Posts Tagged ‘Peoria Civic Center’
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
I don’t claim to be an expert in the laws that govern how cities collect and spend money. I know that money that goes input certain funds cannot be pulled out and put into other funds. I know that’s it’s not all one big pile of money.
Nevertheless, any city with a nearly half-million-dollar projected deficit that is going to cut police overtime and put fewer police officers on the street, has no Goddamn business whatsoever spending $56,000 to pretty-up a drop off area for a public facility that will be used by the exact same number of people regardless.
Good God.
When your garage or your car has been broken into, or when neighborhood punks are selling drugs on the corner, don’t call the police. Call a landscaper.
Tags: Peoria City Council, Peoria Civic Center
Posted in Local | 3 Comments »
Friday, February 8th, 2008
Two downtown hotels want to increase the city’s Hotel, Restaurant and Amusement Tax. They say the teeny-tiny increase could be used to boost tourism in Peoria. The article isn’t clear how this happens but hey, what the Hell. It’s only a small amount of cash that’s going to be added to what folks pay at the cash register, and God knows that during a recession, people don’t find paying a little bit extra to make sure the corporations that own hotels make even more money for their stock holders.
But that’s that’s not why I think this is a wonderful idea. We have City Council elections coming up in early 2009. If the council votes on this, whatever the outcome, it will give voters a pretty good indication which sitting council members have their heads so far up their posteriors that they deserve to not even make it past the primary.
So by all means, let’s bring this puppy up for a vote.
End sarcasm.
Tags: Craig Hullinger, HRA, Peoria Civic Center, Taxes
Posted in Local | 6 Comments »
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
Here is an important factoid from last night’s Peoria City Council policy session on sidewalks: The city has an estimated $100 million in unmet sidewalk needs, including repairs and installation. The city will spend about $1.3 million on sidewalks this year. At that rate — assuming no additional deterioration of existing sidewalks, we ought to be caught up in 79 years.
This is one of those situations in which some Peorians toss up their hands and say the problem can’t be fixed, so let’s not even try. But a pragmatic long-range approach is possible. An plan should include the following:
- The city must develop specific criteria for determining which sidewalks and curbs should have priority. Factors should include closeness to nearby schools and the condition of the sidewalks themselves. As council member Barbara Van Auken correctly pointed out, getting a new sidewalk in a neighborhood ought to not depend on a council member’s ability to work the system, or a neighborhood association’s ability to complain more effectively.
- Obviously, the city needs to commit more money on this essential city service and less on stuff they think might, maybe, ought to, could have boost revenue through economic development. Better sidewalks is not only an essential city service, its also a livability issue.
- Where would the money come from? How about a $1 surcharge on every ticket sold to an event at the Peoria Civic Center, and use all the money to support the city’s sidewalk program? Work for me. The city thinks nothing of taxing poor people who eat at McDonald’s to support
opera Bradley Basketball at the Peoria Civic Center, so why not tax opera-goers BU fans to repair crumbling sidewalks in poor neighborhoods?
- The city must stop approving new subdivisions, shopping centers, etc. that do NOT have sidewalks. The city still allows this to happen, even as it deals with very old neighborhoods that never did have them. Why in the world does the city do this? As is usually the case,the city cannot say no to a developer.
Tags: Peoria City Council, Peoria Civic Center, sidewalks
Posted in Local | 6 Comments »
Friday, November 16th, 2007
Of all the noises known to man, opera is the most expensive.
– Moliere
Tags: Moliere, opera, Peoria Civic Center, Quotes
Posted in Overset | Comments Off
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
Thursday, June 28th, 2007
Today’s Peoria Journal Star article on the death of efforts to attach a hotel to the Peoria Civic Center saved the best, most telling paragraph for last.
Civic Center Authority Chairwoman Rebekah Bourland was discussing the lack of support for a proposed Hilton Garden Inn at Monroe Avenue and Kumpf Boulevard, the latest scheme in a list of schemes that the authority thinks is needed to lure business to the civic center.
“In the meantime, the Embassy Suites opens in the first week of November and anyone sleeping there won’t be paying (Peoria’s) hotel tax. I think the window is closing on an opportunity. I could be wrong. I hope I’m wrong.”
And that’s it in a nutshell. Peoria doesn’t need another hotel. If it did, the free market would provide for one. What this is about is that the PCC is addicted to the city’s Hotel, Restaurant and Amusement Tax, which was created more than 20 years ago to pay off the bonds needed to build the civic center. It was supposed to be temporary, and the PCC was supposed to be self-sufficient.
