Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Tuesday morning assortment

Pleasure Pools buys part of former Buysee site -QCTimes
Good news for the Brady Street corridor. The article mentions that not only the north side of the former dealership is being redeveloped, but that the south side should be sold soon also. Despite the "evil" one ways, the area between Brady and Welcome Way from Kimberly to 53rd has always seemed like a very accessible location to me.

R.I. to hold Armory Park hearing today -QCOnline
Rock Island residents, make sure to stop in and check out the future plans for your riverfront. If you don't participate now, don't be surprised when you don't like what gets built later.

Negativity Epidemic
As I haven't noticed people using the phrase "bridge to nowhere" much lately, I'm not going to start using the term "againster" again, but there sure has been a lot of negativity lately.
The city finally paints the rusting Freight House boxcar -people complain about the color!
The city handles a flood quite well -people just make up nonexistant problems like Figge artwork being at risk
Davenport Police catch people breaking the law -people complain that they shouldn't waste time enforcing seat belt laws, despite the fact that other criminals were caught because of it.
The city privatizes and shrinks Fejervary Zoo -the QCTimes complains, despite their own editorials pushing for the closure of the zoo while providing no guidance on what to do instead.

Sometimes I think a few of these people would react to a 20-pound gold bar falling into their front yard by complaining about the dent it left in their lawn.

Drunken Monkey needs to be shut down
I'll follow my complaint about complaining with a complaint of my own. The city should be investigating the fact that one bar, The Drunken Monkey on Rockingham, requires a police response on nearly a nightly basis. It has to be the worst bar in town at this point, and is clearly not helping the surrounding neighborhood. It shouldn't be the DPD's job to provide bar security.

Construction continues
In more positive news, the renovation of the former Salvation Army building is coming right along. Having a newly vibrant Freight House combined with new residents should really change that area of River Drive for the better.

City might pull plug on Credit Island golf -QCTimes
I don't think this one's a good idea. The city's golf courses are one of the few services that actually pay for themselves, and now we have to get rid of one because it costs $70,000 to clean up every 5-7 years? Duck Creek golf course spent something like $40,000 to build a single new green a few years ago. I'll be curious to see what kind of plan this committee can come up with on what to do down there.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't get the people that are upset about the police enforcing seat belt laws, up set about red light cameras or any other thing that makes our streets safer. After all in the end illegal is illegal. Maybe we could deport them all to Excile Island.

Anonymous said...

i agree regarding negativity.

though in a way, aren't you complaining about it and thus contributing to the problem?!?!?!?!

:-D

Anonymous said...

Considering what the city spends on other projects, such as disparity studies, $70,000 to repair a nine hole golf course sounds like a real bargain.

If the golf course was being run by private business they would recognize the fact that a flood was coming every few years and set aside a portion of each years profits to repair the inevitable damage.

Unfortunately our elected officials do not think like businessmen or accountants and when the flood causes damage their first reaction is to form a task force to expore other options for the use of the island, almost like they think that the flooding has never happened before.

I am all in favor of maintaining the status quo on Credit Island.

Anonymous said...

The problem I see with Credit Island is that it is the first thing to flood out. It doesn't take a 'hundred year flood' to close down the access roads. Is this golf course popular? I would think that this would be the least 'profitable' golf course that Davenport owns. Would a conversion to wetlands be all that bad? Think of the educational aspect and the added trail system.

Unknown said...

It might sound funny, but what about a disk golf course? It costs a lot less to maintain, and our area and Iowa in general are developing a reputation for the sport. They had a big tournament last year at West Lake, and Des Moines has a big one every year, too. Just one thing that could go in there, I'm sure there are others.

Anonymous said...

"The city finally paints the rusting Freight House boxcar -people complain about the color!"

And the funny thing is, its THE SAME COLOR AS IT WAS ORIGINALLY!!

Anonymous said...

It was ugly originally. I was surprised they did it again.

Anonymous said...

I don't find the color ugly at all, and it's actually a very classic color regarding train cars.

Secondly, i laughed out loud at the "gold brick out of the sky" comment. It's true, and typifies the average negative person in the Quad-Cities. I also agree that this crowd does seem to be dwindling a little, which is a good sign.

Change in this town takes forever, and that goes for people's understanding of what a healthy community should be investing in too. I hope the positive trend of successful projects, efficient safety response, progressive thinking, and community growth continues. I'm very happy that Alderman like Ambrose, who are trying their hardest to ensure we remain stuck 60 years backwards in time in community development, are becoming outnumbered.

The incredibly dated notion that City governments exist purely for pot holes and safety need to wake up and smell the global competitive market. I feel like the Quad-Cities as a whole is actually moving in the right direction lately, so cheers to the trend and let's hope we can capitalize on the momentum.

Anonymous said...

I've talked to a few of the guys working at the other city courses and they hope that Credit Island does get shut down. Their reasoning? What if the City took all of that money they dump into Credit Island (including rebuilding after every flood) and put it into the existing city courses. Pretty nice golf!