All posts by C. J. Summers

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

Peoria passed up for another grant

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This isn’t Peoria’s year for winning grant awards. After losing out to Morton for some IDOT money, Peoria got more bad news — this time from the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS). A recent Issues Update reports:

In April 2009, the City submitted a funding application for $9.3 million in NSP funds to the Illinois Department of Human Services. The NSP funds were granted to the State as part of the early federal “stimulus” efforts, and the State decided to pass the funds through to local governments and agencies.

The City received notice on September 2, that our application was not selected for funding. We will follow up with the State to determine the deficiencies with the application.

These funds would have been used for down payment assistance for 33 new home buyers, the purchase-rehabilitation-sale of 5 existing housing units, the demolition of 71 deteriorated housing units, and the construction of 47 new housing units in older neighborhoods.

According to the IDHS, “The Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) provides grants to purchase foreclosed or abandoned homes and to rehabilitate, resell, or redevelop these homes in order to stabilize neighborhoods and stem the decline of house values of neighboring homes.” The program awards are listed on the IDHS website. Whereas Peoria requested a $9.3 million grant, the largest grant awarded was $4.833 million to 55th & State Redevelopment, LLC, in Chicago. Other recipients included the cities of Champaign ($1.395M), Rock Island ($3.133M), Quincy ($1.9M), and East St. Louis ($2.5M).

General News

The future is here: Flying car makes its debut

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Here it is, the car of your dreams:

It’s called the Terrafugia Transition, and it technically isn’t a car. It’s a “roadable aircraft.” That means it’s really an airplane that you can drive on the street like a car and even park in your garage, but it’s not — I repeat, not — a “flying car.”

Now that we’ve got that straight, I’m going to call it a “flying car” for the rest of this post.

When my mom and dad were growing up, a trip to the moon in a rocket was science fiction. Then in 1969, man got in a rocket and went for a stroll on the moon. It seems that if man can imagine it, eventually it becomes reality (except world peace, sadly), and we’ve been imagining flying cars for a long time. The Transition is not exactly the compact, wingless model I was expecting from watching The Jetsons, but it’s impressive nevertheless.

Also impressive is the price, anticipated to be $194,000. They won’t be ready to ship until 2011, but you can reserve one now for a $10,000 deposit. I’m sure the price will come down, though. And when it does, I wonder what effect it will have on American life.

The Transition runs on regular unleaded gasoline. You don’t have to rent a hangar to store it. And it doubles as your ground transportation. The cost of owning your own personal aircraft will be reduced to about the same as the cost of owning a car… albeit a very, very expensive car. But given the size and prices of SUVs these days, there’s not that much of a difference anymore. If you want to some minute upgrades for your vehicle, you can start with parts like a car sunshade.

So, what if these catch on? What will that do to our large suburban and rural lots? Will the installation of private runways be all the rage? How would it impact commercial air transportation if frequent fliers decide to use their own personal flying car in order to avoid delays and invasion of privacy at airports? Will local commuter air service disappear like local commuter rail did decades ago?

What about the increase in air traffic? What if, instead of 10 planes with 60 passengers each in the sky, we end up with 300 flying cars with two passengers each? And what if those cars can take off and land on any private runway? Suddenly, we could all be living next to an airport, and there would be no way to get away from it. Maybe the FAA would establish highways in the sky, a la The Jetsons, in order to relegate flight to certain approved airspace. I would imagine emergency landing strips would have to be provided along these routes in case your flying car develops a problem. (Incidentally, the Transition comes with an optional full-vehicle parachute.)

And think about how far away you could live from where you work. That would give “suburbia” a whole new definition. For instance, commuting from a home in Peoria to a job in Chicago would be a breeze in a flying car, effectively making Peoria a new suburb of Chicago. Of course, Hersey Hawkins already believes that (when asked where Bradley University is located during an appearance on Wheel of Fortune in the late ’90s, he replied, “just outside of Chicago”).

According to the Terrafugia website, it only takes about 20 hours of training of get a Sport Pilot license, which is the minimum required to fly the Transition. Who will be the first person in Peoria to get one?

