Dancing in the streets on Prospect Point
They got what they wanted. Grandview Hotel is coming down. They won’t have to run screaming into the night for a police officer when they see a scruffy-looking person walking down the street. It’s not like they had to worry about drug users and prostitutes hanging out there anymore. Whatever faults Chase Ingersoll has, he didn’t tolerate that nonsense there.
This is a follow-up I’d like to see: What happened to the people who were displaced when the city finally managed to get the place closed for the drug use committed by the previous owner? Are they living in homeless shelters? Are they stuck at the other weekly-rate hotels in Peoria? You know, the ones with the exact same problems that Grandview used to have?
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Bill,
You are in fantasy land with the comment “Whatever faults Chase Ingersoll has, he didn’t tolerate that nonsense there.”
I live directly across the street. If Chase didn’t tolerate it, who were the girls in Taxi Cabs all hours of the night being droped off on Prospect? Who where the girls knocking on my door late at night asking for rides downtown? They weren’t Girl Scouts..
“scruffy-looking person walking down the street”. Oh Really? Tell me are those the same people shooting off a few rounds in the Juction City Parking Lot?
I’m throwing a “tear down the Grandview party” all are welcome. The beer is on me.
Please! My cars were broken into after Chase got involved. He didn’t do a damn thing.
[...] This is long overdue for the people that live in the surrounding neighborhood. I have delt with alot of malicious people who only want to inflict property damage or pain. None of them which were “just walking down the street” [...]
Sorry Scott, where did you say you exactly lived? Free beer? Is this afternoon to early?
The afternoon is never to early…:-)
Please Bill. No one called the cops for “scruffy folks walking down the street.” Prospect Road is a busy street with cars, pedestrians, and scruffy folks a plenty. Scuffy folks were never and still aren’t a problem. Grandview Residents/Drug Dealers/Users/Criminals/Child Molesters were. Calls WERE made to police when a resident shot a mother in the head in front of her 3 year old son, a resident/convicted child molester broke into a home attempting to abduct a little girl, and when a neighborhood high school student was stabbed while jogging. Chase may have had grand plans and schemes for the hotel, but he simply didn’t have the revenue to make any of them happen. As long as a the hotel remained in its sad physical (albeit cleaner) condition, the hotel would remain a problem. Your portrayal of the neighborhood as classist is both inaccurate and biased. Had someone been killed or a child kidnapped and raped by a Grandview resident, I would wager that you would be whining, “Why didn’t that privileged neighborhood do something, anything, before this tragedy happened?!”
Angela: I agree that your neighborhood fought the good fight to close down what was once a troublesome source of problems. I have a problem with the fact that no one seemed to recognize that this problem was essentially over once Ingersoll took over the running of the hotel.
And I’ve seen too many neighborhoods with worse problems go unaddressed to not realize that the problems Prospect Point was seeing out of the Grandview post-Chase were far less serious that those faced everyday on the South Side, Near North Side and the East Bluff.
I congratulate you and your neighborhood for getting the city to take action. Would that other neighborhoods in less affluent parts of the city given the same prompt and vigorous defense.
I’m not accusing you nor your neighbors of being classist. It just turned out that way.
Can anyone in the city point to one niuesance suit in the older parts of Peoria?
Bill, the Nuisance Ordinance is somewhat new, and the Grandview case was the first in Peoria. The non riverview homes on North Prospect Road, and Humboldt, which is the side street and served as the entrance for the former Grandview, are quaint, quite small, very middle class.
The problems with the Grandview were NOT over once Chase signed on. What made the difference was a fighting mad neighborhood, a Council Rep who cared, and media attention. If you had an outstanding warrant on your head, the Grandview was a really stupid place to call home. The fact remains Chase did not and could not run background checks on all the Guests at the Grandview, that he could not afford to install the numerous security measures, such as key card locks, that would make it a safe(r) establishment, and that a building in such a deteriorated state would remain attractive to criminals. The best Chase could do was throw a guest to the curb AFTER a problem or crime ocurred. He did not have the financial resources to prevent crime or make the establishment attractive to tourists, businessmen, travelers, etc.
I quiver to think what would happen if a place like the Grandview opened across the street from Barbara VanAuken
My guess is if neighborhood activists like Levetta, Paul Williams, K Alms, etc. had the Grandview Hotel in their backyard, instead of Sheridan Liquors, it is possible the results would be the same. If they had a Councilperson working for them and insisting the City’s Legal Department continue the long legal battles, then yes, absolutely, the results would be the same. Wealthy or not, the Grandview had been a serious problem for this neighborhood for a decade.
The only part being “affulent” MIGHT have played was attracting a buyer for the entire Junction City Corner. The fact that the strip mall and the surrounding area was very troubled, but not quite DOA, was probably helpful. I think the lesson to be learned is to fight loud, hard and obnoxiously as necessary to get something done BEFORE one nuisance property becomes two, and then three, and so on, and so on… We often refered to the Grandview as the “neighborhood cancer.” Moss Avenue has at least as many, actually more, palacial and affluent homes and residents than Prospect Point. Moss and the Second District is well on its way to a major come back. Better representation might well have something to do with it
Nonetheless, I hope all well meaning Peorians, SCRUFFY OR NOT, enjoy the new Junction City and Prospect Point. It is a great place to live and raise kids. As is Peoria. If Chase didn’t recoginize that, it’s his loss and we are better off without him.
Well, I have to say that I am very happy everyone is in support of the tear down. 1st, I’ll be at Scot’s for free beer! I expect an invite. I just wanted to add my 2 cents worth, and also thank Angela for her support, as it seems the JS likes her comments and she has avidly supported our project, which I really appreciate. Chase did try his best to clean up the Grandview, and was on the right track, but as someone pointed put, the only way to clean it up is to tear it down or invest a large sum of money into remodeling it. There is just too much negative history associated to the site, and the residents of Peoria and the neighbourhood need to emphatically know that we are making a big effort to bring back what was once considered the primary shopping destination in Peoria. I wanted to add that Chase was VERY honest and forthright in all our meetings and I truly believe that his intentions and action were all intended to make revenue from a “clean” atmosphere. The issue is that the clientelle that he would have generated would not support the what the neighbourhood wanted, and would not add any value to the overall potential of the whole property (Grrandview, Town Hall, Junction……). Anyway, thats my 2 cents, I hope to see you all at the tear down!!! Please introduce yourselves so I can know who is talking!!! Thanks, Alexis