Land casino coming to Bettendorf; riverboat will remain in Davenport -QCTimes
We need, as citizens, to absolutely demand that IOC is either sued, or removed as the operator of the Davenport gaming license. I thought I remembered Mary Ellen saying that they are legally required to make efforts towards a maximum profit or something legalese, which clearly they aren't doing for the Davenport operation. Bring in a real casino company that has nothing to do with Bernie and his constant screwing of Davenport. Maybe they'd take me up on my casino-hotel-indoor waterpark plan.
39 comments:
IOC to turn over Blackhawk;
City, IOC still negotiating casino site -QCTimes
Dumb??????
Good news! Those of you who attended the meeting at the River Center where Restoration St. Louis presented their portfolio and some of their plans for the Blackhawk know how big of a deal this could be for downtown Davenport. I'm happy that IOC is at least moving out of the way of this potential progress.
I aagree QCI we need to get this outfit out of Davenport and responsible operators in here. We have been bamboozled by these folks since the beginning of time. All we have had is broken promises.
On the John Lewis stabbing, where oh where is Shelly when we need her community skills.Oh dear Images run down and get her tell her we need her right now.Does anyone have Ridges address. We can send her a newspaper clipping.
If davenport had a decent city government that didn't waste its money on bridges to nowhere, failing Italian restaurants, art museums that nobody visits etc, the boat would not have chosen Bettendorf. People want to be where the streets actually get plowed and potholes really get filled in.
Put this failure exactly where it belongs in the hands of tefelon craig. and his clayton zombies. Wake up QCI and see the whole of things. Just a bunch of dummies led by a big dummie marching past a bunch of dummies. Geeze man. How did we get to where we are? At least Bernie is a smart man and nows how to play his cards. Get the City to take the Blackhawk off his hands. Done. Now go away, please.
I agree. We have to give credit to Bernie for being a smart businessman and taking advantage of the best opportunities out there. I think it is obvious that Bettendorf is just a better city to do business in. And, Malin and the Calytonettes are not singing a very pretty tune. Of course, the Claytonettes are gone now, but they remain in spirit.
10:59 - You're poor point of view is exactly the kind that gets us in trouble.
The Skybridge to the Mississippi River, a restaurant that isn't run by the Ciy (which by the way has already been replaced), and The Figge which is incredible and posting good numbers this year are not arguments you should be using here.
Davenporters love to "play the amenity card" and blame improvements to our City for things like the Casino problems. Are you kidding me?? Not only are the TOTALLY unrelated to this subject matter, but even if they all didn't exist, THE CASINO WOULD STILL BE THE SAME ISSUE!
I'm absolutely sick and tired of this crap. No amount of amenities are going to put the City in to bankruptcy. Do the math, they account for a FRACTION, repeat, FRACTION of our budget. And on top of that, half the ones people still think get public tax money, don't even get it! (like the RME)
You want to solve the money problems in this town, start changing the City pension plans to 401K to alter the 70% that goes to fire and police. THAT might actually make a big dent, but good luck with the union on that one.
That aside, the Casino has clearly become a dissapointment. But I don't want to read one more word blaming the Arts & Culture community for all of our problems. It's wrong, it's played out, and we need to move on.
I don't know what the solution is for the casino, but it sure isn't bitching about the skybridge some more. YEESH.
Oh I don't know -t he Downtown Partnership is mismanaged. They don't flipping get it. They are too narrowly focused to understand what will actually improve our city. So are the employees and aldermen. We continue to attract thugs to this town without getting impact they have on uss. Too many problems to list.
How is the way in which the casino is managed in any way influenced by the DP? Do you honestly beleive it's possible for them to control what the casino does? That doesn't make any sense at all. Where do people come up with this stuff?
The Isle has played their hand well. They kept the dangling carrot in front of Davenport while solidifying their Bettendorf Business Plan. With a foot up and expansion on the way in Bettendorf and Casino Rock Island’s new facility under construction, there isn’t much left for anyone else who might have had interest in Davenport.
And the Isle blames the previous council. Meyer, Hammerlink, Lynn and Ambrose made it easy to place blame because of their series of public comments. Negotiating through the media created an environment where one-on-one negotiations would have been very difficult. Still, none of this probably matters as the Isle had their eye on the Bettendorf expansions for some time now.
