You can’t powerwash away Peoria’s problems
Peoria City Council member Jim Montelongo is pushing something called Peoria Makeover as a way to improve the way the river city looks:
Under the early stages of this plan, a not-for-profit company would be established to oversee the purchasing and handling of equipment to clean, paint and landscape houses.
Some of Peoria Makeover’s projects could potentially include pressure washing the outside of buildings, homes and sidewalks; painting the trim of rails, fences and mailboxes; cutting grass and cleaning up yards; and repairing door knobs, screen doors, locks, etc.
Montelongo said he wants to find contributors who are willing to support some of the upfront costs, like purchasing commercial tools such as power washers.
At least $20,000 is needed, and Montelongo wants private donations — not city funds.
My thoughts:
1. This alone won”t fix Peoria. But it’s could be a tool to make the city just a bit better.
2. There are a LOT of ideas for improving the city. Most never get off the ground after the person pushing the idea gets elected (Montelongo is running for the Illinois House of Representatives seat now held by Jehan Gordon). Those that do, often suffer from lack of enthusiasm from the c ity. I’m still waiting for all the abandoned buildings to go away thanls to the ordinance that put a time limit on how long a property can star boarded up and unoccupied.
3. Montelongo is pushing it, but it would be as private, not-for-profit organization, not government run. This is good, because the city would certainly screw it up. One hopes that well-to-do Republican-types will cough up the dough, making Montelongo look good for voters.
4. The underlying cause of most of Peoria’s problems is the perception that crime is out of control (people getting murdered with no prosecutions will do that) and poor schools, both of which are frightening the middle class into the suburbs. The other problem is that so much of the incoming taxes are being diluted by TIF districts and enterprise zones — as well as other forms of corporate welfare — leaving less cash to pay for essential services like police protection and schools. Power washing some buildings isn’t going to solve THAT. Only fiscal responsibility, and that’s not going to happen.
But this won’t hurt. It might help. So go for it. Don’t expect miracles.
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 
“One hopes that well-to-do Republican-types will cough up the dough, making Montelongo look good for voters.”
It’s a little late to be looking at the Republicans to solve your problems. Haven’t you heard? Their 401k’s went bye-bye. By the time Republicans are back in the majority to clean up the Obama calamity there will be very little left of this country as we know it. Elections have consequences.
although theres always our kids. We can leach off their future and pass our debt along to them. Oh, wait. We’ve already done that. Well theres the Grandkids… OH wait, already did that too….
And we’re seeing the consequences of the re-election of Peoria County State’s Attorney Kevin Lyons. We could have elected a former federal prosecutor. Instead … we have Catch and Release Kevin Lyons.
And yes, there will be repercussions to Obama’s re-election. Some good, some not so much. But the GOP cannot complain about not being taken seriously, considering it’s infatuation with birthers, tea baggers and those in think Sarah Palin should be vice president. It’s too bad we don’t have more moderates in the GOP. We need a principled and respected loyal opposition.
So there are consequences to picking the wrong nominees, too.
Mr. Dennis why don’t you enlighten your readers on one positive consequence for this country that has resulted from the election of President Obama. I’m just not seein it.
GOPer: I’ll give you one positive from the Obama Administration keep in mind Obama hasn’t even been President a year. He is cleaning up the mess Bush left us after 8 ( E I G H T ) years of GOP policies.
What’s improved?
Just the solution we need- Moderates that believe in something that neither end of the political spectrum has been able to advance.
What do moderates stand for anyway? Good government, responsible executive and legislative leaders. rule of law, justice.
Cherrypicking issues from both side of the aisle and then promote those same issues to the electorate and then getting elected is a task yet to be achieved in any significant level of goverment- local ,state, or national.
What’s improved? While unemployment is still a problem people aren’t standing in bread lines. I met with a city official for lunch Friday and he tells me while the economy isn’t back yet, it has improved and is improving. I can only imagine what this economy would have been like under McCain. Of course you would say they have been in office only 11 months, it takes time.
Yeah those bread lines during the Bush watch were insane.
steve J weibring
I mean 200 million in projects diana has the money not me, They ruining out town
Why don’t the council, and the school board over to normal as nazis spies and let inflict massive damage to their town
Steve J Weibring
I make 250,000 a year, hit me up for money
to ruin the town and send council, school board to normal , to wreck that place too
normal is only queer and steers
you can hit up my good friend terry plickenbaugh, gary heriford, rod mckiminson they are well over paid like me soak em good Hae the state police call then for a donation
if 200 million in projects wow the city is soaking us for everything we got, do u think their embezzling money too
Okay, back to the original point of this post… This is a bad plan, there are several organizations that do this work already and have spent the money on the needed equipment. I am pretty sure that Peoria Downtown Rotary just spent around $5k or more on a pressure washing machine for this very purpose. Mr. Montelongo could just as easily get on board with one of those groups instead of further dividing scarce resources to carve out a niche for himself.
There were some good NFP doing work like this, but they were shut down when the new councilperson did not like who was running them or which homes they were improving. It was not their people or their voters’ neighborhood. I have not seen that petty approach to public service change much. in the last five years.
Didn’t the Neighborhood Alliance just purchase a graffiti removal machine?
[...] my original post about the Peoria Makeover suggestion, I took it as a given that Montelongo was hoping that people [...]