PEORIA -- Not even the Obama-messiah can save Peoria if its leaders insist on doing stupid things.
Consider what's going on:
1. School District 150 is circling the drain. Its leaders believe that building new schools will magically cure the low test scores, despite plenty of evidence elsewhere to the contrary. So school taxes remain high while middle class families flee to the suburbs.
District 150 has raised taxes this year, and now wants to close Woodruff High School, close Peoria Central High School, and open a reorganized high school at the Central site. This is soooo crazy -- in an era where experts are calling for smaller schools. But it does get two failing schools off the watch list, and may allow the administration access to Central's fat endowment funds.
Will the public let this happen? Can the public stop it?
2. Cultural institutions gone, collapsing. First the opera and ballet crashed, due to the egos of board members. Now the Peoria Symphony is in jeopardy, with its talented conductor David Commanday ousted.
Again, rumor has it that it's the egos of board members driving this situation. The most important principals of the orchestra are rumored to be resigning if Commanday leaves.
What about passing petitions against this during the symphony intermission at the Jan. 24 performance? Or a standing ovation for Commanday when he walks out onto the stage at the beginning! Would that make an impression?
This is a serious issue! How long will Caterpillar, Inc. executives keep the Cat headquarters in a town with no credible schools or cultural institutions? Chicago is probably already on the phone trying to recruit them to a city where the opera, symphony, etc. are flourishing.
3. In this atmosphere, with the Peoria Civic Center laying off people for lack of business despite its recent expensive expansion and the zoo expansion failing to raise enough money to avoid taxpayer support, the Peoria County Board is poised on Jan. 27 to send a sales tax increase referendum to taxpayers for an April vote. It would be used to Build the Block -- e.g. a downtown history and art museum complex, together with a Cat museum.
The verdict is still out on this initiative, which also failed to attract enough private funds. The tax increase is small -- 25 cents per $100, chickenfeed, really. But that's to build it. What about sustaining its operation?
It could be a good project, if its backers can find a way to sustain it. We'll see.
If the referendum fails, what then?
4. And now the Peoria Journal Star is laying off reporters, copy editors and others, with its failed corporate owner GateHouse likely aiming to loot and destroy this important business, educational and cultural institution, once the largest downstate daily in Illinois. A town without a credible newspaper? Unthinkable. Yet it's happening.
Certain city leaders may like the demise of the Journal Star, as it makes their activities less transparent. A few bloggers and their readers will never replace a good newspaper with its resources to report what's really happening in a fair and objective manner.
Lack of respect for historic preservation, city tax funds risked on a dubious downtown hotel project, no environmental initiative to save trees or realistically promote recycling, the list of Peoria's follies goes on and on.
Meanwhile, city officials are running an ad campaign saying "It's Better in Peoria." Are they smoking crack?
-- Elaine Hopkins
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