City of Peoria, Peoria Civic Center

Hotel optional six months ago, now critical

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The city commissioned a feasibility study recently to see what impact a proposed hotel connected to the Civic Center would have on other hotels downtown. The Journal Star gives us our first peek at their results today.

After all the money that’s been put into the the recent Civic Center expansion, now we’re being told that it could be “all for naught” if a new hotel isn’t built as well:

“They say that the Civic Center can’t live up to its full potential without a connected hotel,” said Civic Center Authority commissioner Dan Silverthorn. “It’s critical to us, to our success. Yeah, it might affect some hotels.”

Oh, it will affect some hotels alright, and it will affect taxpayers, too. “Peoria could compete [with East Peoria’s new Embassy Suites] by building a new upscale hotel connected to the Civic Center, but HVS estimates it will cost $33 million – or about $132,000 per room – and the city will have to pony up,” the Journal Star reports. As if the city has any money! Furthermore, the study says, “Despite the projected growth in demand in the marketplace, the impact of a new Civic Center hotel will depress occupancy rates in the Downtown area for years.”

This sure is a far cry from past statements from the Civic Center. Just six months ago, in a memo from the Civic Center Authority to the Peoria City Council dated March 24, stated:

The Peoria Civic Center Authority is not now and has not previously requested public funding for a hotel. We have always hoped that a private development would be interested by the Peoria Civic Center expansion and upgrade to come forward with a proposal. We hope that the community will enable such a development.

The Peoria Civic Center Authority is committed and continues to be committed to the success of the expanded facilities. We believe it can be successful without an attached hotel but more and larger regional opportunities will be possible if more and better downtown hotel rooms are available.

So, six months ago the Civic Center Authority believed they could be successful without an attached hotel and were not requesting any public funding. Now, an attached hotel is “critical” to the Civic Center’s success, and city will have to pitch in to make it happen. I wonder what they’ll discover is critical another six months from now. A new parking deck? Connected restaurants and bars? A covered walkway to Museum Square?

It’s especially hilarious to hear Chuck Grayeb, who recently voted against spending $5,000 for a part-time training coordinator down at city hall because the city’s so broke, “has said he favors a new connected hotel as long as the city isn’t giving away too much to lure developers.” How could even consider giving away anything to “lure developers”?

This project is too big of a change order. Original plans for a Civic Center hotel were that it wouldn’t impact the costs of the expansion project. In fact, in 2004, David Manica, lead project designer for HOK Sport+Venue+Event, met with the Heart of Peoria Commission. Their minutes record: “Mr. Manica indicated there are plans to add a hotel at a future date without impacting the current cost of the project.” Now, just two years later, the hotel is suddenly a critical and very expensive component of the success of the project. To say this was poor planning would be an understatement. If it’s a critical component now, it was a critical component two years ago. Somebody didn’t do their homework.

Now there’s no money left for this project. Not with the city’s current budget woes. If the Civic Center, which has plenty of extra HRA tax funding to give away to ArtsPartners and the Peoria Area Visitors and Convention Bureau, can’t underwrite the cost of luring a hotel to their newly expanded facility without additional public funding, then they’re going to have to find a way to make their facility successful without it. Lack of planning on their part does not equal a crisis on the city’s (and the taxpayer’s) part.

City of Peoria, Museum Block

Museum Partners back to the drawing board for names

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I received this press release today from Kathleen Woith, Lakeview’s Vice President of Community Relations & Communications:

Museum Partners Going Back to the Public to Choose Favorite Name

We heard you!

The Museum Partners asked for the public’s opinion on proposed names for the new museum and more than 4,000 responses and votes came back!

Love them or hate them or something in between — the four original names —
Port of Exploration Museum, Amazeum, Museum on the Square and ExploraSphere — inspired passionate and impassioned opinions. Reactions ranged from “All these names are terrible!” to “fascinating names, I can’t decide which one I like best.”

So the Museum Partners are going back to the public to help choose a name. What will the new choices be? They will be revealed when the vote reopens Friday, Sept. 22. Polling will continue through noon, Monday, Oct. 2. The Naming Committee will meet that week to choose a name. The Partner Group Boards will consider the names with an announcement to come in November.

What will the choices not include? Some of the write-in names popular with the public just aren’t available or can’t be used. Including words in the names such as Riverview, River’s Edge and Riverfront aren’t available because they are trademarked or close to names of other museums.

Popular sentiment ran in favor of recognizing the museum’s home city in the name and that is being considered by the group. Other names suggested were trademarked names of existing museums, such as the Exploratorium or Discovery Museum.

Another name that won’t be an option is Lakeview Museum. The museum was gratified to see that more than 150 people wrote-in or commented that they would like to retain the name — especially since the museum finally will have a “lake view.”

With the collaboration of all the partners, including the Peoria Historical Society, the African American Hall of Fame Museum, the Peoria Regional Museum Society, Lakeview Museum, the IHSA, and others, the museum is growing into an entity that embraces all of the disciplines. Art, history, science and achievement will be explored and displayed in a museum unlike any other in the country. Lakeview Museum was created by 26 groups who joined together in the early 1960s. Today, that legacy is continuing with the groups who are forming the new regional museum. The new museum will continue the tradition of offering outstanding exhibitions and programs created by the partners.

