The Peoria Horseshoe: The Poverty of Peoria

There is a deep poverty in Peoria. Not just materially or socially, but ideologically. Peoria’s ideas are themselves impoverished: all Peoria seems to get is private-public partnerships, job training, and tax abatement. This is a poverty in thought which leads Peoria inexorably further into decline.

A look at City Council reveals the poverty of thought which re-presents Peoria. There are: 3 bankers (John “Growth™” Kelly, Tim Riggenbach, and Denise Moore) 2 real estate agents (Zach Oyler, Chuck Grayeb), 3 business owners (Sid Ruckreigel, Jim Montelongo, Denis Cyr), a corporate executive (Mayor Jim Ardis), a lawyer (Beth Jensen), and a local college administrator (Dr. Rita Ali). It has been like this for decades: bankers, business owners, and real estate agents as far as a horse’s eyes could see. I call this a poverty because where is the rest of life on this council? Where are the garbage workers, service workers, nurses, teachers, scientists, librarians, etc?

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I’m talking about the City’s ideas; ideas that have lived in Peoria for a very long time in correlation with a period of intense decline–decline which is not unique to Peoria, but is a reverberation of a global phenomenon. This lack of uniqueness, a general universality, is embodied in Peoria’s slogan: “If It Plays in Peoria, it must play in the rest of America.” This slogan¹ (with its roots in early 20^th century vaudeville) says Peoria is the simulacrum of average America, of the dominant ideas of the U.S., and currently, that is neo-liberalism. It is an ideology: a matrix of ideas with a factical history investing itself in a socius.

Neo-liberal ideology: Capitalism has always repeated the function of maximizing the extraction of surplus-value from resources, equipment and labor. Throughout the history of capitalism, it has been necessary for government to assist in this goal whether through infrastructure, population analyses (e.g., the census), educating workers, communication, etc. These things were all to aid the free market even if they themselves were not market driven in their own function. But what is new in neo-liberalism is the belief, if you run traditional government or non-private institutions like a business, with the aim of maximizing profit–through the metastasized spread of the competition function–you will have a better product.

This belief correlates with a lack of faith, not just in government, but in its ability to effectively manage populations in a non-competition manner. This lack of faith manifests itself as austerity. Brutal austerity! We have a “servant-leader” who swears local government is really only for public safety and infrastructure. We have a rather Growthy™ appendage that said, “To the extent cities don’t work, there’s something nonmarket screwing it up.” We have a bunch of people in city government that don’t believe city government can do anything to help the average person, only the average business person. And, that’s a poverty of thought. This City is limited in its ability to see what potentialities exist that would actually benefit Peoria as a whole.

I’ve already talked about the importance of making Peoria a Welcoming City.

The City could pass ordinances limiting the ability of non-bank financial institutions like payday lenders and car title loans from engaging in predatory practices. There are over 30 of these stores throughout the Peoria area. They offer fast cash at extraordinarily high interest rates (some as high as 400% APR) and target largely poor and minority communities.

Peoria could buy the water company or encourage vertical farming.

The City could increase the minimum wage, reduce the legal loopholes in the state minimum wage law (e.g., exceptions on paying the full wage to minors, tipped workers, etc.), and teach classes on financial literacy.

But, apparently Peoria isn’t good enough for these things. We get more private-public partnerships, job training, and tax abatement. It’s as if we’re still in the 1980s, snorting cocaine while Reaganomics trickles down on us and Caterpillar destroys Peoria’s working class. It’s as if all the City Council seats are occupied empty, occupied by the ghosts of neo-liberal past.

1. There’s another saying in Peoria, “Peoria is a terrible place to do business.” You’ve probably heard the line repeated–in one form or another–by any member of the Peoria Chamber of Commerce. In some ways, it is an astonishing assertion to make considering the majority of politicians in Peoria are capitalists in both ideology and class. They themselves are the very business of Peoria. They’ve been in politically powerful stations for decades, yet this City is still a terrible place for them to do business?