tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-127266062024-03-13T13:32:16.427-05:00Quad City ImagesA blog devoted to the Quad Cities, with an emphasis on images, local politics, and development.QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.comBlogger1000125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-55468152691030113712019-02-15T17:54:00.003-06:002019-02-15T17:54:57.732-06:00I'm going to post this here in addition to Facebook, because the Riverfront is what got me into blogging, and it's very important to me to this day.<br />
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Don't stop reading if this starts out negative. It doesn't stay that way.<br />
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So I attended this event with a decent amount of skepticism. Not only was the meeting just announced yesterday, but over the last few years there's been quite a bit struggle getting the City, Downtown, Figge, Riverfront Improvement Commission, etc, in the same room, much less on the same page. Meanwhile I've been going to meetings about the riverfront for literally half my life.<br />
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The previous rendering from the city included a large building wrapping around the base of the SkyBridge, as many people seem to feel it needs more of a purpose than connecting the heart of the city to the Mississippi Riverfront. I hated that rendering, but I am so tired of the glacial pace of progress down there that I had resigned myself to supporting it now just to do my tiny part to move SOMETHING forward. Early in today's presentation they showed a slide saying that the council wanted the "commercial development" moved to the base of the SkyBridge. I knew a SkyBridge restaurant was coming.<br />
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Then they showed the renderings. They weren't bad. They almost seemed... good.<br />
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As I posted during the reveal, I felt that they were the best (or least bad?) effort on this front that I'd seen. As the presentation went on, I actually started to LIKE the design as shown. The amount of glass, and the fact that the "roof" of the restaurant/event space was more like additional park acreage than private reception area, have pretty much sold me. There are practical considerations that need to be ironed out, like how they'll hide the kitchen, utility, restrooms, storage and other unsightly infrastructure in their glass edifice, or whether it will need to be slightly larger than shown to be feasible. But those feel like details that can be worked out. The crowd reaction was quite positive, to the point that there were hardly any comments or questions at the end.<br />
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It seems like we may have a pretty solid plan for the showpiece that our riverfront deserves. Now the question is whether we have the bravery to build it.<br />
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<iframe allow="encrypted-media" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="808" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fdowntowndavenport%2Fposts%2F10156309975443845&width=500" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="500"></iframe>QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-85102418082357315542016-02-22T02:15:00.001-06:002016-02-22T02:27:46.449-06:00Let's not screw up our riverfront again, or Just Say No to Ugly BargesI'm hoping to start blogging a bit more, as the QCTimes is pretty much ceasing to function as a source of accurate local info, and there is a mountain of stuff going on. It's not quite "Alderman Drunkenly Crashes into Train"-level stuff, but we're getting there.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">My case for not ruining LeClaire Park</span></b><br />
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In 2004, the first River Vision process brought hundreds of community members together to plan what would become Centennial and Crescent (now Veterans Memorial) Parks on the Davenport side, and Rock Island's riverfront as well. Much of the transformation that has happened between Gaines and Marquette Streets came from those meetings and plans. At the final River Vision meeting the consultant working on the plan, Hargreaves out of Boston, revealed a small red rectangle on the map that indicated a 12 story casino hotel at the foot of Brady Street. This was quite a bombshell to the general public, especially those of us that had attended all of the planning meetings where it was never mentioned. I'd imagine that it was considerably less surprising to the insiders, but that's how things always work.<br />
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Fast forward a decade to 2014, and the Isle of Capri corporation had failed to follow through on any of its promises to Davenport, and Davenport's riverfront east of Modern Woodmen Park looked just as crappy as it did in 2004. Along comes somewhat unreliable developer Todd Raufeisen, with a plan to finally replace the crumbling and abandoned Dock restaurant with a new structure including restaurants, reception, and office space. Building a flood-proof, attractive building on the riverfront would not be cheap, so this plan would have required both city incentives and the added office space to make the financial aspect viable. However, there is a vocal group of Davenport residents that don't want to see any development, much less a 5 story office/restaurant complex, built south of River Drive. Many on the Levee Commission cried, "Think of the River Vision plan!," apparently forgetting that the River Vision plan included a 12 story hotel, parking garage, and casino complex at the same location.<br />
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So the City brought back Hargreaves for a whole new set of meetings on what to do with the riverfront, focusing mainly on the area between the stadium and the Arsenal Bridge. I attended some of these meetings as well, but they didn't seem to draw the same enthusiasm that the 2004 process had. (Lack of trust after the last second hotel addition last time?) Hargreaves explained that bringing some restaurants to the riverfront would bring more people to the riverfront at more times of day and week than now. They also explained that the smaller the building built, the higher percentage of city money that would be required, due to the economy of scale and developer profit margins. Some of the don't-build-anything crowd seemed to reluctantly admit that a much smaller building than the 80,000 square feet Raufeisen had proposed, could possibly be ok.<br />
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So Hargreaves came out with a final plan, potentially directed by the city to include a restaurant building replacing the Dock, that many people felt was a pretty good compromise. It also included a pier coming out from either Main Street, or aligned with the Skybridge. That plan is available in PDF form <a href="https://solisrussell.app.box.com/s/hgq57987yfxd2t0ivtah" target="_blank">here</a>. The QCTimes, after the plan was complete, noticed that there was a raised walkway referred to in the plan as a belvedere, connecting the Skybridge to the new Dock area. They proceeded to throw a complete fit, in editorials and columns, about this new floodwall that Craig Malin supposedly wanted to build. If they had attended the meetings, they'd have known about it earlier, but actual journalism seems to be prohibitively expensive these days.<br />
