Posts Tagged ‘Museum’
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
Hooray! The recession is almost over. Yippie! Two Bradley professors said so. Ummm, waitaminute. Where did I hear these two names before?
“The second half of 2009 should see the U.S. economy on a slow recovery track, said Joshua Lewer who, along with Bob Scott, chairman of the school’s economics department, addressed 90 people at a breakfast meeting Tuesday at Bradley’s Bob Michel Student Center.
Oh, yeah, these are the two geniuses who museum tax supporters paid to write a study saying that the museum tax was a wonderful idea. Of course, their study was based on the assumption that the wildly overblown estimates of the number of paying visitors would pan out.
So I’m wondering who paid them for their opinion THIS time?
I’m I’m guessing that we’ve got at least another two years.
Tags: Bob Scott, Bradley University, Joshua Lewer, Museum, Recession
Posted in Local | 4 Comments »
Friday, April 10th, 2009
Over at Peoria Chronicle, the esteemed Mr. Summers looks at the city’s financial woes and comes to an obvious, if tongue-in-cheek solution:
If the recent election has shown us anything, it’s that the vast majority of Peoria residents don’t give a hoot whether their taxes are raised. Most of them couldn’t be bothered to drag themselves downtown for early voting, or out to their polling place on a beautiful sun-shiny day. A majority of those that did voted to raise their own taxes for a non-essential project in the middle of an economic recession — some would say depression.
Classic. Too bad I’ve sworn off griping about the museum.
Tags: Museum, Peoria Chronicle, Taxes
Posted in Local | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009
Now that I’ve gone and moved moved the Peoria Pundit to its own domain, I suppose I should start blogging up a storm.
But I’m tired and bummed out over this last election. I saw too many friends turn on each other. And it never feels good to be on the losing end of a fight, in this case, the fight over the museum tax.
I am hoping that we can out this nonsense behind us and start building bridges (metaphorically, since were not going to build real ones, or roads or sidewalks for that matter). Since this museum IS going to be built, using even more taxpayer dollars than necessary, I can only hope that I and half of the county were wrong and it’s a smashing success and doesn’t become the continued anchor around the neck of Peoria taxpayers the Peoria Civic Center has become.
But what was a success is that for the first time in recent memory, we mounted an organized opposition to a boondoggle. And the opposition nearly won. Meetings were held just roughly two months before the election. The opposition was outspent by God knows how much. Almost every elected official, the area’s largest employer and the daily newspaper were against us. Toward the end, that resorted to vandalism, smears and scare campaigns in the local media.
And we still almost won.
As Harry Caray used to say: “One more biscuit for breakfast …”
I propose that Citizens for Responsible Spending remain intact, ready to spring into action at the next sign of doondogglery (that’s a new word, I just made up).
Tags: Citizens for Responsible Spending, Museum, Taxes
Posted in Local | Comments Off
Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
Links are via the Journal Star. The snarky commentary is my own:
- We’re one step toward an involuntary county-wide tax to pay for a regional museum no one wants to pay for voluntarily. All it needs is approval from the House of representatives and the governor. Aaron Schock and David Leitch are already on board. I would suggest that individuals who think this is a profoundly stupid idea to send an email to the governor. It’s very important that this happen, because as C.J. reminds us, the proponents are organized, while the people who think it’s a dumb idea are not.
- Once again, I am forced to remind my fellow city residents that the old vaudeville saying “Will it play in Peoria” is not, I repeat, NOT, intended to be flattering. What it means is this: Peoria is culturally 20 years behind the times, and something is the slightest bit new and original, Peorians will reject it because they are closed-minded. Why are we bragging about this?
- Look at it this way, dude: For $50 you get to be a martyr. A lot of these folks had it much rougher. And by the way: Stuff hanging from your mirror DOES block your vision, as I’m sure this police officer was aware. Try putting a Jesus Fish on your bumper instead.
- Remember back in the good old days where they actually bothered trying to regulate casinos? Well, why should the state actually set hours for what’s apparently a wide-open business in Illinois again. I mean, it’s not like they actually try to keep people from playing poker machines in the open at bars and restaurants anymore.
