Thought folks involved in this conversation might want to see this nice piece from this morning on Fox
http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/metro/Riverside_Rallies_To_Remedy_Eyesore
Riverside Info » About Riverside
Possible murals may improve look of Arcade Building
(41 posts)-
Posted Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 12:07 #
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Very cool video and cool interviews too. I know those people :-)
I wonder why they didn't trim the last minute of video though...
Posted Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 12:43 # -
Very nice project and press. Can this crew take on the task of creating signage/murals to make our Village attractive from the train?
BTW - any word on whether the is a bona fide buyer for the Arcade? I keep hearing rumors. Anyone know for sure?
Posted Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 13:04 # -
Typical for Fox, they missed the real story, namely that we were screwed by some crooks that ripped off upwards of $50 mil from investors. One wonders if they do any research at all... ever.
Posted Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 16:47 # -
I'm not a big fan of Fox News either, Don, but it seems pretty clear that this was just a human interest story, one which portrays our community in a pretty positive light. Not sure what would have been served at this point by an exhaustive retelling of the fraud. Still, nice to see your negativity is consistent.
Posted Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 17:13 # -
Fox should stick to cartoons. To clarify, I would have shot the scene in the other direction so people would have first seen the train station, Guthrie, the library, the Driver Block andthen as the camera panned to catch the Arcade with the "This Place Matters" sign it would have shown the town center in a better light instead of a stream of traffic coming over the tracks. I'm hardly negative on this project, since I was the one that wrote the Board and commissions initially to suggest it. Actually I did that a long time back under the old regime who did nothing with it. After looking at it just sitting there I did it again and this time the new Board and people like Aberdeen and a few others took it and got some support from RBHS and the Arts people like Nancy and Gail - so good for them. This could have been done way back when but there was no interest then. So what the hell have you done, Big JohnM?
Posted Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 18:02 # -
It was a great idea Don and I'm glad it finally got done....that said, I don't think the previous regime (or anyone in town) envisioned it sitting empty all this time. Heck, it didn't even have a clear owner/listing agent until the Spring, correct? All we can do now is pray a white knight comes to rescue it before we need to repaint the murals....
Posted Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 18:09 # -
My point, which was lsot on a guy that just likes to deride whatever I offer, is that Fox said it was empty "due to the downturn in the economy." That is not what happened. The Wexford guys came in here and sold a bill of goods, and were trying to get more out of the Village when the Feds came down on them. (Lucky for us.) John doesn't remember when we were having one item agenda morning meetings "to see what we could do for the developers." The whole deal - the 9 condos etc. - was bogus, and the presented here was probably the whistle blower on the principals in order to stay out of it. There's a lot more to that story... but I'll let people due their own research. I just wanted to point out that I was not being negative, just thought it should have been accurate, and better done. Fox is a cartoon network that wouldn't know accuracy if it bit them, and the clip could have been a really positive piece that showed the Village off and made a better pitch for welcoming a buyer. But I'll take what we got - JohnM likes to deride me for things I say upfront, not anonymously. I had to hear from him, and others including a Trustee, that I wanted to repair the Village in some half-ass manner "with duct tape", but nobody acknowledges that the Village came around and repaired things at a great cost saving and in a first-rate manner (like the backstop in the Big Ball Park.) I think it's great that so many different people, like the gentleman that is taking care of priming the panels, came together to work on this. We could do this with other things too - even if it's only 100 people out of a pop. of 8900.
Someone asked about a buyer. The numbers are very far apart, so it's hard to see anyone doing what the building still needs and paying anywhere close to what they are asking. And if that did happen, the rents would surely be too high for most of the kinds of businesses that are attracted here. I think the only successful conclusion will be the bank taking a real haircut, or worse.
Posted Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 19:34 # -
A little sensitive tonight, Don? I guess I just don't see the point of responding to a decent little human interest story with a diatribe against the channel that aired it. Maybe next time they'll ask your opinion on camera angles, story background and the reporter's wardrobe.
WIth respect to the rest of your post, don't forget that the Arcade Building was in receivership until early March of 2009. The bank that acquired it then put it out for bids, rejecting all bids received in April. It was put up for sale on the open market in May. While I appreciate the volunteer effort in putting up the panels and admire those volunteers who are devoting so much time and effort to it, I don't see any way that this could have happened under "the old regime"--even if they had devoted time to this, I can't imagine the receiver would have been interested, or even been allowed to approve this. I'm glad something is being done now, but I don't think it could have happened earlier. I'm also concerned that there's a bit of a Potemkin Village aspect to this--the painting will be nice, it demonstrates the civic committment of our citizens and it's a great opportunity for our students. Whether it helps move the property is another question. WIth that said, I don't know that the administration or citizens can do anything to get this thing sold, so any effort is appreciated. As an aside, I remember Bob Faust being an extraordinarily talented artist in grade school, so it's great to see someone succeed doing something they love.
As to your question of "what the hell have I done?", I guess with respect to the Arcade the answer is nothing. Beyond that, I pay property taxes, obey the law, and volunteer with my kids' school and with their sports teams. Honestly, Don, I don't mean to deride everything you say (given the amount of posting you do, that would be a full-time job in itself). However, it seems to me that we have very different views of where this village should be going, and if we butt heads from time to time, I can live with that.
Posted Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 21:03 # -
So what if Fox didn't cover the Wexford part. No one painting the panels for the Arcade cares about any of that, and I doubt anyone watching Fox in the morning cared about that aspect anyway. It doesn't affect the fact that we have a group of volunteers that have come together to pretty the building up. Fox isn't hurting anyone with this piece, and the mural project is a good thing for the Arcade building.
I thought it was interesting that The Landmark opined that it was possible the building's owners might think we would 'settle' for murals for three years. I think the owner's probably just want to be rid of it without losing too much money.
It was still nice to see Riverside on TV, no matter how devoid of background their piece was.
Posted Tuesday Oct 20, 2009 23:34 #
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