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Workshop Wrap Up

(53 posts)
  • Started 5 years ago by ChrisHajer
  • Latest reply from Aberdeen
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  1. MikeT
    Member

    7,997 to go today. I bought a red bull and muffin at grumpy's today.

    Someone good w/ marketing numbers....

    how many coffees and other small shop type of goods like this needs to be bought for retail concerns to stay in town? And, How much of this kind of stuff needs to be bought to increase sufficient ...
    *sales tax and
    *EAV (which then can be funneled to the Village admin)

    How much money do we need? How many coffees and coffecakes to we need to sell? WHat are our goals?

    How much of our 8900 population are consumers?

    I'll buy organic milk, but, honestly, I will not buy it at $8.40 a gallon at RF. But I'm willing to pay for such a gallon $5.30 at TJ's for $6 at jewel over the $2 per gallon for the stuff with BGH.

    Are answers to these questions as well as other like questions detailed in the TOD marketing analysis that I saw presented at wkshop 3, or in some analysis?

    Posted Thursday Mar 1, 2007 13:44 #

  2. Catherine
    Member

    Before I read all that follows Doug's answer to my last question, I want to clarify in case he comes back!

    The homes included in the TIF are not only single family homes but condominiums. I see no reason to be prejudiced against existing condos or condos per se. Is there a reason?

    Secondly, what I meant by quiet was not calling attention to our existence. One of the board members expressed this as 'private'.

    Posted Thursday Mar 1, 2007 13:59 #

  3. MikeT
    Member

    On th spending side of our town - always a reasonable thing to look at when one is (crying) poor...

    Are the town's expenses increasing at a higher rate than the cpi?

    How are the tax caps set up? I thought they were tied to cpi, true?

    If it is true that property tax caps are tied to the cpi and we are spending in a manner greater than the cpi, then I can see a trainwreck.

    Either the tax cap concept is not right, and we should see about correcting it in springfield, or consider home rule+,

    and / or

    look hard at our Village's spending to make sure it is for necessary things to get it as close to the tax caps rate as possible. THen this will lessen the number of coffecakes to buy, too.

    you know, penny saved is a penny earned.

    .
    + can someone speak about home rule? wait I will start a new thread on this question.

    Posted Thursday Mar 1, 2007 14:04 #

  4. MikeT
    Member

    The residential stock of the tif district includes condo's, apartment buildings, and single family dwellings. Pine av has the latter two. I know Burlington has condos and SFD's. Maybe apartments too? The TIF portion of Forest Av's residential make up is like Pine's - I think.

    I am not speaking for Doug, but I looked at Doug's answers and he seems to indicate he is for excluding *any* residential property since he did not use a qualifier.

    JDougPollock said--
    ...but I do also question why the TIF area would include single-family residential properties. I hope that is something positive that will come out of this process, i.e. that the residential properties will be removed from TIF and eminent domain of residential properties taken off the table.
    http://www.riversideinfo.org/forum/topic.php?id=219&replies=44#post-3489

    .
    and catherine's and the board members she mentioned ARE typical sentiments that I see again and again in town - my wife included. It might be antithetical to this whole commercial invigoration scheme or initiative. If there are problems in getting a bike path extention into town, how can we expect that the town wants all these people here? "KEEP RIVERSIDE SECRET. KEEP IT SAFE. KEEP IT TRANQUIL"

    ghost town or tranquil ?

    reminds me of two ways of looking at the same thing
    freedom fighter or terrorist?

    .
    edit: I added in the description of the tif residential composition as well to the Doug quote

    Posted Thursday Mar 1, 2007 14:07 #

  5. Catherine
    Member

    No, earlier in the post he stated "single family homes", and grammar dictates that his later remark refers to that. The holiness of sfd seems to stem from the usual presence of children, but we have children in our building, as well as elderly folk at least one of whom is alarmed at the prospect of being displaced.

