Tired of the Bull Department…

I’m banging my head here trying to figure out what this city council is up too.  I mean they are talking fees and garbage collection changes and this because for one thing, the city contract for collection of garbage in the city of Peoria is up with Waste Management this year.  Then some people seem to think that the Garbage Fee on our water bills goes for garbage collection which I guess if you twist the finances you can say it does but it doesn’t.

You see, we already had a contract with BFI which later became Waste Management (WM) to collect our garbage from the curbside once a week and our comatose city council at the time, remember “Dream it up Ransburg”?, decided to level a fee to help provide for public safety and they called it the Garbage Fee which had nothing to do with garbage collection.  I mean if no fee was dreamed up, then garbage pick up would have gone on as per the contract the city has which is included in our property tax bills.  Jesus H. Christ! 

Then our beloved council who had been wanting to fuck Illinois American out of the water company and run it themselves decided to ask this same “Satan” to collect the fee for us.  In other words, you omit the $6 on the water bill as a protest to the Garbage Fee, your water will be shut off.  Our city pays around $80k a year to have Illinois American do this.

Then Councilman Turner proclaimed that paying the Garbage Fee every 3 months ($18) was a hardship on the elderly and fixed income citizens but what he failed to mention was the fact that if you take $72 a year whether it be every 3 months at $18 or every month at $6, you are still screwing the fixed income out of $72 a year so eat bologna old folks! But then again this was magic under the nut shells that this council practices all the time.  Where’s the nut?  Pick a seat!

We had an elections since and some of the council members that backed this stupid tax, the Garbage Fee were voted out and people who promised to rid us of this unfair tax were voted in only to renege on their promise.  Gee, a lying politician.  Imagine that Barbara Van Auken.

So, our city didn’t buy out the water company because most people thought that since our city at the time, couldn’t clear streets of snow, how the hell could they run a water company.  Illinois American said the city would just raise rates to pay for city things and service would suffer.  Well, Illinois American show us.  They stuck it in our ass and have raised rates twice and are asking again for another rate increase all the while collecting $80k to bill us for a Garbage Fee.  This is like eyeing your cousin at a family reunion and then sleeping with your sister.

Now our council is going through a list of fees and increases that will surly add to the hell the State of Illinois is already adding to us working people by increasing license plate fees to $99 a year and increasing the state income tax.  $99?  Yeah, you pay with a $100 dollar bill and they kick you in the nuts while handing you back a buck.  Nevermind our dear council is on the edge of giving away $40 million so we can have a new hotel downtown and the museum is to be built on yet another tax that is soon to be implemented.  Never mind that this same council is about to give away a rail line so spandex assholes can turn it into a trail. Not all of it mind you, just the good parts.  Lord knows no decent person is going to hike through the north end or down along the North side of the Taft Homes.  It’s easy to find one’s wallet in spandex.  You only have so many bulges in spandex.

So, please, don’t tell me the Garbage Fee goes to garbage collection after the fact and then tell me that it does because the money spent on a contract for garbage is being sidelined to public service so the $6 is in fact going to garbage to make up for the shortfall.  Lost?  They want you to be. Try telling that to CILCO next time your bill is over due.  You are taking funds from the water company to pay them on the next cycle.  You’ll not only be in the dark, but your toilet won’t flush either and this is how our current city government runs our business.

With that in mind, I am asking this city council for $7500 in funds on a short term loan to remodel the rest of my house.  I’ll employ about 3 people although it will be for a short period, much like the construction of the museum, and then, when done, I’ll simply vanish, board up the house, much like Mid-Town Plaza, and leave you all on the hook for the money.  It works all the time in Peoria.

City council!  Raise the fucking property tax and get it over with.  No more new fees or taxes or usage fees.  I pay through the nose for cable (franchise fee) electricity (yes you have your hands in that) and gasoline ( the city is taxing that which is why no red light is timed) .Yes, voting to raise property taxes will make you unpopular at election time but if we the citizens have any sense left in our heads, we aren’t voting for you anyway.  Get on with it!

