Sometimes reading the paper just makes me shake my head.
Earlier this week, the QCTimes had an article praising the collaboration between the Scott County Family Y and local schools, hospitals, and organizations. Towards the end of the article they said this:
This wonderful collaboration sends a powerful, can-do message. It’s not necessarily a new message. We heard it before with Rock Island and Davenport RiverVision planning; and Scott County, Davenport and Bettendorf’s support of River Renaissance. But in a community where a new Davenport police station is being built independently right next door to a new Scott County jail and sheriff’s headquarters, these collaborative lessons still are needed.
Then today the Times says this about the planned skywalk between the jail/courthouse complex and the new police station:
Alderman Keith Meyer, 3rd Ward, questioned the need for a skywalk that will connect the police station to the Scott County jail and courthouse complex. Now, he said, he sees very little foot traffic crossing Ripley between the police department and the jail.
What??
Ok... first of all, later in today's article they say this, pointing out how wrong they were in the previous article.
But the new station will share a number of functions with the Scott County Sheriff’s Department, such as evidence storage and processing, training, record keeping, fingerprinting and, potentially, dispatch services, said Police Chief Mike Bladel. Davenport detectives also routinely bring inmates over from the jail for questioning. (Emphasis added)
So... they need lessons in collaboration, yet they're going to share multiple services.
Then we have Alderman Meyer saying that people rarely walk between the police station and jail/courthouse. During short involvement with the DPD, I made that walk at least 50 or 100 times. During a murder trial myself, officer witnesses, and detectives each made the walk across Ripley many times. Also, if someone is arrested in the police department, which happens fairly often, they don't typically get driven half a block to the jail. Officers "walk them over" to get booked in the jail. A big reason for having the jail downtown is its proximity to the courthouse, so why shouldn't they be physically connected?
15 comments:
I agree. We should connect every block downtown with skybridges. Give people little variety of where to sleep during the day. The bridge to no where is pretty bright at times.
Maybe instead of the random word verification that some sites have gone to I should start requiring people to write something positive about Davenport with each post.
I'm sure some posters would be as incapable of doing that as blog bots are at reading the distorted letters.
I'm sure Meyer sat at the bottom of the new Ripley Street Step Project,(which the current Alderman had NOTHING to do with at all) with his "traffic ticker" counting people walking between the 2 buildings for weeks on end. Please. What was the 3rd ward thinking. Two more years of this. He is WORTHLESS.
P.S. I also noticed that the QCT also mentioned additional parking on 5th Street. Could this be the 5th Street Project homes? (Just another failed "representation" from the current Alderman Meyer.) But, he keeps asking those tough questions....GAG ME!!!
P.S.S. Poster #1
MOVE.
A new Police Station has been needed in the City of Davenport for at least 3 decades. The new Police Station should be designed 3 decades in advance, state of the art by todays standards.Because no "NEW" technology will replace the "OLD" for the next 30 years. Just as at the present facilities.Cost seems to drive this issue. If this building was done 20 years ago, the price would have been a 3rd less of more. By the way the skywalk is a no brainer.
If people had really been interested in making this work they would have closed the street and built a combined public saftey facility for the jail and police station. This is all about turf.Not public interest.
Not the anon I'm defending above and not posting anon myself, I quote the owner:
"Maybe instead of the random word verification that some sites have gone to I should start requiring people to write something positive about Davenport with each post."
Well hells-bells, it's your place to set rules as you choose, but dammit man, if all you want are goody-two-shoes head nodders on your blog, nobody will bother reading, much less, responding.
Anonymous cynicism is good at stimulating thought in others; angry maybe at first, replaced by serious response rather quickly.
Do as you wish of course, but if you keep publicly reacting that way, you just lose the headgame.
I maybe speaking out of line, but I think QCI was being reactionary to how obviously STUPID & NEGATIVE poster # 1 is.
QCI
Positive? I wouldn't get your hopes up, negative people just seem to be drawn to BLOGS.
My positive comment about Davenport is from my grandmother;
"There's better days ahead"
I didn't mean ONLY positive comments, I meant post should include something positive. Such as
"I agree. We should connect every block downtown with skybridges. Give people little variety of where to sleep during the day. The bridge to no where is pretty bright at times. But at least they fixed the ugly River Drive wall, so they occasionally do something right"
Closing Ripley to public traffic and placing the DPD in closer proximity to the jail is the no brainer. Davenport must book at least 70% of the inmate population making a "justice plaza" very efficient. Also less street scaping would be needed.
And as a positive, Davenport deftly garners much more press than Bettendorf, Moline, and Rock Island combined.
Excellent comment. Maybe the positive comment verification system would really work.
Kinda like that Justice Plaza idea. I also like some enclosure for 1) our officers, and 2) the perps. Less chance of them getting away.
Also like the negativity screener. Many folks can't distinguish between disagreement and name-calling.
Closing Ripley may sound good, but it would limit DPD exits on to two one way streets Harrison & 4th streets. And also it would close one of the Gold Coast main gateways. These would be hard sells. Moving the building closer to Ripley with a shorter skywalk makes sense.
The current plan shows the station and its indoor parking filling basically the whole block, so the skywalk isn't very long.
Why are we even talking about Keith Meyer. Here are couple of random comments. The 3rd ward is changing. With the improvements in downtown, the new lofts, and condos being built, the rise of the rainbow district and a general improvement in the inner city, Keith is an endangered species. Keith's coalition of elderly people scared about taxes and militant young folks who want to throw a monkey wrench into "the system" will soon be overpowered by a new more informed and forward thinking group. This of course means "adios Keith".
A final note. I did a google search on Keith Meyer and hit the "I'm feeling lucky" button. Here is what Google served up:
http://www.majormattmason.net/
Check it out.
Col. Duke Davenport RRR
Rebel Rouser Retired
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