- I saw this corporate cocktail mixing clown on WEEK yesterday. And now Peoria’s one and only daily newspaper of record devotes precious column inches to a puff piece on this booze company shill whose job it is to get the name of his company’s product in the news media. Mission accomplished. I’m surprised the PJS didn’t run a Krispy Kreme press release, verbatim, right next to the article. And shame on Lakeview Museum for getting in on the act. Is this the kind of crap we can expect if they ever do get to move into a new facility on the riverfront?
- Funny, there were incidents more severe than this outside of downtown bars, but I don’t recall there being newspaper articles that seriously discusses taking away their 4 a.m. liquor licenses. Gee, I wonder what makes Club Apollo different that these other bars? End sarcasm.
- Just the other day, a wise commenter mentioned that because all the old-time editors have left the Journal Star, they tend to let things slip through that wouldn’t. I blamed the lack of institutional memory. This lack of knowledge of Peoria history is also to blame for this wildly inaccurate headline: “Lyons has new plan to fight drugs.” Oh, sweet Lord, I almost fell out of my chair. There is NOTHING slightly new about this plan. Folks, as I have pointed out in a previous post, Lyons was OPPOSED to this sort of thing. He thought it was waste of time back when neighborhood activists were fighting to get this done. I’ve listened to Lyons speak to neighborhood activists. As far as he is concerned, the only role private citizens play in fighting crime is to report it to police, and then he and he alone is qualified to do anything. And now that he’s fighting his toughest election ever, suddenly Lyons is supposed to be fighting for neighborhoods? It is to laugh.
Tags: casinos, Crime, Kevin Lyons, Museum, Taxes
Posted in Local | 20 Comments »
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
The links are via the Journal Star. The snarky commentary is my own:
- Reporter John Sharp turned in a nice package of articles on the Warehouse District. The main story details how the area — just southwest of what we consider “downtown Peoria” — has evolved from a industrial and distribution center based on railroads to an area prime for residential and commercial development. I completely disagree with the contention that the museum project is vital to the success of the Warehouse District revitalization. The existence of a regional museum and/or Caterpillar visitor center will have no effect either way on the Warehouse District. Sidebar articles are here and here. My one complaint: A number of people are quoted in the piece. Not one seems even remotely skeptical of TIFs and government spending on the museum project. That’s a problem with these sorts of projects: There are people being paid to promote them, but no organized opposition which could offer up a spokesperson to present a contrary point of view. It creates a false sense of unaminity.
- Mike Miller turned in a package of articles about Northwoods Community Church, here, here, here, here, and here.
- This article by Erin Deshinsky expresses a very valid point: The shooting happened outside a closed Carver Center. So why is there all this media hand-wringing about whether the center is safe? Too bad this more rational point of view is expressed in the follow-up reporting.
Tags: Carver Center, Downtown, Museum, Northwoods, TIF districts, Warehouse District
Posted in Local | 1 Comment »
Sunday, March 16th, 2008
Note: This is a post from yesterday, but I bumped it up a bit.
 Wanna hear what goes on in Springfield? The intrepid radio reporter Dave Dahl sent me an mp3 file of the Illinois House debating whether or not there should be an opportunity to raise taxes county-wide to pay a $15 appropriation for the downtown museum project.
Listen.
The chair of that session is State Rep. Gary Hannig (D-Litchfield). The lawmaker questioning State Rep. David Leitch (R-73rd District) is State Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock). The roll call of the vote is here (PDF format).
Thanks for the information, Dave. I’d have posted it yesterday, but my Mac is being finicky today.
UPDATE: Upon listening, I was in error. HB4664 is a appropriation bill for a $12 million capital development bond fund to the Department of Natural Resources budget, in “anticipation” of any future capital bill, Leitch states. The money would be used to build a new Lakeview Museum at the former Sears block in downtown Peoria, Leitch said in response to a question from Franks.
Leitch told colleagues that approximately $50 million of the $130-$140 million project would be the Caterpillar visitor center, and noted that this money would come from the same fund that has funded museums in Chicago.
