Peoria Illinoisan

PjStar: “Sometime yet this year, the city will demolish the one remaining historic arbor at Rebecca Place and Main Street … The original plan - to recreate the concrete arbor - hit a stumbling block when bids came in way over budget. The city anticipated it would cost $139,000 to replace, but the two bids came in at $225,611 and $300,823. One reason they were so high is that few contractors do this type of concrete casting. … Though the city still has $125,000 budgeted for this project, 2nd District Councilwoman Barbara Van Auken is working with Wagner and others to come up with either additional funding or ways to cut costs.”

Raise your hand if you think Bradley ought to pitch in and help

I’ve already told you about Eggvertising, so what more could they possibly do to ruin my grocery shopping experience? Put political ads on the checkout lane conveyor belts, of course! Don’t laugh, it may be closer to a reality than you think.

 

BusniessWeek: Ads are moving into what may be the last commercial-free space at the supermarket: the checkout conveyor belt. EnVision, a Little Rock marketing company, prints ads on custom-made plastic belts and has placed them in several southern chains, including Harps Food Stores in Arkansas.

Supermarkets get a percentage of the ad revenues or a flat “rental” fee. And cleaner counters: EnVision does biweekly conveyer upkeep and plans to install new ad-laden belts every three months.

I think I’ll go to Haddad’s and avoid all of this non-sense.

Sorry, couldn’t resist. Hey, at least the guy has a sense of humor.

hattip to illinigirl, with a nod to Voster.

The networks may not like this year’s matchup, but Michael Allen at the Ecology of Absence blog does, and he’s got an intereting take that you won’t see in the sports section.

In how many academic debates on urban decline is the worst American case posed as a tossup between St. Louis and Detroit?

Now that’s the World Series tossup, and things have changed as the nation’s eyes turn to the baseball teams of these two cities. Both cities remain bleeding buildings, businesses and residents, but they no longer come close to their mythic no-man’s-land images (they never did, truth be told). St. Louis has started a modest population gain, and both cities are seing major reinvestment in their downtown areas. While smaller than Detroit, St. Louis is probably the leader of the two in demonstrating how to rebound from heavy population loss and deindustrialization.

Overall, though, I’m delighted that these two comeback cities are now getting the world’s attention. Maybe this can help erase those negative myths further.

He doesn’t say, but I’d bet he’s secretly rooting for his hometown team.

A kid makes a stupid false alarm at Woodruff High School, while a previous stupid kid is out on bond for a similar threat.

A man gets shot at on Orange Street, only to later have his car damaged with a rock (must’ve run out of bullets).

A man gets shot in the leg after running out of gas and cash at North and Armstrong at 2:30am. Lesson: Don’t run out of gas on North Street at 2:30am.

I know that I swore I’d never own a cat, but…

It started out so simple… a trip to Petsmart to pick up some fish food. We had some time to kill, so we walked the store and looked at the little kitties. Yea, they were cute, but we’re just looking. There was no way in hell that we were going to buy a cat!

To my dismay, my son started crying on the way home because we left ‘his’ cat behind; the sweet one that purred and rubbed up against his hand. Nope, no cats in this house.

24hrs later I gave in. Unfortunately, ‘our’ cat had already been sent back to it’s home at the Princeton Animal shelter. Off to the rescue!

He’s a housetrained short haired tabby cat, approximately 2 years old, with a calm demeanor.

I’m transferring my National Geographic subscription to Cat Fancy.

Yes, this is the same building, shown from the same angle, at the corner of Sheridan and High Streets.

See NameThisPeoriaLandmark for more details.

After introducing himself and shaking my hand, I was asked by a homeless man if I would help him out by buying some chips from him. No thanks. He then asked if I’d buy him somthing to eat. No, because you just tried to sell me food out of a plastic bag.

God Bless, he said, as he walked off.

As a rule, I don’t give money to panhandlers, but I have made exceptions.

1. When I feel threatened, as was the time when a lady knocked on the window of my car begging for gas money, as her special man sat in a junky van with the motor running.

2. When they appear to be honest and sincere, as when I gave a buck to a guy who seemed to honestly want a chicken leg that cost $1.37 (or some similar odd amount).  I don’t know if he actually bought a chicken leg or not, but it was a good story and he booked on over to Save-A-Lot.

Of course, these all happened at CampusTown.

“We’re the same team. The only thing different is we have different players”

-Bradley Basketball’s Zach Andrews, as quoted in the Journal Star. (no link available)

Letter to the editor:

Has Peoria changed?

Saturday, October 21, 2006

I was born in Peoria, and even though I have not lived there for more than 40 years, my parents grew up there and it is still a special place.

I was there on business Oct. 16 and was not familiar with the new interstate construction, which looks great. I was trying to get on I-74 east and happened to be in the wrong lane. I waited until traffic cleared and had my signal on when a car stopped to let me in. I made the turn and, much to my shock, the lady honked her horn and waved at me with one finger.

That’s not the Peoria I remember.

Tom Smith

Carmel, Ind.

Believe me Tom, we’re not all like that. Unfortunately, you probably went back to Indiana and told your family and friends how rude Peorians are. Sigh.

