Today’s news budget, 5/16/2006
May 14, 2006 in The Wire
All links go to the Journal Star. All snarky comments are my own.
Jerry Klein wonders what happened to LaSalle Street. I’ll tell him. What’s happened is that people like he and I have moved out of the East Bluff. I don’t know what he did. I know I moved out because I had to move someplace cheap and fast. I’m moving back as soon as possible. I don’t like running from a fight. There are good people still living in the East Bluff. With a little help from the city, they are going to win back that neighborhood.
Steve Tarter leads off his radio television column with discussion of Christian radio stations and exactly what constitutes Christian music. Yet oddly enough, there’s no mention of the Markley & Luciano Show on WMBD. It seems every time I happen to catch Jamie and Phil talk about concerts, the name Third Day keeps popping up. There are times when if you listen to the duo, and didn’t know any better, you would think you had turned to a Christian-themed station. And then there are times you turn them on and Phil is talking about swilling beer or Jamie is talking about putting a bad of frozen peas on his groin to reduce the swelling from his vasectomy.
Mayor Ardis does some Q & A about crime, code enforcement recycling. He did a pretty good job, although I would like to know how well the relatively new ordinance calling for boarded up commercial buildings has been working. How many fines have been issued and how many buildings so identified have been put to use or demolished. That question didn’t get answered very well, in my humble opinion. By the way, did Mayor Ransburg ever get this same opportunity?
Were I Barbara Van Auken, I would be sure to clip this article about form based codes and New Urbanism and be sure to include it in her campaign literature in three years when she has to run for re-election. All it does is start out with example after example of how she shops at stores within the 2nd District, all within walking distance of her home. Not only that, it’s a good article describing what the city is trying to accomplish by revamping the zoning codes to make it easier to start of new business inside the older neighborhoods. The Journal Star’s “progressive” editorial board is going to have to work overtime writing snarky, misleading and misinformed editorials to make up for all this good press this news article gave Van Auken, one of those “essential services first” people the JS loves to hate.
Feed
May 14th, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Bill you mention moving back to reclaim the east bluff, others want to reclaim the west, and center bluff, some even want the south side back. Did you ever wonder were all the bums are going to go? Think about it, my small neighborhood probably has 25 or so who actually live there. The west bluff as a whole, I dont know but lets call it 500. The center bluff and east bluff most be even worse and we have not even begun to count the bums on the south end. The mayor tells us that the jails dont have room for those with outstanding warrants, and the courts are not prepaired to handle them anyway. If the judicial system cannot handle a few hundred with outstanding warants, how will we ever get rid of the few thousand to reclaim the neighborhoods. It was all before my time but folks tell me that this all can be traced back to southtown. The city got rid of the problems there, but the roaches all went running to find new homes in what had been good neighborhoods before. Were do you think we should run the roaches off to now Bill?
May 14th, 2006 at 1:06 pm
No, the problem didn’t start from “Southtown,” ghetto resident… it started from Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama… back in the mid 60s… and we’re paying the expounded price on it as it has been exacerbated with the flight of manufacturing jobs from this area… before anyone goes nutso on me, the problem knows no color barriers, but it does know socio-economic barriers… and they all came enmasse, stayed, and the end is absolutely nowhere in sight.
All of the folks who could have kept their neighborhoods decided they needed to move on when the first 22 member family popped onto the street direct from Mississippi… multiply it by the thousands, and that’s where we’re at…
Until our civic leaders decide to FACE the problem… try to CORRECT a portion of the problem… try to STOP more urban spread to the north… we will all be slipping further into the toilet. Peoria… Illinois… the Midwest… look into the mirror and learn how to shave properly… fix your hair up a tad… inroads CAN be made, but will NOT be made so long as knuckleheads like Ran$burg, and unfortunately, most of the white faces on the Council and the Mayor’s chambers continue to reside there…
Turn 150 into a DEMANDING, uniform wearing school district NOW. Any child who doesn’t ACCEPT the new set-up, kick ‘em out NOW. Period. No more boarded up homes. Cops close down crack homes NOW. DEMAND compliance… NOW.
