(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Illinois's population declined by nearly 33,000 residents from July, 2022 to July, 2023, according to the US Census Bureau.

This marks the 10th consecutive year of population decline for Illinois according to census estimates.

Why is this happening and how are our communities working to entice people to live and work here?

We're joined by Ty Livingston, the Director of Planning and Community Development in East Peoria.

Thanks for coming in, Ty.

- Good to be here, thanks, Mark.

- Well, it seems like East Peoria has the gift that keeps on giving, the Levee District.

It just seems to be growing more and more.

How big of a game changer was that for the city of East Peoria?

- It was tremendous.

It's really a culmination of years of work, and this is something that started out with elected officials back 40 years ago.

And the exciting thing about being a part of East Peoria as an urban planner is that every project has been something of a greater extent, something that was a bigger challenge.

If you think about the Four Corners area where we have Town Center 1 and 2, that's really where it started back in the '80s.

And from there, we built this progression of redevelopment.

So, it's everything from the Riverfront, which used to have a power station on it, to where the Paradise is at, which was a junkyard, to where EastPort Marina's at, and then more recently, the Levee District.

Each project's grown in scope, but each of them have been with a lot of challenges.

It's hard enough to develop as it is, but to have that type of redevelopment opportunity is very exciting.

And so, it's been been tremendous.

- And I wanna talk about that more a little bit later, but most cities don't have the opportunity, cities big or small, that East Peoria was afforded with the Levee District.

That's good for you guys, but are you surprised when you hear that Illinois is one of the top states in the country for people leaving and not coming back?

- It's surprising from the standpoint of, it doesn't feel like that.

It feels like we still have the same population that we had 20 or 30 years ago, but that's certainly not what the numbers show.

And I think there's a lot of factors that are going on, there.

And some of it is just this kind of a transition in the economy.

You see a lot more of these businesses are relocating in warmer climates, and that's one of the things we can't control in Illinois is the weather.

You get that mixed bag and every day's a little different.

That's one of those challenges that we have to work in and around and through and then, hopefully, overcome.

But certainly, if that population has decreased some, there are some values to it, if you think about it.

One of the great things about living in this area is traffic.

We don't really have traffic.

If you go to a larger market, you're gonna sit through a light several times before you get through it, or you're gonna be stuck in a traffic jam on the interstate.

You don't see that here.

And so, if that is a result of that, I mean, while you don't wanna see population loss, certainly, we've got a great infrastructure that's already here in place, and so it makes it very easy to get around the community.

- A lot of those people that are leaving are going to warmer places, like Florida.

And like you said, we can't control the weather, but I believe that the top five after Florida were neighboring states, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa.

So, as a planner and somebody that's working within the community, is this something that you and your colleagues, I mean, do you think about, hey, how can we keep people here, not only in the state, but here in East Peoria?

- A lot of it is looking at, what are some amenities, what are those quality-of-life pieces that we can offer that encourage people to stay here?

I think one of the things that came out of the pandemic is as much as people, we don't wanna go back through that again, but one of the things that we learned is that a lot of these jobs can be done remotely.

And so, one of the great things that we have to offer here is we've got great infrastructure already in place.

It's a great place to live.

And so, there's an opportunity there where you say, if you can work remote, here would be someplace that you could live that's got a lower cost of living, doesn't have the traffic, but has a lot of the amenities, or they're very close by.

You think about it, it's not a far trip to go to Chicago or to Indy or to St. Louis for a day trip and have, really, everything you need all within a day's trip.

So, it's pretty convenient to be here.

But I think that the opportunity is to try to attract folks that can work remotely, that maybe if the physical employer isn't here, there's an opportunity to encourage those folks to live in this area.

And so, it's finding those amenities to encourage families and people to stay here and live here.

- And speaking of amenities, we talked about the Levee District.

I know you've got a new apartment complex going up.

Could you tell us a little bit more about that and who you hope to attract down to the Levee District?

- Sure.

One of the original pieces of the Levee District was to have people living there.

And there's no greater way to reinvest in that investment that was already made there than to have people living there day in and day out, that they're much more apt to frequent all of the restaurants and shops that are there if they live there, versus if they have to travel to it.

Unfortunately, through the development, we weren't able to get that residential component.

Just the market changed, things happen.

And so, to be able to come back and provide that livability piece is very exciting.

And the development that's going up there is 219 apartments.

