City leaders neglect West Davenport -QCTimes Letter to the Editor
This individual seems to believe that the city council is in charge of choosing where stores, restaurants and clinics decide to build their businesses. It reminds me of a class I had at Scott where students were complaining about the Mayor for building a Walgreens and an Osco across the street from each other. Do people actually think that's how things work?
21 comments:
QCI & 50 Something:
How do you feel being the smartest two people in Davenport?
I've lived here 45+ years, and the west end has ALWAYS bitched, whined and moaned. Southwest Davenport has hundreds of homes so inexpensive their property tax barely covers trash pickup! So, no, the city is not overly incentivized, nor are businesses, to locate in the SW end. That said, the northwest has nicer homes, lower housing costs (same modern home as Bettendorf, much less money), and OK schools - I don't usually see this end kvetching - they've made a pretty wise investment, and so have the businesses that are springing up out there.
Plus, there aren't many greenfields for building big box stores in SW Davenport.
So what you're saying is, if we live south of Locust in the east end we're no better. It seems if we pay taxes on what the city says our property is worth we're not any better than the developers who get tax deferments and perks. Even though we pay the same rate for sewer, trash and rainwater.
Cruiser - I think you're right -we 're seeing more fees independent of property taxes because of the low revenue on all the cheap houses. Yep - in east SoLo too. There are bigger houses here too, the Village is remarkably mixed (then and now) socio-economically. But any house valued at say $35,000, simply isn't paying a whole lot on taxes. A counter argument could be made that these houses are also low demand on city services (let's assume they're crime free) - they are small lots on street grid patterns (new neighborhoods have curvy, "wasteful" layouts), have existed forever (hence have paid for the street many times over)
Also, storm water fees open up the egg of taxing the non-profits, who pay NO property taxes.
That's a good point and a way I haven't looked at it before. In all likeliness many of the cheapest houses are heavy users of city services, especially the police, but they pay less taxes than people like my parents, who have haven't had the police called to their house in at least 10 years.
NO QCI, take a look at the stats, the biggest 'user' of the police are the houses owned by the slumlords who live elsewhere and the rest of us who own our homes here suffer because of it in many ways. Also, take a look, John Lewis has a high number of police calls for serving the vagrants who don't live here and they attract here. The residents SOLO suffer there too in many ways. Actually, drive around SOLO and you will see many beautiful houses that would be worth sometimes double their value if they were elsewhere in the city and I mean over $150K but aren't because the city lets people have a free for all with the way they maintain property here. Plus we spend our free money on activities that do little to improve our blighted areas. We allow people (like slumlords) to keep their places looking crappy and the rest of the tax base suffers because of it.
The houses aren't 'cheap' SOLO because they are made cheap structurally, they are cheap because the city is a junk yard and no one is motivated to clean it up. SOLO is made up of some really really beautiful homes that are solid and sound, but aren't valued much because of the high % of bad rentals and lack of interest in keeping the place clean and safe.
We don't enforce our codes, we don't pick up a flippin piece of garbage, we don't respond to neighborhood complaints for help and we don't value the decent people who stay here in the urban areas.
It isn't rocket science - we just have bad leadership at city hall. Plus, special interests run this city.
I agree that the West end is neglected. It looks like junk, it actually makes SOLO look pretty darn good.
Anon at 9:08; I have to disagree, You can't blame everything on city leaders. When the crime commitee was going, and a lot of neighborhood watch groups also this wasn't going on.
If the people who live in the area keep after these jerks it can be changed. I've seen it many times when the committee was meeting. I haven't seen it much lately, but it can happen. You can't expect the city to jump every time it's a common sense issue. If you've ever tried to get nuisance abatement you'd know where I'm coming from. It's not easy, it doesn't happen overnight, but when it does happen it's great.
Cruiser, can you cite some specifics examples of what your talking about?
Sure, first you have to get a group togther elect a leader and set some rules. The group should be non-sectarian, not racist, unbiased and non-vigilate. Then get the phone numbers of as many neighbors as possible to have contact in case of emergencies or problems. Go out and find out who owns the rentals in the area if you don't already know. The Library has a city regristy book that you can look up the address to find out who owns the property. First lodge your complaints with the property owner. If that doesn't work contact city hall. Keep records of who, when, and where you call. Get rid of graffiti as soon as possible. If you remove it in one day there's a 10% chance of retagging. If you wait a month it jumps to 100%. Get the phone number of your alderman and don't be afraid to use it. If you want more specifics you'll have to let me know the nature of the problem.