    Burlington to Cowley has many single family homes, however, if that helps. I don't even bother trying to get us off the TIF since it is quite obvious why they would wish to extend it to Cowley.

    Yes, Spatny, the CBD extends to 51 Burlington I think, across from Century 21, the owner there very willing to give up his property. 2 houses east of the CBD on the south side of the street are now unoccupied, and a third begins to look so as well, so pertinent acquistions are perhaps going on beyond the CBD. Personally, I would not mind having a behemoth screening me from the train sounds, but I am willing to look beyond my self interest!

    Also, I know fresh food is a difficult business; restaurants have to deal with this as well. I think a niche grocer would do at least as well as a restaurant. If I knew anything about the grocer business, I would be willing demonstrate my point! I do know something about the restaurant business though: cleanliness is all. This would apply to all food and beverage vendors, of course.

    Posted Thursday Mar 1, 2007 14:28 #

  6. Tim
    Member

    Mike T.

    At the Are the town's expenses increasing at a higher rate than the cpi?

    At the workshops they talked about 'material expenses' increasing at a greater rate than CPI. The town's budgetary expense increases in due in part to this. Managing the budget with fiscal responsibility is another issue and can always be improved, although, if you look at the large number of grants we receive, it is not for a lack of trying.

    How are the tax caps set up? I thought they were tied to cpi, true?

    They are. The lesser of 5% or CPI. There are ways to circumvent the caps, ie referenda...but this requires Village wide vote. The schools have dominated referenda the past few years and this cuts into the share of the pie for everyone else. If the disparity continues, one may think that at some time this should be addressed in Springfield.

    The overall bottom line, that I think we all need to realize, is that our property taxes will go up one way or another as costs rise. My position is that I would just like the people running the show to be honest about our property taxes. I.E. What is needed? Where is coming from? and Where is it going?

    Mike for further property tax questions try here:

    http://www.revenue.state.il.us/LocalGovernment/PropertyTax/index.htm

    Posted Thursday Mar 1, 2007 15:19 #

  7. ChrisHajer
    Member

    Oh my God, they killed (chased away) Kenny (Doug Pollock):

    I think that's a shame: Doug has an interesting perspective on things, agree with him or not. We are poorer for not having his input.

    Posted Friday Mar 2, 2007 09:45 #

  8. MikeSedivy
    Member

    After prolonged debate on the matter, I believe the ball is back in the Trustee's court. What I have heard is that the Redevelopment Plan needs a lot of work and I think that was obvious back in November. No one said it was final back then. The Trustees will either move forward with a more well thought out Redevelopment Plan or they will kill it entirely. I prefer action to inaction in the absence of other ideas.

    Like Doug, I do do not think the discussions amongst the 8+/- frequent posters on this Board is productive and I think it is unfortunate that this Forum could not be used for a more civil discussion. I think a vast majority of Residents understand there are financial issues in the Village and would like to see the CBD revitalized. Let's move forward from here with constructive ideas and plans. We really can't afford to do nothing.

    Posted Friday Mar 2, 2007 10:24 #

  9. GoodListener
    Member

    I disagree. The discussions on this board have been productive. There are many of us mom's who read occasionally but don't have time to post. I wasn;t even registered until today. Sometimes people get a little mean, but I think the conversation is still good.

    Posted Friday Mar 2, 2007 10:36 #

  10. spatny
    Member

    For weeks Mike S and Corbi and a couple others were answering every post with one of their own, peddling their point of view. Now that there has been some polling - however small a sample it is - at events sponsored by "their side" we now here that this is all a waste and the Trustees should decide on their own. I don't remember telling anyone to "Bug off". And when I ask specific questions or propose specific actions I never get an answer. Anybody could and can post here. The people who do go to meetings - I've attended every one and I've seen a few others that do as well, so don't imply that we don't care, or that we are too rough on those poor babies that can't just a answer a specific question when they are the ones that made the claims in the first place.

    Posted Friday Mar 2, 2007 10:59 #

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