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.
Come on CJ… You can’t just include part of the article to support your side. The interviewee was also quoted as saying it would be a good thing to alleviate parking problems on the street near his house.
That’s what I have been saying all along. A parking deck will get the street parking problem cleared up. Don’t give me any of this “they have parking permits” stuff because we all know that when it comes to an event in the fieldhouse people park everywhere, which impacts the neighborhood a lot more than losing 1 street of houses that were rented out by students anyhow.
I don’t know any neighbors that complain about parking on the neighborhood streets when there’s an event at the Field House (which is relatively rare). It’s just the students parking all day while they’re in class to which the neighbors object. In fact, the permit system is only for the daytime — evenings anyone can park on the streets. And besides, I doubt the parking deck is going to change people’s parking habits so they don’t park on the street as much. I’ll believe it when I see it.
The fallacy in your argument is your belief that Bradley’s actions only affect Maplewood. They don’t. They affect the entire Arbor District. They certainly affect Cooper, which is where the gentleman in the WHOI story lives. Today, the Journal Star reports that Bradley’s president promised not to push any further west as long as he was president. Of course, he’s 61, so how long does that promise last? Five years? If I lived on Cooper, I wouldn’t feel very reassured by that statement.
Back in 1990, the administration at Bradley made a quote something to this effect: The amount of available housing should not be a factor in determining the size of the incoming freshman class. The university’s immediate answer to the housing shortage then: Three mini-dorms (two of which became fraternity houses — one a replacement and one new; the other mini-dorm was designated for transfer students) and the Becker Barracks, all of which were built in less than three months. Their long range plans were to tear down all the old apartment buildings and houses surrounding CampusTown and SAC and on the east side of “new” University St (to become the new St James student apartments).
While I can’t say for certain (CJ, you’re welcome to do the research if you would like) I would venture to guess that originally the homes were owner occupied, then purchased by the university, made rentals, declared “blighted”, torn down and made into the apartment buildings we know today.
SO… in a few years, maybe 20 or more, long after the new developments are completed, which descendent of Gary Anna will be trying to convince the neighborhood and the community at-large that the university is attracting such high calibre students that it has run out of room (housing, academic, performing art, technological, whatever) and needs to expand again — this time to Western Avenue?
The more things change…..
Martha: “I would venture to guess that originally the homes were owner occupied, then purchased by the university, made rentals, declared “blightedâ€, torn down and made into the apartment buildings we know today.”
Exactly. The homeowners will move out, the homes turn to rentals, they get run down, and Bradley can wipe them out allthewhile declaring what a good deed they are doing by getting rid of all those crappy run-down houses.
Actually first the land belonged to Ms. Bradley if you want to get picky.
Bradley’s expansion rate can only be described as slow. The area near Campustown that is now the St James Apts was not run down by Bradley. It was a rundown neighborhood known only for it’s crack houses. Yes at one time the homes were obviously owner-occupied, but that was a long time ago.
Maplewood is not run down and nobody has said it is. The fact is that Bradley purchased all the homes. You can only fault the former owners for selling out.
Bradley has a right to expand. If the West Bluff neighborhoods can’t handle the snail’s pace expansion then perhaps they weren’t all that stable to begin with.
“They know Bradley needs to expand. ”
People keep repeating this… and not questioning it. Where is the case that they ‘need’ to expand? Expand what? and Why? When you concede this point, you have lost. Everything else that follows is just an effort to make folks feel good about destroying a neighborhood.
Bradley can look east of its boundaries instead of west. Bradley could purchase a portion of Campustown or the whole development and build one or more new buildings with street frontage and rear parking that will be a catalyst for other similar development along West Main Street as well as meshing with the planned Med-Tech District. Campustown never has lived up to its expectations as envisioned when it was built in the early 1990’s. The redevelopment was then sold as a way to not only reduce crime, but to improve the blighted conditions that existed in this area at the time. Campustown is barely over ten years old yet it has become a development that has the reputation for being unsafe; it is aesthetically unpleasing, and it does not meet with the criteria that the Heart of Peoria Plan has established for West Main Street. The way this situation is handled will set the tone for the new Ardis administration. Either it will show the people of Peoria that this administration is serious about the concerns of the citizens of older neighborhoods and is committed to the preservation of Peoria’s historic structures or it will show that the business as usual model continues to be followed at city hall. In other words, closed door meetings, decisions made without the input of the public, and erosion of historic neighborhoods.
