Editor’s note: “George” wrote this as a comment on a previous post and garnered some response, but many readers may have missed it, so I’m reprinting it here as its own post. Let me know what you think of George’s assessment of Peoria:

Peoria may be a sinking ship and I think the Titanic is a good analogy. The affluent are dancing merrily without knowing (caring?) about the underlying problems the ship is facing. The ride seems fine from their vantage point- all is well. If they were to mix with the poor or question why we haven’t had any population growth in fifty years-they would certainly sense danger ahead.

I would argue Peoria has been sinking in a more gradual way compared to the Titanic, but we are sinking.

Look at the facts:

• Peoria is no longer the second largest city- we are the seventh. Obviously the growth cells have not produced the population growth or revenue streams projected. The Civic Center and Ball Park (while nice and impressive) also-have not produced the spin off downtown renaissance they promised. I would argue the Museum project is similarly flawed.

• Our largest school district, District 150, is now primarily serving minority and impoverished students. Superintendent Hinton has no prior superintendent experience and the current school board is insistent on maintaining the status quo.

• Racial tension in Peoria seems to be at an all time high and there doesn’t seem to be a solution in sight- unless you really believe prayer is a solution, and if so, that notion may be part of the problem. Haven’t Peorians been praying daily for generations and with what success?

• Our tax base is not sufficient to pay for necessary city services, much less provide money for enhancing public space, professional development or providing other amenities needed to attract scalable enterprises. The newly built residential housing units (north of Pioneer Parkway) and those planned for the future will never ever support themselves. When you do the math you will discover we are annexing ourselves into destitution. If you disagree then please explain why have there been increased city budget cuts and why are we likely looking at higher city taxes in the years to come?

• Developers claim they are simply responding to the market as they build ugly development after ugly development. Meanwhile, the most desirable cities, regardless of size, do just the reverse. The best cities drive the market by laying out their vision and getting it built. They do not take what ever is brought before them (schlock strip malls and cookie-cutter subdivisions) – they do not act desperate. Peoria has behaved desperate beginning with Dick Carver’s administration and it has become worse through the terms of Maloof, Grieves, and Ransburg. The precedent has been set and with the current set of developers it appears impossible for Ardis to reverse this trend. Our current City Council members are weak and lack vision- and so it goes.

• Young talented people are not flocking to Peoria because it is not the type of place they want to live. Some think we need more late night bars, but 24/7 does not mean having a plethora of sleazy bars and taverns. We do not have the appropriate housing destiny, enough downtown retail, adequate transportation options, and variety of downtown restaurants to make Peoria an exciting place to live. Good grief- we do not have a grocery store, dry cleaner, or drug store within walking distance of the city center. If you want to go to breakfast in the city where do you go? If you want well planned green space in the city center where do you go? Peoria generally has done a bad job of creating and maintaining a great place.

• Additionally ask yourself: How is life for our pre-teens and senior citizens who are unable to drive? Social scientists judge a city’s quality of life by how easily the young and old move around independently. When your pre-teens want to do something or go somewhere independently- where do they go and how do they get there? Are they walking out their doors and taking off on their own? No, most likely you are driving them someplace. Our children and our elderly citizens are forced to be dependent on someone with a car. In most cases they can not comfortably or safely walk or use alternate transportation to have fun or take care of their daily needs.

I think we are at risk of becoming the next East St. Louis or Detroit if the citizens do not start paying attention and demand that the City Manager and elected officials start doing their best to create a safe and great place to live. Keep a tally of their votes on issues- they repeatedly say they are for neighborhood revitalization but their votes prove otherwise.

If Randy Oliver leaves Peoria it is no great loss. He is not a visionary- but neither are members of the city council. Ok I give- pray for us!

— “George,” December 30th, 2007

Randy Oliver almost got another job without even realizing it. I don’t know about you, but I find it fascinating that a guy can be a finalist for a job in another city simply by having his name in with a recruitment firm. No interview. No knowledge he was even being considered. But, theoretically at least, he could have been chosen as the new city manager of McKinney, Texas.

What would have happened then? Would the recruitment firm have come to Mr. Oliver’s house (well, apartment, I guess) ala Publisher’s Clearing House with a camera crew, balloons, and a large foam-core-mounted W-2 form? “Surprise! You’re the new city manager of McKinney, Texas!”

Oliver is kind of like the bizarro-Ray-LaHood. LaHood, you’ll recall, was clearly not a finalist for the Bradley University president position, but claimed he was still potentially in the running. Oliver was a finalist for the Texas job, but claims he knew nothing about it.

According to WCBU (via Jonathan Ahl’s blog), “McKinney’s Media Manager confirms Oliver interviewed for the position about two weeks before the holidays.” But Oliver told the Journal Star he didn’t interview, although he had previously admitted to being in Texas at the time. I am not going to call anyone a liar here. But I will say it’s the darndest coincidence I’ve ever seen. Perhaps this recruitment firm is like the Impossible Missions Force and orchestrated a very elaborate scheme — utilizing hypnosis, disguises, and holograms — to make McKinney officials think that this interview took place.

One thing is for sure, though. I need to get my name in to that recruitment firm. Maybe they can make me a finalist as a new editorial writer for the Journal Star.