General News

Labor Day Parade at 2 p.m. today (Updated)

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Don’t forget about the Labor Day Parade (presented by the West Central Illinois Labor Council) at 2 p.m. today in downtown Peoria. The parade will start at the 500 block of Monroe Street, go southwest to Main, then down Main to the riverfront, where there will be a picnic with musical entertainment.

Happy Labor Day, everyone!

UPDATE: I took my son to the parade today. Some random observations:

  • We were near the corner of Madison and Main, and from that position, it looked like the parade was well-attended. It wasn’t as well-attended as the Santa Claus Parade, but there were people lining both sides of the street on the parade route.
  • I saw Sharon Crews, Terry Knapp, and Hedy Elliott-Gardner (among others) marching in the parade, representing the teachers’ union. Hedy even said “hi”!
  • Lots of candy was thrown to the kids. I hate that part of modern parades. And yes, I know everyone will think I’m an old stick-in-the-mud for saying so. To me, it really detracts from the point of the parade (celebrating/recognizing the participants and the organizations they represent), instead turning the event into a competition for candy with parents as referees.
  • Speaking of candy, it always amuses me to see union families collecting said candy in Wal-Mart bags. Why any union member would shop at a chain as anti-union as Wal-Mart I’m sure I’ll never know.
  • I believe John Vespa was the only Republican in the parade.
  • Lots of union workers carried signs from the Illinois AFL-CIO that said “Health Care Can’t Wait.”
Blogosphere

A Knight in Forgottonia

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He’s not in “Dragonland” (Pekin) anymore, but that won’t keep Matt Weidman from blogging. Now located in Wyatt Earp’s home town of Monmouth, Matt has started a new blog called “Blogging Forgottonia.”

I have to admit, I thought “Forgottonia” was a generic appellation, but it turns out that it refers specifically to the western part of Illinois, according to Wikipedia.

Welcome back, Mr. Weidman!

Peoria Journal Star, Peoria Police, Television

Kudos to Journal Star on some great reporting

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A couple pieces worth reading, if you haven’t already:

  • Investigative Report on Overtime: With the city facing a budget deficit of $10-12 million, everything is under scrutiny, and that certainly includes the city’s largest expense: salaries. So kudos to the Journal Star — and specifically John Sharp — for the in-depth analysis of overtime expenses in the police and fire departments. All angles of the story were covered between the main article and numerous sidebars.

    I thought it was interesting that the police union would rather see property taxes raised than take a pay freeze, considering almost half the force lives outside of Peoria and would be unaffected by a tax hike. It was also interesting to read that Mayor Ardis is threatening the police department with layoffs if they don’t voluntarily freeze their wages.

  • Local Media Beat: Steve Tarter’s weekly column keeps us up to date on what’s happening in local TV and radio. His article this Sunday included some great news: Fort Wayne weatherman Jason Meyers is going away.

    A grievance filed by Channel 25 employees over displacement of station personnel by using the aforementioned Fort Wayne weatherman for weekend weather on the station’s local-news show was upheld by an arbitrator last week.

    The news is the last bastion for local programming on commercial television, and here’s WEEK outsourcing the weatherman — roughly one third of the local newscast — after they already obliterated WHOI’s independent news team. It’s sad that local content has sunk to such a low.

City Council, City of Peoria

Where’s the outrage?

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We’re all enjoying the calm before the storm. We’ve heard the warnings — the city council is going to have to make some deep cuts in order to close the $10-12 million budget gap. They’re trying to plug the gap without raising taxes. That means the cuts will have to be made “with a chainsaw, not a scalpel,” and will be “bloody,” to quote the mayor and another council member.

Yet, at the same time, the council had absolutely no trouble raising taxes to collect $40 million for a private developer. Think about that — they raised the sales tax (granted, for an area restricted to downtown — the so-called “Hospitality Improvement Zone”). They will collect money from that sales tax, and they will hand it over to Gary Matthews, a private citizen and developer, so he can build a huge hotel addition to the Pere Marquette. Matthews will, in turn, give the lion’s share of that money to Al Zuccarini for the properties he owns on the block shared by the Pere.