I would think that the Isle would like to keep Davenport as is for the short term, during the Bettendorf construction. For the longer term, I think you will see them move on without Davenport.
When all else fails blame Meyer.
Heh heh - Nice.
Previous poster, your wrong. The Bridge to Nowhere cost almost 8 million, hardly a drop in the bucket. City pension plans too large? That too!
Actually, the Skybridge only cost $500,000 of City taxpayer money. The rest came from the CAT grant form the State and Federal level. Big deal. It probably cost you 5 bucks out of your pocket - if that. Cry me a river.
More importantly, we're once again abusing this topic to avoid difficult critical thinking about actual solutions to the casino, which is what we're here to discuss right now. Enough distraction already.
If the City decides to try and pull the licence, it will be difficult battle. I hope it doesn't become a necessary one. There's got to be some middle ground, but it seems to be harder and harder to find. I'm curious if any other casio owners are even interested?
I think sometimes these negative folks must have a checklist of items that they blame for each and every problem the faces Davenport. Something bad happens? Roll out the complaints against the Skybridge, D1, Malin, JLCS, etc.
Its at least good to see that potholes have pushed the Push Pin off the list... or these folks are too busy thinking about how much they hate Davenport to have a good memory.
As always, its just a very vocal, and very wrong, minority.
I honestly could care less if they ever build a hotel. The important thing IMO is that they relocate from their current location. I want to see LeClaire Park expanded and our riverfront opened up, and their ugly property someplace else.
There still is a way we still have leverage over the IOC: it's called voting.
If the voters of Scott County decide to vote down gambling here, or even threaten to do so, the IOC wouldn't even be able to operate in Bettendorf! It may seem unlikely, but the more they continue to neglect Davenport, the more likely the possibility the vote will fail becomes. The next vote is 33 months away. Unless, of course, you read my latest blog post:
Iowa gambling referendum change
They must be pretty confident in either:
A. Their lobbyists in DSM getting that change passed.
or
B. Their propaganda machine convincing Scott County to continue gambling, probably by pretending to invest in the Davenport operation again.
It seems pretty dumb for a business that relies upon gambling being voted for to screw the main population center of Scott County.
Hey QCI - Thanks for the support what's becoming a more and more lame scapegoat for people to use regarding actual City problems(Skybridge, etc.)
Slowly, the crowd using this incredibly tired, poorly researched, and flat out wrong opinion are being taken less and less seriously. It's about time.
Second, I agree with you that the Casino must be very confident that neither of what you've proposed will happen. To be honest, it's pretty far fetched that it would get voted down, but any thing is possible.
The flip side of this coin is the Casino does have *some* validity in their point that they did offer a big operation in the RiverCenter, but we turned it down.
Anyway, it's terribly sad that it's come to this. I was really hoping we were just going to find another location downtown, reclaim the riverfront, and have everyone win.
Here's an interesting hypothetical for you: Now knowing what's happened, and the seemingly indefinite current location of the boat now, do you now wish they'd just gotten in to the RC and we could have all just moved forward?
Which situation is really worse? Food for thought.
It wasn't a big operation at all, it was a more half-assed one. They didn't want to build a hotel to go with the casino, but the city was trying to force them to. They wanted to lease the space so they could have pulled out whenever with fewer consequences instead of buying land and owning their own building.
I'm glad that they didn't give them the RC, because I do believe we'll be able to get a better operator that will actually want to compete with the other 2 casinos.
Serously QC""I why would people come to Davenport to gamble?
Its been proven they'll come if you're operation is good enough. There's no question Davenport can support a casino, QCI's point revolves around the need for a more competitive one to get the job done.
I would not underestimate the possibility that voters would vote gambling down the next time around, unless either the license goes to a different operator or the IOC at least starts to show some more commitment to its Davenport property.
People are becoming aware of a lot of things that aren't exactly positive about gambling in Davenport. Most of the tax money goes to Des Moines and doesn't come back. The IOC refuses to invest in its Davenport property, which also is holding up possible state grants for riverfront projects. And their current property is ugly.
And the Goldstein involvement in River Gulf and its reluctance to follow through on commitments is another annoyance.
