All posts by C. J. Summers

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

Cable franchise agreement to be extended until July 15

The 20-year cable franchise agreement the City of Peoria has with Insight Communications is set to expire April 15, but the city is offering to extend it until July 15, according to Randy Ray, corporation counsel for the city.

Ray didn’t explain further, so the rest of this post is pure speculation.

It appears the only things the city wants are to have Insight broadcast the city council meetings for free, which would save the city about $32,000 annually, and to have a shorter term for the agreement.  I’m going to guess that the $32,000 is not the sticking point, but that the cable company wants a longer agreement.  I seem to remember (and I could be remembering this incorrectly) Ray saying that he wanted the new agreement to be for only five years.  If that’s the case, that would be a disincentive for a cable company to invest a lot in infrastructure; I could see how it would hold up negotiations.

And Insight is not shy about holding up negotiations.  In Decatur, their franchise agreement has been expired for three years and they’re still negotiating a new one.  Let’s hope it’s not that bad in Peoria, and that the short three-month extension is a signal that both parties are hoping to come to agreement soon.

Elections

Lane Evans will retire

WMBD-AM 1470 reports that U.S. Representative Lane Evans will not run for reelection due to his battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was diagnosed in 1995 and has been unable to work since February 14 of this year. He is 54.

He just won the nomination for another term in last Tuesday’s primary, so now the Democratic county chairmen in the 17th Congressional District will have to select a candidate to replace him on the November ballot. There’s no word on who that replacement will be, but whoever it is will be running against Republican Andrea Zinga, a former TV news anchor who ran for the same seat unsuccessfully in 2004, garnering 39% of the vote against the incumbent Evans.

City of Peoria, Heart of Peoria Plan

City planning largely to blame for isolation

I’ve been commenting on quite a few Journal Star articles today. I should send them a thank-you note for supplying me so much material. But they did have another interesting piece — this one on elderly residents who stop driving due to safety concerns.

The subhead for the article reads, “the loss of independence can leave them [the elderly] isolated.” One of the elderly non-drivers interviewed for the story said, “I’m having to depend on other people to take me where I want to go.” But the article never addresses the underlying reason for this dependence on others to drive them around.

That reason is our city planning or urban design — specifically, that our city is largely designed for cars rather than for people. Peoria has much of its housing completely segregated from shopping, entertainment, business, etc., because of zoning laws that have not allowed mixed uses of property. This kind of design requires dependence on the automobile to take one from one type of zoning to another (from home to work, from work to the store, from the store to home, etc.). Thus, this kind of city plan is hardest on those who don’t have automobile transportation: children, the poor, and the elderly.

That’s why the Heart of Peoria Plan, which is based on New Urbanism, recommends the reinstitution of mixed use neighborhoods. For example, if there is a market within easy walking distance, and the neighborhood is pedestrian-friendly, non-driving elderly persons don’t feel quite as isolated because they can still walk to the store and pick up some groceries themselves without relying on someone to drive them around. Similarly, if there’s a restaurant or cafe nearby, they can walk to such a gathering place themselves, without having to ask for a lift.

When my grandfather stopped driving, it wasn’t because he was feeble or unable to live on his own. Sure his eyesight and reaction time weren’t as sharp as they used to be, but he could still walk, fix himself meals, and live alone in an apartment. If he had lived in a mixed-use neighborhood, there are a lot more things he could have done himself without relying on others to drive him. The isolation he felt was the result of automobile-dependent urban design.

City of Peoria, Peoria Police

Should Peoria not be hospitable?

An elderly couple just going out for a walk here in Peoria were approached by a young man who asked to use their phone. They let the man in, and he hid in the couple’s bathroom. Soon, the police arrived. It turns out the man had just robbed the Subway restaurant in Northwoods Mall.

The elderly couple was obviously shaken by this turn of events, and the Journal Star’s account of the incident includes this quote from the couple and advice from the police:

“You can’t be nice anymore,” the [elderly] man said. “You don’t know what you’re getting into. If the police hadn’t come in, I don’t know what would have happened.”

[Police Lt. Jeff] Adams echoed that and asked people not to let strangers into their homes.

“You’ve got a guy who has just committed a robbery,” Adams said. “If the police hadn’t been around, this could have turned bad quick.”

Isn’t that sad? “Letting strangers into your home” is what used to be known as “showing hospitality.” Now, the police are essentially saying that Peoria is so unsafe that we are being asked not to practice hospitality.

But is not allowing strangers into our homes the solution . . . or the problem? Maybe we should have more strangers in our houses — like the strangers who live next door. Do we know our neighbors? Could it be that our isolation has made us less rather than more secure?

