Chuck Grayeb, the dean of the Peoria City Council, is running for Peoria mayor. That means the District 2 council seat he's held since 2013 is open.
Three candidates want to represent the district that includes downtown, much of the West and Center Bluffs, and a swath of Central Peoria that runs up to Glen Ave. That area also includes major higher ed institutions like Illinois Central College and Bradley University.
Candidates Krista Wresinski and Alex Carmona are relatively recent transplants to Peoria, while Estrella Diaz has lived here most of her life.
Wresinski is the mother of six kids. She worked as a correctional officer in Indiana, and later as a 911 dispatcher in McLean County. Her family moved to Peoria in 2020. She's currently a billing specialist with Advanced Medical Transport.
She said there's a "gap" between what citizens of District 2 and Peoria want — and the decisions coming out of city hall.
For example, lower taxes. The city council narrowly defeated a proposal from 5th District Councilman Denis Cyr that would have kept the city's overall property tax levy unchanged at just under $30 million for the upcoming budget year. The council ultimately set the levy at $32.3 million, based on higher estimated assessed property values in the city.
The actual property tax rate remained unchanged, but taxpayers who saw their property values grow could see higher taxes.
"I feel like there definitely could be a better job done there, kind of explaining the process and maybe some decisions that are being made in purchases and stuff like that," she said. "We're all having to tighten down our budget, and so maybe some tightening should happen in other places."
Alex Carmona moved to Peoria five years ago with his wife and three kids. He's an artist by profession, and he said done his homework on government and economics to help make Peoria better.
He believes city government should take a more hands-off role, particularly when it comes to growing the economy.
"I would like to try to promote the idea that the government should stick to its essential functions and do those to the best of its abilities, and allow the free market to be as free as it can be here, so we can bring more business opportunities to Peoria for its citizens," he said.
Carmona points to the approach to business development across the river in East Peoria. He said Peoria could capitalize on that kind of growth if there were less red tape, particularly for up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
"If your regulatory apparatus is too strong, it actually creates a barrier to entry for new players in the game of development to come in and do it, because there's so many different steps and processes that the bigger players already know and have the time and money to put into all these things," said Carmona.
Estrella Diaz is the daughter of immigrants, and the youngest of six siblings. She currently works at Caterpillar. Her top issues include reducing violence, addressing homelessness, and making housing more affordable for low-income families.
"I feel like we can refurnish and improve the houses that we already have, so that we can make these houses look nice and also affordable for people to actually live there and add value to the neighborhoods that their houses are in," she said.
Homeless encampment ban
Diaz said the city's new ban on homeless encampments is cruel and uninformed. She volunteers with outreach groups like Jolt Harm Reduction and LULA Peoria.
"None of the city council members ever show up," she said. "So for some of them to vote the way they did, it's disheartening. "Because you're not putting in the work to see what these people actually need, or the work that the people on the ground are doing."
Diaz said the city should provide more funding and resources to the outreach groups helping to get the unhoused off the streets, rather than resort to more punitive measures.
"Like what the mayor said, 'where are we going to send the fines?' For me personally, it doesn't make any sense to just take that approach." she said.
Carmona said the homelessness ordinance is a difficult issue. He said the unhoused are human beings who deserve dignity, but their presence on the streets is also bad for the community as a whole.
"Do I like the fact that it's basically being criminalized? No, I think there should be a very high standard for putting a person in a cage. And I don't think this is one of them. That doesn't work well for me," he said. "But like I said, there does need to be something done, and not just kicking the can down the road and allowing this to continue."
Krista Wresinski said her heart breaks for those experiencing homelessness. She said she would talk to those working in homeless outreach to figure out how to best address the issue.
"If you're on the city council, you can't be an expert in everything," she said. "So I think going to those that are and gathering that information, and then coming together, and having that good conversation of, 'okay, this is what's being said by those that are living this every day. How do we move forward from that? What do we do from this?'"
Downtown revival
The quest to revitalize Peoria's Central Business District is not a new one, but as the representative of downtown constituents, the next District 2 councilmember will have a loud voice in those ongoing conversations.
Estrella Diaz said the conversation needs to focus more on the root causes rather than superficialities.
"You can make downtown look nice, but if you still have these issues of violence, of the unhoused, you're not going to have any businesses. You're not going to have people wanting to invest because we're not even investing in our people," Diaz said. "If we don't invest in our people, the people are the soul of the city. They are what bring the city life."
She said the city should particularly look to invest more in mentorship programs targeting 14 to 25 year olds to combat violence.
Carmona said the notorious Pere Marquette deal should have been a lesson for the city against making more direct governmental interventions in the business realm — like the city's $1.75 million purchase of the PNC bank building from Cullinan Properties this year.
"I think that shows you that there are answers in the private sector that are more efficient than in the government, because our local government doesn't have a department for entrepreneurship," Carmona said. "That is left to the free market, because developers are the ones that have their ear closest to the consumer, trying to figure out what they want."
Diaz said purchasing the building could help with overflow parking issues in the downtown area during big Peoria Civic Center events, and she said owning the PNC building parking deck could also become a revenue generator for the city.
But Wresinski also questioned the wisdom of the city purchasing downtown real estate, saying there "should be some more looking into that." Wresinski's family previously owned River City CrossFit on N. William Kumpf Blvd. She said some of her customers had safety concerns about the area, particularly those attending 5 a.m. classes.
When it comes what's needed for downtown revitalization, she said she would defer to the experts, who in this case, are downtown business owners. Gathering those first-hand perspectives is part of her approach to tackling issues, she said.
"That's what this all boils down to is problem solving, and whether that's homelessness, whether that's safety, whether that's revitalizing the downtown, just getting to those issues and figuring it out," she said.
The consolidated primary election is on Feb. 25. The general election is on April 1.