There are plenty of universities whose operating philosophy is not centered around expanding the realestate nor the student body.
Last year I was sitting, waiting, reading mag… Forbes, Businessweek.. one of that ilk… and they profiled a university whose central focus was its students. I think it was Amherst but I could be wrong. They had no desire nor need to expand their grounds. They had a fixed student of 1600 students. Exactly 400 were admitted a year. As a result they had one of most highly competitive admissions of any university. So what do they do with their fundraising if not to expand so to speak? They focus on developing financial aid for the majority of its students, to enable the best from any background to be able to go there. They focus on recruiting and retaining the best teachers. They focus on providing the students with the best equipment and resources. Funny thing is… athletics.. while exists and should exist wasn’t a central focus. Not in the way you see in the Big Ten or MVC. Athletics was truelly extra curricular and not a career in itself.
The article covered the ‘why not expand argument’. Their reply was simply, their job was to provide the best education that money can buy.. and growing larger would undermine that.
Mahkno: Okay, let’s say “wants to expand.” I don’t know that they “need to expand” either. Are you suggesting the city council should deny their expansion and land-lock them by ordinance, even though they own all the property on Maplewood on their border? Maybe you can elaborate — I don’t think I’m getting your point.
Mahkno: My last comment was in response to your first comment. Having read your second comment, I guess the question is, since Bradley doesn’t operate that way, what’s the point? You’re not suggesting that the city dictate to Bradley what their educational model should be, are you?
I guess my objection is the 300 parking spaces that are going to be lost during the building of the parking deck. During the day, with parking not available on the street where will students park? The St. James parking is ridiculous as not every person in a 3-4 bedroom apartment can have a permit to park in their lot. Expecting women to walk from the deck near the Comm building every evening isn’t smart. Parking at the Field House has always been hairy for big events, expect it to be ridiculous.
Chris: YES!!! CampusTown! Exactly! What a joke of a shopping center that has been. Oh, I’m not saying their intentions weren’t good — do you remember the Varsity Theatre, Boss Hog’s Soul Food and the La Gondola tucked behind Avanti’s? Removing them from the Main Street landscape wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. But the shape of the strip mall and that parking lot (re-routing University? what a mess that became!) certainly do not make any logical sense, and once Thompson’s left everything pretty much went downhill. So scrap it, start over, and build some of the new facilities there — or at least a PARKING DECK! It’s right near the dorms, SAC and St James, so it just makes sense… which means they won’t do it.
Did anyone read the Q&A compiled by Dave Reynolds in the PJS today? These made me laugh out loud. I think my favorite quote from Gary Anna was in regards to the student recreation center: “And if we’re able to in the summertime, the rec facility could be made available to the neighborhoods for a modest user’s fee.”
Feel free to insert your own sarcastic comment here.
While I wouldn’t use the term dictate, I absolutely do believe the city and the community have a role in deciding what BU’s educational model should be. If Bradley came out tommorow and said they wanted to morph into a 30,000 strong university on par with the U of I, you don’t think the city might not have something to say about that? That is a bit of an extreme example but lets get back to the intent of the institutional zoning ordinance. The point and purpose of that is for the city to have a role in BU’s educational model, particularly when it comes to its footprint.
What exactly is the initial use for the new properties for? A parking garage… They are not expanding crap except to build a multi level parking lot. Ok so they might build some apartments later on… like St. James… those apartments that are a bit out of place with the rest of the local architecture. The whole nonsense about them not expanding further is bunk. Going up to the alley automatically makes the houses on the other side immensely undesirable except as rentals but will also make for eyesore. The blocks were designed like rings with a pleaseant outside and a utilitarian inside. The utilitarian side wasn’t supposed to be ‘presentable’ Now it will be exposed, becoming a visual discordent eyesore. Bradley should just have gone another half block and used Cooper as its buffer border line. Give it time tho.
Should the city deny the expansion… Yes !.
Getting rid of the retail location that is Campustown would be a BIG mistake. Campustown is a clusterf*** but that is because of the landlord, D. Joseph, not the location. In the right hands retail there could thrive and help stabilize the area. D Joseph is not the one to do it. Just drive around town and you can find many other under performing locations owned by them. City took land to give to D Joseph to make it work. It isn’t working, so the city ought to consider taking it back and letting someone else have a crack at it.
