PEORIA, Ill. – It’s another four years for Peoria Mayor Rita Ali.
Ali won a second term in Tuesday’s consolidated election, beating out at-large councilman John Kelly, getting 60-percent of the vote.
As she begins a new term, Ali says she’ll be focused on implementing Peoria’s 5-year strategic plan, with a number of priorities.
“For example, one of those priorities is downtown development. So, we have goals for really creating a thriving downtown. One that provides residential housing, both home-owned properties, or those that are leased…so that we’ll have more people living downtown, working downtown, and playing downtown,” Ali says.
Bringing more housing opportunities to downtown Peoria, Ali says, will require more retail there…ultimately, grocery stores and pharmacies.
Ali says it’s one of her goals to give people more things to do in Peoria, creating more attractions downtown, in turn creating more revenue.
As she begins her second term in office, Mayor Ali says it will be important to work toward common goals with council members.
“We will definitely have a new council member within the Second District, with Council Member Grayeb leaving the council. But, I think that we have pretty good rapport amongst the council. There’s some friction at times, and there’s some disagreements over key matters like how you handle homelessness, housing the unhoused,” Ali says.
The past few months, the city has given non-profit LULA Peoria hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep the homeless off the streets. City officials are still working on a more permanent solution to the problem.
Ali says she’ll also continue to work hard on bringing passenger rail to Peoria. The city is now working with federal officials in the second phase of establishing light rail between Peoria and St. Louis.
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