Yesterday I got my property tax bill.
Looking it over, I see that over half my taxes go to Peoria Public School District 150. They’re going to have another forum on the future plans for Glen Oak and White schools, this time just for parents of kids who attend those schools. Superintendent Ken Hinton said, “It’s important to me to hear the voice of the parents.” Okay, I’ll take him at his word, but he’d be a whole lot more convincing if he had listened to their voice before deciding the site of a new school.
I have the same concerns about the format as other people, so I won’t repeat that here. But I would like to make another point: I think it’s important to listen to the parents of kids who attend there, but this decision doesn’t just affect them. Alterations to Glen Oak Park affects all of Peoria. Replacing the Glen Oak School site with a park, public housing, or a vacant building affects all of the East Bluff. Let’s just suppose, for the sake of argument, that the parents of kids at Glen Oak and White right now are indifferent to the location of a new school. That should be taken into consideration, but shouldn’t trump overall neighborhood and city concerns.
Also on my bill, I see I’m paying a good amount to the “Pleasure Driveway PKD,” aka the Peoria Park District. The park board was just slapped with a lawsuit this weekend by neighborhood activists Karrie Alms and Sara Partridge. According to the Journal Star, the suit “alleges closed meetings held by the board on March 8 and 22 violated the state’s Open Meetings Act by discussing plans to replace Glen Oak School when that wasn’t appropriate.” If the court finds that the board met illegally, and if the decision to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with District 150 was made in one of those meetings, one possible remedy would be to nullify the agreement that was made in secret.
I’m glad somebody cares enough to act on this. People complain about back-room deals and shady politics, but more often than not nobody does anything about it. Here are a couple of people who are willing to hold the Park Board accountable for their actions. Kudos to Karrie and Sara!
Let’s see, what else is on my tax bill? There’s Illinois Central College and the Peoria Library. Don’t have much to say about those except that I think the library here in Peoria is under-utilized. There’s a wealth of information and expertise down there — I’ve learned more about Peoria from the library than one could ever learn online.
The Greater Peoria Mass Transit District, aka CityLink, makes an appearance on my bill. They do a pretty good job of moving people around the city — a tough job when the city is as spread out as it is. On the Peoria Rails Yahoo group, several people have been throwing around the idea of using the Kellar Branch for a light passenger rail system instead of a walking/biking trail:
The expansion of Peoria population into the far northwest part of the city, the growth of shopping in that area, and greatly increased fuel costs might make light rail service feasible. The Kellar branch could up upgraded and extended over Rt 6 to a parking and depot area behind or near the Grand Prairie. Interconnecting bus service there, downtown, and perhaps at a stop or two along the way would make public transportation quicker and more user friendly. The light rail service could terminate at the old Rock Island Depot and the light rail unit could be run in the push/pull – Chicago METRA style. A shuttle bus could take passengers to and from the CITYLINK terminal on Adams St.
Not a bad idea, especially given the cost of gas these days. However, there are two things not mentioned that would have to happen for it to be successful: (1) the speed limit for this light rail system would have to be faster than the 10 mph city code dictates for trains, and (2) part of the upgrade of the Kellar Branch would have to be better signals at grade crossings and fences along the tracks where the tracks pass through neighborhoods.
CityLink isn’t the only transportation entity on my tax bill. There’s also the Greater Peoria Regional Airport Authority. They have a new skipper (Ken Spirito from Gulfport, Mississippi), and part of his mission is to “redevelop and redo this terminal building. […] I want it to be a ‘wow’ impression. I want to ‘wow’ them,” according to the Journal Star‘s May 1 article. At least one person doesn’t like that idea. Polly Peoria, usually an advocate of tearing down old buildings, likes this one, so it can stay. I haven’t flown since before 9/11/01, so I honestly have no idea what kind of condition Peoria’s airport is in. If remodeling can bring in more business though, I say go for it. It’s not like that terminal was built to be a hallmark civic building.
What’s left? Let’s see, Peoria County, which recently voted down an expansion to the hazardous waste landfill. Now there’s a public board that listened to the public. District 150 and the Park Board could learn a few things from them. I’ve already blogged about this issue at length, so I’ll move on.
Finally, there’s the City of Peoria and Peoria Township. Why we need both I don’t quite understand, and yes, I have read the Journal Star’s special series on this issue. It’s an interesting read, but given what services the township now provides, it seems like they could just as easily provide it as part of city services and eliminate redundant government bodies.
As usual, my wife and I will pick a day to go down to the courthouse, eat at the pushcarts, listen to the Arts in Education bands play, enjoy the beautiful weather (hopefully), and pay our property taxes. Doing it that way lessens the pain of all the money we’re paying.
Keller Branch rail service would be very viable if a park and ride lot was put out on the NW end. But not push-pull, CJ. It should be “RDC” – self-propelled rail diesel cars. Very versatile. Could even be made to look like old-time street cars (yes, they still make such things).
Gomaco Trolley Company over in Iowa. Great tourist attraction, in addition to a good way to transport people and save gas.