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Regardless of the belvedere drama,<a href="http://qctimes.com/news/local/government-and-politics/gluba-vetoes-two-major-development-projects/article_6bb93907-1753-548a-be93-a574d83b4274.html" target="_blank"> veto drama</a>, or <a href="http://qctimes.com/news/local/government-and-politics/gluba-embraces-unique-design-for-davenport-skybridge-restaurant/article_79d54771-6126-5c4c-9b77-3b72fde8335e.html" target="_blank">crazy skybridge restaurant</a> drama, Raufeisen failed to meet his deadlines for tearing down the old Dock, and former-Mayor Gluba, who had been opposed to the project all along, finally was able to convince the council to pull the plug on the whole thing. Meanwhile, Gluba had announced that Viking River Cruises planned to include Davenport as a stop on their newly-announced Mississippi River cruises. So now, after rushing into a new River Vision process because of the possibility of restaurant development, the city began rushing into a plan to accommodate the Viking cruise ships. There's been reluctance by some on the council to spend a lot of money on this, and then a new council, new mayor, and one less City Administrator have led to not much progress happening. They did manage to tear down the old Dock. The fact that the whole Viking thing was one of Gluba's biggest talking points probably isn't motivating new-Mayor Klipsch to push very hard for it either.<br />
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Now Alderman Boom, who has always been a friend to downtown, is pushing an idea he's had for a while, which is to <a href="http://qctimes.com/news/local/government-and-politics/davenport-s-viking-solution-floated/article_f2ef2a5a-c92f-5ddd-89b3-5d075005437c.html" target="_blank">acquire the barge that the casino "boat" is currently connected to, and use that as a dock for the Viking ships</a>. This is probably my least favorite idea ever to come from Bill Boom. Nowhere in the new River Vision plan do we see a horribly ugly building-on-a-barge sitting in the center of our riverfront. If we really need an interim dock while we build a world-class pier, Oneida landing would work for a year or two. That brings me to my next point, which is the false sense of urgency that some are giving this project. Viking River Cruises, from what I can tell, has not even started construction on any of their Mississippi "longboat" cruise ships. <a href="http://www.travelagewest.com/Travel/River-Cruise/Viking-Postpones-Mississippi-Debut-to-2018/#.Vsq0W_krKUk" target="_blank">This article</a> indicates that they've pushed back their plans until 2018.<br />
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So, in conclusion (congrats if you've made it this far), we need to take a step back, and look at the entire LeClaire Park as a whole, and decide what is best for the next 50-100 years, rather than lurching from one shiny object to the next. In my opinion, this means a beautiful pier suitable for riverboat docking, a small, architecturally significant building housing one or more restaurants where the Dock used to be, and basically following the River Vision plan for tying everything together. We don't want to end up with the same kind of mess we've had on the riverfront for the last 25 years.<br />
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<br />QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-6341368256148062015-11-24T07:34:00.000-06:002015-11-24T07:34:00.153-06:00Facebook Frustrations and Condo DreamsIn many ways, the rise of news site comments and Facebook contributed to the decline of local blogging. Even in the height of the QC blogosphere, however, and even with the crazy comments this blog used to get, I always felt like the blog comments were better than the comments on the newspaper websites. One of the arguments back then was always whether or not to allow fully anonymous comments, which certainly has its pros and cons. Many insisted that the quality of comments would go up if people were forced to use a consistent screenname, or even their own real name. I opted to continue allowing anonymous comments, which is still true today, because I felt it allowed more insider info that people would have felt uncomfortable logging in to post.<br />
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Now, over 10 years after the launch of QuadCityImages, Facebook has proven that no matter how much peoples' identities are revealed, they will still say incredibly stupid things. I won't even get into the current national political scene, but locally, I've spent far too much time trying to argue with people on Facebook who seem to have no grasp of reality. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kwqcnews/posts/10153333439794426" target="_blank">This post on KWQC's Facebook page</a> is a perfect example. The news story posted was essentially a reminder of old news, regarding the <a href="http://www.400river.com/" target="_blank">400 River project</a>, but over a hundred comments poured in about how stupid people felt the proposed condo building was. Here are some examples, with names removed so as not to embarrass them further.<br />
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The comments ranged from those above, doubting that anyone would want to live downtown, or not understanding that some people in the QC can actually afford $500k+ homes, to people with no concept of how capitalism or city planning work whatsoever. Stuff like wondering why "they" don't build "affordable housing" instead. Over the years I've learned that a lot of people seem to think the city just plunks down businesses, factories, and homes like they're building a Lego city. I'm sure many of those commenting would be shocked to find out the going rate of apartments in the newer market-rate downtown apartment buildings, as it wouldn't fit into their stuck-in-the-1980's view of Davenport.</div>
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All that said, the 400 River condos may well not happen. Even if there are 36 people who are willing to spend $465k and up for the units, they may read the kind of garbage above and worry about their chances to resell them in the future. I am extremely hopeful that the building is built as planned, because it looks great, it would be the biggest skyline-changer since the Figge, and also a slap in the face to all the people underestimating downtown Davenport over the last decade. I applaud longtime downtown (and QCI reader) JJ Condon and his partners for having the vision to put something bold on the table. Now let's hope they can make it happen.<br />
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If it doesn't work out, there's always a <a href="http://www.ruhlhomes.com/property/1-kone-court-804--moline-il-61265_221373" target="_blank">$695k condo still available in Kone Center</a>.QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-11738283716275839082015-11-13T11:51:00.003-06:002015-11-13T15:06:35.061-06:00Where in the QC is this? #20<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Bringing this feature back again. Where in the Quad Cities was this taken? Since there aren't that many readers here, I'll also be posting it <a href="https://www.facebook.com/QuadCityImages/posts/10156282211295192" target="_blank">over on Facebook</a>.<br />
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<b>The Answer?</b><br />
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Finally, the Clayton House/Best Western/Clarion/Hojo/eyesore will be history starting Wednesday at 11am.<br />