Too Quite at PAP Department…

I have been quiet lately mostly because I have been busy this summer.  I had a kitchen remodel to do and it seemed a few other things needed attention.  When your kids are taking bets on how much swearing and blood loss I would suffer, well, home improvement takes on a whole new meaning. 

I have been reading the “other” blogs out there locally and I have seen the issues of Peoria being addressed through these blogs.  The usual 5 to 9 trolls and the occasional wit of “Diane” show up on these blogs in the comments section.  All is well in Peoria.  Same old same old.

In Peoria, we face a budget crisis and money is short.  This means that instead of our elected city council doing the right thing, they will as usual pander to the developers and we taxpayers will simply have to bite our lips and pay through our asses.  Fees, taxes, services, are all being decided in a back room down at city hall.  Christ, I’ll bet there is a full blown organism going on that room. Imagine the thrills of dreaming up new fees and taxes, like the Garbage Fee, and then adjourning and heading out for a cocktail. Well at least they can say they didn’t raise the property tax which always looks good on re-election brochures. 

We vote basically the same people into office and if you don’t vote, well, then you get the hand you are dealt.  What do we expect?  City services continue to suffer and yet this council sees nothing wrong with issuing $40 million in bonds so a developer can build a hotel, which by the way, the developer can’t even find a bank that will loan him money for it, but our city will.  Well, that has been all discussed and hashed out on the “other” blogs here so no need to go there.  Yes, it makes sense to cancel the $40 million, cancel the museum (if that is what one would call it) and instead give the middle income or “little guy” the break and concentrate on city services and crime reduction.  Safer neighborhoods and better streets?   Nope. too much logic there.

Such as all this is, Peoria still has some qualities I enjoy.  I was enjoying a rare cool (by July standards) evening downtown outside a local bar.  Watching the riverboat come into to dock, the Peoria skyline lit with a flash of lightning from an approaching summer storm, the music from one of the many live bands in the area, I was taken back to how wonderful this town can be and why I stay and why I am so critical of the people we put in charge of running this community.

Unfortunately, you have to always be looking over your shoulder as crime, even in a well lit area like downtown, seems to be a major problem.  We’re not the only city with that problem but it seems to me that crime problems, street problems, sewer problems, housing problems, should be high priority over the problems of a new hotel, numerous failed TIF districts, a museum that will amount to nothing more than a 9 to 5 concession stand, and city logos.

You know, I would love it if the council came out and said that all developments are off.  No more bonds to be issued, no museum at taxpayer expense, we are rolling back the Garbage Fee and the HRA tax.  Developers will have to find private financing of their projects. If they are so great, then that should be no problem.  Basic services will become the first priority of the City.  Parking garages will raise their rates to that of their operating costs.  If the decks become empty, then the city will sell them off.   The city will sell the Gateway building and will stop investing in health clubs and hotels and anything the competes with the private sector. 

The city will raze blocks of the south end, by area to be decided on by the council.  Absent landlords will be fined and assessed charges for the abandon homes.  Once an area as been leveled, the city will help guarantee home loans to those who wish to build new homes.  Why not?  The city basically guarantees loans for businesses through bond sales, why not people who are willing to build and buy a home in older neighborhoods.  Once a section has been sold, the next area is cleared, and hopefully more new homes are built.  No property tax breaks and no realtors.  This was supposed to have worked in Southtown in the early 80s and it would have hadn’t the housing market tanked, CAT laid off thousands and shut down plants, inflation cause home loans to rise above 18%.  It would have worked hadn’t Mayor McGoof let the riverboat go to the east side of the river and he hadn’t basically abandoned the few new home owners that built there by selling the neighboring lot to a huge oil filter factory.  Yep, nothing like an oil filter factory next door to help your real estate values go up.

