JOD drops the ball

I don't know if the Swing front office didn't expect a big crowd, or if every "beverage night" is like this, but whatever happened, they didn't have enough concessions open. You could hardly walk down the concourse, and I don't think that shows JOD's best side to any visiting JDC folks. I know Chris DiMarco and another PGA player were supposed to throw out the first pitches (?) but I didn't see them standing around anywhere during the game.

At one point Kevin Krause was working at a hastily-opened concessions stand that only had a 10 minute wait instead of the 20 minute wait at the others. What nobody knew though, was that it was a beer and water only line. So after waiting 10 minutes to get your hot dog, you got told you had to go to a different concession stand. I tried to tell him they should put up a sign covering the menu saying "Beer and Water only," but it didn't happen.

I'll just summarize by saying that despite having a large and enthusiastic crowd, it wasn't John O'Donnell's finest hour.

DIPA Meeting

As was posted over on Solo, the Davenport Income Property Association had its first meeting last night. After a quick invocation, the meeting started off with the 22 or so people in attendance introducing themselves and explaining why they were there. The majority were either landlords or friends of Walter Skovronski, or in many cases, both. Mr. Skovronski made a few comments about how Davenport has enough rental properties to support its own landlord association, and then passed out a list of the 10 reasons for starting the organization, which I've posted here.

After discussing what levels of memberships could be available, and their costs, including a fee to the state landlords association, Casey Jacobi from Mautz Paint spoke about vendor memberships. This would allow businesses like Mautz Paint to provide a group discount to members of DIPA. Mr. Skovronski mentioned a few other local businesses that might be interested in similar deals when the group gets big enough.

Next on the agenda was choosing a temporary Treasurer and Secretary, which people weren't exactly jumping out of their seats to volunteer for. I'm not sure if anyone was finally picked for Treasurer, but I believe Pat Egly was selected as the Temporary Secretary. Following that, more organizational plans were debated, and a Mission Statement was chosen. DIPA hopes to have a website, so a preliminary draft of what might be included on that was passed out.

Finally, the night's discussion topic was started, which was the 4 year term elections. Not everyone spoke on this, but if I had to guess I would say the people there split about 65-35 against the idea. It was clear that many of them were fine with 4 year terms as long as it was their type of Alderman, but not if it was someone they disagreed with. A return to partisan elections was proposed, which I think is one of the least logical ideas I've ever heard for reducing the amount of animosity on the council. Instead of having council members accused of being owned by D1 or QCRPA, we'd KNOW that they're owned by Democrats or Republicans. If you want to be certain that someone's got people in the background pulling strings, I guess that would be a good step. However, back to my play-by-play of the meeting.

Overall I'd say it was a good meeting. There wasn't an excessive amount of hostility towards QCRPA, but it was clear that the people in attendance weren't happy with the way things are being done in that group. Everyone was advised to bring a friend or fellow landlord to the next meeting, with a goal of having a starting membership of at least twenty. The Davenport Income Property Association is off to a slow start, but now that its up and going I could see it becoming a real alternative to the dirty tactics of the QCRPA.

Coming Tomorrow: Davenport Income Property Association meeting

This image could show the beginning of an alternative to QCRPA. I'll post my thoughts on the meeting tomorrow.

Davenport Lofts Front Yard

I meant to post something about this last month when it was completed, but anyway, here's the final streetscaping in front of the Crescent Lofts.
When I heard it was going to be grass between the sidewalk and street instead of brick I wasn't that pleased, but it turned out really well. I just didn't have anything to use as a reference, since there are no grass boulevards downtown. I'm curious to see what happens when the trees get larger.

Now if only you didn't have to walk in the street to get around the loading dock sticking out of the building to the south...

CNN likes New Urbanism

Unlike the QCTimes, CNN seems to appreciate the benefits of traditional neighborhood style developments.

Here's the article.

The demand for such developments is real, and it's only going to get greater as consumer preferences rapidly shift away from the McMansions preferred by boomers. According to a study by the nonprofit Congress for New Urbanism, while less than 25 percent of middle-aged Americans are interested in living in dense areas, 53 percent of 24-34 year olds would choose to live in transit-rich, walkable neighborhoods, if they had the choice. -from the CNN article

Hopefully Prairie Heights is a great success, as I think it has the potential to be, and shows other realtors and developers around here the viability of new urbanism.

