On Sunday’s editorial page, the Peoria Journal Star looks back at Mayor Jim Ardis’s first election campaign — the one in which he blamed then-mayor Ransburg for increased crime in Peoria — and judges Ardis’s performance by the same measure. They couch it in language of “getting beyond politics,” but make no mistake, this is a new smackdown of Ardis’s campaign tactics, of which the paper was harshly critical at the time.
Another murder, but immediate arrests
The Peoria Police Department issued the following press release last night:
RELEASED BY: Lieutenant Vincent C. Wieland – Criminal Investigations Division 673-4521
DATE: July 17, 2010
SUBJECT: Homicide & Arrests –– 10-17329At 0958 hours, on Sunday July 18, 2010, the Peoria Police Department responded to 1215 N. Frink on a reported shooting. Upon arrival officers found three gunshot victims (43 YO male, 28 YO male, and a 40 YO female). All three were immediately transported to OSF Medical Center.
As officers responded, witnesses described to dispatch the suspect vehicle and its direction of travel. This information was broadcasted to responding officers and officers observed the vehicle travelling down Main St. hill at a high rate of speed. A vehicle pursuit ensued and the suspect vehicle then turned from Main St onto Perry and continued on Perry until the driver lost control and crashed at Lincoln Middle School. At that time two suspects bailed from the car and were shortly thereafter apprehended. A handgun was recovered.
Both suspects, Skyler Jordan (24 YOA) and Taurean C Gregory (24 YOA) were brought to the Peoria Police Department where they were interviewed by detectives. Jordan was arrested for First Degree Murder, 2 counts Attempted Murder, Unlawful Use of Weapons, Aggravated Discharge of a Firearm, and Criminal Defacement of a Firearm. Gregory was arrested for First Degree Murder and two counts of Attempted Murder.
The 43 YO shooting victim died in surgery and the other two shooting victims sustained non-life threatening injuries. A crime scene was located in the 1200 Blk. N Frink and police are continuing to attempt to locate witnesses.
This case remains under investigation and the Peoria Police Department urges anyone possessing any knowledge of this incident to contact the Peoria Police Department at 673-4521 or Crime Stoppers at 673-9000.
Orange Prairie Road extension: State-funded sprawl
On Thursday night (7/15), the City of Peoria hosted an open house for the Orange Prairie Road Extension project. They distributed a handout which you can see by clicking here (PDF).
The first question to ask is: Why are we building a new road in the middle of a cornfield on the northwest end of town? The handout states that the “primary purpose of this project is to facilitate … development along the Orange Prairie Road corridor….” In other words, they want to incentivize the conversion of more farmland to primarily residential subdivisions, plus a little commercial development.
The next question is: How can Peoria afford this given our current budget woes? The answer is that it’s being funded by the State of Illinois to the tune of $17.5 million. Once the road is complete, the plan is to move the Route 91 designation from its current alignment to the new road. The old Route 91 would become the responsibility of the City. Thus, even though the state is picking up the capital outlay of building a new road, the City picks up the ongoing maintenance expense of the old road. We’re not getting a new road for free.
The conventional wisdom is that Peoria will come out ahead because the land will be developed, which will lead to property and sales tax increases. But the City hasn’t done a cost-benefit analysis to substantiate that belief. The City’s future use plan calls for this area to be primarily residential. Modern residential development means low-density development. That is, houses are pretty far away from each other, connected by meandering streets that all terminate in cul-de-sacs. This increases the costs of maintaining the streets while not raising enough in property taxes to cover the costs of increased services. And land that is developed by non-profit organizations will mean no additional property taxes to the City.
This extension has been touted as sustainable in at least one local magazine. An article in InterBusiness Issues said:
When complete and operational, [the Orange Prairie Roadway extension project] will encourage and support further development in the Greater Grand Prairie area, but in a carefully and thoughtfully planned manner. And, it may serve as a model for how such suburban and exurban developments can be greener and more sustainable. Using the State of Illinois’s new I-LAST (Livable and Sustainable Transportation) rating system, Orange Prairie designers are currently considering such items as protected bicycle and pedestrian pathways along the route, sustainable stormwater detention and wetland creation, introduction of street trees and landscape buffer zones, and energy-efficient street lighting. In addition, efforts will be made to maximize the use of local and recycled materials while minimizing the earthmoving operations in the entire project area.
It will provide a bike lane and sidewalk, which is good. So you can now purchase your Trek road bike online to save gas. Given the low density of development, the area will be unable to sustain public transportation. But these and any other critical issues get little or no discussion in City Council meetings, especially when the State is waving $17.5 million under their noses. We’ll just build it and pay the consequences later.
Quote of the Day
“If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places.”
OSF planning more development; TIF will help
On “Outside the Horseshoe” this week, WCBU News director Tanya Koonce interviewed Ron Jost, Vice President of Strategic and Facility Planning for OSF St. Francis Medical Center. You can hear a podcast of the show here.
The broadcast focused on the proposed East Village Growth Cell and Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District. OSF has offered to front the money for the required studies to establish a TIF. Koonce asked Jost why OSF would want to do that — what’s in it for them? Jost gave several reasons.
First, he emphasized that OSF itself is a “neighbor” in the East Bluff and Near North Side and, like any neighbor, they would like to see their property value increase and live in a safe, stable, viable neighborhood. He also said that, while the hospital is not-for-profit, there are “certain aspects” of their business that do not qualify for tax exemption, and they do pay about $1.1 million per year in property taxes.
Finally, he explained that OSF is looking at further expansion. Specifically, they’ve acquired the White School and Irving School buildings from District 150, and they’re planning to build a 100,000-200,000 square foot building to house a simulation/conference center for training purposes. They’d like to expand south of Greenleaf Street. Jost also said they would be interested in seeing if there are “other parties” who would be willing to develop and provide housing that could replace OSF’s current dormitory.