Instead, the PCC can’t bring in the revenue its cheerleaders/backers promised and the revenue its generating in additional sales taxes isn’t exactly lowering the burden for the taxpayers who actually live in Peoria. And the HRA still exists because the people who run the PCC keep coming up with new renovations they insist is needed to bring in conventions and events. And why is that? Because the damn thing is too small. It can’t bring in the really big concerts and really big conventions. Everyone knew that when it was being planned, but the cheerleaders and civic boosters managed to shout down the naysayers.
What happened in East Peoria is something anyone with even a basic knowledge of human nature could have predicted. People started looking for way to avoid the HRA tax. So some smart people build an Embassy Suites in East Peoria. The obvious solution is to eliminate or lower the HRA, but that’s too simple and elegant a solution for the deep economic thinkers in Peoria. The HRA tax MUST be preserved by using part of it to built a swanky hotel attached to the Peoria Civic Center.
Two things happened to stop it: Holiday Inn City Centre announced major renovations and Caterpillar Inc. (which has a stake in thePere Marquette Hotel) let it be known it doesn’t think a new hotel is needed.
Bourland’s statement that the Holiday Inn project wasn’t a factor is complete B.S., of course. The city’s own consultant said the either the renovations or a new hotel were needed to prop up the civic center. I’m guessing the “pretty serious discussions” planned by Mayor Ardis just might instead suggest city support for Pere Marquette renovations, which is a less obnoxious use of city funds than building a brand new hotel, but not not by much.
When the city build the PCC, it stuck its toes into what should have been left to private enterprise. Now the city finds itself being told that it has to compete against the tax-paying private businesses the PCC was supposed to support through increases room rentals. That’s the inevitable and very predictible result when government starts trying to pick and choose the winners.
Peoria Civic Center,Holiday Inn,Caterpillar
Tags: Caterpillar, holiday inn, Peoria Civic Center
Posted in Local | 1 Comment »
Friday, January 26th, 2007
Could the headline above the Journal Star’s brief and mostly one-sided article on the effort to get the Peoria Civic Center added to the Warehouse District TIF possibly sound any more enthusiastic about the idea? The headline: “Hotel hopes remain alive.”
Geeze. It sounds like some kid has fallen down a well and everyone’s praying for a rescue.
Feh.
Tags: Journal Star, Peoria Civic Center, TIF, Warehouse District
Posted in Watchdog | Comments Off
Friday, September 15th, 2006
First, they start looking for developers to build a hotel that’s connected to the Peoria Civic Center. Then, they decide that, gee, it might be a good idea to do a study to see if this is a good idea first. So the study comes back with a reporting stating other hotels need to be renovated for the Peoria Civic Center to remain open:
HVS Convention, Sports and Entertainment Facilities Consulting, which was hired by the council to do an independent market analysis, concludes that “decisions with respect to the development of the Civic Center hotel should not be made until the future of the Holiday Inn is resolved.”
HVS’s report suggests the Holiday Inn is currently for sale, “which complicates potential outcomes and places more risk in the decision to develop the Civic Center hotel.”
Simply put, if the Holiday Inn doesn’t do “extensive, major renovations,” then the $55 million expansion and renovation of the Civic Center will struggle to book larger events.
Later, we have this paragraph:
Adds at-large City Councilman Chuck Grayeb, who also serves as liaison to the Civic Center: “Personally, I think it’s time to have a very interesting conversation with the people at the (Hotel) Pere Marquette and Holiday Inn and say, ‘OK, are you ready to upgrade?’
My two cents: Circle this day on your calender. This is the day they the debate began anew on whether to subsidize renovations at the Pere Marquette.
Remember back in the late 1970s and early ’80s when people naively thought that if they build a civic center in downtown Peoria it would help business in Peoria? I’d like to know when it became a generally accepted principal that the city must provide assistance to private businesses in order to guarantee the success of the Peoria Civic Center?
The Peoria Civic Center is a boondoggle. It’s time to pay off the debt and put the damn thing on a pay as you go basis, without any additional taxes from restaurants, hotel stays and movie tickets. The very last thing we need to be contemplating is providing any taxpayer assistance to any business that can’t do business on its own.
The City of Peoria is NOT a support system for the Civic Center. If the PCC can’t survive without a government subsidy, then Let. It. Die.
Peoria Civic Center
Tags: Peoria Civic Center
Posted in Overset | 7 Comments »
Friday, March 31st, 2006
Several times this month, I’ve questioned the independence and bravery of the Peoria City Council, specifically Mayor Jim Ardis, on the issue of building a hotel that would be attached to the Peoria Civic Center. It turns out that some of the facts on which I came to this conclusion were probably in error.
