Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Open Thread

I'm off to the bustling metropolis that is Macomb, Illinois to visit the ol' Alma mater.

The population is about 20,000 counting students, and 8,000 without. Considering that its spring break, it should be a ghost town. There's always Walmart I guess.

Chat amongst yourselves, and hopefully I'll get my review of the Mississippi Lofts posted soon.

8 comments:

hoganj300 said...

Checkout the story on the new Milan city hall on QCOnline with design drawings. (no password needed!)Its going to be built on US. 67 on the vacant lot where an Burger King used to sit. I was in Milan a few days ago along that stretch and its starting to look blighted.

Anonymous said...

Western Illinois is a piece of shit college.

nineman out

Anonymous said...

To 10:26 - elaborate your dissatisfaction with Western. A blanket statement like this carries no weight. An explaination will give everyone insight why you have such anger toward this college

mrc said...

Thanks for the pics and review -- much appreciated. I'm surprised at the ratio of limited to market rate apartments in the building, though -- how "limited income" will these be, really? I'm very much in favor of more low income housing -- but it seems like without a good mix, things might go downhill -- four market rate apartments seems kind of like a token gesture (And isn't it usually the other way? Lots of market rate, and a few token low-income units?). Was this mix due to requirements from the city, or is this typical for the area? I really don't know -- still in school and trying to figure out how these things work in the real world.

I'm also curious whether any developments like this are going on on the RI side of the river.

QuadCityImages said...

Well.... I think you meant to comment on the story above this, but I'll answer it here and there.

I'm not sure of the exact amounts, but I believe you have to make less than about $24,000 a year as a single person to qualify. So they're not necessarily LOW income, just lower. The Davenport Lofts are about 2/3rds tax credit, because it gets them the government grants to rehabilitate buildings that would otherwise be financially unfeasible.

I wish there was a higher ratio of market rate in the Mississippi Lofts too though, especially with those views.

mrc said...

*heh* -- yes, I did mean to comment on the story above -- sorry about that, and thanks for your reply -- very interesting.

Anonymous said...

I think you are classist QCI. Why does it matter if they are market rate with the views? Hmmm? Don't poor people deserve good views too? Aren't they worthy? You have the same mentality HUD does about poverty housing. Poor people only deserve to live in poor neighborhoods and have the bare minimum. It ruins us.

mrc said...

anonymous -- I don't know what qci thinks, but as for myself, I think it's the opposite of classist to want to mix in more market rate apartments with low income. if an area becomes too identified with "low income" housing, there's often the chance it will deteriorate economically. if it becomes overwhelmingly market-rate, it can run the danger of gentrifying -- such that poor people are driven out, and the area becomes disneyfied. the right mix of market-rate and low income housing keeps the neighborhood crime rates low, and serves economic justice -- low income people live in a nicer area, nobody is driven out, and the city thrives. this is highly simplified, of course -- but that's the general idea.