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<br />QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-73479017646335826542015-11-03T05:03:00.002-06:002015-11-03T05:03:54.900-06:002015 City Election ThoughtsIt's election day in Davenport, and we've actually got some excitement this year. There are a lot of good candidates running in a number of wards, and also, Phil Yerington! But seriously, here are my semi-rambling thoughts on some of the races in Davenport.<br />
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<b>Mayor</b><br />
Topping the list is the closest battle for Mayor in years. It's one of 2 votes I'll have to make today that I've really struggled to decide on. In general, I've been pleased with Mayor Gluba's performance over the years. I didn't even have a problem with his 2 vetoes, as I've lost patience with St. Ambrose's misplaced suburban sprawl model of central city development, and the Dock proposal could have indeed used some added protections for the city. However, <a href="http://quadcityimages.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-good-ol-days-are-back-again.html" target="_blank">as I posted back in June</a>, Gluba has been acting increasingly erratic in some of his leadership. The final straw, in my opinion, was his sudden and unilateral request for Craig Malin to resign over mistakes with the casino/Elmore contract. If Gluba wanted Malin to resign, he should have put forth his resignation at the same time, as his was the only signature on that casino agreement.<br />
On the other hand, Frank Klipsch has done a lot of good with the Y over the years, but is running as a bit too much of a Republican in our non-partisan city election. In <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oys2ta2upac" target="_blank">the excellent WQPT discussion with the Mayoral candidates</a>, Klipsh says "City government should not be involved in owning and operating entities that could, in fact, be done by the private sector." My first thoughts were some snarky things along the lines of "Like opening partially-taxpayer-funded YMCA's attached to North and West High Schools?" I'm not sure where the line is. Davenport is in need of new revenue streams, and there are only so many places to create them. While I can understand folks' opinion that the city shouldn't get involved in new "business" areas, I don't always agree with it. Dubuque has shown the a city owned casino can work, and I will always believe Davenport missed a huge chance to have a Restoration St. Louis-quality casino downtown. Instead, "the private sector," potentially interested in protecting their Riverside Casino profits, is building a casino that will leave Davenport still in 3rd place in the QC casino competition on Opening Day. I do, however, like Klipsch's ideas for the riverfront better than Gluba's crazy skybridge restaurant idea.<br />
It's a tough choice, but I'm leaning towards voting against Gluba's recent unpredictability.<br />
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<b>At-Large</b><br />
This is another interesting race, and difficult choice for me personally. I would love to have Barnhill, Gordon, and Gripp all on the city council, but that's not possible since Barney chose to run for At-Large. I'll probably go with Gordon and Gripp, despite the latter's lack of consideration of the benefits of a publicly-owned casino. He's far from alone on that front. Hopefully Alderman Barnhill can get some kind of recognition for his years of service on the city council if he is defeated. One thing I'm curious about, with 3 "mainstream" candidates for At-Large, is whether that voting block could be split to the point where Phil Yerington can pull in enough naysayer votes to make it onto the council. <i>That </i>would certainly bring back some unneeded excitement to the council chambers.<br />
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<b>1st Ward</b><br />
Rick Dunn has always been awesome for the 1st Ward, especially back when they lacked competent representation of the Council. I can certainly see why he's not opposed, because while I may not agree with some of his opinions, he does a great job of representing his ward.<br />
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<b>2nd Ward</b><br />
Bill Edmonds is quite a character, but I can't say I'd be too sad to see him off the council. I don't know enough about Maria Dickmann to form much of an opinion of her as a potential council member, but I suspect Edmonds will be reelected anyway.<br />
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<b>3rd Ward</b><br />
I've supported Bill Boom in every election, and this will be no different. He represents the 3rd Ward well, and has been a huge, huge supporter of downtown Davenport.<br />
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<b>4th Ward</b><br />
I feel like Alderman Ambrose has been saying less <a href="http://qctimes.com/news/local/local-gay-pride-day-proclamations-hit-snags/article_26f43a00-449f-53a8-b649-adad922f80e9.html" target="_blank">crazy stuff</a> in the last few years, but maybe I'm just not paying as much attention. David Sodemann spoke briefly at a Hilltop meeting I attended, and he seems like he'd bring some new ideas to the Council. I don't think the 4th Ward is particularly demanding a change though, so again, the incumbent will probably win.<br />
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<b>5th Ward</b><br />
It was a tough choice between Sheilia Burrage and Barney Barnhill back in 2013 for my 5th Ward vote, but this year Barney has simplified that by running for a different job. Rita Rawson has been involved in city politics for years, but I was quite pleased with Alderwoman Burrage's performance as 5th Ward's representative in the past, so I hope she can pick up where she left off.<br />
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<b>6th Ward</b><br />
Jeff Justin has been a great guy to have on the council, and seems to represent the 6th Ward perfectly. That probably explains why no one chose to run against him. He also actually responds to emails!<br />
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<b>7th Ward</b><br />
Looks like Mike Matson will continue to represent the 7th Ward.<br />
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<b>8th Ward</b><br />
And finally, the 8th Ward. I don't know much of anything about Bob Babcock, but Kerri Tomkins hasn't overly impressed me on the council, especially her attempts to kill various downtown riverfront amenities. I suppose it doesn't hurt to have someone on the Council keeping the pro-Downtown folks honest.<br />
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That's it folks. I may not post often, but I sometimes make up for it by writing 1000-word essays at the last minute. The most important thing, of course, is to exercise your rights and vote for your local representation. As I always say, if you don't vote, don't complain about what you end up with!<br />
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<a href="http://www.scottcountyiowa.com/auditor/precinct-finder" target="_blank">Find your precinct here, if you don't already know it.</a>QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-5756425241639902352015-08-06T17:16:00.000-05:002015-08-06T17:16:07.259-05:00A few local election things<h3>
City Elections</h3>
People are starting to announce that they're running for city council in various wards. Per QCTimes columnist <a href="https://twitter.com/brianwellner" target="_blank">Brian Wellner's twitter accoun</a>t, Bob Babcock will run in the 8th Ward and David Sodemann will run in the 4th Ward. This is in addition to already announced candidates Maria Dickmann in the 2nd Ward, and Kyle Gripp for At Large. I would imagine that most of the existing council will run for reelection.<br />
