City of Peoria, Museum Block

“Peoria” not a museum name choice

21 Comments

WMBD 1470 has the scoop on proposed names for the new museum. Here they are:

  • ExploraSphere Museum
  • AMAZeum
  • Port of Exporation Museum
  • Museum on the Square

Noticeably absent: “Peoria” and “history.” These names illustrate my main criticism of the museum. From any of those names, do you know what this museum is supposed to be? What kind of museum it is? What kind of exhibits it has? Every one of them is nondescript.

The museum’s website has this description:

A new museum of art, history, science and achievement is coming to downtown Peoria. Its galleries will be full of fine art and Illinois folk art, Illinois High School achievements and replays, African American histories, plus oral and interactive history exhibits that tell the story of the entire region. There will be an Illinois River Encounter – from the Ice Age to today, a digital planetarium, and a giant screen theatre, all in a beautiful and environmentally cutting-edge new building on Museum Square.

Again, no mention of Peoria, other than its address. Perhaps the ambiguity of the museum is part of what’s hampering fundraising efforts. I have a suggestion regarding fundraising, though: If it’s going to be a place that “tell[s] the story of the entire region,” then they should ask for donations from the “entire region,” whatever that is, instead of just Peorians, who apparently aren’t worth mentioning in the museum’s name or description.

You can vote for your favorite name at www.namethemuseum.org.

City of Peoria, Peoria Public Schools

It’s time for Peoria schools to be reborn

17 Comments

The Journal Star reports this morning that Dunlap schools (District 323) have added 167 new students this year. More students means more federal dollars; it also means more people are moving into the Dunlap School District, bringing more property tax revenue into the system. Dunlap School Superintendant Jeanne Williamson is quoted as saying, “I welcome our growth, it says to us the school district is attracting families to Dunlap … and we’ll continue to serve them.”

But when she says they’re attracting families “to Dunlap,” she doesn’t mean more people are moving into the village, just the school district. Williamson was interviewed in a recent issue of Peoria Woman and had these interesting statistics to share (emphasis mine):

For the past two school years, we’ve tracked where our new Dunlap students come from. Only about 15 percent of our growth is a shift from District 150. The majority of our new students are from families moving into the Peoria area from other locations. There’s been extensive new construction and development of subdivisions in the City of Peoria that are located in the Dunlap School District; this enhances the decision for families to buy these homes. Since approximately 70 percent of our students live in the City of Peoria, it’s been a great marriage between the city and the Dunlap School District.

I would argue that it hasn’t been a “great marriage” for the city. It’s more like a divorce because it divides the city and damages our sense of community (and by “community,” I mean, “a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals”). We now have a situation where the northern part of the city has an economically-advantaged student base with a growing school district budget, and the southern part of the city has an economically-disadvantaged student base with a growing school district deficit. District 150 is trying to educate the neediest, most at-risk children with dwindling resources while all the tax revenue from Peoria’s growth area is going to the least needy.

It’s the age-old story of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. And something needs to be done about it.

As readers of my site know, I’m a proponent of the Heart of Peoria Plan and related initiatives to revitalize our older neighborhoods in the core of the city. But everyone acknowledges that the biggest things we need to be working on in Peoria are crime and schools. We’ll leave crime for a later discussion; right now, let’s talk about what can be done to improve the schools.

I propose (and this is not original with me) that we consolidate school districts 150 and 323. Since 70 percent of the students in District 323 are from Peoria anyway, I don’t see any reason to have separate school districts that divide our city and cause an ever-increasing economic disparity that hurts the neediest of our city’s children. Our civic leaders should begin a campaign now to lobby for consolidation. I realize it will be an uphill battle and may take years to succeed, but someone needs to get the ball rolling.

I think it should start with the District 150 school board working directly with the District 323 school board. If those two boards vote to consolidate, a referendum can be put on the ballot. Otherwise, it would take petitions with 50 signatures from District 150 residents and 50 signatures from District 323 residents to get a referendum on the ballot. However, if the school boards were for it, I think that would carry more weight with the public.

Under a new law for school consolidation, the way it could work is that both District 150 and 323 would be dissolved and a new district formed with a new school board elected at the same time. Thus, it wouldn’t be like one district joining the other, but a new district with new leadership formed all at once. This could be the renaissance that Peoria needs to improve education for all the children of our city.

The last time Peoria experienced massive growth — back in the ’60s when Richwoods township was annexed — civic leaders (and the media, including the Journal Star) campaigned tirelessly and passionately about the importance of having a united school district, and they succeeded. I’m confident that it can be done again.