Several weeks ago, the Journal Star printed an article by Paul Gordon that described a letter send out on Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce stationary (I think it was the PACC, I cannot find the article) that said that Caterpillar very much wanted a luxury hotel that would cater to people in town to do business at Cat World Headquarters. Everyone was denying responsibility for the letter. I took that to mean that Caterpillar simply didn’t want people to know that it was influencing the behind-the-scenes decision making.
In the next few weeks, the project moved from one involving a single developer who was getting financing from the bank that employed a member of the Civic Center Authority to a request for information from any developer. I took this to mean that Cat was still working behind the scenes to get the city to spend taxpayer money to build a luxury hotel.
I’ve been told that Cat’s true position is that they would rather not see a luxury hotel attached to the Peoria Civic Center because the company has a big investment in renovations and improvements at the Hotel Pere Marquette. In other words, Caterpillar’s position was the exact opposite of what I wrote.
If it’s true, than that means I unfairly called into question the “testicular fortitude” of the council and the mayor by suggesting they would bow to Caterpillar’s wishes. Re-reading some of these posts, I’ve come to the conclusion that even if I didn’t have the fact wrong (and I’m still not completely positive I do) my criticism was too over-the-top and far too personal. And I definitely shouldn’t have compared Mayor Ardis to former Mayor Dave Ransburg.
I’m still opposed to any use of taxpayer money — tax increment financing district or hotel, restaurant and amusement taxes — to go into the hotel business. If the request for information leads some developer to invest his own money, that’s fine. Good luck competing in a market that is supposed to be saturated with empty hotel rooms.
No one twisted my arm to write this. I came to this conclusion on my own. It’s a bad habit to get into, attributing evil motives or lack of integrity to those who simply don’t see your way on any one issue. Generally, I try to not do that. This time, however, I fell into that trap and I apologize.
Jim Ardis,Caterpillar,Peoria Civic Center,Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce,Paul Gordon
Tags: Caterpillar, Jim Ardis, Paul Gordon, peoria area chamber of commerce, Peoria Civic Center
Posted in Overset | 8 Comments »
Monday, March 13th, 2006
There was a huge outcry when when reports first surfaced that the Peoria Civic Center authority was hot and heavy to begin negotiating with one developer to build a hotel next door to the facility.
The impression given was that taxpayers had nothing to worry about. The mood of the council was decidedly against such a move.
I’ve been following Peoria government too long to buy into that. There are two constant truths to Peoria City politics:
1. If it can put money into the hands of a developer, it will happen.
2. If Caterpillar wants it to happen, it will, because at no time in the city’s recent history has there been a majority of the City Council with the testicular virility to say “no” to the Great Yellow God. Cat wants a museum, Cat gets one. Cat wants a high-end hotel to impress its customers, Cat will get one. Period.
Therefore: Pay no attention to the words coming out of the mouths of council members now; eventually, they WILL get into the hotel business. They will hem and haw and promise this is the very last time they will need to prime the pump for that White Elephant of a civic center, then they will fork over YOUR cash to pay
Today’s Word on the Street
confirmed my suspicions. Without any public discussion whatsoever by the council on whether or not the concept of of going into the hotel business is a good idea or not, they are meeting behind closed doors to hear preliminary proposals.
Yet Mayor Ardis has the nerve to tell Word on the Street that this will be an “open process.”
Bull. They’ve already decided there will be a “process” to decide who gets to partner with the city and get financial incentives to build a hotel next door to the Civic Center.
Were I the owner or operator of one of the city’s other hotels, I would show up as group and use the public comment period of the meetings to tell the council exactly why it’s a bad idea for the city to pay someone to compete with them.
Peoria Civic Center,Caterpillar,Peoria,SWord on the Street,Busey Bank
Tags: Busey Bank, Caterpillar, peoria, Peoria Civic Center, SWord on the Street
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 30 Comments »
Monday, February 27th, 2006
Kudos to Jenny Davis and Molly Parker for a spot-on perfect Word on the Street column today. They lead with details about the corrupt (my word, not theirs) Peoria Civic Center Authority are hell bent to force taxpayers to finance a new hotel right next to the Civic Center.
The first plan fell through because of the absolutely lack of support. I warned against assuming the effort was dead, and I was right. Now they want an even bigger hotel, costing “seven figures,” a few blocks up the road.