And the beauty of going from the ground up is that we can have something that is brand new, but it can offer these amenities that we find that folks are looking for.

And this isn't just for one set of the population, that we've heard from millennials as well as empty nesters that they really are looking forward to this development because you're gonna have things like a swimming pool, you're gonna have a dog park, you're gonna have the opportunities for integrated parking, which is really a big deal.

We're used to having, because of the weather that we have in Illinois, there are some days where you don't wanna have to go walk out to a parking lot to get to your car.

So, the beauty of having that parking deck connected to the apartments is gonna be really nice.

But we're looking forward to that getting moving forward.

Actually, they started work this week.

They started placing panels for that first floor.

And so, we're looking for that coming online.

They're gonna start some units here within a year, and then the completion of the project is gonna be some time in 2025.

But it's gonna be exciting to have that as a part of the development down there, having people living down there, and then also providing the amenities, the walkability.

One of the great things about the Levee District is it's very walkable.

It's intentionally designed so it has lots of great lighting.

We're also working on Levee Park right now, which is an amenity that attracted our developer, to have that park right on the other side of the library, which, the library in itself is an attraction for that development.

But to have that park component, too, is gonna be a really nice addition.

And it's that creating that quality of life.

- I was at a softball tournament, my daughter's softball tournament in Peoria last weekend, and a lot of people from out of town said that they were staying in East Peoria.

How important is sharing the tourism folks that come to Central Illinois and being able to say, "Hey, we've got hotel room if Peoria is full or Pekin's full?"

- Sure, it's huge.

I mean, if you look at the size of East Peoria, which is 22,000-plus, we have quite a few hotel rooms for a community that size.

And a lot of it's our location.

We're right in the middle of the urbanized area, and it sits between, really, two huge tourism draws, between the Louisville Slugger development on the north side of Peoria, and then EastSide Centre, which is the original sports stadium-type setup.

We've got lots of softball tournaments, baseball tournaments.

I think I heard our chamber director, Rick Swan, tell me the other day that they have, nearly every weekend has got something going on.

And that facility right now, the EastSide Centre, is one that's undergoing some improvements to make, to extend that playing season out, so they're going to turf fields and that sort of thing.

It's a huge draw, because instead of bringing people in for a single event, you're bringing in mothers, fathers, siblings, sometimes aunts and uncles or grandparents, and they're staying for multiple night stays, so it's really a huge tourism generator.

And then, on top of that, we've tried to identify, what are things for people to do when they're not playing, when their child's not playing a game?

And so, you think of things like Bass Pro or out in front of Bass Pro, we've got a new development that's gonna be a really exciting addition for residents and tourism alike.

- When you are planning things out in the community, things for people to do, places for people to live, what kind of, is there a a focus on a particular demographic of people?

Or is it like, "We need to have average rent, we can have a little, maybe, high-rent district."

What are you looking at in terms of those things?

I think that the focus is housing variety.

One of the things that we started down the path some years ago with IHDA, the Illinois Housing Development Authority conducted a study and looked at, really, some targeted areas for the city, but looked at the city as a whole.

And one of the things that we lacked is we have quite a bit of single family housing.

Much of it is affordable by its very nature, whether it's size or cost or what-have-you.

And that's one of the great things about this area as a whole, is you have affordable housing.

But what we lacked was having other multi-family options, that what we hear once again from the millennials and the empty nesters are, "I don't wanna have a house with white picket fence.

I don't wanna have to take care of the yard.

I wanna have someplace," for the empty nesters, "I wanna be able to lock the door in November and go down to Florida or Arizona and then come back in the spring when the weather's nicer."

But they still wanna maintain their permanent residence in Illinois.

And then, the same thing with the millennials.

We don't see that they wanna take on a mortgage.

They don't wanna have to ride the ups and downs of the market.

They wanna be able to say, "Okay, I'm moving on to my next job.

I'm gonna turn over my lease and be gone."

And they want that kind of flexibility.

Certainly, the apartments that are here, we've had some newer ones constructed on Centennial, which, as soon as they build 'em, they lease 'em out.

There's a demand there, and I think we're gonna continue to see that.

- Tell us about any partnerships that the city has, maybe with neighboring communities, whether it's, maybe it's the Tri-County Planning Commission, or any other kind of convention of visitors' bureau, tourist kinds of things, and how that works.

- Sure.

We work very closely with the Regional Planning Commission.

