Thursday, August 07, 2008

Jeff Speck returns to speak at the Figge

From the city's website:

From pedestrian friendliness to attracting Millennials, New Urbanism expert Jeff Speck to speak on revitalizing downtown Davenport in free presentation at Figge

The public is invited to attend a free presentation, given by New Urbanism expert, Jeff Speck. This presentation will take place at Figge Art Museum auditorium at 225 West 2nd Street on Thursday, August 14, 2008. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with the talk starting at 6 p.m. The presentation is hosted by Downtown Partnership and the City of Davenport. Mr. Speck is helping launch a new downtown planning process and providing the foundation for an updated Downtown Master Plan.

Last year, Mr. Speck presented in Davenport to an overflow crowd of 150, comprised of interested citizens, business owners and city government. During that talk he covered New Urbanism in general terms. This year's presentation will focus on specific recommendations for continued downtown Davenport revitalization.

Mr. Speck is very familiar with Davenport and visits the area often, as his wife is from the Quad Cities. He is also the co-author of Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream (along with Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk).

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the guy who said the Davenport Parking Department, Davenport Design Department, Davenport One and Junior Achievement should vacate prime downtown Davenport locations.No body listens why pay the guy.

Anonymous said...

They'll vacate when a business asks to locate there. I'm sure nobody is moving out if there isn't someone knocking on the door asking to take it.

All of the organizations you just listed agreed it was a good idea if it were the case that a developer needed it.

Anonymous said...

"Parking" and "Design" are not "Departments".

You think someone so involved in City City Government would know that.

Anonymous said...

Maybe Mr. Speck could address the problem of a private instituition that believes that a parking lot is more important than a viable business entity.

Anonymous said...

That was tongue in cheek. Only called them Departments because they ego act like one and have no real supervision.

Pho3niX said...

Who would you have them relocate for... Hilltop Hair?!?

Anonymous said...

Jeff is going to be on WQPT's Perspective on Friday @ 6:30.

http://www.wqpt.org/perspective

Pho3niX said...

I'm hoping to get to "the big shoe" on Thursday to see what he has to say this time around. I'd say he's dealing with a different downtown that he was a year ago...

Anonymous said...

How can the downtown be different in a year? A bigger failure? A boom town? Explain.

QuadCityImages said...

Our downtown could change a lot in one year, although I don't know that it has during the past year.

The years that the Figge, JOD, the RME, Mississippi Plaza, and the Crescent Lofts all came online were pretty big years for downtown. The Blackhawk renovation will be a huge deal as well.