[A] project of this magnitude will likely never again be seen in Peoria. The economic development potential will only add to the diversity of our economic base. As a community, each and every one of us should do everything reasonably possible to ensure the huge opportunity of Museum Square is not lost: it is much too important to our future.
You heard right! A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage. An offer this good won’t last long, so act now! Or am I the only one who found Mr. Bryant’s Museum Square article in this month’s Interbusiness Issues a wee bit overstated?
I especially liked the part where he said, “The synergies between the Caterpillar Visitors Center and the Peoria Riverfront Museum will bring upwards of 400,000 people per year to downtown Peoria.” Wow. The museum’s own website says “The Museum, in tandem with the Caterpillar Visitor Center, will attract more than 300,000 visitors each year….” Apparently Mr. Bryant believes it will attract a lot more — “upwards of” 100,000 more! The projections are looking better all the time. Heck, as long as we’re throwing out manipulatively-worded numbers, why not just say “upwards of a half-million people”? It’s true, give or take a couple hundred thousand, and it makes the whole project just sound more exciting (and profitable), doesn’t it? Or how about “upwards of four million visitors decennially”? That’s even more impressive.
Of course, “It does appear that a public funding mechanism will be necessary to complete the project.” Hey crossword puzzle fans, can any of you give me a three-letter word for “public funding mechanism”? So, first they disregard the public’s wishes and every city planning expert’s recommendation for redeveloping the old Sears block (urban density, mixed-use, residential component) — in fact, they propose the exact opposite — then they want the public to help pay for it. Genius.
You might ask why a tax public funding mechanism is warranted. “Across the country, projects of this type generally have at least one-third of their funding from public sources,” Bryant explains. In a related story, Peoria County is listed among the highest in “relative effective property tax level…as a percentage of market value” across the country. Across the country, the State of Illinois has one of the highest sales tax rates, too, and we have lots of local taxes piled on top of that. There’s talk of the state’s income tax being raised. Meanwhile, here in the city, we just voted to raise our property taxes to pay for some library improvements, and District 150 — courtesy of Aaron Schock and the state legislature — is raising our property taxes without a referendum to pay for new school buildings. No doubt taxes will also be raised by the Park District to pay for the new zoo and efforts to build a trail next to the Kellar Branch railroad line.
But hey, what’s one more tax public funding mechanism? It’s a small price to pay for Utopia.
The big players in this city really make me shake my head.
All this from the head of a multi-million dollar corporation that doesn’t pay property taxes. I thought he was one of the cheerleaders for Ren Park. Have the big guns been shifted from that area to the museum square? I wonder when the “Museums for All” will officially kick off.
All in all, $65mil to move Lakeview downtown, ruining attractive commercial realestate, is a bargin compared to the $100mil Chicago is going to pay to move the Children’s museum to Grant’s park, ruining valuable open green space.
Three letter word? SCREWED!! When the big boysa and corporations get involved, we will be paying for this joke. Can’t we put something there that will benefit all the community, not just the Arts people. Museum my fanny!! Great real and down to life Mr. Bryant and gang.
“A chicken in every pot and TWO cars in every garage” – Herbert Hoover – 1928 Presidential Campaign
I think it is interesting how civic leaders have been waxing on about the importance of the Museum for “synergy” yet they have been doing their very best to sabotage the health of the downtown for years. Now to be kind, maybe they have just been too busy to ever consider the impact their decisions and attitudes have on the vitality of the city. Perhaps now is a good time to start a dialogue with them.
Ask Michael Bryant, CEO of Methodist Medical Center, if he knows how many people walked into the atrium every day to be treated for cancer and ask if he knew they would many times bring a friend, mother, sister, husband, dad ,brother, aunt, cousin, etc with them to the office. Now multiply that figure by 5 days a week times 52 weeks a year. Then multiply that number by the number of medical offices that have left downtown. Then add to that sum the number of employees who worked in the offices and then add the number of medical sales representatives that visited the offices daily. The total is many times higher than 300,000- several fold higher. How much effort was expended to convince the many medical offices to stay downtown rather than build north? I would submit not enough.
The importance of these downtown customers apparently was lost on city leaders and city planners. The time for paying attention to “synergy” has come and gone many times over and it has certainly escaped the current group of policy makers.