And what about that stranger that asks to use your phone? Maybe you could engage him in conversation and try to find out a little about why he’s calling and where he’s going. If he sounds suspicious, by all means, don’t let him in your house. But maybe you can offer to let him use your cordless phone or cell phone — outside. You can still show kindness while trying to minimize your risk.

I remember many years ago when I was just a teenager and my car broke down on War Memorial Drive one Sunday evening. I had to go up to a nearby house and ask to use the phone. I sure am thankful a kind lady let this stranger into her house to use her phone, or it would have been a long walk home! Sometimes the stranger who asks to use your phone really just needs to use the phone.

City of Peoria, Illinois American Water

Can Peoria afford IEPA compliance if we buy our water works?

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The Journal Star had a story today about the problems Kingston Mines is having coming up with $400,000 to treat their water so it meets IEPA standards.  Suppose Peoria were to buy the water works from Illinois American Water.  In addition to the huge debt load from buying the water works, would Peoria be able to afford IEPA compliance in the long-term?

Kingston Mines has radium contamination. What if Peoria develops copper or lead contamination, and the only way to fix it is by replacing the infrastructure?  Can Peoria afford to fix that on top of the cost of purchasing the water company?  Peoria is an old city with a lot of old pipes.  I hope councilman Manning has figured in those kinds of contingencies when this issue comes up the next time.

Peoria Regional Airport

Peoria has new airport director

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WMBD Radio reports that the airport authority board has approved Ken Spirito as director of the Greater Peoria Regional Airport, succeeding Solomon Balraj, who left last fall. Before coming to Peoria, he was the Assistant Executive Director of the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport in Mississippi.

Even though WMBD is reporting this today, the date on the press release from the airport’s website is 3/8/06.  So I guess this is old news.  Here’s some more biographical information on Mr. Spirito:

Originally from Long Island, New York, Mr. Spirito has worked at several airports in the Midwest, Southeast and Northeast. In previous positions, he was responsible for working with legislators and developing aeronautical and non-aeronautical business. Mr. Spirito has managed over $250 million in capital improvements at Gulfport-Biloxi and was recently named one of the top 10 business leaders in South Mississippi. Mr. Spirito is an Accredited Airport Executive (A.A.E.) and is an active member of the American Association of Airport Executives.

He has a wife and two kids, and will be starting at $135,000 a year.  Welcome to Peoria, Ken.

City of Peoria, Illinois American Water

RWE spinning off American Water as IPO by ’07

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RWE issued a press release yesterday announcing they’ve decided not to sell American Water Works, the parent company of Illinois American Water Co., but pursue an initial public offering instead:

The Executive Board of RWE AG decided to pursue an initial public offering (IPO) in the U.S. for the shares of American Water as the most attractive option for RWE and the U.S.-based company, its employees and customers. This decision will return American Water to its status as a publicly-traded company. RWE had previously announced on November 4, 2005 its intention to divest American Water either through an IPO or by selling American Water to a group of financial investors.

The IPO will result in a publicly-traded company that is focused on water and wastewater in the U.S. and dedicated to maintaining a high level of service and quality.

The sales process is expected to be initiated shortly through filings for approval with certain state public utility commissions. The IPO will require filing of a registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The transaction will also be subject to the approval of the RWE AG Supervisory Board. The target is to complete the transaction during 2007.

What does this mean for Peoria and its efforts to reacquire their portion of Illinois American Water? I haven’t heard anything from city officials, but I imagine their view will be similar to Lexington’s (KY), a city that is also trying to purchase their city’s water works. The Lexington Herald-Leader reports today:

Former Lexington Mayor Scotty Baesler, chairman of the city [water buyout] committee, said yesterday that RWE’s IPO announcement would not alter his committee’s work.

The city probably would have to try to buy Kentucky American from whoever ends up controlling American Water, Baesler said.

Dealing with a new company could help the city’s efforts because a new owner might be more willing to jettison Kentucky American, he said.

Not a bad strategy. The difference in Lexington, of course, is that a majority of residents are in favor of the city buying the water company. Here in Peoria, about 2/3 of residents are opposed to the city acquiring the water company.

I’m convinced the bottom-line issue in Peoria — the reason so many people are against the city owning the water company — is trust. Frankly, we’re still not convinced they can handle it. They can’t fully staff our fire stations. They throw money away on bike paths, the RiverPlex, and other pork park district boondoggles. They’ve already raised our water bills by adding a “garbage” tax to them.

It took a long time to develop that distrust, and it’s not going to go away overnight. The new council has made some good strides so far, so maybe they’ll be able to overcome our doubts by the time the next opportunity to buy the water company rolls around.

There are other reasons to question the wisdom of the city buying the water company, but trust is the largest hurdle for the council.

