Peoria Pundit

Here is a completely random, old school Peter-Gammons-style blogpost:

- The Arizona Cardinals are in the Super Bowl. Are you [expletive deleted] kidding me? The Cubs can’t even win a single playoff game but the Cardinals are allowed to play in the most-watched sporting event in the world? Who are these sporting gods I’ve been praying to?

- Is this a world I want to live in?

- The Cubs have traded Felix Pie. According to the AP, he has gone the way of Corey Patterson. Whoa, hold up a second. Pie needs at least 2 full seasons of sucktitude before we can compare him to Corey Patterson.

- While we are on sports, Duke is better than you. Get over it and stop bitching.

- Onto something else. I am without a doubt the only person under 30 who is legitimately excited about Bruce Springsteen performing during the Super Bowl halftime show. I cannot explain why I love the Boss so much but if you do not appreciate him, I do not want to be friends with you.

- If you do enjoy some Bruce, PLEASE buy “Stay Positive” by The Hold Steady. Great album. Good music, great lyrics and a nice flow to the whole thing.

- Also, I am totally PO’d that “The Wrestler” is not playing in any local theaters. The movie looks amazing and I can attest that the song Bruce wrote for the piece is tits.

- During my nightly internet browsing I came across a new series of comics titled: “Hexed”. Based on the description it is “Like a supernatural version of JJ Abrams’ Alias, it’s Buffy gone bad.” I am sold. Go to io9.com to get a link to the FREE online copy.

- Now that we are onto science fiction, after viewing the season premiere of Battlestar, all I can think of is the song that the waitress at the Haufbrau plays by request. Except this time I sing: “Who the [expletive deleted] is Ellen?”

- Sorry for pulling a 180 but for all of you who lambasted Jimmy Carter after his most recent book tour, are you really pleased with Isreal’s most recent actions? I didn’t think so. Read the book this time, assholes.

- Woodruff will not close. No high school in D150 should close. We need more teachers, not fewer. And the teachers we have are not BAD teachers, most are alumni who cared enough to take a low-paying job just to make a difference at their alma mater. I’m not claiming that the school board has exhausted all options but I sure as hell haven’t seen any others published in the PJStar.

- Wait, so Bush is STILL POTUS? I thought we ended that a couple months ago.

- ZOMG! Obama will be Inaugurated on Tuesday? Maybe this IS a world I want to live in.

Bruce Springsteen – The Wrestler

I couldn’t go to last night’s meeting of the group of parents upset at District 50 for slashing a month of instructional time from primary school students (in daily 45-minute increments). I had to work.

In the days since the school board voted to slash the school day, there has been something of an uprising underway. Methods for replacing the board have been discussed. Suggestions include simply getting better candidates to run for the board, reducing board terms from five years to as few as two, electing the board all at once rather than staggered terms. The “doomsday weapon” in all this would be to demand a city or even a state takeover of the district, perhaps with educational guru Paul Vallas or his associates helping out.

No current school board members attended, which was wise considering the foul mood that D150 has created among parents. However, Bud Collier attended. He’s the former superintendent for Dunlap schools. Since his retirement, he’s been acting as a sort of go-between for Peoria city government and the city’s many school systems, the largest and most troubled of which is D150.

Collier came bearing a message: Stop all this nonsense and D150 might rescind its decision.

Via Diane Vespa:

But Mr. Collier insisted that we “had the Admins attention” and that they were willing to put options on the table. Ultimately, we were persuaded to “call off the dogs” and place them on a back burner, for now. In the interim, we will meet a few more times to explore options for saving 0K. We don’t anticipate this to be too difficult of an undertaking given the fact that it is less than 1/2 of 1% of their budget. There is a meeting scheduled with the District for May 22. The goal: a full rescission of last Mondays vote.

