(bright exciting music) (bright exciting music continues) - Peoria has more than 100 neighborhood associations, but some in the heart of the city are seeing fewer residents participating.

Before we talk with our guests and hear why this trend is concerning, our Phil Luciano shows us some of the benefits of neighborhood associations.

(gentle uplifting music) (gentle uplifting music continues) (gentle uplifting music continues) We have Rick Burdette, the Vice President of the West Bluff Council, which is made up of West Bluff neighborhood associations and covers Bradley University and Main Street businesses.

And Linda Butler, she's the Vice President of the Armstrong Ellis Neighborhood Association that encompasses Peoria High School and areas around there, and Armstrong Ellis is also part of the West Bluff Neighborhood Association.

Thank you both for being here.

- Thank you.

- Thank you.

- Linda, how long have you lived in the area you're representing?

- The area that I represent, I have lived there for 30 years, and I'm on my second home in the area.

- [Mark] And how long have you been with the association?

- With the neighborhood association, when it was established many years ago through the legacy of Ted and Rosemary Bannon, I've been with them, so probably since the early 90s.

- Okay, well how have you seen it change since then?

Good or bad?

- Both ways.

And I understand from research that neighborhoods will change perhaps every seven years, so I've had the opportunity to welcome and say goodbye to many people being there 30 years, but overall, I think it's been good.

We were developed to make sure that we would have, if you wanna say good behavior, and growth with families, and beautiful homes, and just a wonderful community of people living with each other in a good way, that that has been achieved, with some bumps in the road, but overall, from the vision, it has been maintained.

- And Rick, what about you?

- Well, I've been in the neighborhood for 30 years also, as of this year, which is interesting, she has, too.

I've been with the West Bluff Council probably for, what, 10 years or so.

- Have you seen a decline in participation over the years?

- Yeah, I mean, that's really the purpose of why we're here today, and it could be COVID, it could be other issues, but we've seen a drop in participation, and the thing that, what I saw, is that we need strong, strong neighborhoods.

It's the neighborhood is a part that does a quality of life.

And as far as, let me explain the West Bluff Council.

The West Bluff Council is really a nonprofit charitable organization.

Our main purpose is to increase the quality of life.

That's our main purpose.

We represent, or the people who are on the council, we have eight neighborhoods.

We also have businesses that are on the council.

We have Bradley University that's on the council.

We're also blessed with Chuck Graham, who shows up.

We have, you know, people from government.

And we also have our neighborhood officer, which is Jake.

So we have a pretty strong group there with good minds, but I've seen a drop-off in both neighborhood participation, we have three that kind of went away.

Luckily, Linda came forward, and her neighborhood is now making inroads, along with the Orchard District.

We still have what we call Columbia Terrace North, we have hardly any participation with them.

So what I saw is a need to get a strong neighborhood.

Now I have to say it somewhat benefits me for sure, because it's my neighborhood.

I live in the Randolph-Roanoke neighborhood, and we're a small neighborhood, but yet, I've seen, it's very important that we do have a strong, we do have a strong neighborhood.

We've done stuff like improve the lighting, and because we're small, and we have active people, we watch who comes in and who goes out.

We have kept, we have bad actors come in.

Well, they don't stay too long.

So it's important for people out there who wanna get involved, and make a stronger neighborhood, to start participating.

That's what we're looking for.

We need bodies.

We need people who want to improve, but the problem is how do we get that information to them?

- [Mark] Sure.

- So that's what this program is for, and people who watch your program are probably the ideal candidates, 'cause they're concerned of what's happening.

So, you know, so anyways, that's my little spiel.

- So are these associations, do you feel like they're a good conduit between the residents and the city?

- Oh, to say to least.

- Almost definitely.

- Yeah, how so?

What are some of the benefits that you've seen?

- Well, over the years, as I said, with the Armstrong Ellis Neighborhood Association, it's having the opportunity to come together for special events, as well as to, those sometimes being the dumpster event, if you have things you need to toss, but when you go there, you meet others at the event.

We are planning very shortly here for the Armstrong Ellis Neighborhood Association a neighborhood block party.

So it's just things like that.

And then I think people can talk about what their needs are, what they're seeing, what their hopes are for the neighborhood in which they live, especially homeowners.

- Rick, can you give us some examples in the neighborhoods that you've been in and represent how maybe folks have come together and say hey, we need better lighting, we need less crime, things that you've taken to the city that have made your area a better place to live?

- Right, and the city have been really good.

I've been really appreciative of what they've been doing, both public works, and, of course, Chuck Graham.

We had a lot, we had a house torn down.

Of course, we have plenty of those around.

But through the city, and with the help of the city, and with the help of grants, we build a neighborhood community garden.

We have a nice fence around, we got a nice shed, and it brings people together, and it's a heck of a lot better than an empty lot.