Coltrane,
Thanks for saying what a lot of us feel about the irrational idiots who plague blogland
Oh boo hoo hoo!!! Quit crying, Goldstein is a hero! He is the kind of guy that will be successful in business!
Think about it, bernie builds an events center for his favoite casino and then tries to move his "other" casino into the only events center that would compete.
He wouldn't even have to build a second multimillion dollar new casino or hotel. That's two birds....one stone.
If he had gotten away with it......genious
I remember when Goldstein was conteplating about adding an scenic train operation and waterpark on the land he owns on the Bettendorf riverfront. He probably just threw that out to the newspaper just so he could get potential investors and partners to help pay an certain amount for his pet project. Well, no one stepped up and he dropped it. This is just an example, in my opinion, of how cheap Goldstein has become. He probably wanted someone else to help pay for his dream on his property. Even Bettendorf had to stronghold IOC to get their events center move forward. I think the city neeeds to find any loophole in order to get the IOC off the riverfront or get an new license holder. If he thinks he can treat Davenport like trash,the city shoud pay the favor back to IOC. I can't wait till the floods surround the casino in about a month or two and Davenport supposed to offer them some help? HELL NO, I think the city should offer them no help at all and just say you could of prevented from getting flooded, but you were too cheap to build a new facility. After the flooding, the city should refuse to help them clean up their property or the IOC pays big time for the city to do it.
I hope the casino gets battered and miraculously gets torn apart by the flooding.
Sine talking about flooding, did anybody see the front page picture on the Dispatch/Argus? You can clearly see the New West Rock River Bridge had some play in causing the ice jam that sent the river to its highest level ever. I wonder how pist off those homeowners along the river are.
I think Goldstein is an admirable man, a business icon and a hero for the rest of us. His lesson: Don't get bossed around by bureaucrats and do smart deals. And oh yeah, he pays his taxes so the City HAS to clean up from floods. They have no choice. Do you think if a city does not like a particular neighbor they can legally refuse to clear his street and yet clear everybody else's street? If they try it with Bernie, he will OWN Davenport once the lawsuits are done!
Just quit crying and congratulate Bernie for being a good business man. And by the way, all investors, Trump included, use other investors money. Bernie is far from cheap!
You're welcome 11:23 - I'm counting on other folks to start stepping up and stop accepting this rediculous "The Skybridge ruined everything forever" crap. Give it up, people! It's 2008 and we're still talking about this?
It's wrong, and frankly, people who support the great things our community has built need to start being as vocal as the C.A.V.E. dwellers in this town.
Coltrane works for D-1 an we know how much they rip the taxpayers off.
Those who support the "stuff" have a greater voice then the others already. It is called Citizens for A better D - port. Money talks baby. The candidates are bought.
Now that the Mr Bernies Gambling boat has made it official their will stay on the riverfront Mr. Ahrens should take a well deserved paycut. Of course thanks to lawyers D one and coldtrain will still get their money.
Anybody else out there notice that Alderman Boom is ready to swipe $225,000 in tax money allocated to fix up houses in the inner city for his project. Anonymous donor? Geeze. Sounds like D-1 came up with this plan.
The house will probably BE in the inner city after its move, so I would say it qualifies as fixing up a house in the inner city. It has the same result that was intended, at least, which is improving inner city neighborhoods.
Why are some people not only ok with tearing the house down, but seemingly insistent on it?
This house deserves to be saved, but not by EDD. EDD has a mission to spend this money improving a particular area of town, by improving multiple houses rather than moving one. EDD was going good until the againster group took over the leadership and ran it into the ground. The rest of the board resigned and left it to the east side dictators.
So lets forget about the actual issue and worry about personality conflicts, in other words.
No thanks.
The house will not end up being saved for two reasons:
1. Personality conflicts
2. Nobody really cares, and who can blame the non caring people? This is NOT a special house.
Good editorial in th QC Times this morning. Sums it all up fairly well.
Other then being disappointing for getting some new development in the downtown. This makes alot of sense for IOC. Don't act shocked or hurt. If we don't want to be IOC's after thought. We simply need to look for someone else who would want to build a first class casino. Bernie doesn't "owe" us anything. It's just good business.
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