Can you picture it?  No growth cells that don’t grow.  No more throwing out money to people who make promises that never come true. Mid-Town ring a bell?  How about that battery company that borrowed about $6 million awhile back?  How about the great new developments that were supposed to happen around the ballpark?  What ever happened to Ren-Park and the hospitals investing their technology there?  Oh, the hospitals are hurting. They are non-profit so in order to launder their cash overflow and maintain their non profit tax-free status, they must do something with all that money they say they aren’t making.  Like buy land out north.  Build and build again like OSF.  Where else do you tear down a parking deck in perfect shape and build another larger one?  “Oh but they are one of our biggest employers.  You can’t touch them.”  Shit, most of their employees make minimum wage.  Years ago, a place paying the bottom of the pay scale would have been called a sweat shop.  Hey city council!  Find some fees these hospitals can pay.  They use our resources too ya know. 

Then I woke up…….It seems I was hit in the head with a full beer can.  I guess you can’t open a beer from 20 ft with a nail gun while installing trim.   I dreamed.  But you were all in my dream.  The farmer, the wicked old lady down the street, and even the dog, Toto.  Even my sister. You all know her, the one the house fell on?  It seemed so real….

Some Rants and Observations Department…

OK, Billy posted something that for once I agree with.  Garbage collection and how our great leaders are going to start, maybe, making us buy stickers for collection.  Waste a lot of stuff, you’ll pay to get it picked up.  Waste not, you get by cheaper.  According to Councilman Turner, a brain trust on our council, Morton does this so it’ll work in Peoria.  Wow, what an idiot.

In Morton, which is the size of our Northwoods Mall, it is easy for their one code enforcement guy to drive around and see who is collecting garbage and not paying,  In Peoria, which is much much larger, unless there is a fried chicken sign out front, our code inspections don’t see shit.  Case in point, they park across the street from a house near me that has about fifteen code violations including garbage in back, paint peeling from the house, parking on the lawn, broken windows, and an un mowed lawn.   Can’t see it?  Because he is too busy standing there playing pocket pool shooting the shit with his buddies laying new sidewalks up Laramie hill.  3 city workers doing actually nothing watching two guys sweat laying concrete.   So….do you think “all” Peorians will pay for those stickers and no one will stack garbage behind their house?  Our start sneaking off to business dumpsters?  Right.  Pay as you go will work.

In Morton, if you try and hide your garbage, most likely your neighbor will rat you out.  In Peoria, why bother. Why?  Because that house I just wrote about?  I have turned it in and as usual nothing happens.  Although they did hit the house next door to it for some minor violations.  It’s like jumping over the elephant shit and hitting the elephant in the ass with your head.  Point is, Peoria doesn’t have the man power to enforce garbage collection other than the way it is.  Some people really think it’s free, mostly renters, but at least they put their garbage out. (Most of the time)  What will happen when you tell them it is going to cost you? 

Folks, our council persons are thinking again and every time they do that, guess who it costs?  Beware.  Please!  People the Garbage Fee does not go to garbage collection, it was imposed to cover operating expenses and no matter how they phrase it, and they can, it doesn’t.  The city had a contract for garbage collection long before the fee was imposed.  It’s like asking $500 for your trade in on a $2000 car.  The dealer says no way.  You demand it. The dealer says Ok $500 for you car, $2500 for our car.  It’s a shell game and they are going to play it again.  Trick is, what nut to watch.  I say all 11 of them.

Another thing I wonder about,  has  anyone has ever met Sam Leman?  The car dealer.  Is he real?  Is he related to the Alwan’s?  Did same Leman go the way of Roebuck from Sears?  Both have seemed to disappeared.

Someone hit Agatucci's on University street….again…with a car.  For Christ sake, that is the worst pizza ever and yet that place endures. The PJS makes it sound like we would lose a local icon.  Help me here.  I have been there a few times.  It was hot, a/c barley works, the service was slow, the atmosphere was cramped, and the pizza tasted like it was frozen heated up.  What is it with this place?