We have a park, too, that we were able to, we maintain.

And we actually have two parks.

One's at Carle Clinic's Park, and then ours over at Armstrong.

It's a good place to gather.

In fact, we get together with Armstrong Ellis for the last two years when we had Night Out.

So that's beneficial.

We still have those issues with certain houses, but we focus on those, and we use resources of the city to help take care of those problems.

- Mm-hmm.

With these areas that you mentioned before that have little to no involvement anymore with home associations, have you seen those areas decline at all?

- Decline in what way?

- Well, in terms of the way they look, the people that are living there, are they happy there?

Are they trying to get out, or are more people trying to get in?

What have you seen, what are you worried about for those areas?

- Well, the biggest thing is crime.

I think that, and again, it has to do with quality of life.

I don't live in, you know, I live in my neighborhood, and I don't, I just see issues going on in the other neighborhoods.

And as a group, when you can get people to participate, you can hack down some of those problems.

One of the biggest problems we have is teenagers out in the streets with guns.

I mean, I talk with our neighborhood resident officer, Jake, and he's always running into youth and stuff like that, that cause a lot of trouble.

And that needs to be addressed.

And as a group, as an individual, it's hard to do that.

When you're a neighborhood association, you have a better chance of monitoring that.

And then with the West Bluff Council, we even have a bigger impact on what's going on, especially since we have people on our council that actually can do stuff.

So I do see a decline, but I also see there is a way of getting out of that.

And that's through participation.

That's what we're here today, is to get those people to contact us so we can move forward to a better conclusion.

- Sounds kinda like in these neighborhoods, if there's no squeaky wheel, no one's gonna give it the grease.

(all chuckle) - I think that is so true.

It's about having personal relationships, or neighbor relationships.

I was just, the other day, there were a couple young people next door to me and across the alley.

They play a lot of basketball, and I saw them riding their bikes and their scooters and everything, and once it looks like they were having a down time, I went in the house and I got a box of Dreamsicles out of my freezer and brought it, and said, "Would you all like?"

Which they really did.

And they wave to me all the time, and they'll say, "Hi, Miss Linda."

You know, I think I have the status of the old lady on the block sort of thing going on, but I've had neighbors to shovel my snow, just different things like that.

Watch out or call me and say, "You know, "there was a young lady that stopped on your porch, "wanna let you know," and just kinda gave me how she looked around on my porch, but I knew who it was, but I had a neighbor that as we look out for one another, have those relationships.

We take care of each other.

- And that's an important point, that the association, when you participate, you learn your neighbors.

And isn't that a better way of living?

They can look after your place, and you can look after theirs.

If you need help, they're there to help.

Because we are, you know, our neighborhood, we pretty much know everybody.

We have good contacts.

We have good discussions.

Things happen without having to go to the city, or neighbor helping neighbor.

And when you start participating in the association, that's the relationships that you've built.

So it feels better as a home.

You create a better living scenario.

- You mentioned earlier maybe part of the reasons why these groups aren't as big as they once were, you know, COVID, things like that, maybe people just don't know that they're out there.

Any other reasons, do you feel maybe people are just kinda like, eh.

Somebody else will take care of it for me?

- Perhaps, and I think people are busy.

You know, when our neighborhood association started up, a lot of the people that were participants, they were home during the day, and so they could see things and do more things, and I would say perhaps now, people are much more on the go, and they are trying to fit something like this into their schedule.

So I think there just needs to be some creativity in the neighborhood associations as to when you meet, where you meet, how often you meet, that it is accommodating to those that have an interest in making sure that their neighborhoods are growing and having a good quality of life.

- Yeah, typically what is the schedule for meetings?

Is it once a month, is it a public place, or is it someone's house?

How does it normally work?

- For the Armstrong Ellis Association, we had tried meeting at least once a month, when the weather gets better, and not over the winter months, and we have met in homes, and we have met at the nearby church.

It was mentioned that Peoria High School is within our neighborhood association, but also there is a church, Heaven's View Christian Fellowship Church, and they have opened their doors for us to have our meetings there, so usually when we meet there, it'll be a Saturday morning.

- Okay.

- And really, every association's different.

They meet at different times.

Some meet monthly.

We meet maybe three times a year.

Of course, we also communicate, we don't have to meet every three times a year, or more than that.

So again, I think that it all depends on the association.

- But it's not a big time commitment, it doesn't sound like for people, I mean, once a month, or three times a year?

- Yeah, I think it just depends on when you can meet, again, people's schedule, not necessarily a time commitment, as you said, but where does it fit in the schedule?

And as Rick said, there's various ways of doing that.

We all learned from COVID, how to Zoom in on a meeting, you know, that sort of thing, to bring everyone up to date.

