If you say it long enough and loud enough, people will start to believe it. That’s the M.O. for the Peoria Park District (PPD) when commenting on the Kellar Branch issue. The Journal Star “report” in the paper today (“Railcorp, city reach deal on rail spur”) includes this little nugget from Bonnie Noble, executive director of the PPD:

“This is a win-win. The community will still have the advantage of having rail service and an expansion of rail service,” Noble said. “This community trail is for everyone who lives in this area as well as an economic attraction and development.”

Lie #1: “The community will have . . . an expansion of rail service.”

Truth: Right now, the Kellar Branch has access to eight railroads via neutral access with the Tazewell & Peoria Railroad (TZPR) line. Those eight railroads are: Burlington-Northern Santa Fe (BNSF), Canadian National (CN), Illinois & Midland, Iowa Interstate, Keokuk Junction, Norfolk Southern, TP&W and Union Pacific. If they take out the Kellar Branch between downtown and Pioneer Park and rely solely on the spur from the west, there will only be access to one rail line: Union Pacific (UP). That means competition is eliminated and tarriffs go up. No one can honestly say that reducing rail service from eight lines to one is an “expansion.”

Lie #2: “This community trail is . . . an economic attraction.”

Truth: The community trail will cost $4 million dollars in state and federal grants. That’s after a $900,000 state grant and $175,000 from the city were used to build the UP spur from the west. Where’s the business model that shows when this $5+ million project is going to break even? And from where is the revenue coming? Is the park district going to pay taxes on this land? Are people going to move to Peoria because we have a linear park? Are they going to charge admission? Are hotels and restaurants going to pop up along the trail? Are businesses going to move to Peoria because we have a trail? What, pray tell, is the “economic attraction” of which Noble speaks? There is none. And don’t give me the “quality of life” argument — it’s not like we have a dearth of parks in Peoria. This project isn’t going to significantly enhance Peorians’ access to greenspace. In contrast, what we’re giving up is the opportunity to attract manufacturing business to the Pioneer Park area — businesses that would bring jobs and revenue into the city. The cash-strapped city is also passing up the opportunity to make a quick $565,000 in cash by selling the line to Pioneer Railcorp and unload maintenance of the Kellar Branch altogether. And, incidentally, when was the last time a park district project made any money? If a project like the Riverplex which actually sells services can’t make money, what makes them think a park is going to be an “economic attraction”? This is a boondoggle.

Lie #3: “This is a win-win.”

Truth: Carver Lumber doesn’t currently use UP for its shipping — it uses CN and BNSF. That means that, in addition to losing direct access to its main shipping carriers, it’s going to have to start negotiating with UP to pick up its freight elsewhere, which will mean longer transit times and undoubtedly higher shipping cost. They may even resort to trucking, in which case the nice new rail spur will be abandoned. No win-win there. The city has payed money to build the spur and will probably be tapped for extra funds to build the trail if the grants fall short, when they could instead be making money by selling the rail line. No win-win there.

The question is, why doesn’t the Journal Star challenge these statements from the Peoria Park District? Where is the investigative journalism? It’s one thing for the Journal Star to support the conversion of the Kellar Branch line to a trail on their editorial page. But advocating it in their news reports is inappropriate. And it’s obvious that they’re advocating it. Check out the subhead on today’s story: “Move is a step in the right direction for long-awaited hiking, biking trail.” Who says this is “the right direction”? This gleeful statement does not even pretend to be unbiased. Or look at the headline from their July 7 story: “Delay puts trail at risk.” Why not, “Trail puts Pioneer Park business at risk”? Sound biased?

There’s a word for “journalism” like this: propaganda. The Journal Star is deliberately misleading the public through their reporting on the Kellar Branch issue because of their advocacy for the park district’s plans. Thus, they are engaging in propaganda, “information, esp. of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view” (Oxford American Dictionary). Now, I’m only talking about this one issue; overall, the Journal Star does a good job of covering the news. But on this issue, they are doing a great disservice to Peoria residents.

So predictable. Yesterday there was a story about the Kellar Branch in the newspaper, so today — like summer follows the spring — the Journal Star had another editorial about it.

The absurdity in this is that the city owns the track where the train cars are parked, not Pioneer Railcorp.

Actually, the absurdity is that the city bought the track in the first place to improve rail service to growth cell two. Now that they have an operator on it that is trying to do just that — in fact, he even offered to buy it from the city — they want to instead abandon it and turn the corridor into a linear park that taxpayers will be stuck maintaining forever.

He’s [Guy Brenkman, Pioneer Railcorp] become a master obstructionist, imposing his will over the desires of countless Peorians and their elected leaders.

Yeah, countless Peorians. As if we had a referendum on it or something. I’m sure that countless Peorians are in favor of it now, thanks to relentless advocacy from the city’s only major newspaper. If people knew all the facts that the Journal Star doesn’t find fit to print, they might feel differently.

It is outrageous that one man can stand in the way of a project that thousands of people (the Rock Island Trail attracts an estimated 120,000 annually) will enjoy for walking, running and biking.

Sounds like the Rock Island Trail is meeting our needs just fine, then, doesn’t it? They sure are optimistic that this trail will be immensely popular. Of course, these are the same people who predicted that over 17,000 households would be likely to join the RiverPlex. Reality: not even close.

We’d like to think that the public interest will prevail soon.

I, too, hope the public interest will prevail soon. However, I have a different view of what’s in the public interest in this case. I happen to think that bringing more manufacturing (and thus jobs, revenue, and population) to Peoria is in the public interest. I think abandoning a working rail line that runs year-round and brings revenue to the city and turning it into a park that only gets a little use in the warmer months and brings no revenue to the city is not in the public interest.

Parks are good. Turning abandoned rail lines into linear parks (like the Rock Island Trail) is a good idea. Forcibly abandoning active rail lines to the detriment of businesses that are using those lines is a terrible idea. And I just want to remind everyone that this will work to the detriment of those who use rail trainsportation in growth cell two. They will go from having access to several rail lines to only having access to one rail line. Remember from Econ 101 what happens to prices under a monopoly? But that’s the city’s solution with the UP spur they’re trying to build.

Indeed, let’s hope “that the public interest will prevail soon” — the public interest of jobs and growth instead of the empty promises of the park district.