Twelve of us left from Public Works a little after 2pm Sunday, and headed down I-74 and I-65 towards Louisville, Kentucky. We stopped in Champaign for supper, and made arrived at the Galt House in downtown Louisville around midnight because of the time change. This is where we met up with Mayor Winborn, who had flown into Louisville directly from the Mayors' Institute on City Deisgn. A few of us attempted to go out for drinks, but apparently Sunday night at midnight isn't the most happening time down there, because we were unable to find anywhere open downtown.
Early Monday morning we headed out to meet with David Karem, the executive director of Louisville's Waterfront Development Corporation. He explained how they'd progressed through 20 years of land acquisition and development for their riverfront park.
After his presentation and discussion, we went into the chilly Kentucky morning for a guided tour of the project. Many of us expected that it would be warmer, considering we were in "the South." One thing that was clear was David Karem's complete enthusiasm for the project.Here is a link to the .pdf map of the entire 3-phase development.
One of the biggest obstacles to the park idea was the large elevated highway running right down the river's edge through downtown Louisville. If anyone thinks that River Drive is a barrier between downtown and the river, imagine something ten times worse. There's even a website, 8664.org, dedicated to realigning the interstate around the waterfront. One of the ways that this psychological separation is currently addressed is the Great Lawn, which provides plenty of sightlines underneath the interstate. The Great Lawn is also lit with stadium lights until somewhat late at night. This gives people a place to play football, soccer, or whatever later than would usually be possible.
One of the differences between Louisville and here, besides their larger population, is that they have several corporations based there to beg for money. The other is that they are their state's largest city, and therefore have a lot of muscle in getting state money. Despite those advantages, I still felt like they went through a similarly slow process of raising money for the park that we'll be going through....unlike Indianapolis, but that's a story for tomorrow.
Let me know what else you want to hear about, because there's no way I can cover everything that was seen, heard and discussed over 2 days.
Read Part 2 here.
29 comments:
Excellent shot of the Great Lawn. It fantastically illustrates what once was a challenging barrier to the riverfront is now barely an obstacle. This is perhaps Hargreaves greatest--and perhaps under appreciated--design feature, as municipalities across the nation have grappled with this very same obstacle, and Hargreaves' solution is quite successful. In an odd way, the elevated freeway almost gives a sense of definition to each sub-space, and instead of having one large lawn, you now have 2 more intimate spaces, while transparency between the two (and more importantly, to the riverfront) are maintained.
Who were the other 11 persons on the bus trip?
The 13 who went were: Mayor Winborn, Alderman Hamerlinck, Alderman Howard, Craig Malin, Cindy Webb, Steve Ahrens, Matt Flynn, Darrin Nordahl, Pat Driscoll, Greg Albansoder, Aaron Howard, Tony LaHood, and myself.
Hope that helps, and I wish more had signed up. I've heard it was mentioned at at least two council meetings, and I know a lot of emails went out about it.
Tony LaHood? Why would Davenport Tax money (that funds the levy commission and the bus trip) pay for him when he lives in Bettendorf and was the reason that Mike Loos isn't managing the NEO dept anymore. Something is wrong with this picture.
Is it true that he was Howarrd's guest? If so, why?
HOward has some splainin to do!
I agree with the last poster, why exactly is LaHood involved in this thing or in anything for that matter. He is a SLUMLORD. He needs to be punished.
Speaking of that, Lewis Washington was recently punished by Davenport and his properties deemed nuisances after he appealed and went to hearing.
Remember - he is the parole officer/slumlord.
Well, QCI - did you ask abotu the homeless people and the social service orgs???? How does that community handle its tons of homeless like Davenport has? Do they spends tons of money on homeless programs like we do?
Really sorry you couldn't find a place to drink at midnight Sunday. Oh, so sorry kids.
What was the point of this trip? Seems like I remember that the council voted to pay for an expensive study a year ago to plan the riverfront. Why now are we paying to send people to look at cities? Are we going to change the plans from the consultant that we already spent a bundle with already?
