Peoria Illinoisan

While I still mourn the destruction of Maplewood avenue and the venerable Fieldhouse, construction of the new Bradley Athletic Performance Center and the Puterbaugh Family Men’s Basketball Practice Facility (abbreviated as BAPCPFMBPF) is moving right along.

Great minds think alike.  Check out Kirk Wessler’s construction update photos {here}.

UPDATE:

I did NOT mean to post a Bee Gee’s medley!

let’s try this again, shall we?

Perpetuum Jazzile – Africa.

And that’s all I have to say on the matter.  Actually, it’s not. Sidewalks are basic city infrastructure that should be maintained just as much as city streets are. People like to talk about the ‘broken windows’ theory of cleaning up a neighborhood, what better example than a sidewalk? If you lived on a street with crumbling sidewalks, would you really invest in your home and keep it tidy? Not likely. Now if you lived on a nice street with lovely new sidewalks and maybe some ornamental lighting, would you, possibly unconsciously, keep your home and yard looking nicer? Probably. If your neighbor did the same and another neighbor down the street did the same, before you know it the place would begin to attract better home owners and tenants.

If you drive around this city, look at the ‘nice’ neighborhoods. I’ll bet they have nice sidewalks too. Now look at some of the higher crime areas. Sidewalks? If they exist, they’re not always in the best shape, and quite frankly the poorer residents can’t afford to have them fixed anyway.

Granted, this will never happen as the council seems dead set on throwing money at pet projects and private developers instead of focusing on what should really matter… services such as police and fire, and basic infrastructure.

Fix a broken sidewalk, fix a broken city.

They’re both wonderful places run by the nicest people you’d ever want to meet, and neither accepts credit cards.

I ran into this issue at Christ Orchard last year when we did our annual pumpkin patch picking excursion. They do accept personal checks, but I didn’t have any on me. The lady behind the counter didn’t ask for me to leave our pumpkins behind, she said with a smile “It’s ok, just mail us a check.”

I decided to finally pick up some food from El Mexicano last night and as they were cooking my order I pulled out a credit card for payment. Nope. Not accepted. I offered a personal check, but they declined that also. So did they throw my food in the trash and me out the door? Naw – they said “just pay us tomorrow,” and handed me my food.

Treat the customer right and with respect. That’s how loyalty is gained. We go to Christ orchard at least once a year and I’ll be picking up lunch at El Mexicano on Saturday when I go back to pay them for Thursday’s meal.

The food is quite excellent, if you’re wondering.

What’s the point of a map ‘key’ if it doesn’t relate to the map? I just wanted to glance and see which road construction projects would be completed when, not have to color it in myself. Is that too much to ask?

I can hardly contain my excitement at finding this website. It’s an interactive Google map showing the exact location of every known cemetery in Peoria county. There’s Tazewell and Woodford county maps too, in addition to every single county in Illinois if you are so inclined.

I could sense that my new hobby was beginning to worry my wife in relation to my mental well-being, so about a month ago I finally convinced my wife to take a quick tour of Springdale with me. I showed her some people she was familiar with – Captain Detweiller, John Proctor, the Ballances, the Herschels, Mayor Woodruff, and the Bradley family among others. After our brief tour she declared that I was not “quite as weird” as she had previously thought.

She understood. Cemeteries are beautiful places chocked full of history, art and architecture. Armed with these maps I will be checking out some new ones soon.

Two years and 151 Peoria Landmarks ago I published this picture taken by Scott O’Brien, one of the original Peoria bloggers and author of the now defunct O’Brien’s Briar Patch:

I had no idea what its purpose was and I still don’t. Noted local historians Norm Kelly, Dr. Peter Kouri and frequent NTPL commenter JW had never seen it nor knew what it was. It sits on the banks of the Illinois River just a few hundred yards south of the McCluggage Bridge. Last week I went back to visit my favorite hidden treasure to find it on the brink of collapse.

It appears that the recent floods were more than this grand forgotten structure could take. As you can see in the picture, one wall has completely collapsed and another wall is on the brink which will cave the roof in. Of the original four curved stone lintels, only one remains.