License plate fees are going to $99.  Why not an even $100?  Because this way the state can take your c-note, kick you in the crotch and hand you a buck.  Feel better?

That idiotic commercial on the radio from MTCO for their great DSL internet.  Yes it is sloppy DSL.  It says that if your cable internet seems slow, don’t complain to cable, go next door and rag on your neighbor.  He’s the one using your bandwidth.  That is the biggest crock of shit as cable speeds for internet blow any DSL line away any day.  In simple terms, let me explain.  We are all on the same water system in Peoria.  If your neighbor flushes his toilet, you don’t know it.  If you are in the shower and your neighbor is in the shower, neither one of you knows.  No effect what so ever.  That is how fiber optic broadband cable works.  Everyone is on but the effect it has on your internet speed is nominal at best.  MTCO, what a crock of shit and people buy this stuff.

Speaking of local radio.  Christ!  Change your song lineup once in awhile will ya.  I mean I am sick to fuckin death of Bob Seger on 95.5 and I can actually tell what time it is by the song playing.  Same with Hippie 101.  A great concept but I lived in the 60s and I am sure there were more than 30 songs and if I have to hear Sonny and Cher, “Ride” one more time I’ll rip out the radio.  Jeez, they didn’t play it that much when it was popular.  Every morning on Lite Rock 107, Randy and what's her name play the exact same songs.  Local radio?  You’re making it easier everyday for me to get satellite radio.  My son has it and it is wonderful.  I’m just asking for a little variety is all.

Ok that felt good….. Have a nice day!

Send in the Clowns, Too Late, They Already Bought Us….

God I love this town.  Politics and deals being made behind the scenes so we plain old dumb folks can sit back, relax and enjoy the community and watch it grow, not.  Backroom deals?  In Peoria?  Say it isn’t so…

What the hell am I talking about?  Well, for one, CJ has a great post on the Kellar Branch rail line and how it seems that “family” has gotten together and bought the line so they could most likely make an anal retentive walking trail out of a perfectly good rail line.  Read CJs post and jump back here as I agree with all his points.

Ok, for those that don’t know, Kellar Branch rail runs from downtown through the north end and up into the Heights, through that bustling community and out past Junction City which is owned by a guy named Alexis Khazzam, not to be confused with the kid in the 60s show that yelled “Shazam!” and was transferred into a super hero gay looking dude with a cape (Captain Marvel)  and would fight crime although “our” Khazzam has enough money and apparently a wealthy and savvy father in law to buy anything he wants including train sets, read, rail line.  Ironically, Captain Marvel’s alter ego was named Billy, not to be confused with Billy our hero blogger who neither wears a cape nor flies.

OK, back to the father in law, Thomas Leiter,  who apparently is the dude that bought both CIRY and PIRY lines which, if he wanted to, and will probably will do, is going to abandon the line opening up the rail to be made into a trail.  He apparently has been making backroom deals to acquire the railroad and it’s rights.  I guess if you have the money, you have the right to make deals but when it comes to public property or the rights to which the rail sits on, owned by us, the City of Peoria, well then we should at least know by being informed from our council representatives.  But noooooo…… Some one pass the meat tray please.  Is that wine?  Another martini Barbara?  Pass the rail line deed please.

This will also open up all our wallets, again, because that “black hole for money” better known as the Peoria Park District will most likely have to pay to keep the upkeep on the trail which means tax dollars.  Yep, folks, we the taxpayer get it in the ass again all so a small elite group can don their spandex and walk/run/ride the trial. Why hell, with the trail and the new museum, shit, all those tourists dollars rolling in one won’t even smell the shit in the river from the sewer overflow while strolling the safe riverfront. Bang Bang

Only thing is, I’ll bet the trail south of the Heights, through the north end and down to the Riverfront won’t hardly be used.  Why?  Well it won’t take long for Peoria’s scumbags to figure out that easy robbery targets will be using “their” path through the neighborhood.  Hell, even Mr. Rogers can see that the police will have a hard time protecting a big stretch of the trail.  But you can bet it will be used out north past Junction City were the elite like to sweat and stop for lattes.  Or do the elite even sweat? 