They are just a tremendous source for studies and opportunities to help us identify areas to grow, or looking at transportation facilities, making sure that we've got those up to snuff.

One of the things that's interesting about East Peoria is most of our major roads are either state or national highways, so they're not necessarily all within our control.

And so that requires, we've gotta work well with IDOT and try to continue to work with them as far as identifying opportunities for improvements and enhancements.

One of the great things that's happened in my time, I started out the Regional Planning Commission back in the 1990s, and right now, you have a lot of interest from IDOT to look at Complete Streets.

Let's not just look at, how do we get the cars through somewhere.

Let's look at how we can provide opportunities for everybody.

Whether it be cyclists, whether it be be walkers or hikers, how do we make sure that we're providing safe facilities for those folks as well, too?

And that's really a transition that's happened in the time since I've been working here in the area.

And it's really exciting to see because we need to provide those opportunities.

We have been such a car-focused society for so long, and we still are.

But if there are amenities out there for walkers and bikers, it's one of those quality-of-life things that people wanna see.

- Is there a lot of competition between Peoria and East Peoria as far as getting people to move there, getting businesses to move there?

I know that you work together in some facets, but is there a little competition, there?

I think it depends on who you talk to, but I think we really have a great relationship with them.

I've talked with Patrick Urich, I've talked with Michael Freilinger, certainly as the Warehouse District starts to develop.

They have a lot of great old warehouse buildings that just ooze with character.

We don't really have that in East Peoria, but what we do have is great opportunities for those new ground-up opportunities that we're creating.

And there's just different flavors to it, different feel.

And the end of the day, the goal is to bring people back to the core of the urbanized area, and that's what we're doing.

And I think we really complement each other well.

The Warehouse District has great opportunities for niche retailers and restaurants.

The Levee District certainly has a corner in the market when it comes to larger big box stores, your Costcos, your Targets, your Walmarts, all great things that complement each other well.

And so, people that live on both sides of the river can access these things very easily, especially now that you've got a great pedestrian connection across the Bob Michael Bridge, as well as a whole new bridge deck, really helps make that connectivity.

It's just, it's easy to get across and most people don't see any of those political divides.

That river is very easy to cross.

We have three crossings within a half mile, and we're very fortunate to have that.

- When you talk to people, maybe a business is interested in coming to the area, somebody's interested in moving to the area, but they say, "Man, those Illinois taxes, they're just, they're too high."

I mean, that's obviously not in your control.

How do you overcome that and say- - I think it's- - We've got a lot more to offer if you can just forget about the taxes for a minute?

- Well, we have a great workforce.

I mean, that's one thing that Illinois has always had going for it.

Once again, we've got the infrastructure in place.

To be in the middle of the country like we are, there's a lot of opportunities for connectivity that things don't take very long to get here.

Just an example in personal life, is when you order something from Amazon.

It doesn't take very long to get here because we're right in the middle.

Whether it's coming from West Coast, East Coast, or somewhere else, it doesn't take very long to get here.

They may tell you five to eight business days, but it takes you a lot less because of where we're at and all the transportation infrastructure we have in place.

When you look at Illinois as a whole compared to other states, there's things we're higher in, but there's things that we're lower in or that we're competitive in.

And I think that sometimes, we lose that narrative sometimes that it's, you've got an Indiana that's bending a business here and we're trying to compete with them.

And they hear, "Oh, they're cheaper here."

And so, then, that's about as far as the conversation goes, which is unfortunate.

But I think in the whole, there's a lot of great things with Illinois that we have to offer.

And quite frankly, on the local level, sometimes we have to find ways to work around that if there are challenges.

- Sure.

Are there any challenges with the success, let's say, of the Levee District?

Any challenges that's created for the city?

We talk about all the pros, but any challenges that that's created?

- Well, I think, moving forward, any time you have new infrastructure, the goal becomes, okay, how do you maintain that?

How do you keep that up?

How do you make sure that it's in good shape?

And I think we've got a really good team that looks at simple things.

You've got a lot of sidewalks that are around there.

Well, the nice thing about sidewalks is you can do these things where you can prop 'em up, you can put some supports underneath of them.

And so, as opposed to replacing all those sidewalks, you can make small adjustments that are very cost effective and keep that a nice, even surface and nice walkable area.

But that maintenance piece is something that's gonna be ongoing.

How do we make sure that the lighting is maintained all the time?

Because that's one of the promises that the Levee District offers.