The Museum Partners continue to involve the community in the process with the new vote.

City of Peoria, Kellar Branch

Rumor mill: CIRY wants to stop service to Pioneer Park

I got the most interesting e-mail today stating that “CIRY [Central Illinois Railroad Company] wants out of their contract/agreement to provide rail service to Pioneer Park.” CIRY is the carrier that the city hired to replace Pioneer Industrial Railway to provide service on the Kellar Branch and western spur. They’re providing rail service to Carver Lumber at the northwest end of the Kellar Branch, as well as O’Brien Steel at the southeast end.

I can’t independently verify that CIRY wants to stop serving Carver Lumber, but it wouldn’t surprise me. In a filing with the Surface Transportation Board on July 24, they stated, “The 50 rail carloads per year currently shipped to Carver does not provide sufficient revenue to make it economically viable for an operator to operate the Kellar Branch line from the east or west.” (emphasis mine)

Note that they stated they can’t make sufficient revenue to keep providing service from the west either — that is, over the western spur. In other words, the city’s plan to replace reliable and profitable rail service via the Kellar Branch with unreliable, monopolistic service over the western spur has been a failure. This had been predicted and warned against years and years ago, most notably by the city’s own railroad commission (which was recently disbanded), but all warnings were ignored.

Now the city is reportedly threatening to sue CIRY if they try to get out of their contract. After all, if CIRY bows out, the city will likely be unable to convince the STB to allow service to be discontinued on the Kellar Branch; and that means they won’t be able to put a dedicated trail in its place.

Isn’t it ironic that the city wouldn’t sue CIRY for endangering Peorian’s lives after the runaway train incident last year, nor for costing Carver Lumber over $60,000 in additional shipping costs because of their refusal to haul up the Kellar Branch, but they will reportedly sue them for endangering the city’s plans to turn the Kellar Branch into a trail?

Where are the city’s priorities?

City of Peoria, Television

“Target Peoria”: On target or off?

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The town hall meeting is over and already one review has come in: Scott Janz was unimpressed, saying “nobody had any real substantive answers” to the questions raised.

I really want to be positive about it, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed myself — no offense to the participants. I know there’s no magic wand that will solve all our crime problems, and I wasn’t expecting all crime issues to be resolved in a one-hour town-hall meeting.

But I came away from the meeting feeling like all these officials were telling me they’re doing everything they can to combat crime, and there is little else they can do. In fact, it felt like a vehicle for “educating” the public rather than getting public input. Maybe that was the goal, since they’re planning to have three more forums.

The most surprising thing I heard all night was Peoria Police Chief Settingsgaard and Peoria County Sheriff Mike McCoy passed up a golden opportunity to say they needed more resources, saying they’re doing just fine with the resources they have. Really? Well, that should take a little pressure off the council this budget season.

What did you think of the program?

City of Peoria, Museum Block

Ask the Museum

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Museum proponent and recent commenter Neil Hardin has thrown out a challenge to those who have questions about the downtown museum project:

Talked with Lakeview’ P.R. person, Kathleen Worth [sic], and she says she will put together a meeting anytime to answer questions about the museum, it’s process, the name, etc. It’s your chance to participate. Any takers?

Of course, I’ll be more than happy to meet with Ms. Woith. However, I know that some commenters are anonymous and wish to stay that way, so here’s your chance to ask some questions and get some answers. I’ll work with Neil to set up a time and place and will post it here for any who would like to come. In light of Neil’s latest comment, here’s the new plan: I’ll set up an appointment with Ms. Woith to ask her our questions. I’ll accept questions up until the day I meet with her.

As for anyone who can’t come, don’t want to come, or don’t want to reveal their secret identity, please leave your question(s) in the comments section of this post. I will make a reasonable effort to ask all questions that are submitted, as long as they’re pertinent and respectful.

City of Peoria, Kellar Branch

What could be done with $565,000?

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The Journal Star reports on the City Council’s budget meeting last night, which centered on police protection:

In May, the City Council approved a one-time $100,000 transfer from the capital budget to the Police Department for “saturation patrols.”

On Tuesday, the council got its first glimpse at the payback: 619 traffic citations, 99 vehicle impounds and $17,752 in drug money, 103 grams of narcotics, 434 grams of marijuana and four firearms seized.

Wow, all of that for only $100,000. Of course, they can’t keep robbing the capital budget to fund operations. I wonder where they could get some extra funding? I saw Councilman Chuck Grayeb on WEEK last night saying:

“We bite the bullet and we go to the public and say look, we’re down to the bone right now and we have a deficit and we cannot afford to take away from police and fire and we’re going to have to raise taxes.”

But others don’t think that’s such a great idea. They want to just maintain the status quo, “work smarter,” do more with less, etc.