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Speaking of the At-Large election and the existing council....<br />
<a href="http://qctimes.com/news/local/davenport-alderman-gene-meeker-won-t-seek-re-election/article_790cb786-946e-59df-a4e9-877d6bd5b32d.html" target="_blank">Davenport Alderman Gene Meeker won't seek reelection</a> -QCTimes<br />
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This would seem to open up the door for Kyle Gripp to slide into Meeker's spot, unless a more experienced, funded candidate pops up. I was a year ahead of Mr. Gripp at Central, so I'm seeing a lot of Facebook support from my circles, but I'm not sure whether he has widespread support or not. It doesn't matter unless others run, of course. I do like his enthusiasm for Davenport, but when he mentioned his disapproval of a city-own casino as one of his reasons for running, that lost him some points in my book. The process was certainly handled badly, but if done correctly, a city-owned, Restoration St. Louis-built, professionally-managed downtown Casino could have been great for Davenport. Instead we're getting a cookie cutter interstate casino, although at least it seems to be leveraging some development nearby. Additionally, its great that RStL has continued forward with the City Square and Scott Community College projects where the casino would have been.<br />
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I'll save the Mayor stuff for another post.<br />
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<h3>
School District Stuff</h3>
What kind of insane rule is it that Davenport School Board members can't comment on Davenport School Board business, especially with an election coming up? How are we supposed to know whether to vote for people if they can't comment on major issues, such as the potential <a href="http://qctimes.com/news/local/education/j-b-young-closure-most-board-members-decline-comment/article_7be7a77a-3290-5a84-8dfa-aaa06e3bf7e2.html" target="_blank">JB Young closing</a>. Its always been strange that School Board elections and politics get so much less scrutiny/interest from the general public, despite a similar amount of tax dollars going to them as to the City of Davenport for most Davenport residents. The idea that the electorate can't distinguish between one member's opinion and that of the entire school board makes absolutely no sense. Talk about the opposite of transparency.QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-26500956341082024272015-06-19T14:46:00.001-05:002015-06-19T14:46:40.387-05:00The Good ol' Days are back againIt was Throwback Thursday yesterday, except instead of old pictures, this one entailed a return to a City Hall full of casino-related drama and calls for Craig Malin to resign. Since "Casinos, City Hall Drama, and Calls for Craig Malin to Resign" could have been the title of this blog for most of its active existence, I figured I would put in my 2 cents on the matter.<br />
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If you haven't been following, <a href="http://qctimes.com/news/local/government-and-politics/gluba-seeks-to-oust-malin-attorney/article_121c9798-94d7-5ee7-a2cd-5ea03bf15001.html">here's a QCTimes article</a> on the latest issue. Essentially, Mayor Gluba called a press conference to say that Craig Malin mislead the council on the fact that in addition to repaying the Dan Kehl for extending Elmore Avenue from where it currently ends all the way around to Jersey Ridge, the city would also be paying them back for the grading costs of their own land. The QCTimes have posted a bunch of relevant documents, including the addendum to the development agreement that spells out the inclusion of the grading costs. While there's some legalese, a careful reading of the addendum makes it pretty clear that the city is on the hook for the grading costs. Whose idea that was (I assume Kehl's), who negotiated it, who was told about it, or mislead about it, etc, are not included in the document. What <b>is </b>included... is this:<br />
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So... no matter how mislead he was, nearly a year ago Mayor Gluba signed off on a document that spelled out what he claimed not to know until 2 days ago. I'm not sure if he didn't read it, or was assured by Malin that it didn't mean what it clearly said. Now he wants Malin out, and is doing it in the typical press conference way that he does things. I've defended Mayor Gluba to a number of people on a number of issues, and I've criticized him as well. It seems like he's been acting a bit more erratically in the last few months, and I'm not including his vetoes in that. Nothing as serious as removing the City Administrator should be decided in 2 day's time, which appears to be what's happening here. There's no hurry here. Nothing will be gained by firing Malin today, vs next week or next month. Why not take some time and look into it a bit more?</div>
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Asking around yesterday, the consensus I heard was that he may have enough votes to carry this out, but it seems from their public statements that Aldermen Justin and Boom may not be voting for Malin's removal, and only 2 more votes to keep him (Meeker and Gordon?) are required for Gluba to lose this battle, further damaging is credibility. I honestly have no idea how the vote will go, and I'm not as in tune with what goes on at City Hall as I once was. If there's one thing anyone following Davenport politics over the last 14 years should know, it's not to bet against Craig Malin winning battles to keep his job.</div>
QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-81639886996885854772015-01-22T01:00:00.000-06:002015-01-22T01:00:02.838-06:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rAoi0zGjHiw/VLoGgOeHFmI/AAAAAAAAPCg/o1c3ixAvmq8/s1600/oldwinter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rAoi0zGjHiw/VLoGgOeHFmI/AAAAAAAAPCg/o1c3ixAvmq8/s1600/oldwinter.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
Throwback Thursday! This picture was posted exactly 9 years ago. It was taken from the Crescent Lofts, and you can see that a lot has changed in that time. The new YMCA daycare is under construction, several buildings have been demolished within the W.G. Block property, and River Gulf Grain and Builders are gone from the riverfront. There will be even more changes in the next 9 years, as the new YMCA is built, Harbor View is renovated, the rest of the Block property is developed, and a new pedestrian bridge is built across River Drive. Pretty exciting stuff!QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-43348524551736900892014-06-20T08:28:00.002-05:002014-06-20T08:28:34.417-05:00Summer Silents at the Bettendorf Library: Charlie Chaplin The Bettendorf Library is hosting a celebration of Charlie Chaplin's silent films this afternoon and evening. They've made this clever video as well. This is one of those great examples of the small world that is the Quad Cities, as this video involves people from my childhood and adult life who are connected by the Bettendorf Library.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CIfTE6MiL0M" width="420"></iframe><br />
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There are activities in both the afternoon and evening - drop in for any or all!
All library events are free, family friendly, and open to the public.