,,,

I am pleased with the outcome of the meeting, and although there exists an innate sense of unease with the Administration given the callousness they have exhibited towards the expressed will of the community, I, personally, am willing to put differences aside and work on behalf of the children as well as every citizen of Peoria.

The bottom line is this. It is one thing to not think things through, buy property, sell property, randomly knock down and build new buildings. But taking school time and fine arts teachers away from our youngest children to compensate for the lack of vision is fundamentally impacting the very foundation of the city of Peoria. Monday’s decision, if it stands, would have far-reaching consequences that go way beyond the boundaries of District 150.

Elaine Hopkins reported:

“I personally believe there will be something that will work. I’ve been told if you come up with legitimate solutions they would take a look at it. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t find an option by next week. They’ve gotten smacked pretty good,” he said.

Collier said Hinton is willing to meet with four members of the group on May 22 and May 27 to consider options. The board next meets on May 19.

He urged the group not to attack school officials personally, and to focus only on the shortened school day issue and not other grievances.

And C.J. Summers:

I think it’s a good idea to try negotiations first, but we must, at the same time, keep the heat up. We won’t let the administration razzle-dazzle us like they did the school board last Monday night.

The fact that the District 150 board and the administration have shown in the past they they will sputter indignantly when people with common sense stand up to them, but in the end they will back down.

Peoria School District 150 hasn’t had decent leadership since Superintendent Harry Whitaker left. We’re not going to get decent leadership with Ken Hinton at the helm the administration we have now. And we’re not going to get rid of THEM until we get rid of the current school board. The very, very least that needs to happen is a change in how board members are elected. The current system doesn’t allow for adequate change, and it discourages new people from seeking election. I mean, who wants to be the only new board member on this group, especially if you oppose how the board operates? Being the lone gadfly is no fun.

The inference I draw from all this is that the board is willing to go back to a full school day and not fire the music and arts teachers IF the efforts to get rid of the current board stop.

Feh. Rescinding the decision they made last week should just the first step of what needs to happen. and I’m worried that if the board decides to rescind, if might lessen the motivation behind the insurrection. I mean, where would America be right now if King George III had rescinded the stamp tax?

We need to fight the disease that infects District 150, not just the most recent symptoms.

For all the talk about whether or not a roundabout at the Sheridan Triangle (the intersection of Sheridan, Loucks and Gift) would make the place a better place to live and do business, there does seem to be some economic activity going on over there.

I drove by today and noticed that the former Dairy Queen stand seems to be grearing up to open under a new name, “Dudley’s,” I believe. The last business operating out of the place was some sort of hot sandwich stand. This is joint that stands next to the building that once houses the modest litter diner called “Jo Jo’s.” It was more recently a BBQ joint that didn’t impress me (twice, I received meals that weren’t fully cooked). It’s now serves chili, and does some catering, according to their sign.

Directly catty-corner from there is a brick building that houses a T-shirt printing place, a used electronic appliance store and a wine-making supply store. There was a sign in the wine-press joint saying they are selling discount tobacco. Whether this means one business is taking over for the other, or the wine place is also offering discount smokes, I don’t know. I didn’t stop in to ask, being as I don’t drink or smoke. I have other vices.

I am planning on stopping at “It’s All About the Wings,” a new eatery that opened up at the back park of the former drug store at the corner of West McClure and North Sheridan. It’s directly across from Sheridan Liquors. I haven’t gone in yet, because every time I do, there’s no place to park.

Good luck to all these entrepreneurs. It’s tough enough doing business in Peoria, let alone during the start of a long and hard recession.

UPDATE: I got the name of the chicken wing place wrong. It’s called “All Bout the Wings.” It’s a big difference.

