By now, you all know that Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed the bill that will allow Peoria County to ask voters to voluntarily raise their sales taxes to help pay for the Peoria Regional Museum. He might as well have; the legislature would have overridden his veto anyway, just like they did on SB2477 that allowed the school district to access Public Building Commission funds without a referendum.
There’s only one good thing about this turn of events: it does require a referendum. If the vote fails, there will be no tax increase, and likely no museum in its current form. This is probably the only way the citizens of Peoria can send a clear signal to the Museum Collaboration Group that, while we would like a Peoria history museum, the current plan is unacceptable; go back to the drawing board and try again.
The Journal Star gives us a little insight into the media blitz that will be coming our way to try to convince us that this museum plan is the best thing since sliced bread:
“Now it’s our job to reach out to the community and get a successful vote, something I think we can accomplish with hard work,” said Brad McMillan, the spokesman for the museum collaborative group that’s hoping to partner with Caterpillar to develop the old Sears block Downtown. “We need to show a majority of voters what a really great thing this project is for the future of this region for education, for quality of life and for its economic impact.”
So, there are the three things they’re going to try to push: education, quality of life, and economic impact. Let’s look at those.
- Education. Any museum worth its salt will be educational, so that’s an easy value to sell to the public. But it misses the point. The question is, could we get just as educational of a museum without a sales tax increase? And the answer is yes. The reasons why this project is so expensive are:
- Design. The current design is inefficient and expensive. They want a whole city block to site an 80,000-square-foot one-story building. They want to put a parking deck underground for this building; not only is the parking deck completely unnecessary (there is plenty of parking surrounding the block), but the shape of the deck is different than the shape of the building that sits on top, which adds tremendous expense to the construction process. The waste inherent in this design is formidable.
- Scope. They are moving Lakeview Museum to the riverfront as part of this project. That’s unnecessary. Lakeview Museum already has a building and is self-sufficient. If the art and science museum were left where it’s currently located, the remaining history and achievement portions would be less expensive to house. They could be housed in a new building on a portion of the Sears block, or an old building could be renovated so the history museum could be in an actual historic building.
- Quality of Life. What is “quality of life”? One definition is, “Those aspects of the economic, social and physical environment that make a community a desirable place in which to live or do business.” So let’s look at those items.
- Economic. Economically, a sales tax increase is certainly not a quality-of-life enhancement, but rather a detraction. It means that whenever you go out to eat, instead of paying 10% tax on your meal — already higher than all surrounding communities — you’ll be paying 10.25% or 10.5%, depending on how much money the museum needs. It means that whenever you go shopping for clothes or appliances or other retail items, you’re going to be paying higher taxes.
- Social. I would point out again that we already have Lakeview Museum which is self-sufficient and contributing to Peoria’s quality of life. It’s unclear how moving that museum four and a half miles southeast is going to improve the quality of life socially for Peorians. A Peoria history museum would add to the social quality-of-life aspects, but it can arguably be done without a sales tax increase.
- Physical. Physically, the museum is a travesty. Its architecture, siting, and size are all regrettable. It’s a suburban design right in the heart of an urban setting. It’s not big enough to house the museum collections that are not on display. In the 1970s, the city hired a city planner for advice on what to do downtown; on this block specifically, Demetriou advised dense, mixed-use development with residential and retail components. In 2002, the city again hired an urban planner for advice on what to do downtown; after holding numerous charrettes to solicit public input on what they’d like to see downtown (and specifically on this block), Duany advised dense, mixed-use development with residential and retail components. One would think that listening to the public and heeding the advice of urban planners would be the best way to enhance quality of life. Yet the Museum Collaboration Group has decided to do the antithesis — a single-use, nine-to-five, suburban-style development.