Retail needs to be there to satisfy new urbanist expectations. It just needs to be done right.
What was where Campustown is before it was built? The old University Street and some run down buildings. Exactly. Campustown has been good for the area.
A huge parking lot adjacent to main street with a ghetto grocery store in the rear is not exactly what I would call good for the area. Have any of you been in the ghetto grocery store? I have. I admit that when Campustown first opened it was a decent place. Thompsons though was worlds apart from this s*#@ hole. To me it looks like Ghettown is now a development that belongs in the valley. How long is it before they open up a cash loan store?
“Okay, let’s say “wants to expand.†I don’t know that they “need to expand†either.”
I see a lot of a sort of “university arms race” where all these universities claim they need the newest and best buildings. It seems like few expansions focus on classroom space; most focus on office space, specialized scholastic rooms (moot court courtrooms, multimedia seminar rooms, high-tech labs) that are more or less single-use, and athletic facilities.
Whereas what I hear students say they want is good teaching and interaction with professors. I wonder how much of university expansions generally have to do with the desires of professors who do more research than teaching, and the “me too” mentality of administrations that are terrified of being left behind their peers in having the latest innovations in university buildings that might impact their US News rankings.
So I guess the real questions in a lot of these expansions is whether it’s a research school or a teaching school. And I think far too many schools are picking “research” when they could better compete for top students by focusing on teaching.
So that’s what I wonder when I see Bradley talking about “needing” to expand.
Or maybe Bradley aspires to be a semi pro sports school…
First of all, there IS a cash-loan store in CampusTown — it’s caddycorner from Blockbuster. Second, I was not advocating leaving the low-end grocer next to the parking deck — if you’re going to tear down some of it, tear it all down. And while most of the businesses that occupied that block in the days of old were not worth remembering, there WAS much outcry when Knight & Tobin Drug Store — a locally owned establishment — closed (although I’m not sure if it was more Joseph or the competition from Walgreens that forced it to close). But you’ll notice that it was another national chain pharmacy that went into CampusTown, not the local.
From another perspective: look at the number of businesses that have changed in CampusTown since it opened: it’s on its third grocery store and second pharmacy, lots of the little independent shops have come and gone, and what is now Starbucks and an empty store front have been countless failed restaurants. In the same way that you don’t achieve stability in a neighborhood by having a high rate of turnover, you don’t achieve stability in retail by having numerous businesses close.
As far as where Bradley puts its money, since the mid-1980s Bradley has been in almost a constant state of construction/destruction. Looking primarily at academic buildings: In the ’80s, they built Heuser (graphic arts), Hartmann Center (dramatic arts) and Dingledine (music). In the late ’80s and early ’90s, it was renovations to the stupid center and library (don’t get me started on what wastes these were!) and Jobst-Baker. Later in the ’90s, it was the renovation/expansion of Olin Hall (science) and the creation of the Welcome Center (why?) and Global Communication Center. And most recently it was the renovations of Constance Hall (music) and Bradley Hall (primarily all things Liberal Arts and Sciences). All of these buildings were major time commitments and financial undertakings. All of them created great inconvenience and hardship to the students at that time. Some of them were more significant and enriching (Jobst-Baker, Olin) than others (the library). But what this shows is the University has had a commitment to its academic buildings — updating everything from technology to air-conditioning. And students I know who use these facilities on a daily basis have been very impressed with the results.
I think the big difference comes here: whereas most of the population of Bradley will, at some point in their academic career, have a class in Bradley Hall, very few will ever have the opportunity to use any of the new athletic/recreation facilities. So then, which becomes more important: the hundreds of millions spent on Bradley Hall, or the hundreds of millions spent on the new athletic facilities?
And I think it’s a little ironic that the only major structure over on that side of campus that is not included in this expansionrenovation is Morgan Hall. Twenty years ago, this was the campus hub for all things computer-related. Twenty years ago, this was supposed to be state of the art, but instead it was a tremendous disappointment (especially to the CS majors). Does anyone know: has Morgan seen any renovation since the 90’s, and if not, is there any hope for it?