It's a nice, brightly lit, safe area that's intentionally designed to provide that feeling of safety.

And so, certainly, we've gotta maintain those pieces.

Speaking of that component, one of the things that the city council has been very strong about in the past few years is we finally have our fourth fire station that's going up by ICC because of all the development that's happened on that north side of the community.

Right in the Levee District, we have a new police station that's gonna get underway here later this year.

And that's one of those pieces that, we're finally fully staffed.

The pandemic was really, really hard on public safety, as far as staffing.

We're fully staffed in both of those areas now, which is really exciting.

But to have that police station and have that new presence, I mean, they're in the Levee District already, but they're gonna go out on Camp Street and be even more visible than they have been before.

- I saw an article about how the city wants a new logo, a new design.

Is that part of a greater marketing/PR statement to the rest of the area in the country?

- It is, community branding goes way beyond just what the logo is.

But it's something that, if you look back and you say, "Okay, well, the current logo is 40 years old."

And then, not to focus on that, but a lot has changed in East Peoria in 40 years.

And so, we thought it'd be a great opportunity to take a hard look at who are we, how do people perceive us outside the community?

So, a part of that community branding effort is that they're gonna go out and ask folks that are within the region and then beyond the region, "What are your perceptions of East Peoria?

Who is East Peoria?"

And the goal is to come back with an authentic message, Everybody wants to say, "We're a great place to live, work, and play."

Well, can you back that up?

That's really hard to back up.

You can't be all things to all people, sorry.

So, that's something that we've gotta focus on, is, what is the message that we can deliver on?

And so, we ended up finding a firm out of Jacksonville, Florida named North Star.

And one of the reasons why we went with them is because this is all they do, is community branding, so this is their expertise.

And when we went out and looked at other communities that seemed to have a really strong branding message, they were behind it many times.

It's really exciting to be able to connect with those folks.

I applaud the city council and the mayor for taking this step because there is a cost to bring in a firm like this.

But when they have that kind of expertise, you're gonna come away with a really strong message, and that's what we're looking for.

So, the next step with that process is we're gonna have a survey that's gonna go out here in a couple of weeks that's gonna go out both to residents as well as folks that are outside the community.

And we're looking forward to that happening real soon.

They're gonna come back to us then with a plan based upon that feedback.

- You grew up in Peoria.

You've seen the transformation of East Peoria.

What do you think the future's gonna look like?

- I think it's very bright.

I think that the opportunity to get more people down in the Levee District, the city has acquired most of the property that is behind CEFCU and down along the side of Costco.

And the goal is to continue that mixed use development so you'd have commercial businesses on the main floor, and you'd have residential on floors above.

We're looking at looking for opportunities for entertainment.

One of the pieces that we're missing down there right now is we've got a lot of shopping opportunities, a lot of restaurants, not a whole lot of nightlife.

And so, that there's some opportunities to try to bring people together.

I think Levee Park is the first step in that, but I think there's another component that could be added.

Certainly, Peoria Heights is one community in this area that has a really strong nightlife component to it that happens particularly in the summertime, but even in the winter.

In the summertime it just has a really good vibe to it and I think a lot of people are attracted to that.

And I think there's an opportunity for a lot of communities in the area to do that sort of thing that, maybe there's multiple ones that have that type of opportunity to just gather and enjoy, enjoy each other, enjoy what the space has to offer and all the amenities.

- Well, I think everyone's looking forward to seeing what the future of East Peoria offers.

When the water rises, all ships rise, so I think it'll be good for the surrounding community, not just EP.

Ty, thanks for coming in, we appreciate it.

- Thanks, Mark.

- All right, well, there are still people moving to Central Illinois.

Our Phil Luciano spoke with a woman who moved to Peoria sight unseen all the way from California.

- [Phil] In California, Melissa Wood thought she lived in paradise.

Then, she found someplace better, Peoria.

- I think Peorians have sort of a inferiority complex.

I mean, I keep hearing people say, "Why did you move here, why did you move here?"

There's so many wonderful things about Peoria!

- [Phil] Born and raised in Arkansas, Wood made her way to California 40 years ago.

As an artist, she thought the natural beauty would provide background and inspiration for her paintings.

- I wanted to be around the artists that were there.

I wanted to be around the topography that was there.

I love the ocean and love hiking.

And that was a big draw for me, was just the beauty of the coast.

- [Phil] Her husband, a cartographer, loved the terrain as well.

