/2010
Welcome to Council Chambers at Peoria City Hall. Everyone appears to be in attendance except, of course, George Jacob. Councilman Sandberg arrived late. Councilman Turner appears to have someone job-shadowing him tonight. WCBU news director Tanya Koonce appears to have someone job-shadowing her as well. I’ll be updating this post throughout the evening, so refresh your browser frequently.
Here’s the agenda:
Continue reading Liveblogging the City Council Meeting 7/13/2010
Looking for a used locomotive?
The creditors of Central Illinois Railroad‘s parent company are selling theirs.
Central Illinois Railroad just got $150,000 in taxpayer dollars in May — their price to allow the Kellar Branch rail-to-trail conversion go forward.
UPDATE: The front office of CIRY states that they’re still going to be providing shortline service in Peoria to O’Brien Steel, but were unable to answer any further legal questions. According to published reports, the company only has eight locomotives, and they all appear to be up for sale based on the above notice. So, how exactly they’ll be able to continue providing service is unclear.
Passenger Rail task force members include former Peoria mayor
Richard Neumiller, former mayor of Peoria and member of the now defunct railroad commission, is on a new passenger rail task force put together by the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission (TCRPC). Neumiller was appointed by Mayor Jim Ardis to represent Peoria on the task force. Here is the full list of task force members, provided by the TCRPC:
Illinois River Valley Council of Governments
| City of Peoria | Dick Neumiller |
| Village of Bartonville | Rhonda Wolfe |
| City of Chillicothe | Randy Stevens |
| Limestone Township | Bob Lawless |
| Tazewell County | Clint Drury |
| City of Pekin | Steve Brown |
| City of East Peoria | Ty Livingston |
| Village of Morton | Norm Durflinger |
| Washington Township | Gary Manier |
| Woodford County | John Krug |
| Village of Roanoke | Kevin Braker |
| City of Eureka | Marc Pasteris |
| Village of Metamora | Bill Belshaw |
| Woodford County Township | Gayl Wyss |
| Peoria County | Paul Feltenstein |
Tri-County Regional Planning Commission
| Stephen Van Winkle | John Blossom |
| Russ Crawford | James Polk |
| Dean Grimm |
Bloomington Normal
| Mark Peterson, Town of Normal |
| Aaron Quick, City of Bloomington |
Ex-officio Members
| Steve Jaeger, HOI Port District |
| Larry Koch |
If you’re counting, you may notice that there are 22 members (not including ex-officio members), not 21 as stated in the Journal Star the other day. For more information on the Illinois River Valley Council of Governments, see the TCRPC’s overview here.
I caught up with Terry Kohlbuss, executive director of TCRPC, and we had a good discussion regarding the task force’s plans to establish a link between Peoria and Bloomington. On the positive side, they still see a direct passenger rail connection between Peoria and Chicago as the ultimate goal. That’s important, because it means they are still awaiting the Amtrak-IDOT report and are not trying to second-guess its conclusions. However, where we disagree is on the strategy for meeting that ultimate goal. As stated in my previous post, the task force wants to pursue a link with the Bloomington Amtrak station first — starting with carpooling, then vans, then buses, then a passenger rail shuttle, and eventually direct service via Bloomington to Chicago.
I still fear that such a strategy is too risky. Rail service from Peoria to Bloomington will not produce high ridership, and given the cost of establishing Peoria-Chicago service, low ridership between Peoria and Bloomington could be used by politicians to justify killing passenger rail here before a direct link to Chicago can be established. I’m afraid decision-makers would not conclude that Peoria-Bloomington service is unpopular, but that rail service in general is unpopular and unsupported. That would be a real tragedy that would set Peoria back thirty years.
A better strategy would be to establish direct service between Peoria and Chicago first — which will produce high ridership numbers — and use that success to add more rail lines in the future, perhaps even an east-west route like the one being proposed by the task force, especially if it could be extended to Champaign.