As you note, you are taxed to support the airport you don’t use. This seems like a no-brainer. Which is why Peoria probably won’t do it.
We are locked in the 1950’s mentality of cars, highways, parking lots, more cars, more concrete, etc., and say we are progressive by spending millions of dollars on a trail that all of a six people will ride to work on the rare days when the weather is nice enough.
“I haven’t flown since before 9/11/01, so I honestly have no idea what kind of condition Peoria’s airport is in.”
I flew through tons of small-city airports while doing the grad school/find a job/ oh-my-god-what-am-I-doing-with-the-rest-of-my-life? thing.
I think PIA is in pretty good shape. Yes, the decor is clearly from the 60s. It’s also poorly-lit in the terminals (although frankly bright lighting in public buildings typically just highlights everyone’s skin flaws, so I don’t know that that needs correcting). But when I’ve been through, the airport experience has been polite and efficient, which is really what matters the most, to me.
South Bend International Airport at the Mishawaka Regional Transportation Center (seriously) is similarly-sized and serves as a transit hub instead of just an airport. It’s more spruced up than PIA, which is nice, but it routinely takes an hour to get your bags from the plane. There’s ONE FRIGGIN’ PLANE at the entire airport, and it’s parked three feet from the hole in the wall that serves as the baggage claim, and they can’t manage to unload it. It’s maddening.
Raleigh-Durham (RDU) is bigger than PIA, and has undergone extensive renovations to add shops and internet access and snazziness. I admit this is nice, particularly the food carts that open and close with the airport itself, so when you land ravenous at 10 p.m. you can still get a danish. But that place is a nightmare. Security is woefully understaffed, particularly post-9/11, so you really NEED the two hours before check-in just to get through the damned metal detectors. There are never enough ticket agents or other personnel. The whole thing is a hassle.
So … I think airport snazziness is more important for airports like Chicago-O’Hare that serve as hubs, since people will actually pick their routes based on at which airport they will spend their three-hour layover. But I don’t choose to fly into Raleigh-Durham based on its internet connectivity or lovely fabric ceiling hanging thingies – I fly into the nightmare that is RDU because I have business in Raleigh-Durham. People are going to fly in and out of PIA when they have business in Peoria, and when it’s more convenient than driving from Chicago. PIA is a pleasant airport to fly into or out of because it’s easy, convenient, and efficient. (Although I find getting to it a little bit confusing – they need to improve that signage, especially for out-of-towners.)
The reason why I DON’T fly in and out of PIA more often? First, because it is sometimes actually cheaper to pay for gas to drive to Chicago and park at ORD instead of taking the hopper to ORD; and second, because many of the connections through ORD to get anywhere else are really, really long. Every time I fly out of Peoria I seem to get a 5-hour layover in Chicago. It would be faster just to drive to Chicago; I could leave home an hour later. I don’t know if it’s that Peoria doesn’t have enough daily flights to and from Chicago, or if the scheduling is just awkward (or if I just fly to strange places), but it can be difficult to find a reasonable-length layover.
(Flying out of PIA for my impending autumn vacation to London adds $500 to the fare (for two of us) AND requires a 7-hour layover in Chicago on the way back! SEVEN HOURS!!!! Ergo we’re flying from ORD.)
My only gripe about Peoria is that wherever\whenever I seem to fly, (although it’s usually east or southeast) its cheaper to drive to Bloomington and fly from there. Same airlines..American, Northwest… I flew 7 times last year (Savannah, Stewart, JFK, Atlanta, Albany, Boston and Grand Rapids) and it was always cheaper to fly out of Bloomington. Why is this? Is it cheaper flying west out of Peoria?
Eyebrows: It sounds like PIA hasn’t changed at all since I stopped flying, except that I think you can’t go to the gate unless you have a ticket now. I remember standing at the gate seeing people off and welcoming them home — now I’m pretty sure you have to see them off at the metal detector and welcome them home in the baggage claim area.
Chef: I used to be the travel coordinator for CEFCU. Whenever someone would travel on business for the credit union, I would arrange their flight, hotel, etc. (My actual job was a corporate trainer; I’m not exactly sure how travel coordination ended up being part of my job description, but I digress.) One time I was setting up a flight for a VP to fly to Minneapolis on Northwest. There was a flight that originated in Bloomington, stopped in Peoria, then continued to Minneapolis. It was something like $200 cheaper to take the plane out of Bloomington instead of Peoria. I was so disgusted, I wrote to Phil Luciano of the Journal Star, and he contacted Northwest and got a sort-of answer. I still don’t understand how airlines set their prices, but apparently they set them for each area as if they’re all mutually exclusive. For instance, they don’t take Peoria into account when setting prices for Bloomington. Phil’s article ran on the front page of the paper under the headline “Idiosyncrasies fly in Peoria.” It was a good article, although I got in big trouble for talking directly to the media. I should have known better, but I was fed up with the ridiculousness of the pricing differences (this wasn’t the first case, just the most egregious). So I acted impulsively.
Unfortunately, it didn’t really do any good. Prices are still out of kilter between the two cities.