- Economic Impact. We have two city blocks that will be bringing in no tax revenue to the community, but will instead be subsidized by a sales tax increase, and they want us to believe that it will have positive economic impact? It will not. Are they hoping for subsidiary development around the museum block? Where would it go? In the new office building they want to build on the Riverfront Village stilts? And if civic projects with this type of design are surefire economic engines, where is all the subsidiary development around the Civic Center and Chiefs ballpark? They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results; by that definition, expecting positive economic impact from the museum project as currently proposed is insane. Mr. McMillan did provide one example of economic impact in an earlier Journal Star article:
“This project would bring hundreds of construction jobs to the region at the exact time there is talk of national economic stimulus and infrastructure improvements designed to keep people working,” McMillan said.
In other words, make-work jobs at taxpayer expense. Only the government could say with a straight face that taking your tax dollars to pay construction workers for 18 months or so is a positive economic impact on the city. Also, consider the economic impact of higher sales taxes. How many people will continue shopping and eating out in Peoria if surrounding communities (read: East Peoria) have considerably lower taxes? Won’t that make things worse for businesses in Peoria?
We don’t need to raise sales taxes or any other taxes. There’s another solution. The solution is to go back to the Heart of Peoria Plan and develop the block the right way. The solution is to leave Lakeview Museum where it is and establish a history and achievement museum downtown, either in a new building on a small part of the Sears block with an efficient and affordable design, or in a renovated historic building elsewhere downtown. That way, the city and county can collect tax revenue from the mixed-use development on the Sears block, and a self-sufficient history museum can be established. All of these things will raise the quality of life in Peoria, without having to raise taxes to do it.
The Museum Collaboration doesn’t need sales tax revenue, they need a new plan. You can send them that message by voting “no” on the museum tax referendum.
I agree with a lot of what you say and disagree with some also.
You are not correct regarding parking. As someone who works on the riverfront and has for many years there is not sufficient parking around that block if you add development to the Sears block. The Cat lot is for Cat employees. The Riverfront Village lot is used by customers and employees of Heartland Partnership, Joe’s Crab Shack, Old Chicago and RiverStation complex. In the summer you have people parking that go on cruises on the Spirit of Peoria and on the weekends any special events on the Riverfront.
The lot across from the Ill. Antique Center is full during the week and weekends with people from RiverStation, Johnny’s Hideaway, Cont. Art Center, Rhythm Kitchen, Ill Antique, Lofts above the antique mall etc…
Several of the parking garages around the Washington St. area are private lots and are pretty much full. There is limited on street parking around the Sears block.
You add any development to that two block area whether it is a museum or mixed use it will need its’ own parking. Underground is a natural solution.
If you are against this project then let’s hear some ideas for something. The ideas must be feasible. I am really tired of looking at that hole in the ground. Sears has been gone from down there for 10 years now.
Peoriafan — You’re forgetting about street parking. There’s a lot of street parking. If there were considerable development on the Sears block, then additional parking would definitely be warranted. But just for the museum? I don’t think it’s necessary, and a Caterpillar-commissioned study of the area found that it wasn’t necessary either. See my post “Cat Logic” for more details.
As far as “some ideas for something,” the city should stick to the plan and put out RFPs on the block for the kind of development they want to see there, which, according to the Heart of Peoria Plan that the council adopted in principle, would be mixed-use residential and retail. That’s certainly feasible.
Since when has the expectation of parking right next to the facility become a requirement for attending anything downtown? If you go out to the “City of Grand Prairie”, it stands to reason that you won’t always get a spot close to your desired door or retailer. Same thing with Metro Center, Northwoods Mall, or any of the myriad box stores in Peoria. Do you ever go watch the fireworks at Glen Oak or downtown/East Peoria? Have you ever attended a Bradley basketball or Chiefs game? How far are you willing to walk for those events?
The fact is that there IS lots of parking downtown, when you consider the number of parking decks that exist in a very small area. Admittedly, you might actually have to walk a block or two (GASP!), but it’s not that different than anything else in this town. The advantage of a mixed-use development (which I realize is the unthinkable) is, if you have businesses operating at different hours (for example, a museum open 9-5, an IMAX running from 1-11, a restaurant operating from 11a-1a, and residential properties occupied 24/7), then you won’t always be competing for the same parking spaces.
