UPDATE: Hey after thinking about this and reading opinions elsewhere on this subject maybe I am somewhat wrong on what Ms Harris was thrilled about. Maybe she and others were concerned about the crime at Campustown. Maybe. Still, I write from the hip and what I wrote I will keep posted. I still think some of the Uplanders think they are too good for the rest of us.
UPDATE 2: Fuck it. If Ms. Harris hadn’t made such a broad statement, then she wouldn’t feel the heat on some of the blogs! The fact of the matter is, The Uplands hauls no coal! That’s how PAP sees it. Those bloggers who bowed and kissed her ass, well that is their lipstick, not mine.
Well it’s official. The Uplands Neighborhood association is “uppity”. Maybe a better word is “snobs”? How about racists?
Let’s see, the Save A Lot at Campustown is closing. Kara Harris, president of the Uplands Residential Association, is thrilled! Why? Well because apparently those in that association didn’t like the clientele that visited that store. Good Christ! Like I have said before, some of these people who live in the Uplands don’t want anyone driving through their neighborhood, hence the stop signs on every block. They don’t want anyone parking on their streets, hence the parking permits. They love their ornamental lighting but want the city to maintain it and now, in a shopping center right next to their neighborhood, is losing a store, a grocery store, that some depended on in the area and they are thrilled.
Granted, Save A Lot was a crap hole. It was dirty and it didn’t offer a wide variety but it offered food and at cheap prices. After all, to a family that has to have two or more jobs to survive, a can of stew doesn’t have to be Dinty Moore. A can of green beans doesn’t have to be Green Giant brand and those people didn't need a Starbucks coffee section.
The fact of the matter is that people, mostly from the lower bluff and from other surrounding neighborhoods used that store and depended on it. Yeah, it didn’t meet the criteria of some of those that live in the Uplands but then those people didn’t go there anyway unless it was to see how the other half lived. In fact I doubt the Uplands alone could support a Starbucks coffee shop let alone a shopping center.
Campustown was built and named for the fact it was next to Bradley. It was supposed to be for Bradley students, residents, and all peoples who wanted to shop there. Yes, over the years, Thompson’s Food Basket (now there’s uppity) closed as did Sullivan’s and it was replaced with a low end grocery store, Save A Lot.
All this aside, it has finally come out on how the Upland Association really feels about some of their neighbors. Plain and simple English here folks. These wonderful people, the same ones who will have your car ticketed or towed or both for parking on their streets, just don’t like those poor black folks coming up the hill so close to their empire. I guess it’s ok with the Upland folks if a Save A Lot opens in the south end, or the north end, or the East Bluff. Just not in my neighborhood. Well, one blogger thinks it was a shit hole of a store. He visited it…….once. I’ll bet that was just terrible for him.
Another blogger gets it. It is a matter of the “element” that visited the store. It is the fact that a grocery store that was used by various peoples to buy food is closing. This will make it harder on some families to get the groceries they need since a few bucks for gas may not seem like much, to them it could be a lot and the difference between food and if CILCO gets paid for the month. If you were lucky enough to own a car. Apparently some people, including Ms. Harris are just thrilled this “eyesore” is gone.
Folks, I hope a huge Cash Loan store goes in there. Joseph, the snake developer who has raped the city’s taxpayer coffers more than once has a new client. Maybe Ms. Harris is hoping for a Pier One Imports and then they can drive out the Dollar Tree and CVS (who needs medicine?) and with the empty Blockbuster’s we can get a Gloria Jeans Coffee, and a Barnes and Noble. Wow! That will keep “those people” out of Campustown.
I think that the Uplands Association owes and apology to the people of Peoria for that remark from their President. If not, well, then maybe the next snow storm, our snow plows will skip their neighborhood. Maybe when one of their ornamental lights burn out, city maintenance will ignore it, and maybe parking enforcement will just not show up and write tickets. I am sure some of these hard working city employees resent the comments directed to maybe some of their families and or relatives and friends.
No matter what you think, the first three letters of ASSociation should tell you what they are in the Uplands. Confirmed!
