Here's an article from the PJStar, October 2009, entitled, "What Will It Take to Revitalize South Peoria" By JOHN SHARP
My questions are, are these businesses mentioned in the article still there? Did the projects slated to happen, actually occur??
Here is the text:
LaVetta Ricca, Ed Dentino, Carlos Martinez and Bobette Shrode anguish over the losses: the department stores, Ben Franklin, drive-in root beer stands, Proctor Hospital, the circus at Manual High School and an ice cream shack that once stood in Ricca’s alley. Better days, gone.
The realities of today can be sometimes bittersweet. Even when the city sends tax help to help South Peoria, Ricca and other longtime residents of the area are skeptical.
That happened recently. Faced with a possible $14 million city budget deficit for 2010, the Planning & Growth Management Department suggested cutting $15,000 for the beginning of a neighborhood “impact zone” surrounding the future $21 million Harrison school.
“How dare they?” said Ricca, the president of the Olde Town South Neighborhood Association.
The money has since been restored, and an infusion of public investment is headed to the south side. Whether it produces the desired changes - and helps alter decades of negative perceptions about South Peoria, attracting more homeowners back to the area - remains to be seen.
A collaborative effort from City
Hall, District 150 and the Peoria Housing Authority could result in more than $60 million in public investment to the current Harrison Homes and Harrison School site and an area called “the Southern Gateway.”
The push to revitalize the area takes center stage on Oct. 21, when the PHA unveils its 28-unit public housing project that is expected to be completed by June 2010. The houses, which will be designated for senior citizens, are part of a long-term housing plan to build 200 new units and encourage private home ownership.
“I think this is a major component of a revitalization plan, especially because the investment here is probably something we haven’t seen in the past in that it has a number of things happening at the same time,” 1st District City Councilman Clyde Gulley said. “When you look at (District 150), their investment is sizable. All we need is the city to start with the infrastructure.”
Economic incentives are available to lure private investors back into the area.
A tax-increment financing district at Darst and Clark streets experienced a 9 percent increase in equalized assessed value in the past year. The Warehouse District, which anchors South Peoria’s northern section, saw an 11 percent jump.
Since Southtown was created in 1978, its value has soared 680 percent, according to city figures. The 31-year-old TIF is set to expire in 2013, at which time the increase in tax money will be dispersed to District 150, the park district and other government bodies.
Sidewalks and also are being constructed.
Largely thanks to federal money, the city built sidewalks in the Manual High School area, a project that became a heightened issue following the uproar after a 2007 incident in which jaywalking tickets were issued to students in the area.
Other sidewalk programs offered by the city have been concentrated in the south end, according to Public Works Director David Barber.
“We spend almost nothing on the north end. The sidewalks in those subdivisions are paid for by the developers,” Barber said. “The south end has the old neighborhoods, and that’s where we focus (federal grant) dollars.”
The school, city and PHA investments also come as the Peoria Public Library continues plans to construct a multi-million dollar addition to its Lincoln branch.
Despite the local government attention, real estate values continue to be a problem. Less home ownership exists in the south end than other places of the city, and values are depressed.
Ricca and her neighbors say even if they wanted to move, they can’t because land values are depressed.
According to statistics from the Peoria Area Association of Realtors, the average home in South Peoria sold for $22,934 in 2008, which is less than the average listing price of $26,741. The lowest sales price for a home last year was $2,500, which is equivalent to purchasing a good seat on StubHub.com to see U2 in concert.
Ed Dentino, a longtime South Peorian whose family once owned a grocery store, blames the depressed values on investors in the 1980s who purchased aging homes, leased them to irresponsible tenants and created a situation in South Peoria where middle-class neighborhoods would not return.
Elizabeth Moss, a real estate agent with Black Cat Realty whose business includes selling houses in South Peoria, said the low values offer opportunities for home ownership for people who have not bought a house before.
She said part of the current problem is that people “are afraid” to own a home. S
), good enough. 