No matter.  What’s business and jobs to Peoria?  An industrial park that was serviced by a rail line goes under completely. Who cares?  What do jobs matter here?  Of course there are plenty of jobs in the service or custodial fields, ya know, waiting on the wealthy and cleaning up after them? Unfortunately, these jobs don’t provide wages to buy homes, cars, washer machines, refrigerators, and flat screen TVs.  Even Stevie Wonder can see that with all the Rent A Centers and cash Stores this town supports, good paying jobs are far and few between.  Hell, we can’t even support a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop in Peoria.  How uppity is that?

Once again, our “movers and shakers'” our leaders, which we seem to vote in term after term, got it wrong again.  What do I know?  I’m just a Peorian, a homeowner, a taxpayer.  How dare I question how some zealots spend my money.  Why the nerve!  Peoria has it ass backwards again especially if this rail to trail is allowed to go forward.  It’s not a matter of sore losers, it should be a matter of priorities.  Sound business decisions which of late, seem far and few from our city government.  

We need to drop the frills, the museums, the San Diego Zoo in Glen Oak, where our winters would freeze the balls off a moose let alone a giraffe. We need to stop providing yet more money to the Park District.  Wait until they announce that the RexPlex is in need of millions of dollars in repairs and upgrades.  Think not?  Remember where you read it.

How many cities have a feces alert when it rains?  We do. How many cities have a Mayor that prays for crime to go away, does nothing about crime, then is amazed when a higher court overturns a conviction from our State’s Attorney’s office and allows an idiot kid, who fired 5 shots in a high school to hit the streets in 3 years? Too little too late Mayor?  To be fair here, the Appellate Court thought the sentence was a tad too long.  After all, it was only five shots in a crowed hallway at a high school.  Poor misguided youth must have been scared the cops would beat him. Those judges in Ottawa need this kid to move into their neighborhood when he’s released.  Maybe he can do some yard work for the judges??

Our State’s Attorney is also prosecuting 3 police officers for allegedly beating up a known street thug and drug dealer (who is now serving time)after a cross town high speed chase because of a video which only shows part of the arrest?  It’s a police video no less.   Me thinks the police may act a tad bit slower when responding to crime.  After all, we can’t mess these criminals hair up while arresting them but damit, we’ll have a trail!

Wow, rails, trails, crime, frozen balls on giraffes, lions and tigers, oh my. We seem to have our priorities backwards here in AIROEP.  

. 

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. 

Some Explaining Department…

I was going to turn on Comment Moderation because my famous asshole friend appears to have managed to use Chinese language characters and is posting comments to my site.  After checking the IP addresses of people that visit, none were from China or Korea.  But, there are some with the “famous” IP address of my hateful friend.  I am not going to moderate comments and will just delete the Chinese ones that come in.  I want people to tell me what they think whether they agree or disagree with my opinions.  I don’t mind and can take the criticism but I will not tolerate someone picking on my employer as I don’t mention my employer here.  That is where I draw the line.

Other things going on around here is the Hardy Boys showed up last week to install a sidewalk up Laramie hill from Antoinette St to Harmon Hwy on the east side where there has never been a sidewalk before.  People walk in the street to go to Madison Park and it is dangerous with the traffic.

Why do I say the Hardy Boys.  Because it apparently takes two to three city supervisors to get them to work and they love to park their brand new with new city logo SUVs across my driveway.  The company doing the work is a private company so I guess the city wants to make sure the grant money is well spent.

Grant money?  Yes because our 1st District councilman, Gulley, can’t seem to get any funds other than one time grants for the south end and then the council throws us a bone. “Look, we’re putting money into the neighborhood!”  I say horseshit!