All universities (except Amherst, I guess) do exactly as Bradley does, to remain competitive. And honestly, the buildings are dated and need some renovation. Any of you work in Bradley Hall before it got fixed up? I’ve heard horror stories.
Bradley has a new provost, whom I’ve met and seems like a darn smart guy. Please let him worry about the quality of the teachers here (which is pretty damn good, got ranked well AGAIN by US News & World Report – and they certainly aren’t basing their rankings on “speciality purpose classrooms.”)
The only expansion beyond current boundaries is the parking garage.
Breathe deeply now…. in …. out… BU is an important part of Peoria’s economic engine. Makes me think of something Alton Brown said on Iron Chef America’s andouille sausage battle last night (yes I’m serious). He was reminded of a quote by the sausage, “Democracy works, but nobody really wants to see how the sausage is made.” This situation might be a bit of that. BU has been informing the neighborhoods if not totally transparently, they’ve been very timely. It’s a parking garage, not idea, but necessary. In the end, the expansion will benefit BU greatly, and in turn, Peoria’s economy.
Morgan Hall wasn’t renovated when I was there. Most of the teachers in the IMET department do their research at Cat Tech Center.
I think there will be quite a few students that will take advantage of the newly proposed rec center. As an alumni and basketball season tikcet holder, I’m thinking (hoping) that the new arena and practice facilities should help recruiting.
Clayton… the only thing the arena will help in recruiting are athletes. Engineers, CS majors etc.. who are serious about their careers don’t have time for semi-pro sports.
Chris – Have you ever been in any other discount grocery store? They are all just like the Campustown Save-a-lot. Sorry that those aren’t your type of people. I have been there many times and have never had any problem.
Giselle – Good points. Thank you.
Martha – Third grocery store? Thompsons sold out to Sullivans so I don’t think that really counts. I would agree that Bradley has focused a great deal on it’s acedemic buildings. I don’t think Morgan Hall has seen much rennovation, but then again it is no longer an acedemic building, it houses the University’s data center (which is a modular design with changes happening all the time I would imagine). The CS, Engineering, and Business computer related classes happen in their respective labs in Bradley, Jobst, and Baker Halls.
Martha:
Thanks for pointing out that Ghettown already has a cash store. I try to spend as little time as possible in the place. So I am not sure of all the tenants. I have also decided after a couple of trips to the ghetto grocery store that I will be going to Haddad’s from now on. I don’t mind paying a little more to keep a nice, convenient, and safe store in business.
I too remember the drug store and I fondly remember the Varsity Theater that was located in that block. I would like to see some places like that back on the block if Ren. Park plans ever come to fruition and they get rid of the strip mall that is in an urban area.
Tony:
I used to work as a sales rep for a food company so I have called on grocery stores of all stripes. Do you think that the store now is even close to being as nice as the Thompson’s or Sullivan’s? Maybe I am a snob, but I prefer to shop in clean stores that don’t have thugs hanging around them. By the way I live in an old neighborhood in the center bluff that is very diverse racially, economically, and culturally. I do not see the kind of thug behavior from any of my neighbors that I see at ghettown.
Tony: Odd, Sullivan’s wouldn’t take my Thompson check cashing card. So I guess I would count that has a change. 3 different stores. And the Save A Lot, which should be called the Try And Save, is a rat hole. CVS is looking to get out a soon as it can find a place to build, just like Walgreen’s across the street. Blockbuster Video is on the verge of filing for Chapter 11 and the Campustown store is the lest profitable with the highest shrink. (theft) Radio Shack is gone. But then with your “rose colored” glasses, I guess you could see things as going well in that center. Other than the Wonder Dog joint, I have no reason to go there ever. Now, that guy tells me that they may be leaving also. arrrug.
I wish I could find the link that talked about how many more applicants Creighton University has gotten since the basketball team has become a regular in the NCAA tournament. That has resulted in a higher level of freshmen at the school. Plus, donations are at their highest.
While the new arena and parking garage are things talked about, they only make up 40% of the land being leveled. There’s a good amount of unclaimed land (green space on the map) that I’m sure some department will try to take advantage of. Student housing and the student rec center make up the rest.
From the stuff I get, it sounds like the mfg and ind department are putting their money in the off campus facilities. There’s not much you can do with Morgan Hall.