They authority is still talking to only one developer, who would arrange his financing through Busey Bank. Civic Center Commissioner Dan Daly — who pushed to start negotiations with this developer — is a local president of Busey Bank. You do the math.
Here is the money graph as far as I’m concerned:
We asked Mayor Jim Ardis if he felt this might warrant a reminder to those serving on city commissions to be wary of conflicts of interest. We were disappointed with his response.
“I don’t know if this one instance constitutes a pattern,” said Ardis, adding, “I don’t really think anyone needs me to remind them that the public really looks at this closely.”
With all due respect, Mr. Mayor, but what the Hell are you babbling about? “One instance?”
Was Mayor Ardis in a coma when ex-Mayor Dve Ransburg was getting absolutely hammered in the press and the Blogosphere for working behind the scenes to arrange a secret deal that would give the owners of the Pere Marquette guaranteed loans — at taxpayer expense — for a renovation project?
This kind of secret deal marking was one of many, many good reasons Ransburg was tossed to the curb by voters back in April.
Instead of waiting for the authority to come forward with another doomesday scenario about how the Civic Center will fail unless it’s allowed to dig deaper in taxpayer pockets, the council should take a proactive stance. First, pass a resolution stating that they have “no confidence” in the ability of the commissioner Dan Daly to serve the public’s interests, and then ask him to resign. Second, they should send a letter to the CCA telling them that the council does not support any additional public funding for the civic center, nor does it support creating another TIF.
(more…)
Tags: dan daly, George Johnson, Peoria Civic Center, Word on the Street
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 7 Comments »
Friday, February 24th, 2006
The Peoria Civic Center decided to hire an outside consultant to bring in some new customers. I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to learn that the consultant has failed miserably:
But the consultant hasn’t produced anything near what was expected, said bureau director Steve Powell at the Peoria Civic Center Authority’s regular monthly meeting.
“We’re not real happy with Mr. Green and his company,” Powell said.
Since Green, who could not be reached for comment Thursday night, came on board with the Civic Center’s marketing plan, the consultant has offered only 15 potential clients.
Some of those 15 leads already were being pursued by Civic Center and PACVB sales staff, others did not fit qualifications the Civic Center required, and all contacts the consultant conjured were from within the state, Powell said.
Civic Center and PACVB officials generated 150 leads from a single convention industry tradeshow last month, Powell said.
Left unreported is the exact dollar amount paid to the consultant.
An outside consultant doesn’t deliver the goods in Peoria. Well, knock me other with a feather.
Well at least the consultant performed one vitl function. It gave the people who run the civic center someone else to blame.
peoria civic center
Tags: Peoria Civic Center
Posted in Local | Comments Off
Monday, February 20th, 2006
I’ve never been a fan of the Peoria Civic Center. With the exception of work-related duties, I think I’ve been inside the place exactly twice in my life, once for a Bradley University basketball game and a computer flea market. The PCC does not compare to Robertson Memorial Fieldhouse in the energy and excitement it creates. And, the computer event was a huge rip-off.
I derive no personal benefit from the Civic Center, and I deeply resent having to pay extra at restaurants in order to finance other people’s good time at the PCC. The very idea of having to do it just makes me want to throw up.
I also have a hard time imagining that either a single mom working at Wal-Mart or the homeless guy buying a burger with pennies spend much time attending opera performances at the PCC.
And now we have this story in today’s Word on the Street about the Peoria Civic Center Authority’s decision to enter into contract negotiations with a private developer to build a hotel next to the PCC.
[PCC commissioner Dan] Daly has not tried to hide his interest in attracting a convention center hotel to the Civic Center’s campus, but just a few weeks ago, Daly said discussions with developers were so preliminary that they did not yet warrant media coverage. Only hesitantly did he go on the record.
But the vote last week to enter land negotiations apparently was so urgent that it couldn’t wait until the authority’s regularly scheduled monthly meeting this week. What changed so rapidly as to require the special meeting?
Daly reportedly refrained from the special-session debate about the lease and abstained from voting on it because of his employer’s potential involvement in whatever deal might eventually occur. Daly is the regional president of Busey Bank, which appears poised to loan Springfield-based Johnson Development Co. hotel start-up funds.
He did not return calls for comment.
I’m sick of reading stories like this. How clueless do these people think we are? We are onto them. It’s not just a case of movers-and-shakers who don’t grasp the concept of “essential services first.” This is a case of movers-and-shakers who are using the pennies, nickles and dimes they extort from taxpayers and using it to line their own pockets. How in the Hell does the regional president of a bank NOT benefit personally from the loans his bank makes?
