The Rise & Fall Of Peoria, IL (Part 3)

Part three of a three part narrative on how and why Peoria is in a sharp decline.

Current and Future Projects
The Peoria Civic Center, which was earlier discussed, is now undergoing a $55 million expansion. After reading the prior post on the Civic Center, one has to ask “why?”

The Civic Center Authority argues that it is becoming increasingly difficult to book certain conventions and acts due to the limited seating and facility space at the existing Civic Center. Their solution to the problem is to expand the Civic Center.

In recent years, a number of acts had cancelled their scheduled stops in Peoria for a variety of reasons. The unspoken and true reason these acts drop their show is because they did not sell enough seats for their stop in Peoria to be profitable for them. These acts were mainly from rap artists; just as well because they usually bring a lot of violence with them.

Now what kind of sense does this make? Acts cancel shows because not enough seats are filled and the solution is to provide more seating. The reality check of this is that the HRA tax was about to expire. The city leadership knew damn well that they could not run the city without it. This left them asking how to keep the tax in place. Their answer: allow the Civic Center expansion to happen.

In my view, this is totally irresponsible. Instead, city leadership should have just come clean with the Peoria taxpayers and admit the city desperately need those tax revenues (citizens already knew this to begin with; why insult their intelligence with stressing the need to expand the Civic Center). Then, work on a plan to slowly wean the city off of the HRA tax in a couple of years. But now, we taxpayers will have to fund the $55 million price tag (which I hear may be higher) for something we really don’t need. Once the construction is done, I doubt there will be that many more events at the Civic Center. A boondoggle within a boondoggle.

And recently, talk as resurrected again to build a hotel either connected to or adjacent to the Civic Center. Of course they want city assistance to fund this hotel, not to mention it would compete with the other hotels in the area. Occupancy rates now hover around 50%. The Civic Center Authority claim that they have lost a couple of large events because no hotel was attached to the Civic Center.

For starters, how profitable can this hotel be? Sure, if there are one or two large events come to town, the hotel will probably do well for those days. For the rest of the year, probably not so well. If occupancy rates are already at 50%, a new hotel will drive those rates down. That’s bad news for existing hoteliers who would then be forced to support this competition with tax dollars they pay in. The city council has oked a study to be done to see if a Civic Center Hotel is needed. The $21,000 needed for this study will be another waste of money. And this study will be conducted over and over until the city council gets the answer they are looking for.

And if this expansion does not prove to be a huge loss of money for Peoria, its newest development certainly will. The new regional museum planned and ready to be built on the old Sears block downtown has a $65 million price tag to it. It is to coincide with the Caterpillar Welcome Center. And of course, TIFs were factored into the deal, which earlier this year, caps on the TIFs were removed, which will no doubt cost the city even more money.

The museum is planned to be open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm; I’m sure a lot of adults and children have nothing better to do at those times other than visit this newest Peoria boondoggle. There might be some abbreviated hours the museum will be open on Saturdays. Peoria Journal Star columnist Phil Luciano asked, in his August 8, 2006 article, who will pack up the family from all points in the US to visit this museum.

The planners hope that this will be a regional draw, but Peoria history, nor some Caterpillar equipment, are not going to be that interesting to draw the masses to town. And local residents will visit it once every few years. If our city leadership really wanted to have a regional draw in downtown, they should have went with retail shopping on the Sears block. If my memory is still holding, I believe the developers of the Grand Prairie shopping center originally wanted to build on the Sears block, but were told no by the city council. Think of that. A retail shopping area, with a few other attractions, built with private dollars, and with a good chance of a regional draw, and would generate sales tax revenues for the city and District 150. Instead, these developers built out west Rt 150, tearing up the most prime farmland in the world, with tax dollars going to Dunlap schools. Good move city council!!

I’m sorry to say, but I predict this regional downtown museum will be a miserable failure and a grim disappointment that will have Peoria throwing more good money after bad. Its only saving grace will be an IMAX theater, provided that it materializes.


Conclusion & Common Sense of it All
I have just highlighted some of the mismanagement and debacles that have taken place in Peoria over the last several years. And as always, if any of my facts are in error, please feel free to point them out and correct them.

I am no historian and I cannot apply parallels from the history of other failing communities to that of our own. I am no political junkie and I don’t follow each and every Council meeting or School Board meeting. I am neither a Democrat nor Republican (if I took one of those political tests, I’d probably be a Libertarian of some sort) but I strongly believe in fiscal responsibility and will vote for whom I think will do the best job. I am somewhat involved in the community, but I know I could do more.

I am just looking at the history, facts and the situation(s) here in town, as well as applying what future plans there are going on. My mantra on this blog is that of common sense. Many of the decisions from the Peoria City Council in the past 10-15 years, I believe, have challenged common sense. There has been a woeful amount of mismanagement in the city from all areas. Many of those in charge like to start development projects and see new buildings constructed so as to leave a legacy; everyone can physically see a new building, but how easily can you see a balanced budget or the reopening of a fire station. Those things are dull, right? College and university presidents are guilty of this too. They like to rake in the donation money and build more buildings on campus so as to leave some type of legacy while they were in office and provide them with some self-gratification. I know of another way which is much less expensive for our leaders to self-gratify themselves.

In addition, the population, in general, are not as involved in the community as it once was. And based upon the aforementioned observations of mine, I see a once great city in steep decline. The results include infrastructure in disrepair, sharp increases in violent crime, continuing budget deficits, insufficient city services and a failing school system. If something is not done, very soon, Peoria will become either a giant slum or a ghost town. It’s already happening. Are we going to let it continue?