On street parking- take a drive down there and see how many actual on street spots are open through the week. Not many. And most of those meters are 30 min – two hours which is not enough time to visit the museum, catch a movie at the IMAX and eat.
Parking decks- all of the decks along Water and Washington are PRIVATE decks. Most are nearly full during the weekdays. CAT deck and surface lot is private parking. CAT opens the surface lot up across from Gateway in the evenings and weekends. Summer events that lot fills up for event parking.
Is your opinion that additional parking is not necessary based on the CAT study or just because you don’t think so without any real proof to back up your opinion?
I’ll tell you what- If you want to come down to the riverfront and watch traffic and parking habits 5-7 days a week for the next year through all the seasons then you will understand the reality of the parking situation.
Peoriafan — Of the two of us, I’m the only one who has cited an objective study to back up my claims. And while I don’t work downtown, I do park downtown regularly, in all seasons, and at a number of different times a day. I’ve never been unable to find a parking space, and I’ve never had to walk more than a few blocks.
Thanks once again for a thorough and thoughtful analysis. I agree that the current design is inappropriate for this location and favor mixed use. While we’re tearing down historic buildings we should be putting up architecturally significant ones in their place. I will not be voting for the referendum given the current plan.
I live Downtown. There is not ‘a lot’ of street parking. It can be found, but sometimes it takes a few circles around the block.
I would favor mixed-use…as well as some sort of museum attraction.
But lets not kid ourselves….People won’t fill up the hotels to visit this museum.
Ok, so they might visit some restaurants. What restaurants though? Joe’s Crab Shack? Great! How much of their profits stay in Peoria? Hooters…same deal.
Downtown is dead unless you work there, have a court date or are looking to get drunk late at night.
There are few quality, local restaurants there. I lend my support, but many of them are outnumbered by empty storefronts wasting space.
If you look at old photos of Downtown Peoria, you would swear they were taken in a different city. People, cars and commerce were crowding the streets.
These days it is eerily quiet at times.
Downtown is dead unless you work there, have a court date or are looking to get drunk late at night.
That should have you covered, Ian! Lol. Just kidding.. I’ve missed you.
“a renovated historic building elsewhere downtown.”
How about them purchasing the AMVETS and solve 2 problems! Ha!
blahaha Diane! I have covered two of the topics mentioned. 🙂 Miss you as well. Headn to home to AZ Monday for Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Downtown has plenty going on at night.
Just about every evening some sporting event or concert or theater is happening at the Civic Center. You have the Apollo Theater, events at the Library, many church events, The ball park in the summer, numerous summer events on the riverfront, Five Spot every Friday night at Cont. Art Center, most of the bars and restaurants have live music, art openings at the Peoria Art Guild and Cont. Art Center. Spirit of Peoria cruises, carriage rides and Segway’s. They have special events at the RiverPlex sometimes, concerts at CEFCU stage. I would say there is a lot more culture activities going on downtown in the evenings than anywhere else in the Peoria area on any given night.
If you go out to north Peoria you can shop, eat and see a new movie and that’s about it.
Some of you people are bound and determined to find negative in everthing out there. If that is what makes you happy then go for it.
I am a regular parker in the lot across from the Antique Center on the weekends. In three years, the only time I have ever seen it full (during a non festival time) was the first few weekends that Tavern on the Water was open. I watched people circle for 5 minutes rather than park a block away. Parking isn’t the problem, people’s unrealistic expectations are the problem. You can’t have big city fun with walmart style parking. Even if there was a shortage of parking spaces there is no reason that the parking deck has to be attached. The Abraham Lincoln Museum’s official parking deck is a block and a half away and people seem to get along just fine.
Why does this museum have to be located downtown?
Doesn’t Lakeview have enough undeveloped space already to house the museum and the CAT center without wasting that city block?
How much in property tax and sales tax revenue could that block generate with a mixed use of residential and retail space?
Downtown just does not seem as vibrant as it could be. The Apollo should be filled every night, not just events here and there. What a fantastic venue that is underutilized…this is coming from people who work there.