Elections

The time has come for IRV

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Voter turnout for Tuesday’s primary was dismally low. Polly is incensed, and I agree with her. There’s no excuse for the 82% (85% county-wide) of registered voters who did not make it to the polls. As far as I’m concerned, not voting is like spitting on a veteran’s grave. All those men and women fought and worked and died in many and various wars to preserve our freedoms, but you — you can’t even walk or drive a couple of blocks to a polling place?

I’m going to talk about some flaws in our election system, but don’t get the idea that these flaws are an excuse not to vote. They aren’t. I don’t care how disaffected you feel, blowing off your civic duty is not a solution or some courageous form of protest. It’s a cop-out. You’re part of the problem.

Nevertheless, I think some election reform is in order.

Our current voting system is “winner-takes-all.” Thus, in the Republican primary, even though Judy Barr Topinka didn’t win a majority of the votes cast, she won with a plurality, a mere 37.7%. Before the election, Oberweis was running ads saying “a vote for anyone but Oberweis is a vote for Topinka,” and that was sadly true (although one could have said that about any of Topinka’s rivals). But why should we be limited? 62.3% of Republican voters didn’t want Topinka, but she wins under our winner-takes-all system.

It doesn’t have to be that way. It would be fairer and more democratic for Illinois to implement Instant Runoff Voting, or IRV. Under this system, voters get to rank the candidates in order of their preference (first choice, second choice, etc.). If one candidate gets over 50% of first-choice votes, he or she wins. If no candidate gets a majority, then an “instant runoff” takes place.

Here’s how an instant runoff works: The candidate with the fewest number of votes is eliminated. Those who voted for that candidate as their first choice then have their votes distributed to their second choice candidate. Then the votes are tabulated again to see if any of the remaining candidates now have a majority. This process repeats until one candidate has a majority of the votes. There’s a good multimedia explanation of how this voting system works here (requires Flash plugin).

Doesn’t that sound fairer? I like it because you could vote for that underdog you really like the best without throwing away your vote. Wouldn’t all you disaffected voters feel more motivated to go to the polls under this type of system?

Of course, to get legislation adopted that will allow for IRV, you’d need to (*ahem*) vote for candidates under our current system that will propose and pass such legislation.

City Council, City of Peoria, Heart of Peoria Plan

Council roundup: Put on a happy façade

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This picture wasn’t shown in the council chambers tonight, but it could have been. This is a picture of my late grandmother’s business, Merchant’s Cafe, in the late 1960s. It was located on Sheridan Road, near Loucks, and that’s the area being targeted by the city’s new façade improvement program.

As a part of commercial revitalization, City staff has partnered with property and business owners on North Sheridan to develop a Facade Improvement Program in order to improve the area’s physical characteristics through the enhancement of the aesthetics and attractiveness of the commercial properties. These improvements will increase the community pride of the adjacent neighborhoods and encourage business recruitment and expansion in the area.

Much like councilman Manning’s initiative along Prospect Road, councilwoman Van Auken deserves kudos for her work on putting this program together. She enlisted the help of five Bradley University students for marketing this initiative — three of whom were in the council chambers tonight — which is a brilliant way to give students real-life experience and save the city some money.

Not that the city isn’t putting any money into this initiative. On the contrary, $100,000 was allocated for the Program. They will pay 50% of the total cost of improvements to each property or $20,000, whichever is less. It warms my heart to see the city spending money in the older neighborhoods to revitalize these neighborhood centers, just like the Heart of Peoria Plan directs.

If you’ve seen this stretch of properties, you’ve seen that it hasn’t been updated in quite a while. In fact, in the picture above, just to the right of Merchant’s Cafe is a business called Florence’s Beauty Shop. If you go by that shop today, you’ll see that store front looks almost exactly the same 35 years later, the faded paint being the only difference.

This is a perfect location to enact the Heart of Peoria Plan. Narrow the road a bit and add diagonal parking. Update the façades and sidewalks. The neighborhoods surrounding these businesses are stable. This area could be easily revitalized and draw new businesses to this corridor.

Not surprisingly, the motion passed unanimously. I expect Whitey’s Tap will be the first business to take advantage of the new program.

City Council, City of Peoria, Renaissance Park, Southtown

Council roundup: Hospitals withdraw Southtown bid

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Several weeks ago, a couple of area hospitals stared down Select Medical of Pennsylvania’s plan to put a long-term acute-care hospital on the last unsold parcel of Southtown.  At that time, they said they were looking to locate a similar establishment in Renaissance Park.  Then, several days ago, they shocked Peoria by considering the possibility of locating on the same parcel in Southtown instead of Ren Park.

Tonight, they withdrew their proposed option agreement on the Southtown property.  Why?  Who knows?  Hopefully, the Journal Star will have more details tomorrow.