Blogosphere

Bash was fun

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The Blogger Bash last night was fun. It occurred to me, as I was telling my wife who all was there, that I was the only non-pseudonymous blogger present. Those attending: PeoriaIllinoisan, Mapgirl, Emtronics, Eyebrows McGee, and me. It was like going to a secret superhero party where everyone has their masks off. “Hey! You’re Bruce Wayne!”

We talked about everything from Peoria politics to religion — I think we hit on every taboo subject, yet still left as friends. I was told the place was a Cardinals bar, but the TV where we were sitting had the Cubs game on. It’s just as well. Mulder was, um, pitching? — Is that what he was doing? — for the Cardinals last night. So, it was more fun to watch the Cubs implode in the background instead.

Emtronics regaled us with stories about his chicken-farming neighbor. Eyebrows and I had a good Catholic-Protestant debate/discussion about theology. I can’t tell you anything about the mysterious Mapgirl (I’m sworn to secrecy), except that she knows a lot about Peoria and was fun to talk to. And PeoriaIllinoisan disclosed that his blog entries are short because he doesn’t like to write much. That’s why his other blogs are just pictures or videos.

For another recap, take a look at Eyebrows’ blog and Midwest Confidential. And next time, come on out for the Blogger Bash yourself! You don’t have to be a blogger to attend. We love meeting readers as well as bloggers. The more, the merrier.

Blogosphere

Blogger Bash

2 Comments

It’s a month with five Tuesdays, so you know what that means: Blogger Bash!

Yes, my sources tell me that the Bash will be at Castle’s Patio Inn on Loucks tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. This is a little earlier than usual, so all you wise early-to-bed people should be able to make it this time.

I was happy to hear from PeoriaIllinoisan that it’s a Cardinals bar. After that dramatic walk-off grand slam last night, it will be a good night to watch some Cardinals baseball!

City of Peoria, Museum Block

Grieves: Peoria’s future teeters on Museum Square

41 Comments

Former Peoria resident and mayor Bud Grieves has this dire warning for Peorians in his letter to the editor of the Journal Star yesterday:

If we fail to attract an increasingly mobile and demanding work force, our fine hospitals, Caterpillar and others will look for greener pastures, and Peoria will wither and die.

Now just reading that quote, wouldn’t you think he would talk about the importance of cracking down on crime, enhancing the school district, improving regional alliances, strengthening the city core, or something really important like that? Me too. But no. According to Grieves, the thing that’s going to bring the “high-quality employees” to Peoria in droves is the new regional museum:

First-class museums rank high on their list and, along with our other recent Downtown developments, create a cohesive and exciting environment.

First of all, he’s assuming facts not in evidence. What evidence exists that this still-going-by-its-supposedly-working-title “Central Illinois Regional Museum” is going to be “first-class”? They can’t even decide what kind of museum it’s supposed to be. Is it an art museum? history museum? natural history museum? science and technology museum? According to their website, it’s incredibly all four, all within about 70,000 square feet. That’s about 17,500 square feet to devote to each of those four types of museum exhibits. This is like one of those restaurants where they serve 23 different types of cuisine and none of them well. Trying to be the übermuseum is a recipe for third-rate, not first-class.

Secondly, the museum designers spurned the Heart of Peoria Plan, even though authentic urban character and historic buildings are also among those things “high on the list” of “high-quality,” creative-class employees. Not only that, the Heart of Peoria Plan was crafted to the specs of Peoria residents; perhaps fundraising would be going easier had the museum designers implemented any of the New Urbanist principles Peorians prefer for downtown redevelopment. Of course, as PeoriaIllinoisan points out, there are lots of projects attempting to improve the “quality of life” here in Peoria right now, and all of them need money.

Finally, I simply don’t believe that the museum project is the lynchpin of Peoria’s future, and trying to get people to donate to it out of fear, as Grieves tries to do, only proves the blindness (and desperation) of its supporters, not its critics.

Television

The Emmys

Well, another Emmy awards show has come and gone, and once again I’ve been passed over for “Best Editor of a Local Paid Religious Broadcast.” When, oh when, will the academy recognize my work?!

😉

Television

Technology-envy

7 Comments

I got to take a tour of WTVP’s new building today. I don’t much care for the aesthetics of the outside of the building (it’s got that PSA-prison-architecture look), but the inside is full of interesting and impressive high-tech toys and gadgets. From their enormous production-control flat-screen monitor to their high-definition cameras, it was a sight to behold. Our church, of course, will be moving soon and so our television ministry will likely be getting some new equipment of its own. Obviously it won’t be nearly as extensive as WTVP’s setup, but it’s exciting to see the possibilities.