The events you mentioned Peofan are great, but they also seem quite spread out for a downtown. People attend these events, but they are in pockets…not necessarily working in unison.
Maybe I have an unrealistic image in my head of what Downtown should look like. But I have seen that image play out well in other cites.
I know I am going to get yelled at but I’m going to do it anyway. Some years ago we sent a proposal to the City of Peoria when they were talking about redeveloping Water St. The proposal contained an offer to put a narrow gauge antique looking train right down the middle of Water St., that would travel at about 5 mph. It would stop just like a bus would with a pull cord. The cars would be handicapped accessible with flip out running boards that would allow wheelchairs and strollers and shopping carts to roll right up into the cars. The railroad gauge would be 18″ and run at street level with the tracks down in the pavement. This would mean no high step ins like busses or a standard gauge trolley. The parking could be up north or down south, either way. The little train only requires 50′ turning radius and could be run on Lithium ion batteries making it environmentally safe and very quiet. It would look like an old fashioned steam engine but not actually be one. It would be an attraction and could serve the entire length of Water St., and all the businesses there. Grants could be got to fund it and the ticket price could be extremely low in order to entice passengers.
Another thing that would help is if Amtrak came into town on the river front. The Rock Island Depot on Morton and Bond Sts. has enough room for a deboarding line, where the little train could pick up passengers and deliver them to the museum and other downtown businesses on Water St.
Having an underground parking lot on the Sears block is asking for a disaster. Just think of it as a underground swimming pool when it rains and Water St fills up and the parking decks under Joe’s Crab shack is under water. The little train could actually run on its track even in these conditions.
SD- thanks for the ideas and suggestions. It’s nice to hear someone contribute instead of just writing about everything that is wrong and bad.
Peoriafan — Peorians have a lot of positive ideas and suggestions. The City Council catalogues them in expensive reports, sometimes even adopting them “in principle,” then puts them on a shelf and does something else completely. It’s really a mystery as to why residents have grown so jaded and cynical….
Querry: If voters do approve this tax, will you stop opposing the museum, on the grounds that it’s what the voters want?
Billy — I don’t do hypotheticals. You’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
Well …. you will forgive me for being curious. You based your support the Peoria Public Library’s renovation/expansion project on the fact that voters approved an advisory referendum and on the fact planners underwent a long and public process. Certainly no process has been longer and debated more in public than this one. And if approved by the voters, it wouldn’t be advisory. It would be a vote to collect and spend money, which is even more definitive of the voters’ will. So, I ask again do you see yourself supporting this project if approved by voters?
😉
Okay, Billy, for you I’ll play the hypothetical game. First of all, you’re wrong, of course. I didn’t base my personal approval of the library project on the outcome of the advisory referendum or the fact that they “underwent a long and public process.” I was personally in favor of the library project because I support libraries, I believe they’re basic services to which everyone should have equal access, and I thought it was high time we started providing them with the resources they need to upgrade their capital assets. I thought they went through the proper process toward those goals — getting public input and incorporating it into their plans, being transparent in their dealings, having an advisory referendum when they didn’t have to have one, etc. When the public came out in support of the library’s plan, as evidenced by the referendum results, I said the city should heed it. But you know what? If the vote would have come back negative, I would have expected the council to heed that, too. Even though I still would have been for improved library services, I would have said the council should vote it down because the residents had no confidence in the plan. I would have suggested they come up with a new plan, however, and try again.
So, what about the museum? Regardless of how the vote comes out, it’s not going to change my lack of support for this particular museum plan. Nevertheless, if the public votes for it — assuming that it’s a straight up or down vote for the museum and they don’t muddy the waters by combining it with other public facilities (like Bel-Wood Nursing Home) — I will concede that that’s what the public wants and move on. What else can one do? That’s what I did with just about every race this past election, so it would be nothing new for me.
So … you will cite voters’ advisory vote in favor of spending a ton of case when it’s for a project you LIKE, but you will ignore their wishes if it’s contrary to your own.
