FeedKiss Maplewood Avenue goodbye
March 20, 2006 in Statehouse & Capitol
Yep. Take a look at this map (huge pdf file) showing that it wants to do during the next 10-15 years.
Other tid-bits:. The plan also shows a new small Bradley-owned building on the north side of West Main street, direct across the street from Baker Hall. The building isn’t labeled. A “business/engineering center” and a “performance center” would be built somewhere along West Main Street, no doubt in the Ren Park district.
Why is this so shocking? Because residents of the area have heard tell of top administrators brag that eventually, Bradley’s campus will stretch all the way from University Avenue to Sterling Avenue. So we can only assume those old homes on Cooper are be the next properties BU wants to demolish to make room for student housing or parking.
And let me correct a misconception afflicting some of my commentators: Bradley isn’t just taking advantage of urban decay and buying up homes cheap. It’s contributing to it. BU owns many of the properties being rented by students. Far from being a “good neighbor,” Bradley University behaves like a typical absentee landlord. That’s what is driving out the homeowners.
And is there anyone in Peoria who is suffering under the delusion that Bradley University won’t try to get the property it wants seized via eminent domain laws? So forget about BU being patient as these homes go on the market as residents get old and die or move into nursing homes.
My advice to members of the Arbor District and other neighborhood groups: Show up at Tuesday’s city council meeting and raise Hell. There are five council members who will need to run for re-election in slightly more than one year.
March 20th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Geesh, Bill. You make Bradley sound like they’re a bunch of evil, hyper-greedy bastards.
A big percentage of those beautiful homes around Bradley are, in fact, owned by Bradley’s employees and professors. Lots and lots of them. Bradley people are renovating those homes. Bradley people are paying the property taxes. (And not you, I might add.)
Guess who else lives there: the physicians, nurses and employees of the two hospitals you keep slamming.
What you’re doing is re using conjucture and rumor and wielding the two as if they’re moral law from on high. Somebody heard somebody say…crap like that is just that: crap. If you want somebody to go screaming at council Tuesday night, why don’t you try arming them with some facts. Who said what? When did they say it? Who else witnessed that comment? Otherwise, it IS public slander — or at least fear mongering at its best.
March 20th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
No need to panic about that “new small Bradley-owned building on the north side of West Main street”. It is not where they will be storing the black helicopters. It is, in fact, a present-day sorority. The building is owned by Bradley and has been for years.
March 20th, 2006 at 7:56 pm
The Ren Park district will be shocked to hear that Pi Phi might be in the district in the long run.
Old lovely homes? When I lived there, the few times we cleaned, we started with a shovel. I’m sure all the houses have had extreme makeovers since then
March 20th, 2006 at 8:23 pm
More shocked will be the Uplands when they realize that part of their neighborhood is in Ren Park!! Unless you read today’s Word on the Street, which make it sound like they are dying to get in.
March 20th, 2006 at 9:02 pm
A larger Bradley Campus I would think would make Peoria a more attractive and desireable community.
I see no problem putting $$ in a neighborhood that although historical, has seen much better days.
March 20th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
Who wants to live in the Manual district that can afford that kind of housing anyway?
March 20th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Bill, I think you are the one with the misconception.
This is what Bradley does. They purchase homes on the open market until they get close to owning a whole big chunk of land. Then they approach the remaining owners and offer to buy their property for MUCH more than it would be worth on the open market. All the while they continue use the houses as rental propery. BTW, these properties are managed by a third party, so if there are any complaints as to how they are managed, go to the management company.
Once the “chunk” of land is all owned by Bradley, they tear down the houses and expand a nationally recognized University.
How exaclty is this contributing to urban decay? I would call the expansion of an institution such as Bradley nothing but positive for a “crumbling” Arbor district.
March 21st, 2006 at 12:12 am
The crumbling of the Arbor district was a manufactured event. Bradley Universtity has played a vital role in seeing that decay come about.
March 21st, 2006 at 12:12 am
I also heard that Bradley will soon be buying up Bartonville… so it can expand its campus to accomodate the tens of thousands they will soon be attracting JUST because the basketball team is doing well this year… the high costs at Bradley will make NO difference to the tens of thousands who will soon be appearing on campus… it’s the basketball, stoopid.
March 21st, 2006 at 12:16 am
Oh, and it ain’t a “manufactured event” regarding the crumbling of ANYTHING in the Peoria area, particularly what were once attractive older neighborhoods… not only ARE they crumbling, they are downright disintegrating… as they the mid-aged populace pays $400k for what is actually a $150k piece of structure… just so their names can be on a Dunlap or Morton mailbox… yeah, it IS crumbling, and has been for nearly half a century. The Peoria area is a mere shadow of its once beautiful self… and the yuppies, Starbucks crowd, and Cat retirees have no one but themselves to blame…
March 21st, 2006 at 12:43 am
Why is this bad?
March 21st, 2006 at 6:20 am
Prego, you obviously know very very little about Moss-Bradley, the Arbors (at least was), or the Uplands. These three neighborhoods are the most stable, best maintained, in the heart of Peoria. Unlike many surrounding areas, our property values are increasing. New young families are moving into the area. There are tons of kids. Not poor runny nosed welfare kids but middle class kids of professionals. The neighborhood associations are strong. Every spring armies of contracters descend on the area as millions are poured into updating these houses. If you are seeing run down houses, then in all likelihood they are ran by slum lords. We are fighting aggressively to improve this, with little support from Bradley. Bradley talks about wanting to have nice neighborhoods surrounding itself yet its actions say something different. These three neighborhoods are examples of doing something right. Stabbing them in the back by undermining the Arbors is inexcusable… and for what? A parking lot for a facking sports complex !! A sports complex !!! Talk about a school who doesn’t have its priorities straight.