Excellent comment Cruiser, especially the graffiti thing. Many people don't know that spraypaint and broken windows are contagious, and if you fix them right away there's less chance of more appearing. Its how we end up with alleys in the southwest filled with gang graffiti. The same goes for the Skybridge. Fix the broken windows immediately and it has less chance of continuing.
Those here making comments about the residents needing to get together to create change obvioulsy haven't known any of the neighborhood people SOLO. Many of us have tried and tried and tried - really tried to get help. YOu have no idea how hard it is to get through to staff downtown. A wall, a barrier, an excuse after excuse. No long term or real commitment, etc. It gets exhausting. People in Davenport think that the answer to our problems are not for profits and free money, when in reality the answer is the people who live here and pay taxes rising up together to be listened to. I have found not much long term commitment from many of the residents who reside here to pursue change. Sure they come to the meetings and complain, but there is little follow through. I think because the city makes it so darn hard to be listened to and people give up. It takes too long to get through to thestaff and leadership.
I respectfully disagree with the poster who claimed that when the crime committee was operating things were better. I was invovled then and we had the same issues as we do know. The CC served to divide the neighborhoods and United Neighbors staff were divisive and they were untruthful often. It is called special interests and UN has lost a lot of credibility from the strong neighborhood leaders in the SOLO area. Smart people don't trust their leadership. When you have UN staff in charge of the CC defending the actions of the Howard clan, one would think that would be a reason to be concerned.
I get sick of the propaganda.
Think about it, if we actually improved the central city, then wouldn't agencies like UN and the other not for profits be out of business? City grants would be in jeodardy too.
During the committee days, our crime rate dropped over twenty percent while most of the city's rate went up.
You're right about people not showing up when there's work to do. It gets worse as the area gets better. In our area there were three of us most days, sometimes four doing all the work. Then the free food would come out and we'd have fifty people standing around.
The city wants you to get disgusted and quit because then you're not bothering them anymore.
I said it wasn't easy, and it's not, but it is doable. Good luck.
The crime committee did nothing for awhile, because Wayne Hean used it as a political soap box to divide neighbors and landlords. When Jackie Bostic took it over, it worked really well and started to change the central city, until Hean and Egly disbanded it.
Jackis Bostic hooked up with Dan Lubell and tried to manipulate the neighborhood groups. It was odd. She is the one who defended Bessie Howard for burning down a rental property. Pathetic that the head of the crime committee would want to be soft on the Howard family and help them find places to live. I, for one (of many solo residents) do not want the Howards terrorizing my neighborhood. They can move in next to Jackie if she likes them so much.
I don't know where you people pick up this gossip. Where you ever at a committee meeting? I would like to know how Pat Egly walking out disbanded the committee? Or for that matter, how Wayne Hean disbanded it? He is the one who started it! As for Jackie Bostic, I don't know. I do know I never seen Dan Lubell at any meetinig I attended.
Our esteemed mayor at the time had as much to do with the disbanding as anyone. City employees asked to speak at the meetings got told they'd be fired if they attended. And the committee was told that by more than one employee.
I was at those meetings, and I agree, I never saw Lubell at any of them, so I don't think he had anything to do with it. What I do remember was Bostic told Egly she was not allowed to cuss like a sailor during the meeting, and she became very offended. Both her and Hean took positions with strong racist overtones and it was really offensive to Jackie, who was simply trying to help the neighborhoods. So, Hean and Egly decided to destroy the committee. Egly sent out a letter to the membership, and secret meetings started which both of them attended. As a result of this, the whole thing came to a screeching halt.
Thank you for enlightening me. I wasn't at the last few meetings because I thought there was no control forced on the group. In the meetings I was there for I didn't pick up any racial undertones, but anything is possible. I have heard there were secret meetings, but haven't found anyone who attended so I don't know what might have gone on. That said, I do believe a lot of good things got done while it was in effect.
Ok, we're both right. Pat Egly did start having secret meetings, and along the Carnahan's, and basically took down the crime committee. The Carnahan's are now on the board Of the Community Action Initiative, trying to get four year terms for the council. Seems Hean went to later secret meetings with the idea of smoothing things out and got sucked in. Jackie, through nothing she done got in trouble at United Neighbors, and one person got fired over the fiasco. Then, when the committee was down Brooke and his cronies finished it off. I have heard this from a friend whom I trust completely. If this version is wrong, please enlighten me.
I don't know about Carnahan, but having listened to them, I don't think Egly or Hean had the best interests of the n'hoods in mind.
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