Parking Ticket Problems

Only a few cash in on city's ticket amnesty -QCTimes

I don't see how a collection agency is going to waste any time on people with 1 or 2 $10 tickets against them.

Will the city only get $2 of every $10 because of this?

Saturday Morning Open Thread

No images this morning, I'll give you poor dial-up people out there a break for once.

What's new in the QC that hasn't made the blogs or mainstream media?

8 Houses on death row

I found these under the City of Davenport's Current Bids area. There are bids due Monday for the demolition of these 8 houses. I took an interesting drive/scavenger hunt yesterday through some areas that I don't spend much time in to see what's bad enough to be torn down. Hopefully I haven't mixed any of them up while uploading.

801 W 6th

This one gets second place in the "Which of these 8 needed demolition most" contest.

1827 W 6th (Rear House Only)
This one caused me troubles. Therefore... no image. The neighbors were giving me the evil eye, which is good because it means they're at least paying attention to their neighborhood. I got a picture of a house that should have been 1827, only to remember the "rear house" thing. I wondered why a decent-looking house would be torn down. I believe the rear house must be on the one way alley off of Division.

511 E 7th

Not sure who wrote RUSH on the front, but I could see why.

1417 W 4th

There are way too many houses like this on W 4th Street. A few years back one on this block was for sale on the local realtor sites (they all seem to have each others' listings) for $5,000. I think it might have even been this house.

1630 Belle


3117 Farnam

The solo NoLo home on the list. (follow that?) I'm not sure what the story is with this one, but it looked just as bad as the others.

3211 Pansy

This Garden Edition house gets my award for most needed demolition. It is the last house left on either side of the block that hasn't been bought through the federal flood plain money. Getting rid of it should open up new options on what can be done with this area.

620 Wilkes


All of these are both good to get rid of, but also evidence of failure. Houses should never be allowed to deteriorate to the point where they are no longer feasible to repair.

Freighthouse Lite?

Suddenly we're talking about renovating Union Station.

Here's a QCTimes article about it, and here's the QCTimes posting of a preliminary draft of the plan.

(Image from last summer)       

I try to pay a decent amount of attention to goings-on in downtown Davenport, but I didn't even know we were studying Union Station. RDA paid for the study, so maybe they'll pay for the renovations too. It is in the casino's front yard, after all.

This little tidbit is included in the plan: "Create an events area (between the station and boiler house) and implement the first phase of a weekday public market and other special events." I'm not sure if that means much or not, but it almost sounds like it could be a scaled back version of the public market. Or I could be way off. Maybe I'll just check the Levee Improvement Commission's website... if only it was more than 1 page.

I'm working on a post about how Davenport is trying to include more public input in things, so hopefully this project can lead the way by involving an abundance of community input.

Condos less scary than casinos

Condo project passes muster -QCTimes (Yesterday)

No public comments opposed to the project at a public hearing. This really shows that it is a lot easier to complain on blogs or QCTimes.com, as dozens of people did, than it is to actually show up and do something about it. Of course, the public meeting was on July 3rd when people may have had better things to do, but I suspect a crowd would have turned out if this had been casino-related.

I still wish this project would be in a better location, such as downtown, where 8 story buildings belong, but I have a hard time opposing private development on private land. I'm still pretty split on the whole thing. If it was downtown it would be the best news for downtown Davenport since the Mississippi Plaza office building was announced. Instead its going to look oddly out of place in the planned location. Guess some of you angry commenters and bloggers should have showed up to voice your displeasure. Then when they ignore you and approve it anyway you could have at least complained.

Random Notre Dame images

The Golden Dome and the Grotto

"Touchdown Jesus" on the side of the Hesburgh Library, and of course, Notre Dame Stadium, looking pretty quiet without the 80,000 fans that would be there for a game.

Davenport 4th of July (image from the 3rd)

Happy 4th of July folks.
I'm back from the land of Hoosiers and will now be returning to my regularly scheduled blogcast.This was taken from the roof of the Davenport Lofts. (not a great shot, but I got up there late and all the good watching spots were taken)

Submissions of other fireworks images are welcome.

Fort Wayne Images

Just a couple shots of downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana.

One for the road

I'm off to Fort Wayne for the weekend, but here's one more image.
Actually I may post some pictures on the trip, who knows.