Emails go out so people will know about things, and Mike Galat, who is the President of the Armstrong Neighborhood Association, he's putting together flyers now for the upcoming block party, so we'll be out passing out flyers, as well as emailing that information.

- In our graphics earlier, we had one that said "$5000 grants are available".

- You betcha.

- For neighborhood improvements, I mean, you can't pass that up.

- Well, that's how we help pay for our community garden.

We put $10,000 into that.

Now we're working on a light for a park to keep it more secure.

And I mean, these are things that people don't know unless they get involved.

There are avenues, and there's programs out there that will help.

They can sit on the porch and bitch, and what good is that?

So we want those people who actually wanna come in and do something, and we want participation.

We need bodies.

They don't have to be 100% into it.

We just need them to understand, and that's one thing about the West Bluff Council, is that we're kind of a hub to collect information and disperse it to those people.

We're not taking the place of the neighborhoods.

We're there to augment them and help them.

And when we talk about the West Bluff, we do go from 74 in the east to Western on the west, the Bluff on the south, and 74 on the north.

But we are Main Street.

We are the core in Peoria.

It's very important.

We're Main Street USA.

Main Street goes right through us.

It's important to create a good, strong neighborhood there, and keep things rolling.

- Yeah, you mentioned Main Street.

Do businesses ever get involved with the neighborhood associations?

- That's the other one.

They're supposed to, we want them to be involved.

But occasionally, one will show up.

I would like to find somebody who, you know, I like to get more people involved.

That's on my list of trying to invigorate.

- Well, and it seems like it would be beneficial to the businesses to get involved with these associations to try and improve the area.

- Most definitely, because they want customers, and people to know them, know their name, to trust them, so yes.

It would be beneficial in that way, but also, it's just community.

Being around to support the things that make quality of life much better, staying in tune with needs and trends of things, and just helping the community at large to be a community, so it's really these neighborhood associations as they collectively come together that makes the city a great place to be.

- You mentioned that working with the city has been a positive experience.

- [Rick] Oh, to say the least.

- Is the city proactive in coming to the associations, or is it your job as a member of the association to go to the city and say, "Hey, these are some of "the issues that we would like addressed?"

- I think it works both ways.

The city will reach out to the neighborhood associations, and then the neighborhood associations will reach back out to the city.

I mentioned Ted and Rosemary Bannon, who is really the legacy people of my neighborhood association.

But when there was a need to preserve our boulevard with the brick streets, and to have that designation, they led our neighborhood association into agreeing with that, and making sure that that's done, so there's been, you know, we preserve some of Peoria's history in that core area that Rick was talking about.

So yeah, we go to the city, and the city comes to us.

- In regards to associations, they usually will reach out.

But when it comes to the West Bluff Council, that's because we do have Councilman Graham on, and I mean, he really is a great conduit between us and the city.

He knows where to go.

He knows the guys who contact.

And he thinks out of the box, and he definitely helps.

- Yeah, that's a good get for you guys.

We mentioned earlier a crime, and we used to see the signs everywhere that said, "Neighborhood Watch", and had the silhouette of the bad guy on it.

(all chuckle) Do you think people participating in these associations, the more people you get, kind of the easier it is to fight crime, or at least keep an eye on things and have everybody on board?

- Definitely.

To say the least.

- And is that a worry now, that if you have lower participation that maybe crime could be slowly coming back into the area?

- Definitely.

- Well, I mean, if you have the crime now- - Well, the less eyes you have, and if people know that, or it looks like it's an area where people are not paying attention, then it could become a target.

I remember recently when we had a couple things to happen in the neighborhood, and needed more information, everyone was saying, "Did you have your camera on?

"Do they have a camera?"

You know, that sort of thing.

So there is protection in the neighborhood, and I had some neighbors contact me when we had a new family that moved in.

Looks like they're a pretty happy, partying family, and got a call about it, and so I went and spoke with the elder person there in the home, and we talked about some of our common values and such, and he would say to me, "Well, yeah, I'll tell them about this.

"Thank you for letting me know."

I explained, they'd only been in the neighborhood for about three months, and I shared, you know, here's what some of the things that go on in our neighborhood, and these may be some things that would disturb the neighbors, and we don't want anyone calling the police, or anything like that, but being able to work these things out.

The neighbor called me back a couple days later and said, "What did you do?"

I said, "I just talked to him."

"Well, it seems like it is better."

Yes.

So again, being able to connect like that, having those resources in your neighborhood to work with crime if you think something is going to be a party that gets out of hand, different things like that, or just people roaming through the neighborhood with cameras, with telephones.

You call each other, you check.

- Exactly.

It's amazing what you can do with just talking to people.

(Rick chuckles) - That's true.

- And giving out ice cream.

- That's true, too.

- You know, that can solve a lot, too.

