The multi-year project to convert Adams Street and Jefferson Avenue to two-way traffic in downtown Peoria is on track to be completed by early summer, and Mayor Rita Ali is eager to see the anticipated benefits for the area.
The $19 million project includes new traffic signals, crosswalk bump outs, center-left turn lanes and a bike lane, along with sidewalk improvements. Resurfacing work on the primary streets is set for this month.
Ali said the change is a key component to revitalizing downtown and bringing more people to the area, with other planned projects in the works.
In the resumption of a regular WCBU interview series, Ali talked about the desire to see more activity return to downtown, as well as ongoing efforts aimed at business development, crime reduction and addressing the city’s housing needs.
This transcript has been edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
WCBU: We’re getting closer and closer to the return of two-way traffic on Adams Street and Jefferson Avenue downtown. What benefits are you anticipating from this change?
Mayor Rita Ali: Well, certainly traffic will slow down, and that’s one reason for the conversion. I grew up in Peoria, so we grew up riding through downtown when all the lights were timed and it was one-way streets going down Jefferson, one-way streets going down Adams. We would always time it so that we could get through every green light.
But basically [it’s] to get in and out of downtown, rather than to slow down, see what’s happening, engage with downtown. That’s what this conversion is all about, slowing down traffic, allowing people to engage with the downtown amenities, the businesses, the murals, the art, the atmosphere, the environment. I think that’s exactly what we’re going to experience.
Do you have any concerns about people adjusting to the new traffic patterns?
Mayor Ali: I think it’s going to take a while to adjust, just because we’re conditioned to these one-way streets for so long and so much of our adult lives that it’s going to take some adjustments. There’s some parts of it that’s already been converted, and so I struggle at times, just, 'this is two-way now, and I’ve got to get over to the right. I can’t stay over to the left.' But I think we will all adjust, and the traffic lights will help us.
Regarding downtown development and revitalization, what are the next steps you think Peoria should explore to bring more business and activity to the area? I know at the most recent council meeting, there was [approval of] a waiver on the food truck fees. Getting that kind of bustling activity, what more needs to be done?
Mayor Ali: I’m excited about that. I have had meetings with the higher-ups at Caterpillar who really talked about the past, in terms of downtown and being able to go outside to the food carts and just enjoy that atmosphere, eating together with their colleagues and experiencing downtown and the food and those types of amenities. We’re encouraged by businesses, especially those located downtown, to have that environment come back, to have the food vendors downtown,
But we’re going to see a lot of change with downtown. We have more people living in or near downtown than ever before, and we’re going to see more of that. We’re going to see more housing downtown, more residents downtown, more businesses downtown. We’ve seen some features with some lights on Adams Street near the Sugar [Wood-Fired Bistro] restaurant. It really looks beautiful. The Greater Peoria Leadership Council, in conjunction with those businesses in this block, helped to make that happen.
We’re working with GPLC on a project that we have with Main Street, also with the Downtown Advisory Committee. We’re looking at a three to four blocks of Main Street—that includes the Pere Marquette and some of those businesses that go from Madison down to Glendale or Kumpf on Main Street—and any building that is vacant, we’re going to try to get those buildings activated. But we’re going to do some special things within that 3-4 block area of Main Street to try to bring some life to that area and really get things generated.
At the most recent city council meeting, the special service area [SSA] incentive for the Westlake Shopping Center was extended. How critical do you [believe] is the need for using these types of business development incentives like SSAs and TIF districts?
Mayor Ali: I think it’s important. The TIF, tax increment financing tool, has been our most-used tool to attract business development in certain areas, especially those areas that that need revitalization. So, you know, we’ve used TIF with the Warehouse District, and we’ve seen the growth and development of Warehouse. It’s been a successful project.
So we want to expand that growth and development; we want to expand that revitalization to other areas of the city. TIF has been a very important part of that, the SSA has been a very important part of that—and Westlake Shopping Center is one of our premier shopping centers in the city. It has a great reputation, and I think it was important for us to approve that.
Public safety is always a concern. So far this year, there haven’t been any fatal shootings—the only homicide was a stabbing. How would you rate the city’s improvement in reducing violent crime, and what more should be done to keep making progress?
Mayor Ali: It’s 100% improvement. It’s been amazing that we’re almost—we’re approaching six months with no shooting homicides. We look at last year, and all the gun-related shootings—homicides, I should say—have been resolved. I mean, a 100% solve rate is pretty darn amazing for a city our size.
Gun victims are down, shootings are down—all those areas that we really report on have been so improved, and it’s and great police work, I have to say. Great police work, but also great community work. The community working with the police to say, 'We’re not going to tolerate this. We’re going to work with the police to report crime when it happens.' So the community has been involved, working hand-in-hand with the police to see these types of results.
We did see an incident a few weeks back with a police chase, an incident with younger assailants, and you see people start to say, 'Well, there’s still crime in Peoria; it’s rampant,' and all that. How do you get away from that perception?
Mayor Ali: Right, so there is crime in Peoria and there’s going to be crime in Peoria—a city over 100,000 [people]. It’s going to happen, but it’s how we respond to it, how we let the people know, the criminals know, those that are violating the law, let them know that we’re not going to tolerate this. I think that’s one thing, and that changes behavior. We want to change behavior like, 'Go somewhere else.' But I think, again, that we hold our stands. We know that technology has been helping.
