Peoria City Council At-Large Election Quiz #6:
What is Peoria’s greatest drawback or obstacle that it faces?
Brad Carter: The obvious answer is people leaving the city for the surrounding communities. The reason for this is high crime and poor schools. On crime: The City Council must tear the budget apart and define its needs (police, fire, basic services) and wants (everything else). It must then fund those needs first, and only then can the wants start to be funded. On schools: Leaders from both the City and District 150 need to have open two-way communication that clearly states what each party’s goals are and how to achieve them. The city does not have a lot of say in what happens in District 150.
Donald Cummings: Our greatest obstacle is to deter crime and improve neighborhoods.
Dan Irving: We must build and continue to improve our current relationships we have with all school districts within the boundaries of the City of Peoria, Peoria County and Peoria Park District. Relationships are built on mutual trust and respect. It is imperative that pro-active communication occur between all units of government. Relationships developed between the units of government can be a catalyst for the sharing of ideas and provide the foundation for working together. As an individual, I have built positive relationships my entire life and clearly understand the benefits. I would propose an annual inter-governmental retreat to share business plans or goals, quarterly meetings between the groups for idea sharing and the promotion of working together.
George Jacob: Crime remains our single largest obstacle. While overall crime was down considerably last year, and violent crime was down slightly, more work needs to be done. People need to feel safe and comfortable in their homes and in their neighborhoods. We have implemented solutions to crime in the last year. These include saturation patrols to bring police staff and resources to bear quickly in to hit the “hot spots” frequented by drug dealers and criminals. We have been very successful in taking large amounts of contraband, and criminals, off the streets. We also need to continue to move forward with our security camera program. While still in the early stages, this may prove to be a very effective way of leveraging the police department resources and allowing our officers to be more effective. It has worked in Chicago and other communities.
We also passed the noise ordinance last year. This has been very effective, through applying strict and immediate penalties for non compliance, and has been an excellent solution for quieting older neighborhoods. While it was a very tough vote, it also demonstrated that many on the council are not satisfied with the status quo, and that our neighborhoods and police need to have the support to have real impact and make changes. We need to continue to work toward solid solutions to problems, and not be afraid of trying new techniques to get different and improved results, particularly in our older neighborhoods.
Kelley Mammen: We are a struggling city. The older neighborhoods are shameful and the school system is in need of major overhaul and work. The crime and gangs bring us down.
Gary Sandberg: Trying to be somewhere or someplace else.
Chuck Schierer: Flight. People are living on the fringes of Peoria because of crime, deteriorating neighborhoods and a poorly perceived school system.
Ryan Spain: As an economic development professional, I believe Peoria is very poor at adapting to change. The world is changing all around us. Nationwide we see that new economies have been created and new technologies have been deployed in other communities. Peoria must be more proactive to react to the changing environment around us. For example, there are 400 communities pursuing wireless internet strategies in the United States. I am working to facilitate this type of infrastructure in Peoria, but more community support is needed.
Gale Thetford: Besides the drug and gang-related crime that is pervasive in some of our neighborhoods and which must be addressed, the other greatest obstacle is that we don’t do as good a job of promoting our city for purposes of attracting new companies and jobs as we could.
Eric Turner: Even though crime has reached epidemic levels throughout the country. It is our biggest hurdle that MUST be over come for our City to continue to attract business, new residents and growth. If a city of our size fails to do that it will begin to die.
February 26th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
I really enjoy every time the crime stats are paraded out by police and city officals. Crime is down because of lack of action by the Peoria Police Department. I live in the East Bluff and my neighbors and I have reported several crimes and pointed out drug dealers to be told that we should get used to it and that it is worse in the south end so why are we complaining. Out of the police being in my neighborhood at least 3 times a day all summer long there are probably 5-8 reports to show for it. When the police don’t act there technically is no crime.
March 10th, 2007 at 2:56 pm
Peoria\’s greatest obstacle is the high level of crime. Peoria is facing a loss of taxes/revenues due to this problem. Quality education, establishment of a stronger economic development and maintaining a balanced budget are all effected through this problem.