News 25 Today now in HD (UPDATED)
I’m not sure when they started this (I don’t normally watch early-morning TV), but I just noticed this morning that WEEK’s “News 25 Today” local show with Garry Moore and Sandy Gallant is now being broadcast in high definition. It looks really good! There were very few technical glitches this morning, too.
UPDATE: All of WEEK’s news shows are evidently in 16:9 HD. I’m watching News 25 at 10 now. They also have some new computer graphics, including “pillars” that fill in the side margins of (some of) the 4:3 footage they’re still using for national news stories. Their shots and CG are composed so they can use a center cut for standard def broadcasts (i.e., no letterboxing on older 4:3 sets — the picture appears full frame). Their ad bumpers are still standard def. Still, they’re the first local news to broadcast in HD.
PeoriaNEXT incubates another government sponge
PeoriaNEXT Innovation Center, the organization that brought you Firefly Energy, has incubated another start-up company that can’t start up without taxpayer-supplied venture capital. It’s called Intellihot, and fortunately for Peoria taxpayers, it’s getting its combined $1,015,000 in direct lending and commercial loan guarantees from the taxpayers of Galesburg.
The Galesburg City Council unanimously approved a $675,000 loan (at 3% for 10 years) plus a guarantee they would cover 20% of a $1.7 million bank loan (that works out to $340,000). The editors of the Galesburg Register-Mail are also unanimous in their approval of the council’s action. It’s not hard to see why. Intellihot promises to “create 45 jobs paying $25 an hour [in the next two years] and plans to develop a 30,000 square feet facility in the Sustainable Business Center, which is located in old Carhartt building on West Main. The company hopes to employ 144 workers here within four years.”
Intellihot is a company started by two former Caterpillar engineers. So why are they planning to manufacture their tankless water heaters in Galesburg instead of Peoria? According to Paul Gordon’s column on Sunday:
There is a facility already available in Galesburg that will be a sustainable and green incubator for manufacturing products. […]
“Finances, of course, were a very important factor, as was the skills of Galesburg workers. But having the sustainable, green manufacturing incubator ready was key because we have some time lines we have to meet. We have to get some things done to move this forward or someone else will,” [Sridhar Deivasigamani, president of the company] said.
What is this “green incubator” that Galesburg has? The Galesburg newspaper explains:
The [former Carhartt] building offers 80,000 square feet of manufacturing/warehouse space, as well as 8,000 square feet of offices. According to a news release from the [Sustainable Business Center], “Incubation services will be offered to new, green businesses at below market lease rates. Services will include receptionist, copy, fax and conference room. Staff will be available to help draft business plans and to mentor and work with new businesses.”
Carhartt is a Michigan-based manufacturer of “premium workwear” that closed its distribution center in Galesburg last August. However, instead of selling the building and abandoning Galesburg altogether, Carhartt’s majority owners (Mark and Gretchen Garth) donated the building to their family foundation, HumanLinks, and have been turning it into the Sustainable Business Center. WQAD reported in June: “Using green technology, it hopes to eventually replace some 200 jobs that were lost here.”
Bottom line, Intellihot is getting “below-market lease rates” on their manufacturing space and over $1 million in financial backing from Galesburg, and that’s why they’re going to build their product there instead of Peoria.
I wish Intellihot and the taxpayers of Galesburg the best of luck. Peoria’s foray into venture capital for another PeoriaNEXT start-up company didn’t work out so well. Perhaps Galesburg will fare better. Still, I miss the good old days when entrepreneurs used exclusively private financing to start up new companies instead of relying on public tax dollars.
21 groups form coalition against Comcast-NBCU merger
Bloomberg, Parents Television Council, National Organization of Women, Writer’s Guild of America, Free Press, and sixteen other groups have banded together to oppose the proposed Comcast-NBC Universal merger. They call themselves The Coalition for Competition in Media. Here’s a full-page ad they recently placed in the Chicago Sun-Times:
The deal is still being reviewed by the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department. More information on the coalition, including reaction from Comcast, can be found in Bloomberg Businessweek (click here).