More like, when money comes around on the horse shoe, Van Auken and Spears say “Sit Gulley,  Roll over Gulley, we need the money for ornamental lighting or drainage or a new arbor Gulley.”  So we here survive on the lonesome once every ten year grant.

The sidewalks they are putting in come without curbs and without storm drains.  Just cut a path with an end loader, lay the concrete, and you’re done!

Well almost except the Hardy Boys hit an AT&T buried cable which meant all through the holiday weekend, the street was closed while 10 AT&T trucks worked on the cable.  Oops!

Which brings me to today coming home to find two city cars blocking the street so they could talk. (Don’t they have cell phones or radio?)  A truck was trying to get around them while they blocked the street.  This truck was towing a long trailer loaded with construction stuff and I was trying to come the other way also trying to get around them.  Would they move?  Nope.  The truck was idling, waiting as was I when the truck’s engine stopped.  Wouldn’t start. Guess whose driveway it blocked?  No place to park as the city has cars parked everywhere as do the construction people. 

It wasn’t the truck’s fault.  It was the city’s fault.  Want to save money City of Peoria?  We could do save with less supervisor SUVs.  

Headlines I’d Like to See Department…

Hog Farm to be built at Weaver Ridge….

A hog farm will be built just inside the Weaver Ridge sub-division to the right of the golf course.  Peoria City Zoning, which couldn’t be reached for comment said the farm will comply with current non existing zoning laws they never follow.  City Council will vote on the farm Tuesday and with a landscaping fence and a few bushes to be installed by the developer as a buffer. It is expected to pass 11-1.

 

Two Traffic Lights are timed by the City….

Two traffic lights were finally timed by the city street department today.  Workers finally read the instructions that came with the up to date traffic signals and figured out to sync these lights together so traffic could actually make two traffic lights in a row.  They refused to publish the location of these signals. Sadly there is no hope for the University overpass signals and traffic will be forced to stop at each signal and watch the next one turn red or as it is known at the street department, The Sterling Ave Syndrome.

 

Peoria Public Schools to open in Fall…

Despite what the news is reporting and what some parent groups are doing, school will start in the fall and children will go and be taught.  “This has been happening in Peoria for over the last 100 years and will continue.” a board member wishing not to be identified said.  A spokesperson for an angry parent group said they will try and disrupt anything and everything the Board and school admin does and will continue to give the schools the bad reputation they deserve and make sure it is broadcast so the whole community suffers  rather than work with anyone who can’t see past their narrow ways.  One parent protestor going by the name “DV” said she’ll continue to disrupt board meetings with her rants while selling homes outside District 150.

 

Well Known Blogger to run for City Council….

Billy Dennis, a well known blogger and publisher of The Peoria Pundit has decided to throw his size 11 hat into the ring for At-Large City Council run.  Mr. Dennis, while eating pizzas at Whitey’s Bar and Lap Dance Grill said he would smoke (no pun intended at the pig farm) any and all that came up against him in the race. Mr. Dennis also said he was tired of sitting at the Journalist table listening to the constant haggling from some council members during meetings.  He has decided he can fit into the horseshoe and if elected hopes to enjoy the free meat tray provided to council members before each meeting. 

 

Local Blogger Witnesses Tragic Death….

CJ, a local blogger that runs a very popular blog site here in Peoria witnessed a tragic incident last night at a neighborhood community meeting hosted by Councilwoman Barbra Van Auken.  It’s still not sure if CJ’s quite demeanor and the fact that he can sit perfectly still at any meeting and wait to the end to ask a question had anything to do with Ms Van Auken’s demise.  CJ has been known to be confused with the statue of Abe Lincoln at the County Courthouse while waiting for a bus. When CJ finally got a chance to ask a question, it so infuriated Van Auken, her hair spontaneously caught fire.  Some quick thinking citizen acted quickly and threw a bucket of water on her to stifle the flames and she melted.  “I’m melting….” were her last words.  Ms Van Auken narrowly missed another tragedy when a house fell inches from her some years ago.  Arrangements to be announced.

