Peoria Journal Star: Peoria's vision hinges on coordination

[Tweed]

http://www.pjstar.com/stories/012305/TRI_B5CGV9M9.057.shtml

"PEORIA - Jim Maloof isn't the only one who remembers when this city had double-digit unemployment, 5,000 homes were up for sale and the catch phrase was, "Will the last one to leave Peoria please turn out the lights."
"We were a cemetery back in those years, if you recall," said the former mayor. "We were in bad, bad shape."

Fast-forward about two decades, and Peoria has rebounded and then some - from the recent announcement that Caterpillar Inc. will build its worldwide visitors center next to the planned Lakeview riverfront museum, to upcoming expansions at all three hospital campuses and the University of Illinois College of Medicine campus, to the state's $460 million overhaul of Interstate 74. And that's just the really big stuff.

Vision 2020 is a long-range, multi-county plan unveiled in January 2003. To learn more about Vision 2020, download this Adobe Acrobat version of the plan and save a copy on your computer. To get updates and to get involved, visit
Vision2020.org

There's also a $55 million expansion and renovation of the Civic Center, a $25 million upgrade of Glen Oak Zoo in the works, the promised potential of the still-infant Port Authority, plans to attract biotechnology firms and others to the Med-Tech District and plans to build a better road connecting the airport and Downtown."

Great article about Peoria's future. It seems anyone who wants to be involved with the planning process can join, but we'll see.

[Can o Beans]

1. Translation: Peoria's future depends on Democrats shutting up

Because the local government is clamoring to hand out tax reductions and kickbacks to any big company that will agree to do something to revitalize the downtown. Don't get me wrong - these are all great improvements to the infrastructure. But they will only succeed in squeezing out all the mom-n-pop shops along Main and the river and replacing them with retail behemoths.

Oh, and did I mention that nearly all of the public funding used to do this will come from Peoria proper (i.e., very few upper income people)?