Where’s Our Heads Department…

The city is going to cut services to the neediest part of the population first and then you can bet it will filter right up to the middle income folks via higher costs to put out your garbage, get a six pack of beer, higher property taxes if you own a home, a water fee based on your usage, never mind we have the garbage fee on our water bills now, which doesn’t go to garbage at all.  But hey, a water usage fee will apply to all and just not residential.  Will it?  Will St Francis Hospital and Methodist pay the usage fee?  I’ll bet they will weasel out of it but other businesses will and they will pass this cost on to you, the consumer which will make it even harder for small, local businesses to stay afloat, and then we might have even more empty store fronts.

Never mind the high salaries this city pays to top police officers who push a desk, or the city manager, or the city clerk.  Never mind the money spent on logos, promises to various developers in TIF districts which never appeared. (see ballpark)  Nor the loss of money spent on that new building on Main Street which sits mostly empty.  Please don’t recall the millions promised for that new hotel downtown which has brought more developers forward to ask for millions from us for their hotels.  Or the great museum that is still millions underfunded yet we will pay for a tax very soon for it’s building even though CAT seems to have backed out on their part. 

Forget the funds spent on ornamental lighting in neighborhoods and arbors, just for looks.  Or money spent to move a street for a baseball park, which was to spawn growth around it after it was built.  It hasn’t.  Never mind the sidewalks and hanging baskets in Ren-Park which the city paid for for hospital development. Nothing has happened there.  The hospitals are building out north on Route 91, not in Ren-Park as envisioned.  Then when someone wants to tear down an old Walgreen’s which has been empty for years, build a useful apartment building with some light retail, what happens?  People bitch because they don’t want this or that or a parking lot or a pool or the color is wrong or the sidewalks aren't wide enough or a buffer zone isn’t correct or a window faces the wrong way.  Fuck, no wonder businesses find it tough here.  You have to please every single swinging dick that comes along.  Maybe they should just forget it and leave the rotting Walgreen’s where it is.

Then you got those that fight over the schools.  The public schools which here in Peoria are made up of over 70% poor children because the upper crust as flown to Dunlap or across the river.  Never mind the District 150 has very dedicated teachers and is dealt the students they have.  They can not pick and choose.  We have parents who berate and constantly question every aspect of the administration of our schools.  Of course no one on Wisconsin Ave is doing anything right.  Never mind the money has dried up because the city has made TIFs and Enterprise zones out of most of it’s boundaries stifling much needed funds for our schools.  Yet, no parent addresses this or even questions the raping of the district by Knapp in 1999 with the teacher’s contract.  That contributed to today’s money woes too.  One wonders how one could sell and market homes in Peoria out on side of their mouth while bashing the school district 24/7 out the other.  Even the term “Wacky Wednesdays” hurts the schools image even though the shorten Wednesdays has been seen as correct by an outside consultant. Bet that chapped some asses?

And while we are on schools, watch the shit hit the fan when Ross again doesn’t get to be President of the school board.  She shouldn’t be either simply because she thinks it is her turn she should have it.  Wrong, she isn’t qualified to be Board President, no matter how long she has taken up space on the Board.  It is Ross’s attitude that she deserves to be President because she is entitled to be President.  Entitled?  Well, whether she gets it or not, she won’t change a thing.  Why? Because people have drug our public schools through the mud for so long, that even if they got their way 100%, the district’s image is ruined.

Before we start hurting the poor and low wage earners of this city with cut backs and additional fees for services, we should start at the top.  No police Captain deserves a 6 figure salary here nor does any city administrator. Want 6 figures?  Go to New York.  We don’t need to support Heartland Group or the Chamber of Commerce or the Visitor's Bureau.  They have all failed miserably.  Otherwise, how can they explain the lack of support for the museum and other pet projects or the failed and often flooded riverfront?  Upper city staff should see a cut in pay and benefits, not the guy/gal that is out cleaning and fixing or streets. The city council shouldn’t see any pay at all until the city is in the black, crime is down, and our schools are properly funded. When those things start to happen, then you deserve pay as you are then doing your jobs.  Quit frankly, some on the council should hit the door but their heads and egos wouldn’t fit.

If that means you quit, so be it.  I don’t know why we always have to look outside Peoria for people to lead us or run our services.  Look at what happened with the Superintendent of Schools (read Royster), or for a police chief, or City Manager.  I truly believe Peoria has talented people right here that will step up if given the chance.  Outsider’s come in, say they love the place, get a great contract (something they will gladly deny a union worker)  and when the shit hits the fan, they are gone with a nice stimulus package in their wallet, to the next town. Just because you pay more doesn’t mean you always get the best.

Bottom line, with a new hotel and museum this town will look great.  Too bad it will be mostly empty.