Several of you have asked me about signs, and I’m happy to announce that my signs are in and now available. If you would like a sign, please e-mail (summers1202@sbcglobal.net) or call me (673-8177 or 251-8177) and let me know your address.
I’ve also put up an official campaign website at http://www.summerspeoria.com. It’s pretty plain right now, but I plan to add to it and spruce it up over the next few days. You’ll notice on the “Events” page that there are already quite a few candidate forums planned this month. If you’re interested in hearing all the candidates explain their platforms and answer questions, be sure to make it to one of these events.
Councilman Turner told me the other day that by the end of the month, each of us will be able to give all the other candidates’ speeches because we’ll have heard them so many times. He’s right. I have about half of them down already!
Councilman Turner told me the other day that by the end of the month, each of us will be able to give all the other candidates’ speeches because we’ll have heard them so many times.
Very true! The real challenge is to not visibly roll your eyes as they are doing so!
VERY nice looking sign btw, CJ!
Practice in the mirror to pretend that it is news to you, C.J. And drink lots and lots of coffee.
Go get ’em, bubba. We need some common sense in politics in Peoria.
Best of luck and good luck. I fear (and hope that I’m wrong) that your message will be lost on the “voting” public though it resonates strongly with the general populace.
CJ is doing a great job out there, Peo Proud. He has a message that resonates with the voting public.
Conrad – I hope so. I may not have articulated it — but my concern is that those that agree with his message aren’t necessarily those that actually vote! I’d like to see him make it through to the top five because I think that he can add a lot to the discussions and keep an open mind (generally 🙂 ) even on issues he doesn’t completely agree with. Though, I always said that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy that they become a member of that group — I think we SO need a change in direction that I’m hopefully for a lot of new faces on the Council.
Classy sign for my yard! 🙂
You are MORE than welcome to have a sign in my yard… but you might prefer I put someone else’s sign in it…
The biggest jackwagon in our neighborhood has a WEAVER sign in his yard. We like Chuck, but this will not help his campaign.
2 cents…believe it or not, it helps. It’s like the bad news story about a local politician. After a couple of weeks, people don’t remember the story, just the name.
Get ’em, C.J.!
So election results are all about name recognition? That explains a lot.
Will you be looking to hire any ‘thugs’….to increase the ‘intimidation factor’?
CJ Summers for City Council! We need more common sense and strong rationale such as CJ provides! I have four corner properties where I would gladly display your signs!
I got my personally deleivered by Councilman Summers.
Thanks for the sign C.J.
what message of CJ’s resonates with voters? Im on the fence slightly in that a basic service message is all well and good but Im not always so sure that CJs stance is really basic service. They are services geared towards his personal belief in the wonders of new urbanism and the opinions he brought to the hopc. Also he lives in the uplands which I dont think always have a firm understanding of the issues facing the greater west bluff area.
Outsider Now is exactly exactly why you need ‘thugs’.
Thugs? Because someone has a different opinion? While I’m sure CJ projects my interest as it relates to basic services, I too wonder about this new urbanism which is great but a total loss on this city. I mean, will the new Big Al’s be walkable to? Will there be wide sidewalks and green trees in front? Also, living in the Uplands scares me a little bit also. Does CJ know there is a south end below the hill? I never hear or read him mentioning anything about what is in store for older neighborhoods other than his.
Quick question for C.J.— did you get a notice about the NAACP City Council Candidates Forum at Ward Chapel? The info I got is that it is on Monday, March 21st at 6 pm…but this PJStar online said it was March 14th. What date/time do you have, CJ?
Dennis — My calendar shows Monday, March 21, at 6 p.m. I hope they didn’t move it, because there’s a forum at the Center Bluff neighborhood association on the 14th already scheduled.
Emtronics: Here’s an article I wrote a few years ago about the south side: What’s the Vision for South Peoria? There are other articles about the south side in my archives if you care to search. I’ve also written numerous articles about the East Bluff. In fact, I talk about all different sections of the City, not just my neighborhood.
I don’t find this prejudice against Uplands residents particularly helpful. Why do you want to pit one older neighborhood against another? Do you think your neighborhood will be helped by criticizing mine? Why not work together to make Peoria better for everyone?
I’m not sure you or Outsider really understand new urbanism, based on your descriptions of it. Have you read “Suburban Nation” by Duany? Or “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” by Jane Jacobs?
CJ thank you for allowing me to display your sign in my front yard. I wish you well and that people listen to what you have to say. We need more logical people, like you, on the council. You’ve got your work cut out for you, but I think you are up to it.
I understand the theory I just do not think its application or cost is a basic services platform. I think that they just happen to occasionally overlap. New Urbanism is about place creating and in theory works well, however I think that there is one minor problem in the theory that Peoria can not seem to get over, around or through. Building x does not equal y. Just because you make wide sidewalks ornamental lighting, on street parking etc does not mean the result will be a vastly improved city core. For example the hotel is being sold as a way to revitalize downtown x=y. It has the same if you build it they will come mindset that seems to exist in the New Urbanism trend. Not the we will have a hotel in the middle of a bunch of bars reality. Or the we will have a lot of awsome sidewalks, landscaping etc in front of a ton of empty retail spots.
Yeah the Uplands is a great neighborhood and I dont have a problem with the people that live there. I do however think that Moss/Uplands seem to fail to see that a vast majority of main street is not One World or Starbucks. Main Street dosnt end at Jimmy Johns and then start again at Mushrush. The problem is until the neighborhoods on the other side of university improve, which gah I have no idea how to do that other then double the taxs on the lots and code enforce to hell to try to drive out landlords and renters, I think that main street will continue to decay with or without street parking and trendy landscaping improvements. It is just a difference in opinion.
Its a chicken or the egg problem. What comes first the buildings or the people that actually live there?
Thanks, C.J. FYI for you and others running for election: Monday night’s candidate forum with D150 & ICC candidates will be aired on CAPtions
Sunday, March 20th at 5 pm, Wednesday, March 23rd at 7 pm and later at Midnight;
I plan to video the City Council Candidates forum on March 21st (finally get to meet you face-to-face, CJ). That forum will be aired on CAPtions Sunday, March 27th at 5 pm, Wednesday, March 30th at 7 pm and later at Midnight.
“What comes first the buildings or the people that actually live there?”
The landlords.
@charlie – which is exactly why we need C.J. and other new blood in the council. The people who attended the EVGC TIF planning session voted against Landlords being able to use TIF money to improve their property. Since we are going to have to live with this train wreck, I want people on the Council who will fight to keep the Council from using the TIF as a way to pay the debts on current failed efforts and keep the money where it belongs, with the homeowners who live there.