Caterpillar Profit Misses; Shares Slide

“So, I asked on what legal grounds did he have to kick me out. His response was, ‘Quite frankly, Alderman Ruva, for being a jerk.’ That’s no legal argument.”

Here’s a summation of the story which happened in Spring Valley and appeared in Wednesday’s Journal Star.

A Spring Valley alderman was escorted out of the City Council meeting Monday night in handcuffs after a dispute about utility taxes turned personal.

(alderman) Ruva said the city could help ease the expenses by lowering its 5 percent utility tax. He said that with the rate increases, a lower tax could still generate the same amount of revenue.

Ruva said (mayor) Narczewski did not want to hear about it and cut the discussion short. Then, after the meeting, he approached Ruva.

“He said ‘Don’t you ever do that again or I’ll kick you out of here,’ ” Ruva said.

Small town politics can be quite fun, to be sure. Unfortunately, the Journal Star doesn’t go into details as to why Mr. Ruva was removed and cuffed.

The LaSalle News Tribune does, but you have to be a subscriber to read the whole article (shhh… dont tell the PjStar). What it does let you read online still gives some fascinating insight, though.

An unplanned discussion of electricity rates led to a confrontation between a Spring Valley alderman and the city’s mayor, ending with intervention by the police chief. First Ward Alderman Rich Ruva asked the council to consider reducing the city’s utility tax to compensate for this winter’s expected increase in electricity rates.

“The majority of the people here are retired, middle class, lower class people,� Ruva said. He argued the city could reduce the tax rate and maintain the same level of income as residents’ utility bills increased, without causing those residents additional financial strain.

Mayor James Narczewski countered, “Every penny is necessary,� to pay the city’s workers, in light of rising salaries and insurance costs. City attorney Jim Andreoni also explained the city does not have enough control over its utility taxes, which are collected by Ameren. To implement Ruva’s suggestion, Andreoni said Ameren would need new software, an expense the company could refuse regardless of any ordinance the council could pass.

The exchange became more confrontational as Narczewski banged the gavel and called for an end to the discussion. “I’m very disappointed that you come to me and you ask for a few minutes, and you put everybody, all of us, in this position where we can not answer right now. We don’t know if they’re going to freeze (the electricity rate), or going to up it,� the mayor said. “If something like that is going to be discussed,� Narczewski continued, “it should probably have been brought up at a finance committee meeting when everybody could be here.�

It seems to me that Mayor Narczewski was one-upped on this and didn’t want the public to hear that the city will also benefit by Ameren’s rate increase. Additionally, the city attorney believe that the city would have to buy new software for Ameren to implement the suggestion of lowering taxes. Say that again? To lower the hidden tax that Ameren collects for the city requires new software? That’s the worst excuse for not lowering taxes that I’ve ever heard!

Food for thought: I checked my AmerenCilco bill. Here in Peoria we pay a 6% tax on the electricity portion of the bill. If the rate goes up by 50%, the city will collect 3% more revenue in 2007 vs 2006.

A commenter to NTPL’s #94 St. Ann Roman Catholic Church asks:

“Sad to see the St. Ann’s Parish Hall being demolished today. Does anyone know why?”

There’s a common misperception of Rails vs. Trails that I’ll admit that I also fell for. Carver Lumber is the only company that uses the Keller Branch for rail service. The Keller Branch runs from downtown, through the Heights, along Knoxville, and out to Pioneer Park. Why shouldn’t we rip out the old tracks and turn them into a nice bike trail to create a continuous path?

I wondered that myself until I started reading the accounts of Carver Lumber’s troubles on CJ Summer’s blog, but what convinced me was this single post (can’t link to it exactly, but scroll down to “A RESPONSE TO THE JSEB’S LATEST TRAIL FANTASY” posted on 8/8/06) by David P. Jordan.

Businesses have been dropping the rail service and moving out because of the long known threat that it would be closing. No new businesses have been using rail service on this line because of the threat of closure.

This is a no-brainer.

Rail service should be restored and a trail CAN be placed alongside the tracks, albeit with a fence. Some of the trail may need to go on residential streets in the Heights. So what? Check out the trail going north from downtown. The sign says to cross Adams. In Dunlap and Princeville the trail hits the streets also.

What really threw me is when I asked my father what he knew about Carver Lumber and the Keller Branch. He usually knows all the dirt in Pioneer Park so I thought I’d get a good story, but he knew nothing more than what was in the paper on this issue, and had no idea of Carver Lumber’s troubles. If a ‘connected’ person doesn’t know the full story, how does the average Joe hear about it? They don’t. Most people in town get the news from the Journal Star, and we all know their opinion on this issue.

I want rails AND trails. It should not be an either/or.

Unfortunately the post was lost when my site went down a few days ago.

In other news:

The groundbreaking for Glen Oak Zoo’s expansion is scheduled for Thursday the 19th.

The Cubs signed the fiesty Lou Pinella as their new manager.

CBGB’s is closed for good after a homeless shelter kicked them out. Incidently, the small punk rock club will be reopening in Las Vegas.