But in more recent times, they felt California losing its appeal.

For one, traffic got horrible.

To visit friends or attend events not far away, they'd spend more time in their car than having fun.

- The traffic has gotten to be just ferocious.

And so, what I was finding was that I was on the road for two hours in really difficult traffic.

- [Phil] She also got concerned about pollution, especially from wildfires.

- Homes are being burned.

And so, that means everything in the home, including asbestos, including sheet rock, whatever you have that's in a home is being burned as well.

And it's in the air, and it was beginning to affect my health.

- [Phil] So, they mulled move.

- I just wanted to be outdoors more and I wanted to be off the road more and I wanted to be in my studio.

And so, we started looking around for something that would allow us to do that.

- [Phil] They researched many lifestyle factors.

They especially wanted a change in scenery that included changes in seasons.

Though they have no relatives or other connections in Central Illinois, in 2021, they zeroed in on Peoria and made the move.

- It had the quality of life we were looking for, a slower pace of life.

And yet, the city of Peoria offers so much.

I mean, it has unbelievable art.

The art scene here really exceeded my expectations.

- [Phil] So did the medical community.

- I've been really amazed at the quality of physicians that I found.

When you're retirement age, although I'm not retired, but retirement age, you start thinking about healthcare more.

And I have been so pleased with every aspect that I've found.

- [Phil] She also loves the surroundings.

- It's a beautiful town.

The architecture is quite nice.

- [Phil] So is the outdoors.

- I have sent photographs to my friends of when we've been hiking at Starved Rock or we've been hiking out at Wokanda or different places around here, too, Detweiller.

And they're always like, "Are you sure you're in Peoria?

Are you sure you're in Illinois?"

And it's like, yeah, there are these corn fields and fields.

But if you go past the corn fields, past on down a little dirt road, you'll find some of the most beautiful topography.

The ravines, the river, the river here.

- [Phil] Wood and her husband have both worked in Peoria and they now make their home in Morton.

There, Melissa runs her art studio, Category-Art.

She knows the Peoria area isn't perfect.

She hears complaints about taxes and crime all the time.

- I know there's problems, there's problems everywhere.

It's not just Peoria that's got problems, or just Illinois.

- [Phil] But now, it's home.

- I'm proud to be a Peorian.

I'm proud to be part of this community and I just see it getting stronger and stronger.

- Welcome back, Phil.

I guess the grass isn't necessarily greener on the other side for everyone.

- Listening to her, listening to Melissa Wood, coming from California to here, it was just great for her to go check, check, check, check all these little boxes she went through at the things she has found here.

And it's like, "You're right!

You're right, you're right, wow!"

And I forget about all these things and she's not paid by anyone to say good things.

It's just stuff she has found.

And it's nice to see that enthusiasm.

- And sometimes you really have to dig beneath the surface to find these things.

- Or just stop complaining for a while.

(laughs) - Or stop complaining for a while.

I'll tell you, the brief time I lived in California, I couldn't stand the traffic.

And yes, they have a lot of fun things to do, if you have money.

- That's the part that's hard.

And taxes are really a pain in the rump here in Illinois, but then again, the price of housing in this area, people from all over, including Chicago, they're like, "What do you pay?

Oh, my gosh, that sounds like utopia!"

(both laughing) - Exactly.

All right, coming up in just a few minutes, we've got, "You Gotta See This!".

- All sorts of interesting stories, two in small towns.

One, this is an old place where new folks came in and made a bakery.

And it's so good, it's so tasty, so amazing, people from Chicago are flocking to this smaller town.

And then, there's another small town.

This is a tavern that's been owned for four generations, the same family for 90 years.

It's the only public place in town that people can hang out.

And it's just a fun, fun-loving place.

You gotta check this out.

- Very nice, sounds like fun.

Again, go out exploring.

If you're bored and you live in Peoria, go ahead to some of these small towns that Phil and Julie go to on "You Gotta See This!

", and you never know what you might find - Or just, exceptionally, go to the show.

(laughs) - There you go, there you go.

Or go on Facebook when you're going to the WTVP Facebook site, which is fantastic.

Click on Events and then just search.

There's tons going on here in Central Illinois.

Well, that is our time for now.

We appreciate you joining us.

We are here every Thursday night at eight o'clock, followed by "You Gotta See This!"

at 8:30.

Check us out online at wtvp.org and on Facebook and Instagram.

Have a good night.

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