Tuesday, July 31, 2007

A sad note, and a few other things

Pilots killed at two air shows -CNN
Jim Leroy was one of the pilots who was recently killed during these two air show accidents. He was the last surviving member of the Masters of Disaster stunt team that I believe performed at the QC Air Show, and he was just here this year flying the same Bulldog stunt plane that he was killed in. He was considered one of the top air show stunt pilots in the world, which just goes to show how incredibly dangerous their profession is.

Skatepark news vans
There's a lot of talk about the cars that keep pulling up onto the cement apron around the skatepark, but has anyone stopped to wonder where they got the idea? I drive past the skatepark on almost a daily basis, and whenever there's any kind of story the news vans feel its their right to drive right up there onto the berm. Why is this any less bad than the kids doing it?

Fair traffic fun
This article mentions that the police are going to move the barricades for the locust street construction to try and match the flow of traffic. For those of you who have been to bigger cities, I imagine this will be similar to the middle lanes where they have the lights that show which direction the lanes are going. This allows lanes to be used for traffic into downtowns in the morning, and out in the evening. It'll be interesting to see how it works on Locust.

Wells Fargo Street fest relocation
Does anyone know the reason for moving the Bixfest back west of Brady? I heard it was to be closer to both the jazz fest and the 3rd street bar scene, but I wondered if there were other reasons. It seems to work better there, especially having the main stage in the parking lot next to the Mississippi Plaza. Anyone dislike the new/old location?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was at Oshkosh for the Expiramental Aircraft Assoc.a few days last week. It was the busiest airport in the world last week. Estimated 25,000 planes arriving and taking off. It is incredible what the stunt pilots do, as well as the formation flying of WWII and modern aircraft. Thumbs up for all pilots and interested aviators. It is worth the trip to Wisconsin to see the EAA and everything it offers.

QuadCityImages said...

I've always wanted to make the trip to both Oshkosh and the Vegas Air Show. Hopefully someday.

Anonymous said...

The "New" location is the original site of the Street Fest. It has moved several times over the years
due to construction or other activities.

Anonymous said...

Chris
One a long time, downtown, business employee commented, in passing, (it was actually the first time we had had a conversation) that she liked the Davenport Fire Department ladder rides for kids, but found the whole vendor thing to be going downhill . She said it was the worst she had ever seen and had attended every year. Keith

Anonymous said...

I was told by a local restaurant vendor that it cost $1400 for the small space that he had and that it was very unorganized. He arrived just when he was told that he could get in to set up the day before and found many of the carnie vendors already in spaces. It was an uninteresting mess and the stage and PA were a joke-too bad for the bands that had to play.

Anonymous said...

$1400 for a booth for a 2 day fest? Was thing put on by d1 or what?

QuadCityImages said...

I also thought the non-food vendors were kinda thin this year.

I thought I had downloaded the vendor signup sheet back when D1 had it on their site, but now I can't find it. I don't believe it was actually $1400 for a space.

Anonymous said...

Ask Danny Kelly what he paid. And his was the cheaper option.