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Ron Jackson's Perspective
The Sunday Journal -
Think
Kankakee, Illinois
April 28, 2002
Does motel
agreement indict city? |
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It's always good when a
nuisance has been taken care of. It's also sad when the steps
to rid such nuisance take a personal toll.
An agreement between Kankakee City Police and the Avis
Motel, and its impending plight, puts me in a mental quandary.
The hotel has taxed the Kankakee City Police force. It has a
negative effect on the Eastside community. It's not what it
used to be.
The hotel is also a family's livelihood. It's a
legal business. It has the potential to be another old Kmart.
One side of my brain applauds the Chief of Police for
taking a bold step to solve a long-term problem. Reducing
police calls to the establishment from 150 in the three months prior
to the agreement to zero since, speaks for the effectiveness and
necessity of the agreement.
Getting the motel owner to agree to ban all Kankakee
County residents from renting a room was shrewd. Taking away
99% of a business's customers will definitely get rid of the
trouble. And the business, too. As long as the owner
wasn't handcuffed, beaten and forced into such a deal, there should
be no problem. But there still is.
The other side of my brain wants to ask the motel
owner, "What in hell were you thinking? Don't you remember
when the Native American Indians entered into treaties with American
governments? Look where they ended up. Ninety-nine
percent of their land and livelihood was taken, too. Did you
really think the city's economic development czars were going to
bring out-of-county customers to you? Was it the steady flow
of non-local traffic past your business towards downtown Kankakee
that convinced you?"
The current reputation of the Avis is well deserved.
It became the Mecca for troublemakers. How the motel was able
to attract the undesirables' dollars without any other business on
East Court Street getting any of that business is puzzling, though.
Of course those residents who frequented the Avis Motel never
stopped at fast food, gas, or liquor stores when coming to and from
the motel.
I remember the heyday of the Imperial 400 as reported
by Journal writer Lee Provost when, "Parents from across the region
would send their kids to the Imperial 400 for pool parties and
post-prom parties." I also remember some underage kids from
across the region having pot parties, Black Label beer parties,
streaking parties and sex parties at the Imperial 400. Now
that was the "heyday."
Since the agreement was so effective, I would like to
see it implemented in other trouble areas. Get spouse/mate
abusers to agree to only beat out-of-county partners. We could
even get child abusers to agree to abuse only non-Kankakee County
children. Just think how this would impact our city. Our
police would no longer have to risk their lives other than by
directing all that out-of-town traffic as it headed into Kankakee.
The agreement to ban county residents from patronizing
the Avis Motel was not an indictment against the motel. It was
an indictment against all the fine citizens of this county.
Maybe the Places Rated Almanac was onto something when
it gave us the "Worst Place to live in America" ranking. Now
we're the "Worst Place to spend a night."
Hmm, I wonder if the owner of the Avis Motel ever heard
of the term, "reparations"? |
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