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<b>Bettendorf Room</b><br />
3:00 pm: Lecture: Charlie Chaplin and Slapstick Comedy<br />
<b>On Faye’s Field</b><br />
4:30 — 6:00 pm: Pie throwing fundraiser<br />
4:30 — 6:00 pm: Face painting<br />
4:30 — 6:00 pm: Kids' crafts<br />
4:30 — dusk: Carnival picture "booth"<br />
8:00 pm: Josh Duffee & His Orchestra<br />
8:30 pm: Kid Auto Races at Venice, accompanied by The Josh Duffee Orchestra<br />
8:50 pm: Silent Short film contest winners and awards<br />
9:05 pm: The Kid, accompanied by organist Dennis Scott<br />
<b>In case of inclement weather, all activities will move indoors.</b>QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-37399677114135016242014-05-09T08:38:00.000-05:002014-05-09T08:38:52.490-05:00Davenport's new Ferris Wheel is almost done<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Not much has been visibly happening on Modern Woodmen Park's new Ferris Wheel over the last week or two. Here's a shot of it from this morning.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2UxOsgjz5KI/U2zZklOOi8I/AAAAAAAAMq0/t94YS_HrssM/s1600/ferriscars0.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2UxOsgjz5KI/U2zZklOOi8I/AAAAAAAAMq0/t94YS_HrssM/s1600/ferriscars0.png" height="218" width="400" /></a></div>
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But then what did I notice in the parking lot?<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8VOFvAsotmY/U2zZlIRrP2I/AAAAAAAAMq4/2bIRcEz_Iwo/s1600/ferriscars1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8VOFvAsotmY/U2zZlIRrP2I/AAAAAAAAMq4/2bIRcEz_Iwo/s1600/ferriscars1.png" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
A flatbed full of Ferris Wheel cars waiting to be installed. Looks like this thing is going to be completely pretty quick. I'm looking forward to getting some new photo vantage points from the top.QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-56078780332102895402014-03-26T16:57:00.003-05:002014-03-26T16:57:46.903-05:00Northeast Downtown Davenport DevelopmentsWith today's news that the <a href="http://qctimes.com/news/local/loft-project-planned-for-hibernian-hall-in-davenport/article_e51d9101-21be-5c89-be7e-9312ef36587a.html" target="_blank">former River Bend Antiques/Hibernian Hall building is being renovated into more apartments</a>, I put together this map of what's been happening in this corner of downtown Davenport.<br />
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Blue are completed renovations, yellow-ish orange boxes are projects currently under construction, and red are announced but not yet started. Labels below the image.
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-07l3jSk0otI/UzNMbDz4zvI/AAAAAAAAMKs/OSIGmUuqb6k/s1600/nedowntown3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-07l3jSk0otI/UzNMbDz4zvI/AAAAAAAAMKs/OSIGmUuqb6k/s1600/nedowntown3.png" height="215" width="400" /></a></div>
These are all residential conversion renovations of existing buildings.<br />
1. Renwick Building<br />
2. Times Democrat Building<br />
3. John Forrest Block<br />
4. Mississippi Lofts/Adler Theatre<br />
5. Hotel Blackhawk<br />
6. Pershing Hill Lofts<br />
7. 427 Pershing Avenue Lofts<br />
8. 5th Street Lofts<br />
9. Kerker Lofts<br />
10. 4th Street Lofts<br />
11. Crescent Lofts<br />
12. Halligan Coffee Company Building<br />
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The block in the center of the image is the assorted collection of buildings formerly owned by TriCity Electric, which moved out to the old Showcase Cinemas site a few years ago. In other words, that block would be pretty ripe for the next set of red boxes, except for the fact that the railroad runs right through it.<br />
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Things are certainly going gangbusters for downtown Davenport lately, which might just be enough to bring me out of semi-retirement.QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-53141354246188910182013-09-14T06:28:00.004-05:002013-09-14T06:28:55.817-05:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Don't forget, tonight is the Hilltop Campus Village's Fall Music Festival, featuring the Tons 'O Fun Band. Its free, fun, and a great opportunity to see the progress in the Hilltop. The festival is from 5-10PM at 15th and Harrison, across from the new Harrison Lofts.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/RINsjBX-9Ks?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<br />QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-62974543570918325042013-08-16T07:09:00.004-05:002013-08-16T07:10:07.819-05:00Big things are coming<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DBt-a0BvTYU/Ug4Wb5Y3slI/AAAAAAAAKNY/wjeb23jYkwU/s1600/PANO_20130815_164620.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DBt-a0BvTYU/Ug4Wb5Y3slI/AAAAAAAAKNY/wjeb23jYkwU/s400/PANO_20130815_164620.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-47792156579835453812013-04-15T05:19:00.000-05:002013-04-15T05:26:44.579-05:00How are we getting beaten by Sioux City?As our city council and RDA <a href="http://qctimes.com/news/local/davenport-council-asks-for-meeting-with-rda-over-casino/article_866ee9d6-06bd-5160-80dc-0500ee27fa2e.html" target="_blank">bumble and fumble along towards a crappy casino</a> somewhere along the interstate, Sioux City of all places is enjoying 3 developers fighting over the chance to build a casino in their downtown. The decision should be coming this week.<br />
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The company behind one of the proposals, Penn Gaming, is currently operating Sioux City's riverboat casino. They're doing such a terrible job of it (sound familiar?) that the city has gone out to find a better option. Penn clearly doesn't get it, as they've submitted something along the lines of the truck stop casino our city "leaders" want to settle for.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0QlECFBRs9g/UWvS-O6n3CI/AAAAAAAAIyU/l1JNzd5SjCs/s1600/crapcasino.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0QlECFBRs9g/UWvS-O6n3CI/AAAAAAAAIyU/l1JNzd5SjCs/s320/crapcasino.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The other 2 proposals are worth of Davenport's jealousy, and should make us wonder what the RDA and City of Davenport are doing wrong. Sioux City and its metro area are a fraction of the size of the Quad Cities, and have a far lower population within 100 miles than we do. They also have other casinos fairly close by, although not 3 in the immediate metro area like us. To be fair, the other difference is that their interstate is IN their downtown, so they can kind of have it both ways. That said, I don't see why we can't get something a little closer to these:<br />