Ask, Jim Owens, CEO of Caterpillar, if he realizes the company’s own culture makes it too easy for their downtown employees to drive to the downtown buildings, park in the attached parking structures, eat lunch in the employee cafeteria and then drive home with out ever stepping foot on the streets of Peoria. I have been told the Caterpillar employees do not want to have longer lunches; they do not want to stay downtown any longer than they have to. They prefer to get in their cars at 4:00 and drive home. I don’t blame them. What is there to do in downtown Peoria? What can they accomplish over a lunch hour or after work? There are no card shops, no drug stores, no gift shops, no clothing stores, and no private art galleries. There are only a handful of restaurants and I will say only a small percentage of young professionals want to spend time in places like Big Als. The CAT employees spend plenty after work but not in downtown.
I think it is true that Museum Square has potential, but not in it’s current configuration. The project is flawed in its scope and density. When you look at the artist rendering and you see people milling about- what would cause them to mill about? They need something to keep them there. They need programmed space, sidewalk cafes, and people to watch. Read this if you question my conclusions http://www.pps.org/squares/info/squares_articles/squares_principles
Museum Square could be very successful, it could exceed our expectations- but not on the current watch of those in charge today. It just won’t happen unless our civic leaders open their hearts and minds to what really makes a successful city.
Don’t get me started.
BeanCounter,
Sorry to do this but your a little off.
The ‘projected’ cost is now $65-$75 million clams.
Of course, what the cost will be by the time this mess gets started again is anyones’ guess.
As far as Bryant goes, I can’t stand it when people who have no idea what a museum really is or how it functions, gets busy telling me how important it is to area economy, development, etc.
Lakeview and the Museum supporters have failed to sell the concept. It doesn’t help when the concept changes in mid-stream and suddenly can’t succeed without some sort of public funding.
Here a tax there a tax before long it is real money.If the museum is so great let it fund it self. we (taxpayers) fund all to many “money holes”
Well, as a wise man once said, 34 percent of all statistics are made up on the spot.
” Hilarious! “
If Michael Bryant thinks this museum is so darned important, has he personally donated a large sum of his rather extensive personal wealth to ensure this important project gets completed?
Peoria does not need this museum in this configuration and certainly does not need additional county property taxes in order to build it.
Anon E. Mouse — It was originally two cars in every garage, but the museum folks downsized that the same time they changed the sphere to a silo. 🙂
Silo?
Nobody said anything to me about a silo.
Cool.
Put me down for $20.00.
Bean Counter and New Voice —
Ah, if only the price of the museum were only “The ‘projected’ cost is now $65-$75 million clams” but alas, one needs to add the interest…. probably more in the neighborhood of $130-140 million clams — that number would probably replace all the broken and non-existing sidewalks for all of Peoria…. wrong concept, NO MORE TAXES.
Question, which number is more skewed, projected visits or project cost? I think visits. At this point they are inflating faster than construction costs.
the biggest cost isn’t construction or interest, it’s the continuing upkeep, which will require ever-growing subsidies.
George (THE ORIGINAL): You should first talk to an actual CAT employee before making such statements! Go to a downtown restaurant someday – any day – at noon and it is PACKED with CAT people. Go to Kelleher’s, Martini’s at 4:30 pm and it is PACKED with CAT people. They don’t run home at 4:00 pm…in fact, quite a few live in Twin Towers! Observe a little before you opinionate, eh?
Downtown employees have the longest lunch hours. When I was going downtown, I knew that my lunch hour was going to run and hour to hour and a half and no one would blink an eye. That is far longer than the 30 minutes you were expected to abide by elsewhere.
EP Blondie-
Ok, then please explain why the downtown is void of life on the streets (unless you think it is and if you do then we have a different views of street life)
A handful of people sitting in two restaurants does not make a city vital or attractive to others. Are you aware that 50% of downtown property is occupied by properties that either pay no sales tax, pay no property tax or both? Why do you think that is?
Why do you think what should be the most valuable real estate is actually occupied by properties that don’t contribute to the city’s bottom line?
Provide some real answers- instead of personal attacks. Please separate yourself from those that typically scorn the messenger- only because they can not refute the message.
