Jennifer Davis has been doing some digging and came up with these specific changes:
…shrinking the building by about 15,000 square feet and doing away with both the reflecting pool and the large metal sphere enclosed in glass, which held the planetarium. Further, though it will look like a two-story building in places, the second floor will house mechanicals and no longer be accessible to visitors. The retail space along Water Street also will be put off for now. The planetarium still will exist, but in a silo-looking structure.
The City Council should shoot this down with both barrels. As far as I’m concerned, the museum group has proven that this cannot be a successful venture at its current size, and I don’t mean just the size of the building. I also mean the size of the project (combining multiple museums into one in an ever-decreasing space) and the size of the land (taking all that prime real estate away from public development that would produce tax revenue for the city for an 80,000 square foot building).
If the museum group wants to continue to try to stuff five or six museums/halls-of-fame into an 80,000-square-foot building, I suppose that’s their prerogative. But there’s no way the council should allow them to continue squatting on two-thirds of the former Sears block to do it. Give them a smaller portion of the block, and open the rest of it to private development — preferably a mix of retail and residential, in keeping with the principles of New Urbanism.
This is going to be screwed up bigtime. Better that grass be planted and make a soccer field of the block, than to have an eyesore that will plague us for generations.
Need I point out that today’s newspaper headline was the headline of the Chronicle, let’s see, a couple weeks ago? And the muckety mucks then denied it, didn’t they? Guess Peorians are so used to being lied to they just accept it as a matter of course. Oh, I forgot, that’s part of the excitement of the big city, you prefer it to the boring cornfields of the suburbs, don’t you proud Peorians?
Another example of the aged powers-that-be, having no clue what they are doing.
If Peoria really wants to bring tourists to downtown, instead of a museum to nothing, just build a two-square block co-op of bars, nightclubs, strip joints, adult book stores and DVD theaters.
I guarantee the place will be jumpin’ and the taxes will be flowin’.
I’ve said from day one that this museum would fail; whether built or not. It was planned because the powers that be wanted Peoria to be a regional draw. The Shoppes at Grand Prairie was also to be a regional draw; which will be more successful?
Instead, the Shoppes should have been built on the Sears block and with private investment. It could have been designed to accomodate things of interest that would display the heritage of Peoria, especially if it had two or more floors.
But if something makes sense, Peoria will do the opposite.
I’m continually puzzled by how Peoria doesn’t play to its strengths in seeking to be a tourist destination. It’s never going to be a major convention center (too cold, not enough gambling), and many of the things you can do in Peoria you can do bigger and better in Chicago, and a lot more people make THAT trip.
Peoria has a gorgeous, people-scale downtown with lots of historic buildings, neat local bars and restaurants, beautiful riverfront. Instead of playing to national nostalgia for Main Street USA with some B&Bs in historic areas (there’s only one B&B in all of Peoria) and an old-timey general store and stuff like that, we put a boring suburban mall out in the northwest corridor. I like and appreciate Shoppes and its tax dollars, but mall-based “tourism” is kind-of a crock.
If I were in charge of tourism, I’d get together with Galesburg (another gorgeous downtown — older and small townier) and market the two as a pair. Go back in time (on the train, no less) to Galesburg, to a small city with unique local flavor and gorgeous preserved architecture. From Galesburg go to visit Peoria, billing at as something like “Future-Driven City with a Rich Past” or “Modern City with Traditional Architecture” but catchier, emphasizing the vibrance of the city’s current incarnation but playing heavily on its past. And then I’d partner with the burgeoning organic farms around Peoria for — ready for it? AGRITOURISM. Being people who live in farm country you probably don’t know this and will consider it insane, but PEOPLE WILL PAY $2500 A WEEK FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF WORKING ON YOUR FARM AND CALLING IT A VACATION. They will even fly from other continents to do it. People who’ve never seen a cow in person in their lives, for whom a farm is exotic and strange. It can’t be commodities farming and it almost has to be organic, but people want to come and hoe cabbages and feed chickens and play at idealized pastoralism.
