All posts by C. J. Summers

I am a fourth-generation Peorian, married with three children.
City of Peoria, Redistricting

New maps move downtown, Warehouse District to District 3

12 Comments

The latest proposed maps from Peoria’s Planning and Growth Department show downtown and the Warehouse District being moved from the first to the third district, and the West Bluff moving from the second to the first district. You can see the maps and population information on the city’s website, or here:

07052011-Redistricting-Maps

The City’s Redistricting Committee had asked staff to put more emphasis on keeping established neighborhoods together, and also to take into consideration the future growth predictions for the city. Each district needs to have relatively equal population, but can have up to a 5% deviation. Based on the deviations on these new maps, the City evidently expects to see the most growth in the first and second districts, and the least growth in the fourth and fifth districts. In 2000, the City accurately predicted the most growth would be in the fifth district.

The next redistricting committee meeting is Tuesday, July 5, at 4:30 p.m. in City Council chambers. Also, the West Bluff Council will host an open forum for West Bluff neighbors to discuss the importance of redistricting at 7 p.m. Monday, July 18, at the Bradley University Student Center.

City of Peoria, The Peoria Chronicle

Blog interrupted

46 Comments

I’ve closed the comments on my previous post because it looks like any constructive discussion that might have taken place there has been exhausted, and now I’m getting a number of racist comments. I’ve tried to delete the worst of them; if I missed any, I apologize.

As you all know by now, the previous post was picked up by The Drudge Report, and the increased traffic to my site led to my blog being shut down. Just so you know, there was no government conspiracy or censorship going on. My blog is hosted on a shared server, meaning other websites and blogs are hosted on the same computer, and when I got over 300,000 hits that first day I was on Drudge, it used up all the network connections to that server. That meant that I was hogging the whole server and not allowing any traffic to the other sites, which is technically a violation of the terms of service. Thus, my hosting company shut down my site.

I could have gotten the site back up sooner if I had moved the site to a virtual private server or took some other action to increase my bandwidth. But let’s face it, my blog is a local blog, not a blog of national interest. So I just waited it out, and within a couple of days my traffic counts were pretty much back to normal. My hosting company was very understanding and got the site back up as soon as traffic died down. It took a few days; thanks for your patience.

I’ve been taken to task somewhat for publishing the previous post. All I can tell you is that I consider Paul a reliable source. He was an eye-witness to the event; police radio traffic confirmed that there were calls about a disturbance on Thrush that evening, and so I went with the story. Despite subsequent attempts to discredit Paul, his description of the events that night have been corroborated. True, not all neighbors heard racial threats being yelled, but some did.

There is no dispute from anyone that there was indeed a large group of kids going down Thrush, stopping traffic, running on lawns and porches, and making a lot of noise at 11:00 at night. I would submit that this is unacceptable behavior regardless of what they were yelling. It is not “kids being kids,” and I don’t believe we should condone it, even tacitly. If you had a family with small children, this would be very disturbing. It certainly does not make anyone want to move into the area and raise their family there. This issue needs to be addressed, not swept under the rug or brushed off with unsubstantiated accusations of exaggeration.

As far as the national exposure, I did not seek it out, and I didn’t find it particularly helpful. It appears that there are some who are claiming that there are race riots going on throughout the country, and my post was supposed to be proof that it’s happening here, too. Nobody locally has said or intimated such a thing. My interest in the story was purely local. My regular readers know that I’ve expressed concern over the City Council’s cutting of police protection and other basic services while raising taxes for expensive, needless capital projects. This story was relevant to those concerns.

City of Peoria, East Bluff

Peorians living in fear

131 Comments

This eye-witness account is from Paul Wilkinson, president of the Altamont Park Neighborhood Association:

Tonight, around 11 p.m., a group of at least 60-70 African American youth marched down one of the side streets (W. Thrush) to the 4 lane main drag (Sheridan). They were yelling threats to white residents. Things such as we need to kill alll the white people around here. They were physically intimidating anyone calling for help from the police. They were surrounding cars. Cars on the main drag had to slam on their brakes to either avoid the youth blocking not only all four lanes, but a large section of the side street as well. fights were breaking out among them. They were rushing residents who looked out their doors, going on to porches, yelling threats to people calling the police for help.

Cars were doing U turns on the streets just to avoid the mob, mostly male. One youth stated his grandfather was white and several assaulted him on the spot. One police officer answered the call. The youth split into two large groups, one heading north, the other south. They were also yelling racial threats to the police officer but he was outnumbered. Another police car did not show up until after the youth finally dispersed and the patty wagon (van) also eventually showed up.