I found this article on AlterNet, a news service that promotes a left-of-center point of view:

Obama likes to paint himself as an opponent of the war. He reminds voters of his one — and only one — speech opposing it. But he swiftly changed his mind. Obama told the Chicago Tribune on July 27, 2004, that “there’s not that much difference between my position and George Bush’s position at this stage. The difference, in my mind, is who’s in a position to execute.” Obama added that he “now believes U.S. forces must remain to stabilize the war-ravaged nation, a policy not dissimilar to the current approach of the Bush administration.” Obama wants to leave an estimated 50,000 troops in Iraq to protect our superbases and the Green Zone, our imperial city, to fight terrorism, and to train Iraqi forces. He traveled to Connecticut to campaign on behalf of Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a leading proponent of the war and an advocate of airstrikes against Iran, when Lieberman was challenged by the anti-war candidate Ned Lamont. And when Obama talks about the Palestinians he reads dutifully from the script handed to him by Lieberman and the Israel lobbying group AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

To be perfectly truthful, the idea that Obama doesn’t advocate a withdrawal reminiscent of out shameless abandonment of South Vietnam likes him ore attractive to me as a candidate.

But it gets worse. Peoria’s own medical gadfly, Dr. John Carroll, links Obama to accused influence peddler Tony Rezko, who Dr. Carroll then links to members of Peoria’s medical establishment. It’s too long for me to post here without replicating the whole thing.

Remember, too, that Dr. Carroll accused me of succumbing to Peoria’s Medical Mafia because I wouldn’t let him libel people anymore here on this site. So take it with a grain of salt. I would be shocked if ANY person in public life doesn’t have SOME dealings with corrupt individuals. Peoria is no different.

Hat tip: Elaine Hopkins.

Well, I was wrong. Tonight’s Peoria City Council meeting didn’t end sometime after 10 p.m. as I predicted. It ended shortly after 8 p.m.

The meeting started at about 6:15 p.m., but the real city business didn’t start until about 6:45 p.m. after all the proclamations were over. Which was about when I arrived. cagey veteran that I am, I knew that the first half-hour would be a huge waste of my time, so I intentionally arrived late.

The council essentially whipped through the 33-item consent agenda, taking only five of the items out for individual votes, three of which were were to defer to later meetings. Also deferred:

1. A recommendation to approve a Class B-1 liquor license to the owner of J.J. Ryan’s to open a restaurant/tavern at 7719 N. University.
2. A recommendation from the  city’s liquor commission to deny a Class A liquor license to Elliott’s, the strip-tease joint located at 7807 N. University, a few doors north of where J.J. Ryan’s wants to relocate.

Here’s why I think the city is hesitant to approve the license for J.J. Ryan’s: If it does, it would weaken the city’s argument that it isn’t denying Elliott’s owners their rights by refusing them a liquor license solely because they are providing adult entertainment.

A recent federal court decision says that cities cannot deny an otherwise qualified applicant a liquor license only because they have nekkid women prancing about inside. So if the city denies Elliott’s a license because of (wink, wink) “neighborhood” concerns, then it can’t very well approve J.J. Ryan’s when they are located two downs down. But denying J.J. Ryan’s makes no sense because the owner ALREADY has a liquor license and simply wants another one for a building that has recently been used for a tavern/restaurant, located on a block that is littered with restaurants and bars.

But there’s hope. The city and Elliott’s have agreed to federal mediation. Perhaps the process just isn’t over, and that’s the cause for the delay. I’m sure the nice law-abiding lady who owns J.J. Ryan’s doesn’t mind one little bit while her business is being held hostage while her little psychodrama plays out.

After all, it’s only her livelihood.

Caterpillar Inc. is fixing up its parking deck. Good for them. For them. It’s their deck, they are responsible for it. In a totally pure free-market, free-enterprise system they ought to be responsible for those costs. One of those costs, one assumes, would be to find a place for its workers to park.

After all, there isn’t a mini-mall, mega-mall or a hot-dog stand that isn’t forced to comply with strict standard that state exactly how many parking spaces must be provided. The number of the spaces is set my ordinance. The number of handicapped spaces is set by ordinance. The width and length of the spaces are set by ordinance. The cannot just say that their customers and employees are going to park on the street. They have to either buy enough land to build their own lots, or make arrangements with nearby property owners who have a surplus.