Want a little piece of pre-war Americana? Come live the farm life on the prairie. Visit a turn-of-the-century town (Galesburg) and a historic city center (Peoria). Tie it in to Lincoln and Twain and, hells, even Little House on the Prairie. Like Williamsburg, sort-of, but simply preserving the existing heritage, not recreating it completely.
Okay, wow, that was a way random diversion. Sorry about that. It just annoys me how Peoria spends so much time marketing the things about Peoria that are THE SAME AS EVERYWHERE ELSE and NOT marketing Peoria’s uniqueness and awesomeness.
Peoria is stuck in some kind of “keep up with the Jones'” mentality.
“Other cities have museums — we need a really BIG museum! Ok, well, maybe, not as big, but still BIG!” Notice no one’s saying a GOOD museum.
“Shopping! Yeah! A really big mall. That will bring people here!” It doesn’t matter that these are the same stores you can find everywhere. Nor does it matter that the Shoppes of Grand Prairie is rapidly becoming the “Village of Grand Prairie” with restaurants, hotels, cinemas, financial institutions, a medical treatment facility — there’s really no reason to leave the NW corridor.
“Restaurants! Other cities have these great restaurants. How can we bring them here?” If you walk up and down the Taste of Peoria, count how many restaurant booths are CHAINS!
The city has lost its individual identity. There’s a great deal out there — restaurants, community theater, specialty shopping — but because they aren’t high profile, brightly lit, and need I say garish, they get neglected by the movers and shakers and the “going and doing” publications.
Eyebrows is right — team up with Galesburg (another small/medium sized community with some niche activities), plan a series of events and see how much attention you can garner in the Illinois travel & tourism guides.
Forget it Eyebrows, makes too much sense. Our “leaders” market what they market, because they don’t want to live here. They want to live in Chicago or Seattle, or whereever (we’ve heard several places over the years from oatmeal-brained city leaders). It’s just terrible having to live in Peoria with us hicks. If it weren’t for a few gunshots here and there they would probably die of boredom.
Eyebrows,
When are you running for City Council?
You have my vote!
The riverfront is too commercial, perhaps the Sears block could be something more green. I think if Minneapolis that has a nice sculpture garden (with things that actually look like sculptures–sorry too all the abstractionists). Chicago has Grant Park along the lake. Areas along the Mississippi River that give views. Places for people to enjoy festivals during the warm months. An area downtown that doesn’t have concrete reflecting the heat with fountains, etc. I know it would not be utlized much in the winter, or could attract winter festivals. It would accentuate not only the river, which is a very important asset, but the downtown skyline which for a city our size is very nice as well. This is an area solely for public enjoyment. Granted that doesn’t put money directly into the coffers, but people attending events there do. People eating lunches during the week would, people enjoying concerts etc. also would be spending some money or at least come downtown.
Ten years ago to the year we came forward with a plan to do overnight murder mystery’s with a train back and forth to Galesburg. Also to incorporate with a train to Lewistown and the Dickson Mounds and several other entities to be incorporated. Also, to put in a B&B on the line just outside of Wildlife Prairie Park in the old grain elevator that Bill Rutherford owned. He was all for it and we looked at it and evaluated it and even drew up plans for it along with numerous other inventive ideas. We went before the Riverfront Business District Commission with this and several other ideas and were warmly received. But when it got to the Riverfront Design Manager, or whatever he was called at the time, Tom Tincher things were off the scale. We still have the plans for all of this and how it could be done, but until the powers that be get off their intended line of thought it will never happen and we will have more white elephants on the riverfront that cost us more money than they make. And they really don’t bring any long term visitors to our area. The only time tourism dollars are any good is if the tourist stay overnight. Eat here, sleep here, shop here, buy gas or other transportation necessities here, then we benefit and so do they. Ok, I’m out of breath until next time.