March 21st, 2006 at 6:52 am
Mahkno, with all due respect… I’m over in that area quite often, and for every house that is well maintained, there is one that looks like its best days were in, well, 1951. Maybe that constitutes a wonderful setting for you, but in my neck of the woods, my wife screams to think about moving because 2 houses out of 40 look like crap. Yeah, there are pockets of a few homes clustered together that look great, but then, just around the corner, is a rental house with green aluminum siding from 1966. I wish everyone thought like you did about the area, but the harsh reality is that they don’t. The Peoria area has changed dramatically in the past generation, and it’s mostly for the bad. As the city allowed its northern boundaries to be stretched nearly to Rockford, the chicken sh*t population base has moved with it. It doesn’t matter WHAT you call this area… Uplands, Uptown, Upinthesky, whatever… the bottom line is it AIN’T what it used to be, and it NEVER will be again. Wish it weren’t so… but if wishes were nickels, we’d all be rich.
March 21st, 2006 at 7:10 am
Pergo,
Aren’t you looking to buy a house in Morton?
March 21st, 2006 at 8:23 am
Two words Ryan: Private School.
March 21st, 2006 at 8:31 am
Sorry Prego, you’re waaay off base. If you were speaking of 20 years ago, I’d say you had a point, but you’re 100% wrong. Drive up High Street and down Moss, slide on over to the Randolph Roanoke area, meander through the Uplands and then come back and tell me how delapidated the area is.
I said it before and I’ll say it again, Bradley is absolutely and willingly contributing to the downfall of the Arbor district as a planned event.
March 21st, 2006 at 10:01 am
Houses get old. They can look ‘old’ but that is not the same crumbling or going down hill. Cars get old too and then become classics. Some anyways. The houses on the West Bluff, for the most part are classics. Are there some eyesores. You bet. Moss Bradley, the Arbors, and the Uplands are all working to remedy that. Our current zoning regulations allow for these eyesores to appear. There are also powerful vested interests that want to keep things as they are. Your neighborhood, whereever it may be, will someday be old too. Your neighborhood will face the same problems ours do. Will your suburban home be regarded a ‘classic’ or go the way of the Ford Fiesta. All that vinyl in suburbia, in my eyes, is a hemoraging eyesore. How well do you thing the cardboard underlying it will hold up after 50 or 100 years? Instead of dissin the old neighborhoods maybe you ought to look at the problems we face and recognize that they will be your problems tommorow.
That eyesore alluminum siding from 1966, will yours last that long? Doubt it.
Of course these neighborhoods aren’t what they used to be. They never will be. With good political fortune, they will be better!
March 21st, 2006 at 10:05 am
What venture by a public or private agency or business DO you support, Bill? You are Anti-EVERYTHING.
All of these places, public an private, create jobs. I suppose you are anti-jobs, too.
March 21st, 2006 at 12:33 pm
I just moved here a year and a half ago, and I love Peoria. It’s a great town, so much to do culturally, great for families (I have 2 young boys), all that. AND I love and adore old houses. My husband and I watch a lot of HGTV and DIY and have ourselves fixed up two old homes (1912 and 1941). But we bought our house out near Mossville for two reasons - the frighteningly high incidence of lead poisoning in those old homes and because I want my kids to learn how to read, hence we couldn’t live in District 150.
I hate to see lovely old homes torn down. I applaud those who are restoring them with every fiber of my being. But BU is an incredible revenue generator for Peoria. The percentage of graduates who remain in Peoria is good, better than a lot of other Univs. And the sucess of the basketball team, whatever you may think about it, also brings money to the town as a whole. And the core of this town certainly needs the shot in the arm that BU, Ren Park and maybe even that new hotel by the civic center can or could bring. Been to Detroit lately? Sacrificing a few old homes for the greater good is okay by me.
And if the Arbor Neighborhood is being destroyed by the super slow snail pace at which a university expands, it’s not a very strong neighborhood to begin with.
March 21st, 2006 at 2:01 pm
Are you kiddin’? Morton? I ain’t goin’ there… there ain’t no soul there, dagnab it. By the by… the house we live in was built in 1939… I tore the aluminum siding off 12 years ago and put cedar shakes on (that’s been fun painting every few years)… and, we have more than our share of houses on the block that are questionable… that’s why I CAN make statements about other older neighborhoods, cause I’ve seen mine deteriorating steadily over the past 20 years… It’s not enough to make me want to move (gots too much money in the danged thing), but it also wouldn’t make me tout it as a special neighborhood that should be free of any wrecking ball ventures. The bottom line is that MOST folks in this area do NOT want to live in an older neighborhood because there aren’t enough people here that want to and know how to take care of an older house. That’s all. I’m out.
March 21st, 2006 at 6:59 pm
A sports complex that belongs to a nationally recognized university that is one the things that has made Peoria. The bigger and more attractive is, the more Peoria benefits. If that has to be at the expense of a few 70 year old homes, then so be it, especially when Bradley is PURCHASING THEM ON THE OPEN MARKET.
It’s not like we are tearing down historical structures here.
March 21st, 2006 at 7:04 pm
We are talking about the streets directly bordering Bradley, not Moss Ave and the Randolph/Roanoke area. The Randolph area is at least a half mile from Bradley.
Yes, the homes on Moss and High, and in the Uplands (isn’t the Uplands on the OTHER side of Western from Bradley) are quite nice and should be respected for that, but those aren’t the areas that BU is talking about.
Remember…. The 10-15 year plan includes one more street than they presently have. Huge loss in 15 years?