But not if you are Caterpillar. For them, the free-market is a concept to be trotted out to argue that it should be able to do business anywhere, with anyone, without restriction from pesky rules and regulations.

But when it suits their interests, they are like pigs at the public trough.

So, Caterpillar simply went to the city of Peoria and announced they wanted to pave over the ground at the former Sears Block and have it’s minions park their cars there. Don’t worry, we’ll pay for the costs and cover the cost for providing security at the site. This would be roughly equal to the rental space the city otherwise would be able to get from the spaces.

Well, that was the theory when this was discussed during an executive session following the last council meeting.

Caterpillar didn’t need to pay rent, the thinking was, because it was “a wash.”

Council member Gary Sandberg now says that he was told that the process would take about five mnths. But the agreement presented to the council for approval Tuesday stated that it would take as long as 7 1/2 months, a 50-percent increase. In other words, the city was losing 50-percent more rent that the council had been led to believe.

Sandberg lectured the council:

“We are going to have to start treating our business assets with some business sense, like Caterpillar does,” he said.

“I guess I misunderstood the math” and “didn’t understand the length,” said City Attorney Randy Ray, adding that the “wash” was based on “rough math.”

“It’s not lost OR found money,” Ray said.

Mark Johnson of Caterpillar (I can’t find his title right at this moment; I’ll get it later) told the council that the company doesn’t know exactly how long the repairs will take. The deck, he said, is 45 years old.

“Instead of just patching it up, we want to do a major overhaul,” Johnson said. “I expect it (the length of the agreement) was extended so it could a a little cushion.”

Council member Barbara Van Auken, who earlier expressed doubts the longer length of the agreement made it a wash, said she trusted Johnson’s word and was among those who voted to approve the agreement.

But the biggest defense came from Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis.

“I have absolutely no problem with the agreement,” Ardis said, “considering all the good Caterpillar does for our community.

“I don’t think this is one we need to dig our heels in on, folks.”

The vote to approve was 9-1, with Councilman Eric Turner abstaining (he works at Caterpillar) and Councilman Pat Nichting, who was absent.

Sandberg told me after the meeting that the city essentially gave up about 0,000 in revenue by not renting Caterpillar the space. And then there is the revenue that the owners of privately-owned parking decks lost because Caterpillar didn’t have to rent spaces from them on the open market.

So the council not only screwed the taxpayers out of incoming revenue, they screwed some private businesses out of some cash as well. It’s sorta like if the city is standing outside of restaurants handing out free hot-dogs and soda.

And here’s my last comment/question about this whole mess: I assume these improvements to the Sears Block include paving it over and laying down some parking stripes. Exactly what good will these improvements be to the city once Cat’s own deck is completed? After all, aren’t they going to have to tear it our to build their museum and Caterpillar’s visitor center?

A wash? This thing sounds like a hosing from day one.

NOTE: Corrected to change weeks to months.

Once again, HOINews came through for parents at District 150 schools. Last night, I caught their 10 p.m. newscast, and there were two — count ‘em, TWO — reports related to the quality of education at Peoria’s public schools. One was a follow-up to the station’s original report on how some school’s aren’t meeting state-mandated physical education requirements. The other was a report on how a principal who lost a no-confidence vote was pegged as a new vice principal at the newly reconstituted Manual High School. Kudos to the folks at HOI News. It’s sometimes hard to get any coverage at all on other stations.

My, how time flies.

About this time last year, Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis had the audacity to stand up for Peoria and complain about how Peoria’s one and only daily newspaper was portraying his city. He complained that the newspaper over-emphasized bad news the city, including an unusually high murder murder rate.