This kind of taxpayer abuse is one of the many, many good reasons voters kicked David Ransburg, Marcella Teplitz and Gale Thetford to the curb last year.
There were a lot of people who went to a lot of efort to make that happen.
There was an expectation that things were going to be different now that there were some changes on the City Council.
Guess what guys? There are a lot of people who are getting very impatient with the lot of you.
There has been a subtle change, I admit. Yet vulgar robber barons like Dan Daly feel absolutely, perfectly safe wheeling and dealing behind the scenes to take money out of MY POCKETS and the pockets of Peoria’s working poor and put it into the pockets of themselves and their employers.
Obviously, the new council has not done enough to convince the Dan Dalys of the world that there is a new culture in City Hall. Perhaps it’s because there really isn’t a new culture.
I’ve been assured both privately and publicly than I shouldn’t worry, that there aren’t enough votes on the council to approve any permits that would be needed for this hotel to be built.
Bull. If the movers and shakers on the PCC thought for an instant that there was no chance of this passing, they wouldn’t be doing it.
No sir, I am NOT assured that we are safe from this new boondoggle. I am convinced that no matter what abomination Daly and the PCC brings forth to the city, there will be enough votes to pass it. Oh, sure … will be harsh words and accusations and criticism, but the council will reluctantly pass it, and then promise that it won’t next time.
If the Peoria City Council wants to REALLY assure me and other taxpayers, let them vote at tomorrow night’s meeting to ask Dan Daly to resign from the Civic Center Authority.
That won’t happen either.
I am assured of only one thing. There won’t be any real change in how this city does business until there is massive turnover in the at-large City Council elections in 2007.
dan daly,peoria civic center,boondoggles,peoria city council,busey bank
Tags: boondoggles, dan daly, Peoria City Council, Peoria Civic Center
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 7 Comments »
Thursday, February 16th, 2006
The Peoria Civic Center Authority is on the verge of negotiating with developer build a new hotel adjacent to the facility. The catch? They won’t tell us how much it’s going to cost taxpayers to sweeten the pot:
Whether an economic incentive package has been offered to the developer also was unclear Wednesday, though [Commissioner Dan] Daly said in his recent remarks that no such inducements had been devised.
[Authority Chairwoman Rebekah] Bourland said Wednesday that the developer with whom the Civic Center might work after today’s vote was not solicited, illustrating the Civic Center’s positive economic impact on the region and naturally fulfilling the need for more upscale accommodations.
First: Any hotel located next door to the Civic Ccenter should be wildly profitable on it’s own without any taxpayer support.
Second: State law needs to be changed giving the Peoria City Council the direct power to appoint and remove members of the Civic Center Authority. Better yet, give voters the final say so.
Every dime spent on propping up the Peoria Civic Center — and this does include the Hotel, Restaurant and Amusement tax — is money that could instead be used on essential city services, like police and fire protection, road and sidewalk repair or even litter and rat abatement. Instead, the PCCA is going to use taxpayer money to finally suppost a private business that will compete unfairly against existing hotels that don’t have friends in city and state government.
peoria civic center,free enterprise
Tags: free enterprise, Peoria Civic Center
Posted in Statehouse & Capitol | 5 Comments »
Saturday, January 14th, 2006
The city found a buyer for a piece of land it stole from poor people seized through eminent domain about 30 years ago:
The City Council has been offered $714,384 for the last large piece of vacant land in Southtown – a four-acre grassy island south of William Kumpf Boulevard. There, Select Medical Property Ventures LLC, a Pennsylvania-based company, wants to build a 50,000-square-foot, long-term, acute-care hospital.
Well, goody goody gumdrops. I wonder how much the city could have earned from property taxes during the 30 freekin’ years it sat there vacant if the council hadn’t taken it away from the people who rightfully owned it.
What will they do with the cash? Perhaps re-open Fire Station 11. Nah. The city is pretty much OK with the idea that someobne might die from the lack of adequate fire protection in the heart of the city.
How about do some street and sidewalk repair on the South Side? Nah. IT’s not like anybody important lives south of Moss Avenue.
Oh! I know! They can find some millioinaire developer to give him some cash to build a shopping center that will put money in his pockets and give him a compatitive advantage to some poor slob who isn’t as connected.
Or better yet, the cash could be used to build a swankier office space for the people who work at the Peoria Civic Center.
southtown tif,Fire Station 11,Peoria Civic Center,eminent domain,Select Medical Property Ventures
Tags: eminent domain, fire station 11, Peoria Civic Center, Select Medical Property Ventures, southtown tif
Posted in Local | 7 Comments »
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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