This is Palmer's new Chiropractic Learning Resource Center, under construction along Brady Street. Learning Resouce Center sounds like a library to me, and I've called it that before. However, I've recently learned that that isn't what it is going to be. There are webcams at Palmer's site here.

Isle of Capri ≠ Forthcoming with Info

Check out the 3 red-boxed areas in this email.
So, back on June on June 9th, I used the "Email the Isle" form on Isle of Capri Casinos' website to ask if there are renderings of their Bettendorf hotel project available anywhere. A mere 12 days later, they sent me an email saying they'd just gotten my message, and would get back to me within 2 days.

It has now been another 9 days with no response, except for one junk email IOC newsletter.
Either they're using homing pigeons to relay messages, or they have a serious customer service problem. I'll let you readers guess which.

Bix at 6 #3

Obviously the QCTimes has some influence around here. They write an editorial about how the Bix at 6 is getting slightly out of control (although I disagree) and next week there are big changes. This week they left one lane of 4th Street open from Iowa west to Brady instead of closing it. My running source tells me that the police were also closely enforcing the "Bix at 6" idea and keeping everyone off the sidewalk until after 6pm. Maybe this will be a good enough compromise for the angry neighbors.

QCTimes.comments hurt my brain

Reading the QCTimes.comments makes me want to bang my head on a wall. I need to stop reading them. In particular I'm talking about the large response to the proposed riverfront condos at the foot of Oneida.

Is there a reason those people are so much dumber than the commenters on the actual blogs? Even the "againsters" around here tend to make decent points, whereas the ones on the QCT "blog" just say bizarre things.

The site has a nice restaurant on one side, and a boatyard on the other side, and people are acting like its in an industrial park. Then they all "know" that people won't live there, despite Moline's riverfront condos showing evidence to the contrary. They somehow then make the leap that the City of Davenport will suddenly be on the hook for this private building. These are the same people who insist that everyone's moving away from Davenport, despite the fact that the population is slowing increasing.

Despite my misgivings about the location of the riverfront condo project, I'm under no illusions about its ability to succeed. All the condos in downtown are definitely aimed at the artist or young professional crowd, so I agree with the point the developer makes about that. They'll sell... I just wish they would move it 10 blocks east into actual downtown.

Misplaced Riverfront Condos

High-end condos planned for riverfront -QCTimes

Here's a google maps satellite view of the site, between The Boat House and WakeenÂ’s Family Boating Center south of River Drive in Davenport.

This is big news, and I'm sure all of you expect me to say great news.
In some ways, it is great news. An 8 story, $10 million building anywhere in Davenport is good news... usually. Maybe some of the rich condo types that would live in Bettendorf will live and pay taxes in Davenport instead. But...

Basically I feel that they're building this at the foot of Oneida because the people's views who are going to be blocked are generally poor folks who don't get too excited about that sort of thing or vote in large numbers. If they tried to block the rich folks' views, there would be a well-financed riot.

As much as it would be great to have a project like this, I just think it would be even greater built on the current location of GemVision at 4th and River. They're moving to Moline, and River Gulf and Builders are being kicked off the riverfront in favor of greenspace, so a couple years from now there should be a perfect river view. In the 4th and River location, the condos would tie more closely into the progress being made downtown, and with the warehouse district. It would create a bookend at the other end of the sandpit stretching from GemVision to the Davenport Lofts, hopefully sparking new development in that area. Fewer views would be blocked because there are already tall buildings within a few blocks. I'm sure there must be some downside to that location, but I'm not sure what it is.

But... I suppose its still pretty good in the planned location.

Jersey Ridge over Duck Creek Closing July 5th

From the city's website:

Starting Wednesday, July 5, 2006 the Jersey Ridge Road Bridge over Duck Creek overlay and repair project is scheduled to get underway. It involves repair work to resurface the bridge roadway surface with a new Portland Cement Concrete overlay (the Iowa method “dense-crete overlay”). The project also includes repairs to the edges and at the edges under the bridge. The project may begin with partial lane closures at the bridge. If not immediately, eventually, Jersey Ridge Road will be blocked to traffic completely, and a detour route will be provided. The official detour will utilize Eastern Avenue, but residents may choose to use alternative routes to get to their destinations. The bike path under the bridge will remain open as much as possible, but, occasionally, bikers, runners and walkers may be asked to traverse the construction zone area at street level, when work at the bridge sides and bottom must occur directly over the bike path area. With the roadway closed off, crossing Jersey Ridge Road should not pose as too much an inconvenience.