Commenter C.J. is correct. This is very much a case of “you support my pork, and I’ll support your pork.â€
Like sausage, you’ll never enjoy pork after you watch (or in this case, listen) to it being made.
For example, Leitch also said he has spoken to “Larry Suffredin” about introducing this in the state senate to add “for other projects that might be helpful to other parts of the state.”
I thought Suffredin might be a state senator, but the only Larry Suffredin I could find is this guy, a member of the Cook County commission who is also a very powerful lobbyist. How sweet would that be, folks, for a Republican legislator from Peoria to go to a Democratic pol from Cook County to get legislation presented in the Senate. Apparently, Peoria’s own State Sen. Dale Risinger (R-37th district) and State Sen. Dave Koehler (D-46th District) aren’t Leitch’s go-to guys.
“My goal was to get this out now so it is in the hunt, as it will,” Leitch says, adding that he’s seeking a “critical mass” of other projects to add to the bill to improve chances of passage.
It passed by a 80-20 vote.
Crossposted to PeoriaPundit.
Tags: David Leitch, Larry Suffredin, Museum
Posted in Local | 2 Comments »
Monday, March 10th, 2008
Here’s some links to keep readers amused as I look for a guest for Sunday’s radio show about litter:
From Chef Kevin’s site, this email he received about the downtown museum:
 ”…seems to me if they can’t do the marketing and promotions to raise enough money to BUILD the museum, why should anyone expect they’d be able to market and promote the museum once it’s built??? Wow, I’m all a-tizzy from over here; no wonder you’re pissed.”
No kidding.
And from iVoryTowerz, reflections on another newspaper snatched up by GateHouse:
With the buyout will assuredly come a move away from the local focus and personal touch that defines the current coverage. Just like the droves of tourists that now overwhelm the Lower Cape in the summer, the Banner’s replacement will likely be a distanced, mass produced paper unconcerned with the roots of the area and its interests. The slow erosion of the Lower Cape’s unique culture may go as unnoticed as the Banner’s demise.
Merle Widmer doesn’t think much of the Jim Les era at Bradley University:
Jim Les returned to this community promising a return to the greatness of many years past. As a longtime observer of Bradley basketball, I have not seen a fulfillment of that promise nor do I see it in the future.
Also, unanswered is not only whether or not a player is guilty of assault or speeding while drinking, but why were they “messing” around in the early morning hours especially the day of a nationally televised game? All indications are that the athletic director and the coach do not have the respect of some of the players or rules are lax or both.
Scott Janz is all a-twitter about drugs in the drinking water:
The Associated Press reports it’s only parts per billion, but the mere fact they reported it, must mean there is concern somewhere.
I call bullsh*t. Travel back in time 200 years, or even as recently as 100 years ago. There probably weren’t drugs in the drinking water, but I’m certain that healthy, drinkable water was much, much harder to find. We’re living longer than ever, and as a result, we get bent out of shape at microscopic risks, or risks we’ve invented out of whole cloth, like the vaccine-autism boondoggle.
And finally, from Dan Johnson-Weinberger, a bit of clarity:
The idea that an asset worth a billion dollars owned by one of the wealthiest men in Illinois should get government money is so preposterous on its face that I’m a little sad that we have to argue whether or not we should put Sam Zell’s Chicago Cubs on welfare.
Hat tip to The Capitol Fax Blog.
Tags: Bradley University, Chicago Cubs, drinking water, GateHouse Media, Jim Les, Merle Widmer, Museum, Sam Zell, scott janz
Posted in Local | Comments Off
Friday, March 7th, 2008
From the Journal Star:
A plan to set aside $12 million in state funding for the proposed Peoria Riverfront Museum took another step forward Thursday, when the House of Representatives approved it.
The vote was 80-23.
Suddenly, that deliberately deceptive poll conducted by the county makes sense. You know the one that claimed a majority of respondents favored using tax money for the museum, despite the fact that telephone poll takers hung up on anyone who was opposed to the museum in general.
