Gary Sandberg removed from 1st District race

What does this decision do for the street cred of the At Large Councilman who speaks for any man:

Sandberg off the primary election ballot

Gary Sandberg's name has been removed from the Primary ballot for the First district Council seat.

The Peoria City Election Commission announced their decision Tuesday evening, after hearing arguments Monday from opponents Denise Moore and Randall Emert (a/k/a the Mailman, a/k/a Emtronics, a/k/a Peoria Anti-Pundit), who both challenged Sandberg's residency requirement.

The commission agreed that Sandberg has not lived at his Adams street residence for one year as required.

Sandberg -- currently an at large city council member -- previously lived in the second district and just recently moved to the first district. Source

What's important to people from other places...

... is not necessarily what is important to life long Peorians.

We continue to hear locals talk about what they don't like about Peoria. One of the issues that come up regularly is the fact that "people from other places," don't have our best interest at heart when they volunteer to run for office; sit on local boards, or take jobs that directly impact our bottom line.

A candidate who recently threw his hat into the ring for the 5th District City Council seat, is Caterpillar Enginer, Dan Adler. Dan is from Marshfield, Wisconsin, "a small city in the center of the State." Dan believes:

"Peoria is a nice place to live, but it could be so much better." 

Over on the Peoria Chronicle they take Dan to task for choosing a "puzzling platform" because he wants to focus on the completion of the Kellar Branch Trail. You can read about what others feel is important to the 5th District here, and it ain't the Kellar Branch Trail.

Over in the 1st District, Clyde Gully is retiring, after twelve years of sitting on the Council. 

A candidate seeking to fill Gulley’s seat is Denise Moore, a financial adviser and business consultant. Denise is from Bloomington, she and her husband Gary Moore (WEEK-TV) own a home in Spring Grove. Gary may as well be a life long Peorian, when you consider how much he knows about this community and how much he gives back.

Mrs. Moore is also very active in the community, she reportedly has served on the Tri-County Planning - SMART Goal Setting Committee, the Minority Business Enterprise Ad Hoc Committee, the Rain Garden Committee, and the Southtown Stakeholder Committee. She is a past secretary of the National Association of Women Business Owners and is a trustee on the Proctor Hospital Foundation Board. Some of the issues of concern to Mrs. Moore: 

• Job growth, business investment/development within the 1st District.
• Focus on the Warehouse District and Downtown (she is a propopent of what's been going on in the Downtown)

Are these the issues that life long residents of the 1st District would think to be most important? One person I know that would question if these are the issues that need to be addressed by the 1st District Council person would be life long Peorian, resident of the 1st District, Emtronics a/k/a Randall Emert a/k/a Peoria Anti-Pundit. In a recent 1157 word salvo,  entitled "Idiots at the Helm," Anti-Pundit raised these issues:

• The crappy $13 Garbage Fee on water bills. 
• Raising property taxes that’ll drive out people and they will leave Peoria. 
• District 150 is a mess and nobody who values their child’s safety, let alone education, will allow their kid to go to any district school. 
• Bullshit spending on Head Start and even the $80k and more for ELITE. 
• Our council think a success is drinking Irish beer in the middle of a taxpayer paid street to benefit a local bar owner. 
• Taxpayers paid millions to have Water Street installed so we can pay city services to close it so those who seem not to have day jobs can lounge in chairs and tables at a local bar.
• Success is lowering the crime rate.
• Success is repairing and cleaning the streets.
• Success is having a great fire department and sidewalks in ALL neighborhoods.
• Nothing done on Griswold in over 40 years or any side street but with the Southside TIF money we install ornamental lights and fix a roof on an empty building.  

So, while the issues that Mrs. Moore raise may all be very good issues, her perspective of what should be on the front burner for Peoria and or Peorians and their neighborhoods appear to vary greatly from what at least one (1) long standing citizen of the 1st District may think is important. 

But then again, Mrs. Moore is the only person in the 1st District that has thrown her hat into the ring.

You said it, I read it...

1 out of 8 girls pregnant at Chicago high school

I came across this report about pregant teenagers last week, but I found it so astounding I just didn't want to touch it. However, I post it today after reading a post that the Peoria Anti-Pundit has about what schools need to do with pregnant girls (notice #5 on his Wish List). Can somebody please send Bristol down here to talk with these young ladies.

115 Pregnant Girls at Chicago High School

A total of 115 girls are pregnant at Chicago's Paul Robeson High School. The entire school only has about 800 girls, so that means that 1 out of every 8 girl is pregnant.

There is no specific reason why Robeson High is experiencing such a high rate of pregnancies amongst its students. Robeson principal Gerald Morrow cited the young girls' home environment as being a factor, "It can be a lot of things that are happening in the home or not happening in the home, if you will."

There is work being done to improve the quality of life in the surrounding neighborhood to Robeson High. Developers are working on turning a one-time crack house into a day-care center for student use.

Source