😉
Billy — I believe I said, “I will concede that that’s what the public wants and move on.” How does that translate to “ignore [the public’s] wishes if it’s contrary to [my] own”? I’m not ignoring anything; if the referendum passes, the taxes get raised and the project goes forward. You might want to try actually reading my comment before replying.
😉
I am not necessarily in favor of the museum downtown, however, if the “mixed use” is just more of the likes of Joe’s Crab Shack and Hooters, well . . . yuck!! Peoria seems to have a difficult time supporting interesting restaurants and unique shopping.
Is the museum group sure that CAT is still on board given the downturn in the global economy?
I have no opinion on this particular subject.
I thinf the Block-heads should stop trying to ram this project down the collective throats of the citizenry and come up with something we can all get behind.
I refuse to be lectured to be someone who doesn’t even own a cellphone.
😉
New Voice: “I have no opinion on this particular subject.”
Thanks for alerting us. Seriously, I was anxiously awaiting your pronouncement. Now, I can get on with my life.
Billy: “Now, I can get on with my life.”
Do you really expect us to believe YOU have a life?
New Voice: Do you expect us to believe (or care) that you believe (or care) that Billy has a life?
As for the museum… is ANYONE in the county (Outside of Peoria City) any more likely to vote for a tax hike to pay for this museum? If Peoria residents don’t want it, Tazwell County people don’t want it, who the heck wants it? People in Delavan and Princeton?
I don’t care.
CJ, your opening statement made no mention of the Caterpillar Experience visitors’ center. Since you’re apparently in favor of a smaller history museum accompanying mixed-use commercial/residential development on the Block, are you prepared to squeeze in the Cat attraction as well? Or would you prefer to inform the region’s economic engine that they can take their project elsewhere?
Steve J — I would love to see the CAT visitor’s center locate on that block. It’s not my intention to discourage them or the museum from locating there. My concern is over design and function.
Everyone knows that downtown is not a vibrant place. Councilman Turner himself said just recently that “downtown is dying.” I would presume that CAT and the Museum Collaboration Group intend to put new life into downtown — to revitalize downtown, at least around the riverfront — with this development. My concern is that this development, as currently planned, will not accomplish that goal.
In order to activate the streets and provide vitality to downtown, you have to have people living there. This is not just C. J. talking. This is every town planner and consultant we’ve brought to Peoria saying so. (And those planners and consultants pointed to the Sears block specifically for that mixed use.) Not only is residential necessary to revitalize downtown, but there is a market for downtown living, as a recent study by Peoria’s Economic Development Department has shown. With more people living downtown comes a built-in market for more retail services.
I truly do not understand why the Museum Collaboration Group and CAT are pursuing a plan that will not bring about the positive change to downtown that they desire, especially in the face of overwhelming evidence. As I mentioned, attempts to revitalize downtown with the Civic Center, ballpark, Riverplex, and a host of other developments have proven that subsidiary development is not happening. Planners and consultants have explained why it’s not happening. What reason is there to think this development will fare any better?
No, I have nothing against CAT locating their visitor’s center downtown. In fact, CAT would be well-served to lead the charge on changing this development plan and advocating for mixed-use on the Sears block. It would be an opportunity to create a city that is attractive to young professionals (engineers!) who prefer urban living. That would be positive for CAT and Peoria both.
C.J. – I was with you on your argument right up until “young professionals (engineers!) who prefer urban living.” There may be young professionals that desire urban living, but I wouldn’t count on CAT engineers. They are typically a conservative bunch both in lifestyle and finances. I can’t imagine a young engineer able or willing to pay the price of a downtown condo. They typically marry fairly young, so quality schooling is an issue sooner than later. They also typically produce offspring that are academically capable. Maybe if the Math Science Academy was an accelerated program it would draw some young families to downtown but . . . I will believe that when I see it.
Yet another reason to vote no on the museum — another meltdown lurking in the mall, hotel and business sector —-
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081128/ap_on_bi_ge/meltdown_coming_soon
we simply cannot afford it — people are trying to have enough for essentials without the frills.