Were I someone who dabbled in conspiracy theories, I might suspect that this poll is more about creating the illusion of support so that the state legislature might be tricked into voting for this stupid, stupid misuse of scarce revenue. Perhaps State Rep. David Leitch used this discredited poll to convince his palls that Peorians actually supported more tax revenue being used for this glass elephant. If he did, it wouldn’t be the first time a state legislator from Peoria misrepresented the views of the folks back home.
It’s more likely, however, that the legislators knew damn well what a colossal waste of money this is, and that folks here in the River City would rather see this money go to something far more needed, like, perhaps, help paying for renovations to our combined waste-water/sewage overflow system (third item down) being mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Doesn’t removing feces from the Illinois River seem to be a better use of money by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources than building a museum of sanitized local history to accompany Caterpillar’s little vanity project?
But I doubt state legislators are more capable of saying “no” to the Great Yellow God than our local leaders have proven over the years.
Tags: Caterpillar, IDNR, illinois river, Museum, Pork, sewage
Posted in Local | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
C.J. Summers took a look at the figures, and it turns out that the pro-museum push poll conducted by the County of Peoria actually found that at no time, under no circumstance mentioned, do voters support any kind of tax increase to pay for the regional museum that Caterpillar and other movers and shakers want to build on the former Sears block:
Those who do not support a tax: 602 respondents (309 who answered “no†to question 1, plus 293 who answered “yes†to question 1 and “undecided or no tax†on question 2).
Those who support a tax: 398 respondents (those who answered “yes†to question 1 and chose a tax option in question 2).
For those of you who like percentages, that’s 60.2% against a tax increase, and only 39.8% for a tax increase. I frankly don’t see how the survey administrator could have come to any other conclusion. If they don’t consider “no†votes on question 1 as “no†votes against a tax, then in my opinion, they’ve invalidated the survey because they’ve screened people who, by the County’s own admission, would have most likely voted against a tax increase in question 2.
Can we now please, please, allow the idea of using additional tax money on this white elephant die the death it deserves. I know that most politicians in this town would rather gouge out their eyeball with a dull spoon than say “no” to Caterpillar, but at some point politicians have to learn to be afraid of voters as well as be fearful of Caterpillar’s wrath.
Oh, and I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for the county government to apologize to voters for this deliberate attempt to deceive taxpayers.
Tags: Caterpillar, Museum, peoria county
Posted in Local | 5 Comments »
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
State Rep. David Leitch thinks there’s a good chance the state will come through with $12 million in state money (READ: Money taken from taxpayers) for the Peoria Riverfront Museum.
The cash would be included in the Capital Development Fund for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and would have to go to a capital project.
You can make two different kind of suggestions. The first would be for some use that one would normally associate with the IDNR. But feel free to suggest any use for it. It’s all money out of taxpayer’s pockets, after all, and goes to specific places and uses at the whim of legislators.
After all, if the state legislature has some $12 million burning a hole in their pocket that they are willing to spend in Peoria, why not ask actual Peorians for a change?
Ill forward your replies to Rep Leitch and the chairman of the The House Appropriations Committee.
And while we’re at it, I’d like to see a show of hands on this question: If the House Appropriations Committee on Public Safety had voted 13-0 to approve spending $12 million on a riverfront museum in any other location other than Peoria, wouldn’t we all be calling it “pork?” Hmmm? And just what the Hell does this damn museum have to do with “public safety,” anyway.
UPDATE: Rep. Leitch may be a bit out of the loop. The Associated Press is reporting today that the IDNR is going to be a bit short on cash this coming year:
Blagojevich wants across-the-board cuts of 3% at many state agencies, although some would take even bigger hits.
The Department of Natural Resources, for instance, would see a 40% cut in state funds and lose about 200 employees.
Imagine you are one of those 200 employees and you’ve lost your job while your employer spends $12 million on some lame project that has nothing whatsoever do to with protecting natural resources. Gee … you don’t think AFSMCE might object, do you?
