More Brady/Harrison/Welcome Way Stuff

Davenport aldermen want improvements in Brady and Harrison corridors -QCTimes

I attended the council work session on the Brady, Harrison, and Welcome Way corridor study, which was held last night at the Design Center. Most of the council attended (I don't recall seeing Lynn or Gilmour, but they could have been there) and a probably a dozen or so community members, with another dozen or more of city staff. The Mayor and some Aldermen seemed to be disadvantaged by the fact that this process began before they were even elected to the council. It always disappoints me when elected officials ask questions that even I know the answer to.

Edit: Wow, where was my brain this morning? Gilmour wasn't there, nor is he an alderman, but Jeff Justin was there and is the actual 6th Ward Alderman. Alderman Lynn had a prior engagement.

Here's a link to the study, in .pdf format.

As many of the Aldermen complained about, we've been hearing about this for years, so much of the stuff in the plan isn't anything we haven't heard. I do like the ideas of concentrating on 3 areas to start with, and also getting moving on some of the projects yet this year. The idea to connecting 32nd street to Brady behind Sanchos is one of the better ones in the whole study. Its pretty silly the amount of traffic that cuts through the Wayne Montgomery lot right now.

I was also surprised at the lack of outrage at the idea of decreasing the number of lanes in order to make for a better pedestrian experience. A couple of people worried about rush hour traffic fitting into 3 lanes, and also what happens when the beer trucks block off yet another lane. The answer to that is easy; stop allowing beer trucks to block a lane of traffic! Anyone who has walked along the sidewalk on Harrison between 12th and Locust knows that wider sidewalks and slower traffic would make for a less terrifying experience. It will be interesting to see how much of this gets implemented before we're right back into election time and a new council having to re-learn all about the proposals and studies.