The response from the editorial page was typical of the Journal Star. They started a silly little jihad against the mayor. They complained that Ardis had the audacity to use graphic images to make Peoria’s rising murder rate an issue during his run for mayor in 2005, which is supposed to make him a hypocrite for complaining about the Journal Star’s negative coverage of Peoria two years later.

I saw the attack as a way for the Journal Star to start campaigning on behalf of whoever decides to run against Ardis in 2009 (which is less than a year away, folks). Remember that Ardis was most definitely NOT the Journal Star’s choice for mayor. Instead, the PJS endorsed then-incumbent David “The Liar” Ransburg, as well as two members of the Peoria City Council who were part of the “progressive” wing of the council.

But the Journal Star will never admit that it’s criticizing Ardis out of spite or to soften Ardis up for the next election. Instead that say they are simply criticizing a politician for pandering to fears to get elected and then backtracking once he’s in charge.

Well, the PJS knows about pandering to fear. That’s what they did in the months prior to the 2005 election when their editorials suggested Ardis and other essential-services-first candidates were racists. What fears were columnist Pam Adams pandering to when she suggested Ardis and at-large councilman Eric Turner were also pandering to racists by making crime as issue? And even the news side got into the act by counting black faces at staged, invitation only political events and commercials.

Today, there’s a front-page article about how the city’s murder rate is way down from last year. The funny thing about this and the other three articles (here, here and here) is that Ardis isn’t mentioned once. It’s a striking contrast to just 11 months ago, when the city’s newspaper of record was all over Ardis for reigning over a city with a rising murder rate. And even if there wasn’t this back story, wouldn’t it be considered, well, good journalism to ask a mayor what he thinks of a massive drop in crime in the city’s he’s leading?

And today’s editorial page? They are running an editorial how people should thank their mothers. If there is ever an editorial out of these people praising Ardis in the slightest for the drop in murder and crime, I’ll let my readers know. I suppose anything is possible.

Most of the praise for the improved crime stats should go, I believe, to Police Chief Steve Settingsgaard. He’s made personnel and scheduling changes that have put more cops on the street at the times they are needed. He has the respect of the council, which is essential when one is bringing charge to a police department that had been ill-run for so many years. I give Ardis credit for leading the council in supporting these changes. His calling for a 40 days of prayer against crime and violence provided an opportunity for the community to buy into the city’s crime-fighting efforts.

For these and other reasons, Ardis is popular and well-respected among Peorians who don’t work at One News Plaza. Anyone so inclined to run is going to have to take this into consideration. With a significant drop in the murder rate, the PJS has one less tool in its tool belt as it works on behalf of whatever future opponent pops up.

Two thoughts about this article about a man who was found inside a car with a life-threatening gunshot wound to the head:

• This had to happen right after the Journal Star finally acknowledged Peoria’s murder rate is down dramatically from last year.
• I think that any crime that happens within four block of Club Apollo will now be described in the Journal Star as happening near Club Apollo.

While I have yet to see an announcement on the Journal Star’s Website (perhaps I missed it), the Springfield’s GateHouse Media newspaper is keeping its readers informedof the coming changes, with a nice long story detailng what is coming:

The State Journal-Register’s Web site will look different when you log on Tuesday night. Sj-r.com will change from using a homegrown computer program for managing stories to one used by newspapers nationwide. Called Zope, the program will result in a cleaner, more up-to-date look for the Web site and allow reporters and editors to post from anywhere they have Internet access.

And:

1. The site will be able to handle large numbers of visits at one time. In the past, big breaking news has led to traffic bottlenecks that slowed visitors’ access to the site.
2. The site will better present the many video and photo galleries the site offers daily.
3. The new system will allow easier story updating and will better present some of the features we have.

Thanks for the transparency, Springfielders. No doubt the new sites in Springfield and Peoria will resemble what’s used in Galesburg.

I still recommend that newspapers start planning for the permanent transition from dead tree journalism to online-only, and stop using their free Web sites simply to scare away online-only start-ups.