I decided to chime in again here. No need for an “I told you so.” Have moved outside tri-county area, but still follow Peoria news. Interesting. This is a major disappointment. It would appear that even Paul W., who was ready to challenge me to a duel some months back is changing his tune [?]. I did not respond because I have made my position on the museum many times before. Circular arguments do not appeal to me, and I grew tired of arguing with people who in the end know nothing about museums.
In my humble opinion, knowing little or nothing about museums and the needs of Peoria city, is a problem shared by everyone on Lakeview board. Take care and see you at the Children’s Museum!
You were supposed to show up at sunrise by the old oak tree at 20 paces….
Actually I haven’t changed my tune about the museum. It would be nice to have one, but have pretty much advocated for green space on the riverfront. I had suggested that if they build it to put the parking beneath it so there wasn’t another large spot of asphalt baking downtown.
Pick the money drain winner, the zoo or the museum?
I’m going to have to say zoo. The animals have to eat no matter what. You can only scale back expenses so much on that sort of opperation. Worst case senario volunteers can run a museum, the zoo requires special skills. I am not saying actual museum personel aren’t skilled; I’m saying in a doom and gloom scenario you could find people to flip the lights on, sell tickets, and lock up at night with little cost. However I think fund raising for a zoo would be easier than a museum. Who can turn down requests made on behalf of baby animals?
BeanCounter,
What your describing is not a museum. It is an historic home in Peoria.
That’s the point, when the bottom falls out of something like the museum project it can at least run on bare bones. Like a historical home, no traveling exhibits, or even shut down for periods of time. Essentially, “Here’s what we have in the permanant collection, come and have a look see.” Zoo’s don’t have that option. The cost of the care for the animals is constant whether or not people are showing up to look at them.
Raoul — where would the Riverplex and Ball Stadium fit in the money drain hierarchy?
Bean Counter — How much more would the zoo lose vs. the amount that the Riverplex currently loses? Best estimates are okay too.
Karrie-I don’t know how much it will lose. I don’t even have a guess. I would just think that a zoo has more potential to bleed the tax payer dry than a museum, especially becuase said zoo is run by the PPD. I think it isn’t a good sign that Niabi Zoo in the Quad Cities has “charges for services” of less than a half million dollars a year. Niabi already has their Africa exhibit up and running. How many mini Africa’s does downstate Illinois need? Side note, Niabi’s expenditures are around 2 mil a year and they receive less than $400,000 in property taxes. If the PPD could bring Africa in on that scale I would be on board. But since they most of the numbers on the PPD’s Annual Financial Report are in the millions, I would bet that isn’t an option. Unfortunately the zoo’s are classified differently accounting wise so it makes it hard to compare them just by looking at numbers they are required to remit to the state that you can view online.
BeanCounter: Thanks! 🙂
I reviewed the PPD 2006 Financial Statement last week. Somehow the bonded indebtedness dropped by $4 million dollars. At the same time, PPD borrowed another $2.2 million and another $10 million to make up the zoo shortage. These figures are not in the 2006 statement because the money was approved in November but wasn’t borrowed until Jan.2007 or these amounts are not transparent in the 2006 figures so will probably show up next June. The statement did show Proctor Center losing about $320,000 and I hear they plan to renovate the building.
The fitnees Center lost approximately $600,000, half reimbursed by OSF and the principle and interest on the original bond to build the RiverPlex appears to be in a section called RiverPlex Construction showing a deficeit of over 1 million dollars.
One major contributor to the new zoo told me he was not aware that the current zoo loses about $400,000 a year.
In a call to the relatively new Dubuque Museum, the Development Director told me that attendance was down to 240,000 (first year 301,000) last year and losses would be more than any year todate. $250,000 is reimbursed by the Endowment set up by the State of Iowa but this year they went over that amount and are raising funds again.
Attendance tends to drop off after the first year, of course, but the Dubuque museum is very nice and appears to be well run. They reused some old buildings so they didn’t have to build all new and there is a casino right next door as an additional draw. If it’s not making it, that’s a big red warning flag.