 

City to Buy Used Blimp….

The City of Peoria is buying a used Goodyear blimp at a mere $150,000 so the city council, mayor, and city staff can take developers up on a slow ride over our city and show then the exact boundaries of TIF District’s and Enterprise zones.  Councilman Sandberg again reject the buying of this blimp saying that it was a waste of money and besides, all of Peoria is already in a TIF or an Enterprise Zone, so what’s the point?  The Mayor stated this blimp will spurn economic development and might even reduce crime.  “A low flying slow moving blimp will help act as a deterrent towards criminals on our streets.” the Mayor said.

 

City’s New Blimp Crashes!

The City’s recently bought blimp crashed today.  It is suspected that while flying low over the East Bluff, a gang member took a random pop shot at the blimp causing it to explode and crash into 3 empty and neglected rental houses.  The city zoning department said it was a shame because they were just hours away from acting on these abandon homes before the blimp crashed into them.  No word on who was on board the blimp but fear is all was lost.  Only 17 clipboards and a hair piece were found at the scene. 

 

Have a Happy Fourth of July!!!!

Born on the Fourth of July Department…

Well Saturday is the Fourth of July and we Americans will do what we are excellent at doing.  Spending money, eating out, and just plain old partying to celebrate our Independence.  From what though?  I mean, the original day was to celebrate our independence from England and the fact that we are a country on our own.  Now, we seem to be a country lost.  It seems we are no longer a government by the people for the people but are run by special interest groups, political action committees (PACs) and oil executives backed by Wall Street rip offs.

Yes this puts a spike right through the ol cook out and fireworks.  On the national level, we are fucked.  Locally, our city council can’t even come together on garbage collection. We are taxed without proper representation because these people in power dream up ways to tax and tax us again.  Yet we blindly go on like sheep.

That all aside, I am going to celebrate the Fourth for two reasons.

Reason one; I am a Viet Nam era vet and even though at the time I came home, I couldn’t even wear my uniform without getting a slur and at times spit on, I am going to honor the veterans of our country by displaying my flag.  The American Flag.  I am not going to put a yellow car magnet on my car or a sticker that says: “Support Our Troops” because people who do those things are to me phony son of a bitches.  Oh OK, I hear these people.  They say we support our troops, but as long as the bombs don’t go off in my suburban backyard and damage my boat, Ski-doo, or my 8 ton SUV I need to get to the mall.  These type of people have never really witnessed what a war really is or the death that goes with war.  They are just concerned as they watch the evening news from their tri-floor country estate with their 2 and a half kids and dog.

Americans have become too soft, greedy, and yes, we have become corrupt,  It is going to cost us sooner or later and I am afraid it will be sooner rather than later.

I don’t talk much about my experiences when I was overseas and I have only told a few people about the time I saw a LTJG (that’s lieutenant junior grade, US Navy) get his face blown off.  I still think about that day every now and then but maybe that is what gives me balance and why I am so cynical sometimes.  I don’t know. Read my friend’s blog.  He knows where I am coming from and he has been in worse.  He knows. Thank you Larry.  You served.

Reason Two; I was born on the Fourth of July.  So I guess I am a real live nephew of my Uncle Sam.  I have great memories of my birthdays when I was a kid growing up in a neighborhood that close off our dead end court and held a huge Fourth of July bash. 

Whatever your celebration, stop and think about the people, the veterans, all of them, that gave so much so you can party without fear of a bomb going off, or the secret police coming and arresting you in the middle of the night. 

I thank our fore fathers for their courage to start our country and I thank our soldiers for their courage to keep our country safe.  I just wish we could roast a politician at each party across this nation and along with them, a lobbyist.  I still feel bad that I gave away my uniform when I came home.  Not like I could fit into it today though.

As for support…been there done that.

Happy Fourth of July!