But, noooooooooooooo… it’s too much easier to dig our heads into the sand a bit deeper, and shop at Grande Prairie, right?
May 14th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
Ghetto Resident: “Did you ever wonder were all the bums are going to go?”
Creve Coeur.
May 14th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
The white flight in Peoria has much to do with those of us with children fleeing District 150 to Dunlap (if you can afford it) or across the river, and those who are fleeing crime and falling property values in the city.
Oh, and Prego Man, you have a typo in your post. We ’shoppe’ at Grande Prairie, do we not?
May 14th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Bill’s snarky comments are ok, eh?
May 14th, 2006 at 4:36 pm
Sorry Bill but I do not belive that it is cowardly to move ones familly somewhere safe. Peoria is surrounded by towns were ones daughter can go for a walk without the very real fear that she may be picked up and gang raped by more men then she could count (happened on near north end), or go out for a mother daughter treat without getting shot at the atm (happened in peoria), or have someone break in and rape her in her own bed (happened in peoria). I could go on but you all know the story, crime is a big enough problem, throw in d150 and the choice for just about everyone who can afford the choice is to move out.
I will add that a in most of the old neighborhoods many long standing residents remain. For these folks the kids are gone, they have no real hope of getting crap when they put the home on the market, and for many they are just to stuborn to leave. The problem is that they are old and will in short order be moving out of there home for nursing homes. What happens then? The slumlords arrive then is the awnser, and peoria gets one more crack house.
Next year my youngest child will enter school. As I like many do not see d150 is an option, I will add one more to the private school roles. With total yearly tution of well over $10,000-(for all the kids), and crime to boot, tell me again why I or anyone else should stay in this city.
With falling property values in some neighborhood though Peoria must be setting some kind of record. Anyone who purchased in Dunlap 10 years ago has made out like a bandit, those in peoria have lost their shirts. I actually know on woman who paid more for her home 20 years ago then it is worth today. Just look at the south end, even the rats know when to get off a sinking ship.
May 14th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
Mr. Me Says, Bill justed changed the intro to the late Rick Baker’s joke about house flies and their migration patterns…
As for the other comments, not much more that can be added. When D150 closes a high school, that has to be sending a message to others getting ready to move.
May 14th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
What, Christians can’t talk about beer and frozen groin-peas? (I assure you, from the experience of four years of seminary, that that’s just the tip of the ministerial-talk iceberg. My poor husband, who married into the theological community, was (at first) utterly appalled. Now he knows to break out the Halo (the X-Box game, not the holy one) and polish up his trash-talk before the ministers come over for dinner.
May 14th, 2006 at 10:46 pm
Are we reading the same paper? The JStar editorial board has written three or four very positive editorials SUPPORTING Van Auken and the concept of new urbanism, specifically at Sheridan/Loucks. Where are you getting the impression otherwise?
May 15th, 2006 at 7:25 am
What’s all this about falling property values??
Are property values generally lower in Peoria than in Dunlap, Morton, etc? Of course they are. Although are they falling as mentioned above?? I don’t think so, at least not in West Bluff. I’ve lived on the west bluff for 5 years and my home as appreciated over 30% since I’ve been their. I’ll take it any day.
May 15th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Jerry Klein has written many pieces over the years about the East Bluff. I\’d actually like to see Jerry, Ray LaHood and other well-known former East Bluff-ers return to their old neighborhood, along with Bill, and rejoin the good people who are fighting to regain their neightborhood. They, and other people of goodwill, are sorely needed there.
May 15th, 2006 at 6:28 pm
Eyebrows: My thoughts exactly!
May 16th, 2006 at 8:13 am
Conrad: Mission impossible-get rid of the vermin youth who permeate the East Bluff, particularly Glen Oak and St. Bernard neighborhoods and I’ll come back. Have you ever driven thru the area in the evening, early or late? Porches crowded with youth gangs waiting to jump on someone-you don’t dare take a walk in the evening anymore.