Residents are very shaken, both black and white alike. This is the fifth large mob action in about a month with smaller groups of 10-12 are out threatening children and adults a few evenings a week or later into the night. The times vary, even occuring during the day. In talking to the police officer, they are short staffed. Residents were advised to simply keep inside and to lock their doors. In other words buckle down, it’s not even safe to sit on your porch or go into your yards.

“The fifth large mob action in about a month.” Wow. This is really outrageous. Why is this neighborhood having to put up with this? “Residents were advised to simply keep inside and to lock their doors”? Seriously? That’s the best we can do for our fellow citizens’ safety?

This needs to be addressed, and quickly.

City Council, City of Peoria, History

A curious appointment

33 Comments

On the City Council agenda for next Tuesday’s meeting is a curious appointment by Mayor Jim Ardis to the Historic Preservation Commission: Steve Pierz. Pierz used to be the so-called “litter czar” in Peoria and by all accounts did a wonderful job. But then he got in a dispute with the City. He wanted to put vinyl siding on a house he owns in an historic district on High Street, but was denied by the Historic Preservation Commission.

So he sued them.

Mind you, he didn’t just sue the City. He sued each commissioner on the Historic Preservation Commission personally, many of whom are still on the Commission today. He ultimately prevailed. The City reached a settlement with him and his wife and reversed the Commission’s decision.

So now the mayor wants to appoint Pierz to the very same commission he sued, to work with the same commissioners he personally sued. Won’t that be a little awkward? And counter-productive, considering Pierz’s demonstrated contempt for the commission?

It’s just another indignity for the Historic Preservation Commission, which has seen its ordinance eviscerated and its attempts to preserve Peoria’s architectural heritage regularly thwarted by the City Council.

City of Peoria

Peoria has the perfect solution to Matthews’ inability to pay loans back on time

6 Comments

The Journal Star reports that East Peoria taxpayers are having trouble getting their money back from Gary Matthews. He borrowed $150,000 from the city in 2007 to help him build the hideous monstrosity we know as GEM Terrace. He’s been paying that money back, but not exactly on time. He owes $24,862 in late payments.

The City of Peoria isn’t going to let that happen to taxpayers here. When Matthews finally builds The Wonderful Development, Peorians won’t have to worry about him making late payments. Why? Well, because the City isn’t loaning him any money. They’re planning to give him $37 million ($9 million of which will go directly into his pocket as a “developer fee”) as a grant. No repayment necessary. Aren’t we clever? While all the citizens have to check out HardMoneyLendersBoston.com and beg for payday advances and loans, Matthews continues to bumble about.

Matthews’ inability to hit deadlines has actually worked to Peoria’s advantage. We haven’t had to sell the bonds yet to come up with that $37 million because the Wonderful Developer has been unable to get the project started by the dates required on either of the redevelopment agreements he inked with the City in 2008 and 2010.

I, for one, hope Mr. Matthews continues his deadline-missing ways. It’s saving the taxpayers here a lot of money.

City Council, City of Peoria, Redistricting

Residents: Keep our neighborhoods together (UPDATED)

5 Comments

Only a few people spoke at Tuesday’s City Council redistricting committee meeting, but those who did had one thing in common. They did not want to see their neighborhoods divided between two or more council districts. City staff was instructed to discard the maps that carved up the West Bluff and/or the Florence Avenue Neighborhood Association and come back with more alternatives that keep neighborhoods within a single council district.

There was also a request for staff to quantify what kind of population growth the City expects over the next ten years — taking into account plans for the Warehouse District, East Village Growth Cell, Main Street Commons, and growth cells in the current fifth district — and use that information to assist in drawing new district boundaries. Here’s how this information helps: when drawing new boundaries, the city is required to make each district equal in population. But they don’t have to be exactly equal — they’re allowed a range of deviation of up to five percent. So, if you expect one district to grow faster than the others, you can make that district a little smaller in population, as long as it’s within the five percent range. This helps keep districts from getting too lopsided over the next ten years.

The committee also recommended that the full City Council discuss whether to increase the number of council districts in the city and/or do away with cumulative voting for at-large council members. The committee felt that discussion was outside of their purview and should be taken up by the entire council.