Tags: David Leitch, IDNR, Museum, Pork
Posted in Local | 3 Comments »
Monday, February 11th, 2008
Apparently, we are supposed to read this article and come away with the conclusion that earmarks — which is the government and media’s new work for “pork barrel spending” — are good. Without earmarks, we might now have wonderful things that the uber-museum in downtown Peoria
The reality, however, is that anyone who’s been paying attention will read about the $1.4 million in earmarks that have been devoted to this boondoggle will come away convinced more than ever that earmarks must be curtailed and regulated.
This project exists — and continues to drain time and and resources from more worthwhile endeavors — because the movers and shakers are convinced there’s free federal money out there. But it’s not free money. There’s no such thing as free money from government because all of it, ALL OF IT, comes from the money hardworking people are forced to give the government. Every dime that does to earmark like this one is money that could be better used supporting the sort of things government has a traditional responsibility to provide, like roads, bridges, schools, police and fire protection and national defense. This earmark is nothing more than a back door form of corporate welfare.
The downtown super-museum is a make work project. It’s supposed to bring in tourism dollars, but won’t. Its real purpose is to help Caterpillar build a visitor center, just like the one John Deer has. If Cat wants the former Sears Block, let them buy it outright and build it 100 percent on their own dime. The museum project should be scaled back to it’s original purpose: A museum of local history, with local historians in charge of what is and isn’t on display.
Tags: Caterpillar, earmarks, Museum, Sears Block
Posted in Overset | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
PeoriaIllinoisan says he’s sitting on his hands even though he’s got “fireballs coming out of my fingertips.”
Gee, could it be that PI, a big booster of the Peoria Playhouse Children’s Museum, is just a tad POed at the headline above today’s Journal Star article: “Children’s museum funding drags.” Caterpillar has just announced that it will match employee donations to the Children’s Museum, a small-scale, all-volunteer project. That’s great news. But the headline is a huge downer, and it might imply that the project is in jeopardy, which it is NOT.
Compare that headline to the one above yet another article about the efforts to build a museum at the site of the former Sears block: “Museum officials hold hope.” Unlike the Children’s Museum, the downtown project is very much in jeopardy. Local government’s are NOT going to give them more money, there is no public enthusiasm for voluntary donations and I wouldn’t be surprised if voters rejected a proposed referendum on public financing failed by a two-to-one margin. Yet the Journal Star article drips with optimism and hope.
It reeks of selective boosterism.
Tags: Childrens Museum, Glen Oak Park, Journal Star, Museum, PeoriaIllinoisan
Posted in Watchdog | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
Links via the Journal Star, unless noted:
- Once again, evil railroad tracks have lured someone into the path of an oncoming locomotive device. This time, it’s a pickup track that collided with a track sweeper.
- Speaking of rail, blogger C.J. Summers blisters the Journal Star for its illogical opposition to running the Rock Island Trail next to the existing Kellar Branch. Even if the Peoria Park District’s cost estimates are correct (and they aren’t, as they were pulled from thin air and lack any logical basis) it would still cost less than the districts’ zoo expansion project, which has failed to raise adequate donations and has resorted to involuntary donations — a tax increase. If the walking/biking path enjoys the popular support that its backers SAY it does, certainly they will put their money where their mouths are.
- By the way, HOI News tells us that Globe Energy wants to use the Kellar Branch. This might mean, hold onto your hat, good-paying manufacturing jobs. The sort of jobs that residential developer David Maloof told us aren’t to be had along the Kellar Branch.
- A local judge ruled for the city in this long-going dispute over equal pay for women. Now, 3rd District Court in Ottawa has unanimously ruled for the female employees. The difference is going to cost the city millions, unless it wins on appeal. Perhaps the city would benefit from a new, and unbiased set of eyes looking at the facts.
- My sympathies to the family and friends of Hung “John” Tien, who was found murdered in his home yesterday. This has all the earmarks of a home invasion gone wrong, or a stranger-on-stranger crime. That’s a rarity in Peoria, where it seems most of the murder is a case of one criminal killing another.