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One is a Hard Rock Casino and Hotel, utilizing a mixture of new construction and reuse, in downtown Sioux City. It is essentially an addition to the historic Battery Building, as seen on the left. This brings the legitimacy of a national hotel and casino brand while also helping out a historic building.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kAC09v1aIdM/UWvRK-gtJxI/AAAAAAAAIyA/8VChuHjtRIk/s1600/batterybuilding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="143" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kAC09v1aIdM/UWvRK-gtJxI/AAAAAAAAIyA/8VChuHjtRIk/s200/batterybuilding.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R7gTJYW-d_s/UWvRKvX57SI/AAAAAAAAIx0/QNd8AEY5CKs/s1600/hrNight-Rendering.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="102" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R7gTJYW-d_s/UWvRKvX57SI/AAAAAAAAIx0/QNd8AEY5CKs/s200/hrNight-Rendering.jpg" width="180" /></a><br />
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The final proposal, and one that I would say is the best, utilizes one of downtown Sioux City's largest, and currently underused buildings, the former Warrior Hotel. It also would renovate an additional building next door.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2CVGRXaKMkw/UWvRKVioJtI/AAAAAAAAIx4/mWkzk5MncY0/s1600/warriorcasino.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2CVGRXaKMkw/UWvRKVioJtI/AAAAAAAAIx4/mWkzk5MncY0/s320/warriorcasino.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ep1hn9k7F6U/UWvRMVFpbDI/AAAAAAAAIyI/L_-0XuB6d1A/s1600/warriorfullshot.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ep1hn9k7F6U/UWvRMVFpbDI/AAAAAAAAIyI/L_-0XuB6d1A/s320/warriorfullshot.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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The companies competing for the chance at this casino are publicly campaigning in a way that we barely saw with our casino competition. Some of them have even opened storefronts to push their plan, and have created videos like this one about the Warrior.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_v8vQGGTBzs" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Of course, you could argue that we DID have a proposal that was as good as these, from Restoration St Louis, and you'd be right. So we have of course rejected that option, because heaven forbid that Davenport do the right thing lately.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mKMQjufg3vY/UWvTtX9irAI/AAAAAAAAIyg/a00tlwiqYxI/s1600/rslwinner.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="289" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mKMQjufg3vY/UWvTtX9irAI/AAAAAAAAIyg/a00tlwiqYxI/s320/rslwinner.png" width="320" /></a></div>
QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-40234506861340901212013-03-18T05:08:00.002-05:002013-03-18T05:08:48.004-05:00Possible list of stores for Whalen's Elmore MarketplaceI was looking around for some site plans for the<a href="http://qctimes.com/news/local/davenport-hotel-retail-projects-move-forward/article_2c4b7456-c010-11e1-8026-0019bb2963f4.html" target="_blank"> hotel and retail complex going up on Elmore</a>, and I found <a href="http://www.lockwooddev.com/leasesale/elmore-marketplace-davenport-ia/" target="_blank">this website</a>. It appears to be one of the developers of the project, and they have a site plan on there, shown below.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-khVVgJIOsPk/UUbk70nTe8I/AAAAAAAAIGo/L3jPZayVW9g/s1600/elmorehotel.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-khVVgJIOsPk/UUbk70nTe8I/AAAAAAAAIGo/L3jPZayVW9g/s320/elmorehotel.png" width="278" /></a></div>
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Also on that website, they have a downloadable brochure for interested tenants. That brochure has another site plan that actually lists "Proposed tenants." I'd normally say these were just ideal tenants rather than real possibilities, except that some of the sites still show vacant. That says to me that the spots with actual names listed are probably at least spoken for, and quite possibly spoken for by the companies listed. They're fairly impressive but not so pie-in-the-sky as to be out of reach of the QC.</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JVNE7GTf-Bs/UUbk-FX671I/AAAAAAAAIGw/4S76BsX_ZJQ/s1600/elmorestores.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JVNE7GTf-Bs/UUbk-FX671I/AAAAAAAAIGw/4S76BsX_ZJQ/s320/elmorestores.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Here's a list of the stores on the above plan:</div>
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<b><u>New to the area:</u></b></div>
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DSW</div>
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Fresh Market</div>
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White House/Black Market</div>
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Charming Charlies</div>
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Banana Factory Outlet<br />GAP Generation</div>
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<b><u>Already exist in the QC:</u></b></div>
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Lane Bryant</div>
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Cold Water Creek</div>
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Children's Place</div>
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I was kind of hoping for a Cheesecake Factory, but this still isn't quite the "lifestyle center" that the QC is lacking compared to similarly-sized metro areas.</div>
QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-9269149887251392932013-03-14T07:14:00.001-05:002013-03-14T07:15:02.348-05:00Recipe for a healthy downtown? Not hardly<a href="http://qctimes.com/news/local/convenience-store-plan-has-some-people-angry/article_dd237208-8b83-11e2-b0dc-0019bb2963f4.html">Convenience store plan has some people angry</a> -QCTimes<br />