As I was looking around the facility, I couldn’t help but think that public television must be very popular (and donors very generous) in Peoria for them to be able to afford all that equipment and the building to put it in. I guess those auctions and pledge drives really pay off.

I wonder (tongue-in-cheek) when our local public radio station will be getting its new state-of-the-art building. Is that part of Bradley’s expansion plan, perhaps? Nah. Well, maybe, if WCBU started carrying Bradley basketball games….

On an unrelated note, parking was a cinch — free diagonal parking is available right in front of the studio.

Bradley University, Television

WHOI gets local reaction on Bradley plans

28 Comments

Kudos to WHOI for hitting the pavement and actually getting some local reaction immediately instead of just parroting back the news conference on Bradley’s expansion plans.

Carl Bloch, who lives on Cooper and will be looking at a five-story parking deck in his back yard soon, explains what’s happening as a result of Bradley’s covert expansion plans:

Bloch lives on Cooper Street, just a block from where the new sports complex will be built. As the university’s borders expand, Bloch says more families are leaving the area.

“It seems like more and more of these houses are going for rental properties and families are moving out,” said Bloch.

That’s what I mean by Bradley’s actions destabilizing the neighborhood. Stable families move out and the area becomes more transient, and less attractive to stable families. That’s what happens when people don’t know what to expect from their 800-lb. gorilla neighbor to the east.

The funny thing is, I don’t know what Bradley is afraid of — a lot of people are actually quite understanding. They know Bradley needs to expand. They just wish the university would “work with the neighborhood” ahead of time, instead of waiting until the planning is all completed, like they have in fact done.

City of Peoria, Peoria Police

Inside the mind of a Peoria thief

8 Comments

One of my neighbors’ home was burglarized last weekend. The perpetrator(s) took lots of electronic stuff (two laptops, stereo equipment, iPod, speakers, etc.). But the most bizarre thing happened after that.

Remember that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry’s car was stolen, and he called his car phone and the guy who stole his car answered? Well, truth is stranger than fiction. I just got an e-mail from my neighbor where he related this exchange:

And another interesting note, one of them used my wife’s computer today to get on the internet (her Windows Messenger icon came online). I had a chat with him and he actually responded. He actually told me he was using the internet in a public place—then later told me it was at a McDonalds. He told me that I could buy the laptop back off of him for $500. I agreed. He then backed off because he was scared I would call the cops. He then told me that I have too much confidence in our police and that they won’t do anything. He said that he could do the same thing again and still won’t be caught.

I suppose all criminals are cocky like that, believing they’ll never get caught. Still, according to witnesses, this crime was committed in the middle of the day, in broad daylight. And the shameless perp has no fear of having a conversation with the person from whom he stole. And, this particular perp’s confidence is not in his personal craftiness, but in his perception that the police department “won’t do anything.”

What could be giving Peoria thieves that impression? I’m afraid I don’t have any answers.

Bradley University

Comparing unofficial Bradley plans with official ones

Not too long ago, there was an unofficial Bradley campus map floating around that showed all the same stuff that was announced officially today. Back then, the map was pooh-poohed as highly speculative. I decided to compare the two maps to see how much they differed, and the answer is — not much! Other than different coloring and legends, the only striking difference is the new arena, highlighted here:

Old “Unofficial” Map

Old New Arena

New “Official” Map

New Arena

Notice the comparative size of the prospective arena. Since the unofficial map was produced, the arena has been made twice as large, unless the old map was showing the current Field House. Thankfully, the parking lot was not doubled in size. None of the artists’ renderings show elevations of these buildings compared to the houses just across the alley. Imagine having a 5-story parking deck in your back yard. Pretty hard to “buffer” a massive structure like that.

The more interesting feature from my point of view is that the Institutional Zoning boundary (blue line) is shown in the old map, but conspicuously absent from the new map. That’s probably wise, considering Bradley hasn’t actually asked for permission from the Zoning Commission or the City Council to expand the boundaries yet. Updating their Institutional Facilities Master Plan, as required by ordinance before they can expand, clearly is not a big concern of theirs.

The funniest line in the whole Journal Star article about this expansion, though, was this zinger: “[Vice President Gary] Anna said the university wants to work with the neigborhood and plans a meeting with them in early September.” I cannot make it through that sentence without laughing my head off every time. Just what, pray tell, is there left to “work with the neighborhood” about? The houses are bought, the plans are made, the money is coming in…. Perhaps the neighbors will get to choose whether they get arbor vitae or a stone wall between them and the parking deck. Whoopee!