LeClaire Park, and looking upriver from the Skybridge, which has gotten very popular.
The temporary wall, and the overly-complained-about bridge to the stadium. With a wider bridge, or a couple of them, I think they could have hosted the game tonight. Almost 5000 people found dry places to park for Sunday's game, after all.
I drove through Bettendorf, and they haven't even closed up their floodwall at Leach Park, and it doesn't really look like they plan to. The hinged floodwall sections are still down, and the gate that fits in where the rode is is still sitting in its stand over by the restrooms. I thought I remember them closing that all up for lesser floods than this, but I may be wrong.
19 comments:
I really dislike when people tell me that Davenport is stupid and should build a flood wall. Would it hurt some people to do a little reading before making blanket statements about things they dont understand?
I just think its weird that all the people saying we need a permanent flood wall are acting like this flood is so terrible. So far we've had to close a few things for a few days, and had an abandoned hotdog stand and public restroom get flooded. The Dock is probably flooding, but as that's slated for demolition it doesn't really count.
What they're doing is working; why should we change it? Think how much smoother yet it could have gone if the weather folks hadn't suddenly added 3 feet to the predicted crest in one day.
It's pretty amazing how well things are working. I almost afraid of jinxing it. While there have been several street and business clsoings due to high water, I haven't heard of a single active building being "flooded". Surrounded by water - yes, but not flooded. In fact, the only houses I've even heard with water issues are the ones on stilts off of Concord St. Someone will probably tell me I'm wrong, but for being one of the top 10 highest floods ever recorded, the damage so far has been amazingly low.
Of course it took a lot of hard work by a lot of people. Hopefully we can come up with a more efficient way to do this in the future that isn't so labor intensive.
One more thing: you know it must be working well if it's not making the national news!
As has been pointed out countless times by more level-headed commenters - having to do a little hard work, and dipping into your emergency reserves for a few hundred thousand dollars every 5 to 10 years makes a HELL of a lot more economic sense than investing $100 million on a permanent floodwall.
Between the FEMA buyouts, more stringent rules on what can be built where and how it must be constructed (see Figge, flood prevention elements of ballpark renovations) and a bit more investment in pumps, gates and other measures, I think Davenport is pretty close to having an iron-clad flood plan.
And besides, let's not forget that the Corps Of Engineers will not build a levee system in Davenport anyway because the cost/benifit ratio in not high enough to justify it.
Man, these posts make so much sense, I'm at a loss for what to add. Hooray for Davenport!
*note - that was not sarcasm*
The Skybridge nearly deserves a story of its own in the midst of all this. There's been hundres of people that have filed through it in the last week for photos and cool views. I don't hear anybody complaining about it now.
During my multiple trips down there I've seen a number of people clearly making their first visit to the Skybridge also.
Looks like Wundram took my advice! :)
It sounds like Davenport has the solution to its Downtown Renaissance. Instead of building a flood wall to keep the water out, the City should build a wall to keep the water in. Permanent flooding - a new tourist attraction!
"The Venice of the Midwest"
The national media finally picked it up. See story in yesterday's WSJ. Also note the funnily ambiguous subheading.
KWQC reports that Design ranch at the Figge is closing up shop soon. d'oh.
That doesn't surprise me too much, although it is unfortunate. I think they would have a tough time even with the foot traffic of the mall, much less the less than 100k visitors a year at the Figge.
They had a weird combination of what I felt to be strange kitschy junk and very expensive neat stuff. So... I never once bought anything there, besides the Jeff Speck book after his lecture. I don't even know if they normally sell that though.
I suppose a regular art museum gift shop operated by Figge volunteers is next up to bat.
QCI - pretty much my sentiments exactly. i worked there for a couple months when i first moved back from chicago, to make ends meet and get involved with some fun, new art faces. the staff is incredibly friendly and kind, and the owners are good folks. it was just such a niche shop, and the product they sold wasn't a good fit for the area.
Yo man imagery AnotherD-1 downtownsuccessstory.Thenew shop should sell water buckets.Support yourlocal business. Guesss not.
well the flooding there has effected APAC and my call center in Utica NY had to close as all data is sent through that site. They have no backup plan, and the employee that would be able to re-route calls another way can not be reached by phone. Employees at APAC Utica were sent home early without pay. Was a mandatory vto due to all this. If you ask me its a bunch of bullshit and might be illegal to force employees to go home without pay. So yeah if a damn flood wall could of prevented this then build the damn thing, because your effecting more than just your town.
Having grown up in the Quad Cities and moving to Chicago for economic reasons, I savor coming home each year and seeing how the QC has withstood the floods over the years. I also have noted in my travels tha damages caused by the senseless damming to avoid nature and dealing with the natural course of things. I see that those communities that have put up flood walls have not only still suffered environmentally (ruining the fishing and other natural habitats), but have not avoided the consequences of natural disasters. Could someone please give the statistics????
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