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So, if you follow <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.facebook.com/RetroQuadCities">Retro Quad Cities</a> on Facebook or read the QCTimes, you've probably already heard about the plan to tear down the old gas station at 2nd and Warren and replace it with a new convenience/liquor store. This would make for 3 liquor stores within a few hundred feet of each other centered around Warren Street. In addition to those, there are a couple more within blocks, all loosely centered around the skatepark. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cW7c4e0FjgM/UUG92wDh9uI/AAAAAAAAIGA/8FhTl2kYxA8/s1600/liquorfiesta.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="245" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cW7c4e0FjgM/UUG92wDh9uI/AAAAAAAAIGA/8FhTl2kYxA8/s400/liquorfiesta.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Its such a hassle to stumble that extra 60 feet to the next liquor outlet...</td></tr>
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How this seems like a good idea is beyond me, but I'm starting to feel that this city council is beyond understanding in general. On the east end of downtown, the Crescent Warehouse District (Number of liquor stores: 0) is succeeding to a level that even I barely predicted. Within a couple years we could be looking at a situation where the east end of downtown has run out of buildings to be renovated. The Hilltop Campus Village is making great strides to the north of downtown. That leaves west as the only direction left for future expansion and gentrification. Instead of preparing for this, it seems like the council intends on following a textbook recipe for blight. At least they could try to mix in some payday loan joints, pawn shops, and plasma centers to get the whole scene they seem to be seeking.QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-65156228266719330332013-01-30T07:22:00.000-06:002013-01-30T07:22:16.418-06:00Pro-downtown Casino Commercial<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/58138960?byline=0&portrait=0" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/58138960">Davenport Casino</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/jgexposures">Jarred Gastreich</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-69391721716838019012012-11-06T08:26:00.004-06:002012-11-06T08:28:23.677-06:00One person NOT to vote for<div class="tr_bq">
I'm not doing anything in the way of endorsements this year, although anyone who knows me could pretty easily guess most of them.</div>
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What I am doing, is one un-endorsement. Mark Nelson, who is running for the Iowa House in District 93. Just in case anyone has forgotten about this enemy of Davenport, <a href="http://quadcityimages.blogspot.com/2009/03/hows-this-for-yard-sign.html" target="_blank">check out this blog post from 2009</a>.<br />
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For some reason the QCTimes article linked to in that post has moved, so it can be found here: <a href="http://qctimes.com/news/local/blackhawk-hotel-project-threatened-by-critical-report/article_4c3d83f1-6c22-5556-9006-d4f5b36cbad2.html" target="_blank">Blackhawk Hotel project threatened by critical report -QCTimes</a><br />
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Here's a little excerpt:<blockquote>
Significant financing for Restoration St. Louis’ $36 million Blackhawk Hotel redevelopment project was jeopardized by scathing criticism of downtown Davenport’s investment climate that accompanied a commercial real estate appraisal of the nearly century-old building.The appraisal — conducted by Mark Nelson of Roy R. Fisher Inc. — included a cover letter that warned against lending money for downtown projects, said Amy Gill, one of the Restoration St. Louis partners.</blockquote>
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“It was horrible, just horrible,” Amy Gill said, referring to the letter. “We had our financing lined up, and he basically screwed us.”</blockquote>
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So, in hindsight, we can see clearly that Mr. Nelson's appraisal cover letter was far off base. The Hotel Blackhawk is considered to be one of the best if not the best hotel in the entire state. The residential units were sold out before the building opened. The commercial spaces are filled. The reception halls are booked up. The President of the United States has stayed there. Even the bowling alley is awesome. So... just a little bit wrong on that one, Mark.<br />
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Either Mr. Nelson injected his personal political agenda into his job, or he completely failed in his assessment of the project's chances of working with the City. Biased or inept, it doesn't matter, he certainly doesn't deserve to represent Davenport.QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-26332772117872255922012-10-22T16:57:00.000-05:002012-10-22T16:57:05.363-05:00Real news happening<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zRpsKGQqzpo/UIXBCldTQWI/AAAAAAAAGSQ/CAe5j1rt6j0/s1600/IMG_0127.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zRpsKGQqzpo/UIXBCldTQWI/AAAAAAAAGSQ/CAe5j1rt6j0/s200/IMG_0127.JPG" width="150" /></a>Jeez, go out of the country for a week and one of the biggest stories in Davenport political and development news comes along with this potential casino sale. I'll write a little more on it later, but I wanted to post that<b> tonight (Monday) at 6:30PM</b> (in about 90 minutes actually) there is a meeting at the Adler about the casino acquisition plan. Better head down there if you want to make your voice heard before Wednesday's council meeting.QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-43871167648538100002012-10-08T01:44:00.002-05:002012-10-08T01:56:41.531-05:002012 Fall Drive: Maquoketa CavesThis is about the perfect time of year in the QC for a fall drive. Clear skies and good leaf colors, although it sounds like neither will last too long. This is the first time I've been back to Maquoketa Caves State Park since the caves closed (and then reopened). Now there's about a 5 minute talk you have to hear about the fungal White Nose Syndrome that has been spreading among the bats, and how to avoid spreading it further. Its a pretty good compromise compared to closing the caves.