That chase that you’re talking about, I mean, I couldn’t sleep the night that I actually saw it. Chief [Eric] Echevarria took me to the police station, he showed me the video. It was unbelievable what these young people—18, I think two of them were 18—and the rest of them, it was a total of six of them in that SUV, but the rest were under 18. They were children, and they were risking their lives, for entertainment and thrills. It’s just unbelievable what they did in that 30 or so minutes that they were just taking havoc over the City of Peoria.
We’re not going to tolerate that kind of behavior, and I think that we are sending that message. The police chief is working with some others to try to get some laws changed so that children that do these types of things, and their parents in some cases, are going to be held more responsible—so that there’s not this vicious cycle of going in and out of the juvenile detention center and getting out and doing the same thing, stealing cars and just running havoc over our community. We’re not going to tolerate it.
We know the city continues to face a challenge with homelessness and a housing shortage, particularly affordable housing. Can you provide some details about the city’s perspective on how these challenges are being addressed?
Mayor Ali: I want to invite all those that are interested to come on April 22—at 5 o’clock, or I think it might be 5:30 p.m.—to the Gateway Building: The City of Peoria is hosting an event called Moving Housing Forward. At this event, we invite those that are interested in possibly developing, creating new housing in Peoria— those that are individuals, those that are developers, those that are organizations that want to be involved in housing. Maybe you want a duplex? We have some property.
We have over 1,000 residential vacant lots. We are willing to give these properties away for free for those interested in putting money toward developing housing, affordable housing—it’s housing that is affordable by those that live in it. So, there’s affordable housing all over the City of Peoria. We encourage people to come out; we will introduce our housing strategy. It’s a draft strategy right now because we want some input, and at some point we’re going to formalize it and it will be the housing strategy for the City of Peoria.
Also at the last meeting, Council Member Denise Jackson spoke at length about safety and security concerns at some of the housing complexes on the South Side. What discussions are needed and what approach is the city able to pursue in getting these kinds of concerns addressed?
Mayor Ali: I understand Councilman Jackson’s concern, and I think there’s one particular development that she is very familiar with. It’s a privately owned housing development, and she’s seen some things there, like people sometimes sleeping in the hallway or she’s seen maybe some drug paraphernalia, and she wants the city to be involved in raising the standards and holding those institutions accountable.
Now, if they receive some federal funding or state funding or public funding, we can have a little bit more say over what happens there, or we can involve those entities that provide funding to get involved. If there is unsafe environments or it’s considered a negligent property, then the city can get involved. That property has not, at this point, been determined to be a negligent property. Maybe it will, but until it becomes that, there’s a limited amount that we can do as a municipality.
What does it take to become a negligent or nuisance property?
Mayor Ali: There’s some specific requirements that, maybe there’s mold or some type of unsafe environment, maybe there’s extensive crime that’s taken place. Community Development actually handles that, our Department of Community Development. They have written specifics relative to what becomes a nuisance property, but really it relates to repetitive problems that are, maybe, reports to police.
There have been some meetings held with that ownership to say, 'you’ve got to fix this.' In some instances they have responded; in some instances, they’re saying, 'we don’t have enough money to have 24-hour security, or even a 24-hour manager.' But there are people who are seniors and people who are disabled that also live in that facility.
It’s been a couple months now, but the issue surrounding the location of the region’s casino is now settled. Do you think Peoria made a mistake or missed an opportunity by not accepting the settlement offer that Boyd Gaming presented?
Mayor Ali: Well, I think you know how I feel; I haven’t been hesitant to communicate. It was a missed opportunity for the city. Of course, if a land-based casino was to be built, it was to be built in Peoria. That 1991 agreement would not have went away had we entered into the agreement with Boyd Gaming. It still would have been in place that if in the future, a quote-unquote, 'land based casino' was to be built, it would still have to be built in Peoria.
But it was about $1.8 million a year for at least 25 years, that was the proposed settlement. Again, a missed opportunity for a new stream of income. But I can’t change that; I just have to live with it and move forward.
How do you view the relationship between Peoria and East Peoria following this process? Do you think it’s been damaged, and if so, can it be restored?
Mayor Ali: Well, I think it has been damaged. But Mayor [John] Kahl and I were very professional with one another. We’re part of the same organization, the Heart of Illinois Mayors Association. He’s the president of that organization, I’m a proud member. We communicate well with one another.
There’s not been any—we’ve had some disagreement, in terms of what was communicated between us in writing and what we’ve talked about personally. But never any nastiness with one another, always professional, and I think we both plan to keep it that way.
What updates can you provide on where things stand with the effort to restore passenger rail service in Peoria?
Mayor Ali: Well, I’m still very excited that we’re moving forward. Just last week we had an extension that we submitted; there were some legal language changes that were made to our agreement that were submitted. We think that we’re going to move to Step Two this year. We are very confident of that.
There’s three steps in this process for the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification Program. We’ve been working very hard to get to Step Two. Step One is the scope; Step Two is developing the service delivery plan. We expect to be there probably by August of this year. And that process is probably going to take 18 months to two years or so.
Then from there, from Step Two we move to Step Three, which is the pre-engineering and environmental analysis. After that, we’re in the pool for implementation and actual development.
