Peoria, Illinois, USA

Wall Street Journal Article


A recent article appeared in the Wall Street Journal about the "Armadillo" crime fighting vehicle.

Read the story on the link below:


Our police department is proud of their inovative crime fighting method. But our real estate community feels that the article is negative, focusing on crime instead of facts such as:

  1. our metro market is 378,000, and has performed better than most throughout most of the recession;
  2. the medical industry by far largest employer here, followed retail and education; Caterpillar ranks 4th, and concentrates most of white collar work force here;

Peoria has re-built itself since the last major national recession in the early 1980's into a truly new economy which fared better than most through most of this national recession.  We are a major regional medical hub with growing undergraduate and graduate schools at four colleges and universities. The University of Illinois runs a quality Medical School in our downtown.

Most cities of any real size and depth have some crime problems. Peoria is no exception. And we are developing innovative ways to deter crime.

Fox News ran the below video and telephone interview on their national live news show yesterday.  Comical opening piece with a man in an armadillo suit from the show "Friends."