I don't know how its not a good thing to learn all we can from other cities.
I don't know why Tony LaHood was along. I don't know if he was anyone's "guest", but I was surprised how well he got along with everyone there.
Actually I was fairly pleased with how all the political adversaries were able to get along on a personal level.
JLCS went before the Community Block Grant Commission and asked for a big chunk of the money they are about to hand out. Not only are they ruining our downtown, but eating up part of the funds that could go to rehabbing SOL houses under the three programs that Bruce Berger oversee's. We have done enough for JLCS, and they shouldn't get their hands on any of the Block Grant money.
Maybe there should be a dedicated blog just for those who hate John Lewis. If people hate an organization so much then why don't they do more than post on a blog site?
Davenport has spent enough money on the downtown for awhile. There are other areas of town that need some attention and funding also. It almost seems like the funds that have been spent on these projects are being wasted, as the RME is proving to be a flop, which the taxpayers will pay for years. Then the latest fiasco - The Skatepark. Jim Fisher was reporting on an article in the QCTimes on his show this week about trouble with older kids verbally abusing younger kids. We don't have enough police to monitor this park, so it will end up just like Moline's skatepark, and need to be dismantled because of trouble.
The skatepark is already attracting visitors from all over the country and Europe! Rick Moliterno (Davenport natice, world famous BMX bike designer, and X-Games hero) who helped design the skatepark as a world class project, has attracted many professional bikers and boarders to the area. They stay in hotels, eat in restaurants and make plans to come back. One incident reported through a letter to the editor in the Times does not define the overall attitude of those who use the park. The vast majority are grateful to have it and are helpful to the younger kids. They are also instructive on etiquette and skill development. It is a great addition and will only get better through new lighting. Jim Fisher would find fault with any good thing-bitching is how he gets people to listen to his drivel. Happy Thanksgiving!
If 9:09 is correct about the skatepark being such a draw for restaurants and hotels, then those businesses that benefit should have pooled their money and paid for that draw instead of the taxpayers. From the looks of the little bangers using it, it's obvious that they would never spend a dime at the Raddison, or eat a meal at Centro's. They look more like people that would sleep in a van, smoke dope, and get their meals off the dollar value menu, or free, at the JLCS Cafe.
Nothing like good old fashioned generalizing... you know you can make quite a fool of yourself talking about "those kind of people."
I believe downtown is on the edge of really taking off. Over 100 new residents will be added by the Mississippi Hotel project and 4th Street Lofts, and there have been several smaller projects happening on their own lately. The building across from JOD says Sold on it, so there must be something coming there in addition to the impending Salvation Army building renovation.
People from around the Midwest are impressed with what we're doing here. I really don't know what its going to take for some of the negative folks around here to open their eyes and see the success.
Success at what cost? The only way that these buildings are getting developed is thru large tax incentives, destroying our tax base. Just learn from Bettendorf, as they are rapidly expanding their tax base without incentives, and without building Museums, Experiences, Carparks, Skateparks, or Homeless Shelters. It's only Davenport that believes that is the recipe for success.
You're leaving out the CityView, Mississippi Plaza, Scatterkats, the John Forest Block project, and other privately funded downtown projects. I won't mention the Alexander projects since they use a lot of state and federal money, but they are yet another spinoff of River Renaissance.
Alderman Barnhill said that the Forrest Block project was relying on tax credits. How many apartments are in skattercats? Isn't that a bar?
Then there is the River Center, that eats up tax dollars plus a huge amount of Hotel/Motel tax, that could be used for other purposes. Then there is the Ag/Tech center, which is about to go into foreclosure, and the city will be responsible for missed payments. You mention the Mississippi Plaza, which didn't come about because of RR, but was a spinoff of Riverboat Gambling. The list goes on and on and on.......