So, at the same time that the council is talking about cutting police officers, eliminating raises for employees, cutting back on code enforcement and road maintenance, and other draconian cuts in public services, they’re giving $40 million to Gary Matthews for a private development. At the same time the council is unwilling to even consider raising taxes for public services, they had no problem raising taxes to benefit a private development. In fact, they approved that deal with nary any discussion and absolutely no public input!

The council wants concessions from everyone — except in the area of developer welfare. The one area that primarily benefits only a handful of people gets a free pass, while those areas that affect everyone in the city get the axe.

And my question is: Where’s the outrage? Do Peorians really not care? Do they think this is good public policy? Do they really think that we’re spending too much on public services and not enough on developer favors? Or are they uninformed? Do they not know this is happening? Or have they given up? Have they become jaded and numb to fiscal irresponsibility coming out of City Hall?

If this hotel deal were a good business decision, the developer would have already gotten his private financing lined up and started construction. But he hasn’t. He can’t get private financing. And you know what that means? I guarantee you it means this: He’ll be back to the city asking for more money in one form or another. Count on it.

Maybe that will be enough to wake up Peorians and cajole them into expressing outrage to their city council members. Then again, maybe not.

St. Louis Cardinals

Good to be back

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Hello, everyone. I’ve been in Chicago the past couple of days. Did I miss anything while I was gone?

Of course, when I say I was “in Chicago,” what I really mean is, I was in the northwest suburbs — Elk Grove Village, to be exact. I went up for some work-related training.

But while I was there, you’ll never guess what I did. I went to a Cubs game. Yep, the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Not only that, but the night I was there (Tuesday, 9/1), they won! I think just having a Cardinals fan in the house brought them good luck against another Central Division rival.

I have to admit, I really like Wrigley Field. It’s a neighborhood ballpark. It really is. You go in there, and there’s this feeling like you’re all friends, these are all your neighbors, and you’re just hanging out at the ballgame, like people might hang out at the Chiefs game here in Peoria (except that the tickets are about six times as much at Wrigley). We had great seats, too — right behind home plate, about 20 rows back.

With such a great ballpark that, thankfully, has not been torn down or abandoned yet, it’s really a shame that the Cubs organization can’t seem to field a team that’s a real contender. But on the other hand, if they ever did, then the Cubs might get more popular, and then they’d have to build a bigger, newer, fancier stadium somewhere else in Chicago, and ticket prices would go up, and… well, things just wouldn’t be the same.

Incidentally, all during the game, I kept my eye on the manual scoreboard out in center field. I watched as they updated the score on the St. Louis – Milwaukee game. The Cardinals, of course, won. Again. It’s been three years since the Cards won the World Series. It’s about time for them to bring home the trophy again.

Caterpillar, City of Peoria, Streets

Caterpillar opposes changes to Washington Street

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Caterpillar, Inc., sent the following letter to all City Council members on August 20, 2009:

To the City of Peoria,

While Caterpillar has long supported downtown revitalization efforts, the latest feasibility study for reworking the Washington Street (U. S. Route 24) corridor causes significant concern for pedestrian safety.

Caterpillar believes the U. S. Route 24 Adams Street / Washington Street Feasibility Study, released in draft form on May 15, 2009, fails to adequately address:

  • The safety of pedestrians (including Caterpillar employees in multiple buildings) in the entire downtown area,
  • The enhancement of safe and efficient traffic flow–especially truck traffic–on Washington, Adams, and Jefferson Streets, and on other routes connected to Washington Street,
  • The impact of this proposed plan on the downtown environment.

Caterpillar has publicly submitted its concerns and questions regarding the feasibility study to David Barber, Director of Public Works, according to procedures given by the City and the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Caterpillar believes these questions and concerns must be part of an Illinois Department of Transportation Phase I Study.

If the project is not expected to proceed to a Phase I Study, Caterpillar will seek a discussion of the matter with the City of Peoria and the Illinois Department of Transportation.

Thank you.

