Stop Sign

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Rust as Aesthetic Device

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Stockyard Bar and Grill

Where the tough guys hang out. Peoria, IL bar / restaurant Stockyard Bar and Grill.

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Under the Overpass

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Industrial Fluid Totes as Art

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Fake Boulders of Peoria 1 and 2

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C and G Wholesale Meats

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Steven Streight NYC 1986 Soho Loft

Performing in Camouflage Danse band at a Soho loft NYC 1986.

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Steven Streight NYC 1986 Camouflage Danse

Playing an Italian paisley guitar in Camouflage Danse band at Cuando Social Club, NYC 1986.

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Early Spring Yellow

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Armadillo II Nuisance Abatement Vehicle

Peoria Police Department's innovative "Armadillo II" Nuisance Abatement Vehicle. Armed with infrared video cameras and digital recording devices, this silent sentry has proven to be a deterrent to crime as it sits in troubled neighborhoods. Its goal is not making arrests, but shaming and monitoring thugs who have been causing problems in a neighborhood. Often, it will be parked right in front of a crack house or other spot where complaints have arisen.


Read a detailed article about the Peoria Police Department Armadillo program in Police Chief Magazine

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Meeting with Peoria Historical Society and Andy Fograscher

Robert Killion, Curator, Collections & Technology, Peoria Historical Society, Andy Fograscher, President, Stellar Systems, and Steven Streight discussing the new Peoria Historical Society website and History Pin site yesterday.

Much was accomplished and exciting things are happening as we digitize and create a "museum without walls" online.

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Spring Has Sprung

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Buddy at the Marina

Took Buddy Streight the Minpin down to the marina today along the Illinois River. He never saw ducks and geese this close. The geese did a lot of honking. Buddy, who normally shuns rain and water puddles, tried to swim toward them.

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Trumpet Playing Pastor

Pastor Terry Goode of Christian Assembly Church, 521 NE Monroe, Peoria, IL.

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Odd Masonic Lodge Building

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This Old Broken House

I love taking photos of industrial debris, houses in ruins, dilapidation, decaying structures. Not to be morbid -- but to see the beauty in transience, the aesthetic values in "accidental art", that which is not intended to be beautiful, but has visual interest.

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St. Ann's Catholic Church

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Emo's

When Emo's ice cream shop opens, you know the fine warm weather has arrived.

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Christian Assembly Church

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Free Standing Broom Phenomenon

Free-standing broom, as my wife Andrea looks on.

No one is sure why this is occurring, but this visual meme is spreading all over Facebook. Some say it happens only on leap years. Others say there's been a generalized hypnosis of brooms that has convinced them that they can stand on their own. 

Skeptics and scoffers attribute this phenomenon to a mass hysteria, that we're just imagining it all. But photographic evidence is holding up to visual forensic scrutiny. You decide.

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Lincoln Draws the Line

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Walk Downtown on a Windy Day

It was a gorgeous day to walk an hour to a meeting, then walk home. Bringing my camera along made it more pleasant.

Looks like a lovely restaurant.

Mother Teresa statue at St. Mary's Cathedral.

The Cornerstone Building, completed in 1889, originally Second Presbyterian Church, then the Donmeyer Temple of the Electra chapter of the Eastern Star (1949), then the Cornerstone Banquet Facility (1989).

Almost became a Shell gas station in 1969. A copper box containing photos and documents was deposited at the southwest corner of the building, commemorating 100th anniversary of inauguration of President George Washington. 

Now owned by attorney Verne Dentino and operated as a wedding and banquet facility, culture and arts center, and used on Sundays by the Second Story Church.

 -- from website http://thecornerstonebuilding.com/home/cornerstone-history-peoria-il.html

Grand Army of the Republic Greenhut Memorial Hall.

Cement filled cannon.

Cannon balls.

New upper downtown coffee shop Thirty Thirty.

Honk if you loved Mr. G's, the best hot dog joint in Central Illinois. All the punk rockers and avant garde artists loved this place. But alas, it is now extinct.

Don't let this happen to your business. Beef up your social media interactions and vastly improve your customer service. Now.

One of my favorite store signs, in this case it's a bar. Some of the patrons I've met in there fit the description. LOL

I remember when this place was a Coop Tapes and Records store, then it was Sgt. Peppers (which moved and is now Younger Than Yesterday).

A very popular slogan becomes the name of a local business.

One of my favorite grocery stores, where I buy all my rice and soy sauce, plus various hot chili sauces, eel, coffee drinks, and many other items. The staff are extremely nice and pleasant.

I've never eaten a human head before, so I don't know about eating a burrito as big as one.

I'm starting to worry about college kids nowadays. This is a sign at an intersection near Bradley University, at Main and University. The city has to spell things out that plainly for university students? We're in big trouble!

The sun was gleaming and glowing on this tree. The photograph does not entirely capture the shining grandeur that I saw.

Colorful, unexpected mural on a garage along University, close to Main Street and Bradley University area.

Another blank sign that once advertised a business. I'm collecting these images.

I've always loved that globular spherical gas station sign. But notice also that creepy tree behind it.

See that big empty space? For decades, there was an ice cream shop there. Gene's Dairy Dream was there for years, then America's Best Ice Cream and Food for about 2 years, and now -- nothing. It looks like there was never anything there but a parking lot. Sad to see businesses close down to the point of the building being demolished. Wiped off the face of the earth.

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