The next redistricting committee meeting will be Tuesday, July 5, at 4:30 p.m. in City Council chambers. The meeting time was moved an hour earlier so that third district councilman Riggenbach (who was unable to attend last night’s meeting due to an unexpected work assignment) can attend both the redistricting committee meeting and an East Village Growth Cell meeting at Glen Oak School that same night at 6 p.m.

Continue reading Residents: Keep our neighborhoods together (UPDATED) →

Uncategorized

Question of the Day: Should there be a law against running with scissors?

28 Comments

I think we would all agree that one shouldn’t run with scissors. It’s dangerous. You could trip and fall and impale yourself, or put out your eye. Worse, the scissors could fly out of your hands accidentally and injure another person. Anyone who runs with scissors does a very foolish thing. That’s a given.

The question is not, “Should one not run with the scissors?” The question is, “Should there be a law against running with scissors?” In other words, should the government make it a crime to run with scissors? Should a bill be introduced in the state or federal legislature making it illegal to run with scissors? Should anyone caught running with scissors in a public place be fined, or perhaps jailed?

Why or why not?

City of Peoria

Starting over? Come to Peoria

19 Comments

According to MSN Real Estate, Peoria is one of the ten best places for starting over; i.e., Peoria is one of “10 midsize to large cities with the best job prospects and most affordable mortgage payments.” The list is:

  1. Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
  2. Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas
  3. Kalamazoo-Portage, Mich.
  4. Rochester, N.Y.
  5. Oklahoma City
  6. Peoria, Ill.
  7. Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, Ark.
  8. Kingsport-Bristol, Tenn.-Bristol, Va.
  9. Columbus, Ohio
  10. Fort Wayne, Ind.

Here’s what they had to say about our fair city:

Employment gains in Peoria are setting it apart from some of its Midwest rivals. The city is working to grow small businesses with a technology incubator that opened in 2007.

A new entertainment project, The Block, with an interdisciplinary museum, theater, planetarium and The Caterpillar Experience will open along the downtown riverfront in the fall of 2012.

With an average home price of just $140,666, residents here can afford to take in all that the city has to offer on the weekends.

I think it’s interesting that they didn’t mention (for example) the recently-expanded Civic Center, which we have, but did mention “The Block,” which won’t be opening for more than a year. Regardless of what I think about the museum, this write-up makes Peoria sound like it doesn’t have much in the way of entertainment — and won’t until next fall. Why not highlight some of the amenities we already have?

Hat tip: homemade and happy

Census 2010, City Council, City of Peoria, Redistricting

City redistricting maps released

9 Comments

City staff has created nine options for new Peoria City Council districts. You can see all the proposed maps in the Redistricting Committee June 21 meeting packet from the City’s website. I’ve also put a copy of the maps on my site here:

6-21-2011 Redistricting Maps

Several different scenarios are included: columnar districts (north to south), layered districts (east to west), drawn-out-from-center districts, and districts expanded from current boundaries (there are several of these). All of them have one thing in common: the fifth district gets smaller and the other four districts get bigger.

There’s also an interesting memo from Randy Ray at the end of the packet that details what the process would be for changing the number of districts and council members, and eliminating cumulative voting for at-large council members. The City’s current system of government (five at-large council members elected by cumulative voting plus five district council members) was established as the result of a civil rights lawsuit in the 1980s, so any change to this system would have to be approved by the federal court that decided that case. In addition, state law requires that changes to the system of government be approved by the voters via referendum. So the process would be this: A public referendum would have to be drafted and approved first by the federal court and then the voters. In order to have enough time to comply with redistricting requirements, the decision would have to be made this year (2011) on whether they wanted to try to make these changes. It will be interesting to hear the discussion on this possibility at the next meeting.

The next meeting of the redistricting committee is Tuesday, June 21, at 5:30 p.m. in Council Chambers.

City Council, City of Peoria

Peoria City Council 6-14-2011 (Live Blog)

7 Comments

Hello everyone. I’m here at City Hall, room 400, for the Peoria City Council meeting on this Flag Day 2011. It’s very warm in council chambers, and the windows have been opened to help cool things off. It appears that all the council members and mayor are in attendance, and there is a rather long agenda for this evening. As usual, I’ll be adding my comments about the proceedings under each item below (the consent agenda is a single item). Also in attendance are Chris Kaergard from the Peoria Journal Star, Tanya Koonce from WCBU-FM, and Shaun Newell of 1470 WMBD radio.

Without any further ado, here’s tonight’s agenda:

Continue reading Peoria City Council 6-14-2011 (Live Blog) →