Happy Autumn ! I hope all of you had a most enjoyable Summer.
A Buddhist Temple is coming to the Washington School Architectural Gem. I pray that this will be a lasting legacy for our Neighborhood, Community and State.
We will continue to monitor traffic through the entire West Bluff and make adjustments as the optimizers continue to improve traffic flow through four key intersections.
We remain on high alert as it relates to recent criminal activity where some Bradley students were robbed. We also will continue our efforts to form an even stronger town/ gown relationship. I communicate directly with BU students and administrators whenever a problem arises. In turn, the City of Peoria is always anxious to affirm our enduring commitment to a successful Bradley University.
We continue to work on revitalization of our adjacent commercial corridors and are drawing more members of the creative class to West Main Street. We are hoping to secure a green settlement with the EPA and be able to do some infrastructure improvements in our D2 neighborhoods. We are hoping we secure a grant for a new City permeable lot abutting Main and University.
Speaking of green, doesn’t our Greenway look great!
I look forward to seeing all of you at upcoming MBRA meetings. In our City, gun violence continues to plague us. After a relatively quiet year, we had several homicides in just a few days. When I first ran for office in the early Nineties we had 25 in one year. We are at 13 at this writing. Our people are united against violence and criminality. We will prevail and have already solved a number of these homicides.
Finally, we are really fortunate to have Councilor Jensen leading and helping all of us. I rely on her advice and help every single day.
Finally, if you see any of our city workers out and about, say “hello” and let them know how much we appreciate their work.
Best wishes,
Chuck