Sigh. Another wonderful and historic link to our past is soon to be lost and few people even know and fewer even care.

While wandering through Farmington’s historic Oak Ridge cemetery I was struck by the disparity of how well some generally fragile headstones were preserved…

…and what a state of disrepair other sections of the cemetery seemed to be in. I was going to write about how poorly the cemetery is kept and how it reminded me of the uncared for Mt. Hawley cemetery in Peoria;

Then I read this:

Farmington’s sacred burial grounds in Oak Ridge Cemetery, Farmington, Illinois,  has suffered tragic destruction during the past few months.  The Cemetery is being systematically destroyed by vandals.

Grateful blessings go to Steve, the cemetery caretaker, who has repaired what he can or carefully gathers broken pieces to respectfully stack them together for future repair.  Unfortunately, vandals return almost immediately to re-break or dislodge what he has lovingly repaired or replaced.

The vandals have tried to do harm to the Mausoleum where attempts have been made to damage the front entrance of this precious old building.

Shown [above] is the sacred gravesite of Theodore and Rachel Sargent.  This has stood undisturbed for 138 years … until 2009.

Recently many graves were desecrated by vandals in Oak Ridge Cemetery of Farmington, Illinois.

This is their grave stone today, broken into pieces.

If you’ve seen or heard anything that might lead to the capture and arrest of the guilty, please contact the Farmington Police Department. Over 80 graves have been desecrated in Farmington’s sacred burial grounds.  It’s time for that to stop.

This makes me sick. You know, all forms of vandalism are bad, but there is a special place in hell for people who vandalize cemeteries, and even though whoever is doing this probably doesn’t believe in hell, I can assure you he will find it a very unpleasant place – hopefully after a long stint in jail.

After recently picking up a copy of Goldmine’s book Records & Prices, I’ve been having fun going through my collection of vinyl and seeing if I have anything worth some good dough. I was surprised at how many weren’t worth much, but I did find a few gems. I didn’t bother looking up any that weren’t in pristine condition, so the prices listed are VG+ and Near Mint. Of course I’m not selling any of them, but it’s still fun to know what they’re potentially worth.

The Beatles – Meet The Beatles (Capital ST 2047) – $60-100

The Beatles – The Beatles, complete with photos and poster (Apple SWBO-101) – $75-200

Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home (Columbia CL 2328) – $25-50

Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia CL 2389) – $40-80

Procol Harum – Procol Harum (Deram DES 18008) – $20-40

The Who – The Who Sings My Generation (Decca DL 4664) – $50-100

Go to your attic, basement, closet or wherever you store your albums and quiz me. I’d be happy to look up the value. While you’re at it, turn on your stereo and drop the needle down. I guarantee you’ll say “damn I love vinyl.”

While driving past the old Lagron Miller on Main St which I believe One World still owns, I noticed a For Sale or Lease sign in the window by a realty firm called Peoria Works Development. I had never heard of them before and wondered if the city had entered the commercial realty business, possibly as branch of Peoria’s economic development department that I was unaware of. The contact phone number has an 312 area code. Chicago loop. From what I gather from their website this is their only property; at least under this name.

Call me Peoria-centric to a fault, but there’s something about a firm from Chicago passing themselves off as a local entity that bugs me.

Personally I’m more concerned with the raw sewage being dumped in the river everytime it rains than trace amounts of Vicodin.

A commenter who claims to live nearby butchering it even more.

The story comes from the website which used to be WEEK… or is it WHOI. So confusing. Now it’s called the Central Illinois News Center.com. WMBD TV’s website is Central Illinois Proud.com, which don’t understand either. But I digress..

WHEOEIK:

This is fun – the partial demolition of Sheridan Village revealed a shadow of the old Kresge’s sign. Did you know at one point Kresge’s had over 750 stores before being morphed into Kmart? I sure didn’t. An excellent article on the history of Kresge’s can be read here.

In other news, if you haven’t heard, Peoria is losing another of its fine dining establishments. Ponte Vecchio has closed its doors for good.