Monday, March 19, 2007

4 Monday Things

1. The Colonel has returned!
Colonel Davenport's newest blog is up now at http://thecolonelsview.blogspot.com. His first real post discusses the current and potential future 1st Ward Alderman, and contrasts them with the previous one. His blog is also added to my link bar, and I've moved the link to his old blog down a few spots.

2. I'm not sure what the QCTimes doesn't have an article on this yet, but the Salvation Army building on River Drive across from the Freight House has received some federal money to be renovated into the "RiverWalk Lofts." Here's an article from the DSM Register that mentions it, and here's an article on kwqc.com. According to KWQC:
The former Salvation Army Rehab Center on River Drive will become "River Walk Lofts". There'll be forty two units, a community room, technology center, and fifty parking spaces, construction should start in august.
After this project, and possibly the already-planned 3rd phase of the Davenport Lofts, even I might think we have enough affordable apartments downtown. Neither article really spells it out, but I hope there's some market-rate mixed in.

3. I went to the LeClaire Park expansion meeting at noon Friday, and it was pretty interesting. The existing LeClaire Park and bandshell aren't really part of the area being discussed, so hopefully that means we won't be fixing anything that's not broke. There were a mix of city staff, RiverAction folks, and regular citizens at the meeting, and quite a mix of ideas. Pretty much anything's on the table for the area currently occupied by the casino and parking lots, and its up to us as citizens to decide what goes there. There was discussion of extending the Skybridge, what kind of a pier would look good at the foot of Main Street, and whether we need a restaurant overlooking the river to replace the Dock. The public kickoff is a week from today at the RME, so mark your calendars.

4. Today's QCTimes has an article about the police union and officers complaining about the pursuit policy. It also seems that the policy is being toughened to stop any pursuits of the same car within 24 hours of it running from the police. I guess this will cut down on wear and tear on criminals' engines since they will only have to elude police once a day. High speed pursuits are a lose-lose situation, but they should be up to an officer's discretion. We don't (yet) have a problem in Davenport with people being killed by accidents caused by pursuits, but we DO have a problem with crime and criminals getting away (and potentially killing people). I'd say we should solve the problem we do have instead of further restricting pursuits.

4 and a half. TONS of kids were down at the skatepark yesterday. Maybe I'll get some pictures of our newest and most popular amenity this week.

14 comments:

George said...

QCI - Thanks for the link. If you can just delete the link to the old site, I would appreciate it. I am locked out of it, and have no way to monitor comments.

Thanks, George

QuadCityImages said...

No problem.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the police union is trying to start a fight, but for what purpose? Interesting!

Anonymous said...

For what purpose? Are you kidding me? Because Bladel is stopping them from catching bad guys and also because he won't allow more then 11 cops on the street at any given time, so their lives are in danger.

All I can say is...Thank God Lynn brought the Guardian Angels to town!

Anonymous said...

[We don't (yet) have a problem in Davenport with people being killed by accidents caused by pursuits.]

I'm sure the family of the man that was killed on the corner of Washington and Lombard a while back does not agree with your comment! How soon we forget if we aren't personally affected.

QuadCityImages said...

The cop that situation had already broken off the pursuit, as per policy.

If anything, that's an argument against the currently policy. People get killed by criminals eluding the police even when the cops don't chase them.

Anonymous said...

There's the accident at the corner of 29th and N. Brady Sy. That is the one that started tohe ball rolling. The cop was traveling close to 100 mph when some guy pulled out from 29th in front of the officer. I don't think the dude lived through it.

And for 3:11, can't wait for some hood to bash your face in when your out on patrol with your funny red hat on. What the hell are you on? Super Duper Red Beret Trooper to the rescue!! HA HA HA!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

More loft apartments downtown? How many do we have to have before we get a Walgreens down there? Would rather walk to one from work (downtown) than drive up to the one on Brady where it seems like a worse 'hood than the 3rd St corridor....

Anonymous said...

As for 7:32 pm, that won't happen cause the cops will work WITH the guardian angels. The police love them, it is Bladel that is against them. He is afraid they will work out, just like they have in every other city, and he will look bad.

QuadCityImages said...

At the downtown residents' meeting Tara Barney said that the Downtown Partnership has been trying to convince Walgreens or a similar kind of store that there's a market downtown. You'd think with 9000 employees and now hundreds of residents, it would make business sense.

And 8:32, somehow I doubt ALL the police are for the GAs. The viewpoint held by the Yerington crowd doesn't necessarily represent all cops.

hoganj300 said...

I found the renderings of the Salvation Army rehab at this website :http://www.heritageaffordablehousing.com//riverplace.html I knew I saw them once before, but I couldn't find them right away because the project was under an different name.

QuadCityImages said...

I'm almost positive that rendering is from a different group of potential developers. That website is a group out of Seattle, and I believe the company doing it now is out of Minneapolis. I'm hoping we get to see some renderings soon.

Anonymous said...

Maybe all of the cops are not for the GAs, but the majority of them are for the GAs and are against Bladel.

Anonymous said...

I hear that Major Schaffer and the Chief have had a falling out. I understand that the Major only works 4 hours a day for his 96K pay.

I also hear that Cpt. Murphey is working behind the cloak of darkness to become the next chief. Also that Cpt. Murphey's wife, when they dump the Human Relations Chief and not Malin in this latest round of Sexual H. charges, will take over Human Relations. The games that are played by those in charge of City Hall!

According to good sources the morale at the Cop Shop is lower that Whale Crap and that is at the bottom of the Ocean in plowed ditches! We need a new Chief and it should be from outside of Davenport. We need a no nonsence kick butt type of Chief that will do something to rid Davenport of the hoods!!! Hookers!!! and Drug Dealers!!!