That last statement explains why OSF would be especially interested in establishing a TIF. Developers would be unlikely to redevelop this area without tax incentives.
Also on the program was Bobby Gray from the City’s Economic Development Department. He emphasized that the boundaries of the “East Village Growth Cell” represent the study area, and may not be the final boundaries of the TIF.
Opponents of Comcast-NBCU merger speak out at hearing
The Federal Communications Commission held a public hearing in Chicago Tuesday on the Comcast/NBC Universal merger. Free Speech Radio Network has a good overview of the hearing. I particularly liked this comment from Josh Silver of the Free Press:
He says the merger would be yet another giveaway to industry giants at the public expense:
JOSH SILVER: Policymaking at the behest of the largest companies across industries is threatening our economy, our oceans, our security and the very viability of our democracy. Just look at the ongoing recession or the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico for the most recent examples.
It’s telling that this hearing was attended by only one FCC commissioner, Michael Copps. He spoke in opposition to the merger, but industry experts expect the FCC to ultimately approve it, with conditions. Copps was interviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer and made a good point:
Copps warned that other media companies would seek government approval for their own mergers if Comcast were allowed to move forward with its proposed acquisition of NBC Universal. And that, he said, could lead the nation down a dangerous path of diminished newsrooms and fewer independent voices on television.
“If you let our competitor get big, you have to let us get big” would be the attitude among Comcast’s competitors, Copps said. Control of the Internet could consolidate into the hands of a few big corporations, in a manner similar to control of radio stations across the country, he said.
NL beats AL in All-Star Game
For the first time since 1996, the National League beat the American League in the MLB All-Star Game. The final score was 3-1. The game was played at Angels Stadium in Anaheim, California. The win gives the National League home-field advantage in this year’s World Series.
Liveblogging the City Council Meeting 7/13/2010
Welcome to Council Chambers at Peoria City Hall. Everyone appears to be in attendance except, of course, George Jacob. Councilman Sandberg arrived late. Councilman Turner appears to have someone job-shadowing him tonight. WCBU news director Tanya Koonce appears to have someone job-shadowing her as well. I’ll be updating this post throughout the evening, so refresh your browser frequently.
Here’s the agenda:
Continue reading Liveblogging the City Council Meeting 7/13/2010
Looking for a used locomotive?
The creditors of Central Illinois Railroad‘s parent company are selling theirs.
Central Illinois Railroad just got $150,000 in taxpayer dollars in May — their price to allow the Kellar Branch rail-to-trail conversion go forward.
UPDATE: The front office of CIRY states that they’re still going to be providing shortline service in Peoria to O’Brien Steel, but were unable to answer any further legal questions. According to published reports, the company only has eight locomotives, and they all appear to be up for sale based on the above notice. So, how exactly they’ll be able to continue providing service is unclear.
Passenger Rail task force members include former Peoria mayor
Richard Neumiller, former mayor of Peoria and member of the now defunct railroad commission, is on a new passenger rail task force put together by the Tri-County Regional Planning Commission (TCRPC). Neumiller was appointed by Mayor Jim Ardis to represent Peoria on the task force. Here is the full list of task force members, provided by the TCRPC:
Illinois River Valley Council of Governments
| City of Peoria | Dick Neumiller |
| Village of Bartonville | Rhonda Wolfe |
| City of Chillicothe | Randy Stevens |
| Limestone Township | Bob Lawless |
| Tazewell County | Clint Drury |
| City of Pekin | Steve Brown |
| City of East Peoria | Ty Livingston |
| Village of Morton | Norm Durflinger |
| Washington Township | Gary Manier |
| Woodford County | John Krug |
| Village of Roanoke | Kevin Braker |
| City of Eureka | Marc Pasteris |
| Village of Metamora | Bill Belshaw |
| Woodford County Township | Gayl Wyss |
| Peoria County | Paul Feltenstein |
Tri-County Regional Planning Commission
| Stephen Van Winkle | John Blossom |
| Russ Crawford | James Polk |
| Dean Grimm |
Bloomington Normal
| Mark Peterson, Town of Normal |
| Aaron Quick, City of Bloomington |
Ex-officio Members
| Steve Jaeger, HOI Port District |
| Larry Koch |
If you’re counting, you may notice that there are 22 members (not including ex-officio members), not 21 as stated in the Journal Star the other day. For more information on the Illinois River Valley Council of Governments, see the TCRPC’s overview here.
I caught up with Terry Kohlbuss, executive director of TCRPC, and we had a good discussion regarding the task force’s plans to establish a link between Peoria and Bloomington. On the positive side, they still see a direct passenger rail connection between Peoria and Chicago as the ultimate goal. That’s important, because it means they are still awaiting the Amtrak-IDOT report and are not trying to second-guess its conclusions. However, where we disagree is on the strategy for meeting that ultimate goal. As stated in my previous post, the task force wants to pursue a link with the Bloomington Amtrak station first — starting with carpooling, then vans, then buses, then a passenger rail shuttle, and eventually direct service via Bloomington to Chicago.
I still fear that such a strategy is too risky. Rail service from Peoria to Bloomington will not produce high ridership, and given the cost of establishing Peoria-Chicago service, low ridership between Peoria and Bloomington could be used by politicians to justify killing passenger rail here before a direct link to Chicago can be established. I’m afraid decision-makers would not conclude that Peoria-Bloomington service is unpopular, but that rail service in general is unpopular and unsupported. That would be a real tragedy that would set Peoria back thirty years.
A better strategy would be to establish direct service between Peoria and Chicago first — which will produce high ridership numbers — and use that success to add more rail lines in the future, perhaps even an east-west route like the one being proposed by the task force, especially if it could be extended to Champaign.