I was too busy to do any posting from Phoenix, but I did keep reading the news from down there. Here are a few of the things that I would have commented on if I had time:
The Aaron Howard scandal:
My first reaction was, lets wait until all the facts come out. However, when the fact that drug stuff was found came out, I pretty much gave up on the guy. He always seemed decent going to school with him, but I guess event decent folks can make mistakes. Too many mistakes can (and should) cost you your job, although I do find it funny that one of his 10 Alderman bosses had worse problems with no real repercussions. The whole thing is unfortunate for all involved.
The Mallards possibly moving to the AHL:
None of the rumor-filled articles mention whether they would keep the name, but they certainly wouldn't stay with the Aksarben Knights (Nebraska backwards) and they should learn from the Swing and stick with what fans like. Hopefully we can start a rivalry with Des Moines, and fuel it on the AbsoluteDSM forums.
The whole skatepark graffiti thing:
When I mentioned back in March that I thought we shouldn't worry about the graffiti if it wasn't obscene or gang-related, I never would have guessed that the city, and especially this council, could be so progressive to even consider the idea. The stuff about the "lights, fences, and cameras" I really don't understand though, because I thought there were already plans for lights and cameras. It was supposed to be lit sometime this summer so it could be open 24 hours a day. Anyone know if that's been changed? The problem now will be keeping them from tagging other stuff, which brings me to...
The Centennial Park/Skatepark pavilion: (same article as graffiti)
Updated at 6am: Good job council, thanks for moving forward on this.
Its time to stop spending thousands of dollars in staff time nitpicking this and just get it done. Its a city park, and very popular, and it needs bathrooms. Despite Economic genius Lynn's insistence, building bathrooms and a utility room raised above a flood plain is going to cost more than $500. Davenport has bigger things to worry about than this.
Creative Tile building renovations:
This is a great thing, and should really mesh well with what's going to be happening in the area. As I mentioned in the Oneida Landing condos post, JJ Condon is going to be looking at renovating the One River Place in addition to his 8 story condo tower. This whole area could make a really neat neighborhood, and help to connect downtown to the Village of East Davenport. If the big riverboats aren't able to dock in downtown when (if) we get a new pier, maybe at least the Oneida Landing area won't look so shabby when they let off passengers.
Also, check out this QCOnline article about guest columnist Julie Barton's move to "the big city" of the QC area. Its an interesting perspective.
7 comments:
The Illinois historic prservation agency lifted their covanent on the Armory; read it in the Times. Though the armory is running out of uses, I still thought it would of been cool to have an restaurant in their with an view of the Davenport skyline. Some different ideas I had for the building was using it as an industry museum, like they do in Baltimore
Look at sketches on a website called milianpc.com i believe and theyll have sketches for this architect for the building. not sure how expensive itd be but...i could see it being a downtown shopping unit with unique antique gifts shofts and what not or a restaurany. but if it wont work...tear it down.
Any other city employee would be fired or forced to resign by now. Nice to have mommy as an alderman to protect sonny boy and suck-up Malin to give him paid leave for his mistakes. I'm so glad my tax dollars are paying for this group with messed up priorities.
He hasn't even been to court yet.
Also, I can think of at least one person being paid by the city who's been sentenced for crimes, and is still employed, on the council...
QCI - I thought it was determined the city can't fire an alderman. Something about him being elected versus hired. But anonymous is probably wrong too. To fire him before a conviction is setting the city up for yet another lawsuit. Like we really need that.
As usual, it would probably be best to resign if you know you're guilty. No one ever seems to do that though.
Oh - I totally agree with you QCI. But nobody in Davenport city government seems to have heard of ethics. Of course, if they had they wouldn't be charged with these things to begin with.
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