George (the original)
P.S. Also ask yourself why we have lost so many businesses in the downtown over the last 40 years? If it was such a happening place we would be busting at the seams and businesses would be lining up. They aren’t and until people like yourself start to ask tougher questions and raise your expectations Peoria will continue on the slide. Are you aware we are the seventh largest city in Illinois and twenty years ago we were the second? Go figure…
Most of the highrise office buildings downtown are at 80%-95% full. That’s a fact George. Downtown may not be full of retail but the office space is doing very well. Rents are over $18 sq ft for class A space. Downtown is very attractive for business.
Peoriafan-
80%-90% occupancy of downtown buildings without significant retail proves my point about the culture our city leadership has created. I used CAT as an example but the same holds for any of the businesses with attached parking garages. When it is very convenient for people to drive to and from home and never set foot on the street you get the current conditions. The absence of retail should be a real concern. What percent of GDP depends on personal consumption and how important is it to our economy?
Now …take a long hard look at the city. Get out of your car and walk the streets. It is a barren place- with almost nothing to purchase and very little to look at unless you think cement is interesting. The absence of downtown retail should be more than just a bit concerning for our City Council. It speaks volumes about how our city is perceived by outsiders and it impacts city revenue. When the Peoria Civic Center has a convention and someone asks where can we go shopping?-What do you think they are told? They are told to drive out of downtown and you know the rest…
Why do you think Peoria is this way?
Downtown should be the place where the most “upscale” activity takes place- instead we see the opposite. Perhaps you like that about the city- I don’t. We need stronger civic leadership with some understanding of econ 101…period.
If you are interested the answer to the GDP question it can be found here: http://www.hoover.org/research/factsonpolicy/facts/4931661.html
I agree with George that downtown should be the center of the community and that retail is needed. Maybe Cat should build the vistor’s center and the rest of the block should contain retail (classy, not a strip mall) and green space?
George said: “I have been told the Caterpillar employees do not want to have longer lunches; they do not want to stay downtown any longer than they have to. They prefer to get in their cars at 4:00 and drive home. I don’t blame them. What is there to do in downtown Peoria? What can they accomplish over a lunch hour or after work?” I NEVER said downtown was vital – I was disputing your opinions on CAT presence during the day. If you think that the restaurants are void at noon during the week, then YOU are viewing a different part of downtown. A handful of people in restaurants? Try Adams Street Cafe at 12:00 sharp. The line goes out the door. The reason the restaurants don’t survive is because there is no dinner or weekend customers. Jimmy John’s is only open during the week 10:30-3:00 or so. I wasn’t personally attacking you due to differing opinions, I was pointing out your blatant lack of knowledge on a subject you were waxing poetic on! Perhaps someone needs to step off his high horse???
“Maybe Cat should build the vistor’s center and the rest of the block should contain retail (classy, not a strip mall) and green space?”
What? like what was originally conceived? Imagine that.
I will bet you $2.29 that ‘George’ and ‘EP Blondie’ are related.
In the end though, do we all agree the museum is a bad idea….for a number of reasons?
EP Blondie,
You haven’t answered any of the questions I posed- please enlighten us. I’ll ask another: Why do you think there is [sic] no dinner or weekend customers?
The reason restuarants have a hard time making it around the downtown square is their traffic at noon 3/4 of the year. Most of those small restaurants are mainly serving lunch and when a guy can come and set up at your front door for a few hundred dollars a year and steal your lunch time traffic you are not going to last very long. Adams Street Cafe has done well but they set up a cart out front to combat that. I am sure they would rather not see the carts though. Those little lunch places are not the types of places that would be open for dinner or on the weekends anyway. That’s pretty common even in the loop in Chicago. Downtown workers want to eat lunch cheap and fast and like to sit out doors which is great if you own a cart. As long as we have carts serving a full menu we will never have that many lunch restaurants downtown to choose from. Can’t have both.
As far as dinner and weekend diners you do have some destination restaurants like Jims Steakhouse,RiverStation,Kelleher’s,Eamon Patricks Public House,Sully’s,Rhythm Kitchen,Rizzi’s,Richards, Hoops,Carnegies,Old Chicago,Joes Crab Shack,Hooters,Pizzeria Uno,Bennigan’s and I am sure I missed one or two. Downtown has a good selection to choose from, they are just kind of spread out and they don’t have drive thru’s like Peorians like.