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<br />QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-7256404731045761572012-09-21T18:37:00.002-05:002012-09-21T18:37:34.191-05:00Hilltop Campus Village Fall Music Festival 2012The Hilltop Campus Village is hosting the 3rd annual Fall Music Festival on October 6th, from 5-10PM in the Hilltop Park at the corner of 15th and Harrison. Its been great fun the last 2 years, and it should be even bigger and better this year. The headlining band is the Tons O' Fun Band, which recently played at the Redstone Room, and includes City Planner Matt Flynn. There is also a musical act from each of the colleges in the HCV, Palmer and St. Ambrose.<br />
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Here's a commercial KWQC produced for the festival<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/RQWz8QuBUkI?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-36792482301605551952012-09-16T19:14:00.004-05:002012-09-16T19:14:56.450-05:00QCTimes joines QCOnline in suicide pactThe day has finally arrived. No, not the day that I officially resign from blogging. The day that the QCTimes, and specifically QCTimes.com resigns from being the go-to place for news and community interaction in the Quad Cities region.<br />
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<a href="http://qctimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/columnists/jan-touney/free-content-to-be-limited-on-qctimes-com/article_11e37d30-ffb6-11e1-9391-001a4bcf887a.html" target="_blank">Read their explanation of what's happening here</a><br />
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Think about it: What is the most visited local website? It's almost certainly QCTimes.com, and the reason for that is that they have always <b>had </b>great, FREE, content. QCOnline has almost always gotten this wrong. They used to have only the last few days' articles available, which caused me to almost never link to them. Why send my blog readers a link that essentially expires in a week. Then they opened up QCOnline for a while, but now they've gone to the same "x amount of articles per month" system that the QCTimes is implementing.<br />
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Even though I'm not in the journalism business, I've been following the print media's adjustment (or lack thereof) to the digital world closely. One voice that I've found to be extremely reasoned and knowledgeable on this subject is CUNY journalism professor Jeff Jarvis. He's written a lot of <a href="http://buzzmachine.com/2011/12/19/why-not-a-reverse-meter/" target="_blank">paywalls</a> vs being the website that the community feels they're a part of. I'd suggest looking into his writings if you're interested in this issue. The QCT's online commenting system is a brilliant way of encouraging community discussion and engagement with the news, as wild and crazy as the comments sometimes get. In the first year of the online comment system, I was told by a QCTimes employee that they had over 10,000 usernames signed up. Obviously there are a few folks with multiple names, but that's still a massive number. I'm sure its only higher now. How many of those people who come to QCTimes.com for not only news, but community, are going to bust out their credit cards without batting an eye? The biggest value the QCTimes provides is engagement and relationship with their web visitors, not simply providing content for them to passively view. This encourages people to link to your articles on Twitter, Facebook, and their own blogs, which drive more traffic and more value to your website/newspaper.<br />
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One of the most unbelieveable parts of this is that people paying for home delivery are being asked to pay $2 a month for full online access. This will simply diminish the number of home delivery subscribers. Currently I pay around $200 a year for the actual paper newspaper to be delivered to my door. Now they are asking me to pay twice for the same information online. So since I'm not about to pay twice for the same articles, this new system pushes me to drop my $200+ a year subscription and sign up for the online-only, $5.95 a month setup. "$200 or $72?", is the question a lot of home delivery folks are going to be asking themselves. Newspapers' biggest income is still ads in the paper edition. What are these ads going to be worth if nobody gets home delivery anymore? If the circulation numbers drop by 50% will that massive drop in ad revenue be made up by some $6 a month subscription fees? I am not only complaining about this stuff because I like free online news; I am complaining because I want the QCTimes to succeed and prosper in the digital world, and continue providing the generally good reporting they do on local news. This downward spiral of less content->fewer readers->less money->less content is not where I want to see them go.<br />
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So what now? Well, in the age of the internet, we have options. Twitter and Facebook have already become important places that people go for news, both in link form, and firsthand accounts. Patch.com is a local news site owned by AOL that hasn't taken off here, probably due to the QCTimes making it unnecessary. Blogs aren't going away, and in fact this one might be coming back from the dead to provide free and unlimited news to people disappointed in paywalls and limits triumphing over community engagement.. The movement of that "around the watercooler" discussion from blogs to the QCTimes comments made this blog less exciting for visitors and myself, so maybe the death of the QCTimes website will bring back local blogging. Or maybe everyone will think $6 a month isn't too bad. We will see.<br />
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In that mean time, I'm planning to be a little more active on Facebook, so I'd suggest all of you "Like" QuadCityImages at <a href="http://www.facebook.com/QuadCityImages">www.facebook.com/QuadCityImages</a>QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-54635677626120089442012-04-05T08:46:00.003-05:002012-04-05T08:52:41.048-05:00Kerker Lofts<div>The only media coverage I've seen about this project is<a href="http://www.kwqc.com/story/15038098/with-more-lofts-renter-want-more-amenities-downtown?clienttype=printable"> this article on KWQC.com</a>, which probably means they also mentioned it on a news broadcast. I don't know a whole lot about the project, but its one more piece of progress for downtown Davenport. </div><div><br /></div><div>I do know that the project is being done by The Alexander Company, which also did my former home the Crescent Lofts, along with the Sieg Iron lofts on 4th Street. This building completes the 3rd side of a square of buildings surrounding the parking lot that used to be owned by TriCity Electric. It will be interesting to see what kind of landscaping they do with it. The above article mentioned that it will have 18 units, and the Assessor's site hasn't yet been updated with any permits pulled for this project.</div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vB5xxoCgT-U/T32ieQCAZQI/AAAAAAAADI0/zh2GxrMgM3A/s1600/kerker3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 239px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vB5xxoCgT-U/T32ieQCAZQI/AAAAAAAADI0/zh2GxrMgM3A/s400/kerker3.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5727912941668295938" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8lgUmy21xbQ/T32idzyJtII/AAAAAAAADIo/ufUYiJGc4tY/s1600/kerker2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 186px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8lgUmy21xbQ/T32idzyJtII/AAAAAAAADIo/ufUYiJGc4tY/s400/kerker2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5727912934085604482" /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d7asaonFt-E/T32idcZCT9I/AAAAAAAADIc/M9KgnsqdObc/s1600/kerker1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-d7asaonFt-E/T32idcZCT9I/AAAAAAAADIc/M9KgnsqdObc/s400/kerker1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5727912927806246866" /></a>QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-88079877581339930392012-02-14T07:41:00.003-06:002012-02-14T07:42:40.639-06:00Happy Valentine's DayHappy V-Day folks. I'm always dreaming of a return to blogging, although I'm also considering switching things up and going with more of a Facebook microblog type of thing. We'll see.<div><br /></div><div>What's the newest conspiracy theory that isn't making the papers?</div>QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12726606.post-69016060032921856832011-08-29T17:09:00.002-05:002011-08-29T17:11:53.150-05:00I-74 Corridor videoI don't think I posted this 2 years ago when it was released. I just ran across it the other day and don't remember watching it before. It gives an excellent rundown of all parts of the new I-74 bridge project, along with the entire I-74 corridor changes. That includes what's now being done at the 53rd Street interchange. The video also confirms that the actual bridge will be 4 lanes in each direction. Talk about a change for the better!
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<br /><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/4497020?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" frameborder="0" height="300" width="400"></iframe><p><a href="http://vimeo.com/4497020">I-74 Corridor</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user1116764">Iowa DOT</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>QuadCityImageshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07503485646277987317noreply@blogger.com3