You are correct about the 4th street Lofts and the Macaroni building getting state and Federal funds. But you forgot to mention the local funds: 1) the property tax freeze, 2) Community Block Grant Funds. Now that money goes to an out of town investor, instead of other things that the city could distribute it on, including, the revolving loan fund to rehab houses SOL, the Urban Homestead program, United Neighbors, and the Dream Program, which helps first time poor people to buy houses. On another note, another failure to River Rennassance was Kevin Kraus. The ink isn't even dry yet on the new contract, where the city is taking a far less better deal, because Kevin doesn't care to honor his deal. This isn't the end of the JOD deal. You can bet that the new owners will come back in a few years and ask us to concede again, or give them more. Finially, the Mississippi Hotel. I don't think the city has found an investor for that yet, so we are still paying on bonds to acquire it, plus pay off the cost over runs for the Adler Theatre. Davenport doesn't have a good track record on these public-private partnerships.
Mississippi Valley Housing Services also get funding through the Block Grant Funds. They have been doing a nice job rehabbing some SOLO homes in the past few years, and turning them into owner, occupied houses. This summer they did a great job on a house on Locust, just west of the old Eagle Store. Instead of Block Grant money going to the Cresent and Lofts project to create more tenants, all those dollars should go to MVHS to create the kind of neighborhoods we want SOL. MVHS keeps those dollars in Davenport compared to the 4th street Lofts, which puts that money into the pockets of out of town people.
So when Alexander spends millions of dollars for local construction companies, that's not keeping it local?
And 7:27, I'm not sure what you're talking about with the Mississippi Hotel. Its almost done being renovated into apartments, and I believe they're opening in February or so.
Talking about spinoffs, when you divide the city into sections, The Cityview apartments are in SOLO. Anything south of the railroad tracks are Downtown. The city took a huge bath on that deal, as they were in second position during the foreclosure, and the bottomfeeder investor bought the old courtland for pennies on the dollar, and left the city out to dry. I'm not sure why Davenport didn't take possession of it at the Sheriff's Sale, and sell it to recoup their money. Possibly alderman Meyers could refresh our memories on how much Davenport lost on that public+private partnership.
I'm not Meyer - But I can tellyouhow much money we lost on that Tax credit project. Hundreds of thousands in public funds down the tubes because Davenport can't manage these project properly if it kills us. The residents in that area were screaming for help with the drugs dealer and so forth that lived there and it took fowever to get help. JLCS was involved there too and made some money on the backs of all of us again.
SORRY QCI, but I have a question about JLCS. In Sunday's paper there was an articel about the Wish List that stated that one family sublet a house off of Marquette street. Anyone know where this is?
The River Center taking tax dollars? Well since it IS a city owned building I expect it would. I don't know what the room occupancy is compared to what 20 years it's been open but know that the price of a hotel room has gone up and I think they have a cap on how much money they get a year. So basically they are getting less and less of the total money and I am betting the people who come in for something at the river center actually eat at a restaurant or two and pump more money into the city.
These comments always seem to devolve into a discussion about tax money that was spent 5 years ago. We can't go back and get a refund. We need to make the most of these things, and spread the word about some of the successes, that is, if you think there were any. Questioning how future tax dollars get spent is fair game. But the River Renaissance ship has sailed.
Taxpayers must look at past projects to judge the quality of the decisions that our City Administrator, Department Heads, and elected officials are making. With all the failures on past projects, it tells us to spend tax dollars in other areas of town, such as the new S/W park, and the Eastern Avenue Park. The Rockingham, Harrison/Brady, and Locust Corridor are going to need funing. It's time to shift our resources there. Taxpayers need to look back and see why we are failing in projects downtown. Many times it appears that the contracts that city legal prepares are full of loopholes, and 'out' clauses. But it's not only legal at fault here. Part of the blame must be pointed at the council and mayor that we elect to make sure that we are getting the proper wording in these documents. Then the biggest blame can be placed on Malin and Dee for poor oversite. So in the future, all these people must do their jobs professionally, so the tax dollars are getting us the biggest bang for the buck possible.
Post a Comment