Meanwhile, Pioneer Railcorp still has an offer to purchase the Kellar Branch rail line from the city for $565,000.

$565,000.

Imagine how many saturation patrols that could finance. Or what equipment it could purchase. Or other ways it could be invested. While the council tries to pinch pennies, they keep overlooking the most obvious, easiest money they could get, and instead want to lease the right-of-way to the park district for $1 per year for 99 years, only to have them tear out the rails and ties. Kind of like they’re throwing away the entire Sears block for a museum project that is only going to develop 1/3 of the land.

Boy, if the city council keeps throwing away assets at this rate, I don’t even want to know how much our garbage taxes are going to be in a few years.

City of Peoria, Commuter Rail, Kellar Branch

Would you take the train to work?

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Imagine you live on the north end of town, close to Pioneer Park, maybe in Dunlap. You get up in the morning, wear your corporate uniform, and hop in your car, but instead of driving all the way downtown to your office, you only drive to the rail crossing at Pioneer Parkway. There, you find a parking lot with a small train depot — a “park and ride.” You park your car, head into the depot and have a cup of coffee and pick up a paper at the newsstand.

Then the train arrives. You get on a 45-passenger commuter railcar that looks something like this:

DMU Railcar

The railcar takes you downtown, making stops at a few places (like Junction City) along the way. The car may run right down by the riverfront, or it could run along a track that would be built down the center of Jefferson Street and meet up with the CityLink transit center at Harrison.

As you’re traveling, you enjoy a smooth ride during which time you can read the paper, check your e-mail, conduct business on your cell phone, or just relax. No driving hassles, no fighting traffic. You enjoy the same ease going home after work. Evenings and weekends, you can take the same train to basketball or hockey games, concerts, Civic Center or other downtown events, shopping in the Heights or at the new and improved Junction City, etc.

If the service in this scenario were available to you, would you use it?

That’s what the Illinois Prairie Railroad Foundation would like to know. They’re investigating the feasibility of commuter rail in Peoria, and they’re betting that people would love it. So, I’d like to do a little non-scientific research and see what my readers think of the idea. What say you?

Bradley University

Bradley searching for new mascot

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My wife is an alumnus of Bradley University, so we got an e-mail today announcing that, while Bradley will be keeping the name Braves, they apparently are considering ousting the Bobcat mascot in favor of a new one:

[T]he University is currently considering developing a mascot to accompany the Bradley Braves name. A mascot and associated athletic logo may enable the University to better capilitize on the University’s strategic marketing capabilities.

Bradley President David Broski has appointed a mascot selection committee to solicit ideas for a Bradley Braves mascot from students, faculty, alumni, and the community.

The committee has established two requirements: the new mascot:

  1. must equally represent both genders and
  2. must not have any Native American representation. Ideally, the Braves’ mascot would be representative of Bradley University’s and the region’s history or tradition; original (not used by many schools); visually aggressive but not frightening; and compatible with the university’s colors of red and white.

The time has come to ramp up the campaign again for the perfect BU mascot:

Fighting Squirrel

Picture credit: Peoria Pundit

City of Peoria, Museum Block

“Peoria” doesn’t play in Peoria? Oh, the irony

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The “Word on the Street” column Monday had this tidbit of information regarding naming the new museum. So far, all we’ve been told is that the name didn’t “test well” in focus groups. But what does that mean? Now we know:

Apparently, it’s not that people don’t like Peoria. Unfortunately, we’re unknown to a majority of the focus groups they interviewed in southern Wisconsin, northern Indiana, St. Louis and Chicagoland.

“Sixty-nine percent said either they didn’t know enough about Peoria or Peoria sounded like a small town to them,” said Woith, adding that proponents want a museum name that will be attractive to tourists far and wide.

So, from this we can deduce that the museum folks are concerned that people won’t come to the museum if it has the name “Peoria” in it because people have never heard of it or think it’s a small town. So, they’re going to call the museum something meaningless, like the “AMAZEum.” Presumably, people from Wisconsin, Chicago, and St. Louis will think that any museum with a name like that is fantastic and must be visited, so (I’m just guessing here) they’ll want to know where this incredible AMAZEum is. They’ll look for an address and perhaps directions on how to get there. Now, where are the museum people going to tell them it’s located? Just outside Chicago? A suburb of Rockford?

But beyond that, I wanted to point out the sheer irony of the situation. You know the phrase you love to hate: “Will it play in Peoria”? Wikipedia has a good entry on that phrase:

The phrase initially came into fashion during the vaudeville era, believed to have been first asked by Groucho Marx when putting together a new act. The belief was that if a new show was successful in Peoria, it would work anywhere in America.

Years later in the 1960s and 1970s, Peoria was deemed an ideal test market by various consumer-focused companies, entertainment enterprises (films and concert tours), even politicans, to gauge opinion, interest and receptivity to new products, services and campaigns.

Isn’t it ironic that a city that had been known throughout the 20th century for its discernment in entertainment and sensibility for testing new products would find its own name won’t “play” anywhere in America, not even regionally? I, for one, don’t believe it.