Tim Elder, Director, Corporate Public Affairs
William Ball, Social Responsibility Manager, Corporate Public Affairs
Raymond Perisin, PE, Sr. Engineering Project Team Leader, Global Facilities Planning

Several thoughts on this. First of all, I’m at a loss as to how Caterpillar can possibly be concerned about pedestrian safety in the proposed plan. The plan would narrow Washington street by widening and improving sidewalks and adding street trees, slowing traffic and reducing the crossing distance for pedestrians. There’s no way that could be considered less safe than the current situation.

Secondly, Caterpillar employees are not affected by Washington or Hamilton street traffic because they have skywalks over these roads already. They can completely avoid crossing at the street level.

Thirdly, slower speeds would make traffic flow safer. Whether it will make it more “efficient” depends on one’s definition of the term. If “efficient” means “fast,” then technically, it will be no less efficient than it is currently. I asked the IDOT representative if they were planning to lower the speed limit on Washington, and they said they were not. The improvements to Washington will only slow traffic that is currently exceeding the speed limit — especially trucks.

Finally, I’m not sure what to make of the last two paragraphs, except that the language sounds a bit bullying to me. It sounds to me like they are demanding their concerns be addressed to the exclusion of other businesses and property owners along the corridor. Caterpillar appears to be throwing their weight around to get their own way on a project that should be benefiting the whole city, not just one company.

Peoria Civic Center

Civic Center will “think about” freezing wages

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The Journal Star reports that “The Civic Center Authority on Thursday approved an approximately $8 million 2010 fiscal year budget that calls for across-the-board 2 percent wage increases” (emphasis added).

So, let me see if I have this straight: The fire fighters won’t get a raise. And the library staff won’t get a raise. And exempt city staff won’t get raises. And the city is asking the police department to give up their raises. But the Civic Center, which didn’t even pass a balanced budget (“The budget’s approval includes a $115,000 operating budget deficit”) is going to give raises to their workers?

But wait — it gets better:

At-large City Councilman Ryan Spain informed authority members that governmental bargaining unions throughout the city are being asked to forgo pay raises next year in order to help deficit-laden organizations patch their budgets…. Commissioners requested the Civic Center’s management firm, SMG Corp., consult with the finance committee about reviewing the possibility [emphasis added] of freezing the wage increases. Commissioner Ken Goldin requested the review be taken after Spain made his comments.

“We are not saying the raises are not coming,” Goldin said. “We want to think about it and review them.”

A couple of things bother me about this. First of all, they don’t know about the city’s budget issues until Ryan Spain tells them? These guys are really on top of things. I wonder if they’ve heard yet that Michael Jackson is dead.

Secondly, they’re going to think about freezing wages? You know, back on August 11, the city council had a motion on the floor to renegotiate the city’s intergovernmental agreement with the Civic Center — that is, to redirect part of the HRA tax revenue from the Civic Center to the City’s general fund. Ryan Spain made a substitute motion “to engage Civic Center Authority in further discussion over the next four weeks” as the council’s liaison. My guess is, if Spain is unsuccessful in getting concessions from the Civic Center Authority through the softball approach, the original motion may make a reappearance at a future council meeting.

Also, as an aside:

“This is the only area I see a concern in the budget,” said Spain, the City Council’s liaison to the Civic Center Authority.

Really? The $115,000 operating budget deficit wasn’t an area of concern? You’d think after 27 years, there might be some concern over the fact that the Civic Center is still losing money.

City of Peoria, Crime, Peoria County, Peoria Police

David Kennedy methods rolled out in Peoria

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The Journal Star reports that the Peoria Police Department, in cooperation with the State’s Attorney’s office, is rolling out a Drug Market Initiative/Intervention strategy here in Peoria. Although he’s not named in the article, this is the program developed by David Kennedy on which I reported back in March, with a follow-up article in April. In March, Chief Settingsgaard said that he had “a team being trained by Kennedy and his staff.”

The paper summarizes the program thus:

The Drug Market Initiative/Intervention strategy targets geographic drug markets and involves prosecuting the most violent offenders. Low-level offenders are offered a second chance through interventions and help from social service agencies, along with the warning that another crime means jail time.

I applaud the police for trying new methods to reduce crime, and I’m especially pleased to see the police working with the State’s Attorney’s office. Too often there is an adversarial relationship between these two agencies. Best of luck to everyone involved in implementing this new strategy.