Monday, June 29, 2009

A mountain of interesting things?

I'd like to say I wasn't posting for some good reason, like I was out of power (which I wasn't) or distraught over all the celebrity deaths (sad to lose MJ, but not distraught) but the reality is just that life happens, and I didn't get time to sit down and blog.

The last commenter on the previous post pointed out: "QCI - there is a mountain of interesting things going on in City politics right now - get off your duff and give us your 2 cents!"

Well, I don't know about a mountain, but I'll give my 2 cents on a few recent things.

Centennial Park- The new system that closes the south side of the park to everything except fishing and boat launching makes some sense. I am surprised that bike riding wasn't also listed, but I suspect someone riding through on the bike path and minding their own business probably wouldn't get hassled about it. The idea of having a 24 hour park is great, and its working at the skatepark and the basketball courts. They're packed, and because they're packed, it tends to drive away most crime (except littering). However, the boat launch area is not packed with upstanding citizens, so less-than-upstanding citizens are congregating there and causing problems. As the rest of the park is finished up, hopefully the skatepark's success will spread throughout the area.

Wisor vs East Village- This is one case where I am quite happy with the council's decision. I'm not at all sure why they don't value historic buildings on Main Street as much as historic buildings in the Village, but hopefully they've learned from their earlier mistakes. There are plenty of luxury homes available in McClellan Heights. A couple new expensive infill homes were even built. If Mr. Wisor really wanted the ambiance of the Village and modern conveniences, he should have bought one of them. If he wants to build his own home, there are plenty of subdivisions available. If he really wanted to build condos and not a home for himself, than shame on him for lying. If he wants to buy and tear down the strip mall at River and Mound, and build architecturally appropriate condos, I'll be first in line to cheer him on. The city's Design Center even has a rendering of what it could look like, seen here.

Davenport NOW- Technically I was against this, but I'm not worried that it passed. Like the Promise, its not perfect, but it could bring new people to Davenport. It should even the competition a little bit with cities who TIF new subdivisions like LeClaire does. It sounds like the details still need to be ironed out, so hopefully they use some good lawyers to keep this from causing trouble down the line. All the people who have been asking why only big developers get tax breaks should now be running out to get building permits for new homes and renovations.

Malin contract renewal- This one's pretty interesting, in that it sounds like even those who wanted him fired are ok with him now. Even if Ambrose and Lynn still hated him, the majority is clear on the council, and they are not it. I still feel like the whole story about the pay raise controversy never came out in a way that explained why everyone backed off. From what I understand, Malin was in the right all along, and those that wanted him nailed for it (including Thee) were shown their mistake and decided not to continue with a losing lawsuit. Many on the previous council who wrote the contract certainly felt he was within his rights to take his previously-deferred raise. But who really wants to get into that whole mess again...

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wisor is threatening to take legal action against the city, and has ear of a few alderman. Also hear the same alderman want to "restructure" historic preservation committee like they did with plan and zone.

This dog fight hasn't ended...

Anonymous said...

The folks who own the park at 11th and Mound should have sued Wisor's socks off when he tried with Devin Davenport Design's help to take their green park corner.There is nothing good about this guy.

QuadCityImages said...

If only that was what actually happened...

Whether Wisor's intent was along those lines or not, the Design Center did not help him in any way towards that end. One rendering was shown out of many potential ideas, and it was quickly rejected. Just keep plugging away at your conspiracy theories though...

Anonymous said...

Malin got his money because he brought in Lane and Waterman (paid for by the City of Davenport) and threatened to sue the Council for $2,000,000.00, not because he was entitled to it. The Council choked. Sad sad. Thee was right.

Anonymous said...

The next time Mary Thee is right about anything it will be the first.

Anonymous said...

Funny thing is that Lynn and Ambrose where there and approved his first contract. Why would they be PO'd?

Anonymous said...

No conspiracy theory, just the facts. The record shows as much. To bad whenever QCI can't accept the facts he reaches under his box for his conspiracy theory dictionary.

Anonymous said...

Can't anybody just step back and accept the fact that Malin's done a pretty descent job lately?

Drama or not drama, have we lost sight of the whole reason the position exists, which is to have someone doing their job?

To what end is complaining about the whole raise debacle even achieving anymore?

Anonymous said...

It's time to cut Malin loose and get somebody in that office who can get results from the Police Department. There's way too much crime and shootings in this town for us to feel safe.

Anonymous said...

That's absolutely ridiculous. The crime statistics for our town are not bad at all for the size of community we are. Take a good hard look at Peoria's numbers, and come back here and tell me we're doing a bad job.

Every City of any descent size has violent crime, but to make the blanket statement that we're genuinely "unsafe" just living here is ludicrous.

Anonymous said...

Here's how the Davenport Police numbers are skewed. The next time you call in a report, wait a couple weeks and call and ask how the case is progressing. They won't be able to find a report on it. When all the calls arn't logged into the system, it makes it appear that our crime numbers are going down.

Try it for yourself.

Anonymous said...

That is true about the Davenport Police Department. I have done that exact same thing myself. Record keeping is down not crime.

QuadCityImages said...

Again with the conspiracy...

Crime isn't that bad here; it is just high profile. There are a few hundred people who take up 90% of the DPD's time, and are involved in basically 100% of the shootings and police chases. If you're not one of that group, crime is actually quite low. The problem is that innocent folks could get caught in the crossfire. We're pretty lucky that that hasn't happened for a few years.

Anonymous said...

Tried to talk a young family into buying a house in Davenport today to take advantage of NOW. Half off on the taxes for ten years.Their response was sorry, half of nothing is still nothing. Malin and Gluba don't have a clue.We may have grown to a 100,000 people, but you don't want them breeding next to you. Happy birthday to Davenport, U.S.A.

Anonymous said...

Half off of nothing is still nothing? What the heck is that supposed to mean? Are they unable to do basic math, or are you just trying to shoot for a lame cynical jab at our community?

I swear, there is a whole generation of people here that have a serious issue with self confidence. Even my tiny farm town I grew up in, which had a fraction of the quality of life I enjoy in Davenport, was BURSTING with pride. Hell, you couldn't go a day without someone telling you how awesome Canton was, and International Harverster shut down there over 20 years ago leaving behind no stable economy!

Yet, here we are, a growing, culturally interesting, historic Mississippi River town, and there continues to be this "woe is me" attitude from some folks. It's like there's this percentage of people who just absolutely cannot come to terms with the fact that their City might actually not have been so bad after all.

Wake up. Davenport, and the Quad-Cities as a whole, are not a place to be ashamed of. Embrace your town, love our history, engage yourself in future progress. Trust me, you'll be a lot happier.

QuadCityImages said...

10:25,
Wow, couldn't have said that any better myself. Have you considered starting a blog? We need more of the positive folks to get in the battle of Davenport's perception of itself.

Anonymous said...

Well done 10:25. As QCI says, the "Naysayers" only focus on the negative, but won't do anything about it. You try to get they to move the town in (their view) a more positive way. All they give you is some Alex Jones Build-A-Burger plot to take over the world.

Nitrous55

Anonymous said...

Thanks, QCI (10:15 here) I'll consider it. I've followed your blog for a long time, and I enjoy your positive attitude towards our community.

I wish more people would begin to speak up about how much they enjoy living here. I would help make the angry, bitter, impossible to please crowd a lot more aware of their minority status.