Recent reports about the city of Peoria and Bradley University joining forces to improve the Main Street Corridor from downtown up to the college are encouraging.

Work to improve that corridor has been ongoing for years (just ask Steve Spain, owner of the Costume Trunk at Main and Sheridan), but it has fizzled out and there are a lot of vacant storefronts, particularly in the Main and Sheridan area.

Concerns about safety for patrons of establishments along the corridor, especially at night, is a chief reason for that. It wasn’t that long ago there was a murder in the drive-thru lane of the former McDonald’s restaurant on Main Street.

But some places along that corridor, largely closer to Bradley, are doing well. Campustown, One World Cafe and other restaurants at Main and University seem to be thriving. And people aren’t giving up on downtown, either.

Recently, a new community theatre company started operating out of the GAR Hall at Hamilton Boulevard and Madison Street. Upstage Theatre Co., owned by Jolene and Craig Howard, plans to do comedies (many with music), immersive murder mysteries and melodramas. Some of the shows will include dinner.

I attended one of the dinner theater murder mysteries with my granddaughter a few weeks ago and met the Howards at the end of an enjoyable evening. They are new to Peoria and the local community theatre scene and are anxious to become an integral part of it.

While the GAR Hall meets their needs for now, the Howards are looking into acquiring another downtown staple, the Apollo Theatre at 311 Main St., which is currently for sale. The Apollo, built in 1914, has a small but beautiful stage and permanent theater seating.

The basement of the Apollo building once housed a successful restaurant the Howards believe could be an important part of their plans.

“We’re excited about what it could be. We want to be known as a place for good, clean fun,” Jolene Howard said, adding they want to do more melodramas such as what they did at theatres they owned in Colorado and Arizona. They moved here for family.

“We think Peoria is terrific. It has a lot to offer,” Craig Howard said.

That’s nice to hear, isn’t it?

We all need to support the Howards and other local businesses Downtown to keep that area vibrant.

Consumer confidence …

Personally, I don’t think anybody should be surprised that consumer confidence is down. The latest available Consumer Confidence Index, taken in January and released last month, was 84.5, its lowest since 2014.

That’s even lower than where the CCI sat in the midst of the COVID pandemic.

Perhaps more troublesome is that the Conference Board’s Expectations Index, which measures the short-term outlook for income, business and labor market conditions, fell to 65.1. Anything below 80 in that particular index “usually signals a recession ahead,” said the Conference Board’s latest report.

That index fell by 9.5 points from December because of growing concerns about future income, job prospects and interest rates. And it fell in all three political categories — Republicans, Democrats and independents. It also fell in all the age groups surveyed.

I should note here that these numbers are from the January survey of some
36 million consumers. The February report came out Feb. 24, shortly after my deadline for this column, but it was not expected to improve much given the downward trend of the last four-plus years. In June 2021 the overall Consumer Confidence Index was 128.9.

To view the February report go to www.conference-board.org.

The reason I wasn’t surprised consumer confidence is down is because of the somewhat chaotic scenarios of the past year. Those include the tariff wars, the military actions in the Middle East and Central America, the actions of ICE across the country, the Epstein files, concerns about President Trump’s health, the lack of veracity from everyone in his administration …

I believe that with all that, consumers are bound to lack confidence in what they see or hear.