- And what you get back from that, shoveling my snow.

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

It's all reciprocal.

Before we go, and we're gonna give people some information on how you can find out more about these associations, anything else that you all would like folks to know about being a part of an association or why it's important for the neighborhoods?

- I would like for people to remember why perhaps they chose to move into a neighborhood, and how you plan to secure that, maintain that, and make it better.

There's a reason why you chose the house, or the home, that you have there.

What's your investment in it, and what do you, what vision do you have for the area that you live in, and for the relationship with those who live around you?

- Well, I think it goes back, and I will reiterate, the quality of life, the big thing.

And then creating a livable, good environment.

- All right, let's give out that email address.

Wbneighborhoods@yahoo.com.

We'll put that up, and we'll also put up a map of the West Bluff Neighborhood Association, so you can kinda see where everything is.

And is that going straight to you, Rick?

That email?

- Yes, yes.

- Okay.

So if you have any questions, concerns, comments, Rick's your guy.

- Yes, thank you.

Appreciate it.

- All right.

We appreciate your time.

Linda Butler- - Thank you.

- And Rick Burdette, thank you very much for your time, and good luck in the future.

- Thank you very much.

- Welcome back.

We are joined by Phil Luciano.

What do you think of the neighborhood associations?

- You know, I think a lot of folks, when they think of just all the stuff that neighborhood associations do, or they hear that term, they think about government, they think about red tape, and they think, ah, that's just another thing that mucks things up, and that's completely the opposite, that these neighborhood associations, homeowner associations, all these groups, they cut through that red tape.

They're a way to get a voice, even a bigger voice than you can have by yourself, and they get a lot of stuff done, so if you're living in an area, there's 130 of these things.

Call city hall, find out which one you're in, and meet up with them.

Get stuff done.

- Yeah, I think another thing people might not realize is that those numbers also include some HOAs, like if you live in a condo.

- Sure.

- Homeowners association.

And those are a little different, because they have set rules.

- Right.

- You know?

You can't fly whatever flag, or you gotta pick up your dog poop, things like that, so.

- But a lot of these are activists, and the city likes to talk with these folks.

They wanna get things done.

They'd rather do it that way than have some big issues, someone showing up at a meeting, and bap, bap, bap, bap.

It's a little bit easier just to work with the homeowner associations.

- Absolutely.

Well, coming up in a few minutes, we have got a brand new sparkly, shiny episode of "You Gotta See This".

- I don't know if it's sparkly, but it's natural.

It's nature-y.

We're going glamping.

It's glamorous camping.

If you like camping, but you don't like to rough it, you wanna come with us.

There was one close to Peoria that is shut down, but there's one in LaSalle County, and we go out there.

I had never known it was there.

It's been going a few years, and they've got food, they've got drinks, they've got all these things you want.

It's not like when you're out in the middle of nowhere.

It's pretty cool.

You'll wanna check this out.

- You got some AC, maybe?

'Cause that's what I'm talking about.

- And, yes.

And if you like beverages of all sorts, they've got a place that's open all day and all night.

It's there for you.

- Not bad.

What else we got?

- We also learned, well the story, the back story, to "The Wizard of Oz".

Everyone loves that story, right?

The start of "The Wizard of Oz" isn't in Munchkinland, it's not in Kansas.

It's actually in Bloomington.

Bloomington, Illinois.

And we'll show you how that Yellow Brick Road detoured from Bloomington to the land of Oz.

- And I'm hoping we have some 8-track time machine.

- We do have some 8-track time machine, and it is on Oz songs.

It's some history of the Oz music.

I know that went before 8-tracks, but it's still cool to hear Buddy Ebsen singing.

He was the original Tin Man.

He's singing, he's hoofing.

And also we talk about some of modern music that is tied to Oz, and you would think, I mean, that's such a massive movie, right?

A massive novel.

It's such a big, big pop culture explosion for decades and decades, more than 100 years.

You think there'd be more songs in pop music that are connected to Oz.

Well, at least I thought so.

But we found a few, and we'll show you which ones these are on, and you'll go, "Oh yeah, I remember when that part, "yeah, that one, too."

So.

- Have you heard the urban myth about Dark Side of the Moon?

- Oh yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Tell the folks who out there might not know.

- Well, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, some people think is secretly the soundtrack to "The Wizard of Oz", if you sync up the movie and Dark Side of the Moon, and play them at a certain point, certain lyrics line up with certain scenes in the movie.

- Right.

- If you're really bored sometime, give it a shot.

- Get your 8-track out, and get out your VCR, and all your old technology.

Have a great time.

- That's right.

But don't do it right now, because you're gonna see this starts in just a minute with Phil and Julie, and be sure to join us anytime at wtvp.org, and on Facebook and Instagram.

Have a good night.

(bright exciting music)