- As much as I despise bad landlords who rent to thugs, I have to wonder if giving the city the power to fine the hell out of landlords if they rent to people the police say are bad guys just might be giving too much power to the government. It amounts to giving the city government the power to deny people the right to live within the city limits. I might trust the police to be fair, but I’ve heard too many honor stories about Peoria’s housing court to have total faith in any city-run adjudication process. Is there any support in place to let landlords know when an applicant for a rental home or apartment might include a family member who is a known criminal? Certainly, the current system isn’t working. The source of this problem is a criminal justice system that tends to put criminals back on the street before the ink is dry on the arrest papers. The solution is to fix that problem (by electing tougher prosecutors and judges, and making sure there is room to put the criminals). But until this happens, I don’t blame the city for trying other solutions. But there needs to be safeguards to prevent abuse.
- It looks like Peoria County voters will have an opportunity to express their opinion on whether or not to provide additional taxpayer cash to pay for a museum on the former Sears Block. Perhaps after voters tell the county by a 2-1 margin to go to Hell, the movers and shakers will stop trying to shove this stupid idea down everyones throat.
UPDATE: Corrected the name of the developer. My apologies.
Tags: Crime, globe energy, Journal Star, Kellar Branch, Landlords, Museum
Posted in Local | 7 Comments »
Friday, November 9th, 2007
The downtown museum backers asked the Peoria County Board to give them $24 million. That’s $24 million in taxpayer dollars. They can’t talk ordinary donors to cough it up voluntarily, so they want every single taxpayer in the county to pay up involuntarily. Seriously.
If the board says “no,” that might very well mean the end of the effort to turn a prime piece of downtown commercial real estate into a tourist attraction that probably won’t get many visitors, except for school buses full of kids from local schools.
The County Board will be a tough sell (why someone living in Elmwood or Princeville should have to pay one thin dime for this is beyond me) but not as tough a sale as asking the Peoria City Council would have been. The Gang of 11 is sick to death of this thing and resent being continually being asked to cough up more money for a project that started off as a simple history of Peoria Museum.
My two cents: Stop trying to get smart and just put the damn think up for sale. Downtown is supposed to be the city’s prime commercial location. Try putting residential development on it. The Heart of Peoria Plan is supposed to be all about mixing retail and commercial. Downtown sorely lacks residential. It lacks retail, too, as most of the buildings are office space. I’d rather see a strip mall there than nothing.
The site of the former Sears block could be occupied now — perhaps with s shopping mall — if the control freaks running this city would stop being control freaks and be open minded to whatever legitimate development comes down the pike, whether or not it ruins the precious view of the river or not.
And I am eagerly awaiting tomorrow’s Journal Star editorial demanding that the County Board give them anything they ask.
Tags: Caterpillar, Museum, Peoria County Board
Posted in Local | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
Today’s news links via the Journal Star:
- At first, you have to wonder how stupid a former police officer has to be to try to solicit an undercover officer. Then you realize he was fired for misconduct, so the guy obviously lacks impulse control, as do the vast majority of criminals. The reader comments on this are a hoot, too.
- Whatever caused this eatery to catch fire, I’m willing to bet it wasn’t friction from the blisteringly fast service.
- Peoria and Pekin are upset about water rate hikes. Gee, if only there were some way to give local residents some control over prices (to prevent gouging) while at the same time giving local officials the power to ensure necessary repairs and upgrades are done.
- Ray LaHood has picked up the Outstanding Service Award from Spoon River College. He attended SRC in 1963. Apparently, Peoria’s own Illinois Central College wasn’t good enough for him. Well, that and the fact ICC wasn’t founded until 1967.
- I love Morton. Well, not really, but I love the sort of crime that spews out of this repressed little burg. A couple decades ago, there was a guy breaking into parked cars and pleasuring himself onto the the leather seats. Now there’s a guy driving around shooting women in the ass with blowgun darts. And once again, the comments are a hoot.
- The anonymous drone who penned the today’s edit on the JS’s award-winning (snicker) editorial page says that if the city sells the Gateway Building, then it might as well sell off the Peoria Civic Center and stop trying to help build a museum on the former Sears Block. Finally! The Journal Star editorial board gets it.
Tags: editorial board, Journal Star, Museum, peoria, Peoria Civic Center, Ray LaHood
Posted in The Wire | Comments Off
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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