The total time for complete closure of the street is expected to last 2 to 3 weeks, depending on the weather. The entire project may last a month. Originally, the project was to be done under partial closure of lanes. However, the contractor requested that complete closure be done in order to save on total construction time (perhaps reducing the time by up to two weeks) and to save cost. The City will benefit by saving several thousands of dollars by not needing the barrier rails originally required and by having the cost of traffic control reduced.

I'm a sucker for cranes

This morning they were lifting some AC equipment onto the roof of the Sieg Iron Lofts. At one point when they were getting the crane set up, it was about 8 feet from my window. Makes me wonder if my renter's insurance covers a crane crashing through the window.

Kaplan-view Condos

This sort of ties in with Pioneer98's post on Bridge to Somewhere about construction starting on an apartment building on West Locust. The company building it has already built one and is working on another on the East side of Davenport. On the left is a picture of the current condos built a couple years ago behind the Northgate Shopping Center and the second picture is the new building next door to it that's going up now.



Apparently people are willing to pay $160,000+ to live behind HyVee and Kaplan. I think I'd rather just spend an extra 65 grand and live here. Or better yet, buy a house.

Also, I dunno why no one comments at Bridge to Somewhere, but I hope all of you read it. Pioneer98 isn't as wordy as me, and he usually takes better pictures.

Tuesday Morning Assortment

Steakhouse set to open in downtown Moline -QCTimes
Its run by the same company that runs Centro, although it seems a bit more pricey. I'm guessing a bit less accepting of jeans also.

Steelwork is finally going up on the new Palmer library. Hopefully I'll get some progress photos in the upcoming days.

Get your shopping done today and tomorrow East SoLo folks, so you can stay home, or better yet enjoy the Bix at 6 Thursday night. It doesn't take much planning to avoid hassles on this 6-times-a-year event. Patience is a virtue, and all...

Malin (or whoever is in charge of posting Davenport City Council Updates) is back to keeping up with calender. Read them here.

I don't normally get into state or national politics (that's Fly's new thing) but I have to question Mike Whalen's bringing in arguably the 2 least popular people in an increasingly unpopular administration to help his election. But hey, 70+ people were willing to spend $250 to hear Rove talk, so what do I know?

Don't forget, Tuesday is Bent River Brewery's $2 burger basket night.

Tomorrow's the big day...

Actually its "Today" now... (but changing the title breaks the QCBloggers links.)Saw this at Bridge and Kirkwood today. I assume that after tomorrow all 5 of these will still be sitting there, only with notes telling the residents why. Then next week they'll have 6-10 cans worth of garbage to try and cram into their new can? Hopefully the city is pretty lenient these first weeks. Maybe they should have someone drive around with the crews to get out and talk to residents about the new system, and ask why they aren't RECYCLING... My family growing up of 4 people and 2 cats never had more than 2 cans a week. Two regular cans add up to about the medium size cart, so it IS possible.

One River Mississippi (Quad Cities Edition)

I don't know enough about art to try to interpret this display, but I did enjoy seeing so many people downtown. I'd estimate the crowd on the Davenport side and Centennial Bridge as 1500-2000 people. I felt like about 90% of them had the same curious/mystified opinion that I had.







The first, second, fifth, sixth, and seventh images are courtesy of a friend of mine with a better camera.

Taste of the Quad Cities

Today's the last day for Taste of the Quad Cities. I wasn't planning on going this year, due to the $6 entrance fee to get in and spend more money for food, but then I found out that its free from noon to 2pm, so I went over.

They made some changes this year, and actually decreased the number of vendors. However, now they have the vendor tents pushed to one side of the street, so its actually possible to walk without pushing people out of the way. I'd like to see them have as many vendors as want to attend though, so maybe they need to look into expanding the perimeter of the festival.

PEDCOR (with a D)

Official PEDCOR Companies website:
http://www.pedcorcompanies.com/

Alderman Hamerlinck has a post here explaining what this company wants to do, so I suggest that everyone read that post first. Just keep in mind that its spelled PEDCOR and not PETCOR. I believe it was Alderman Hamerlinck that called for last night's meeting on this subject.

The representative from PEDCOR, Joseph E. Whitsett, was certainly a good salesman. He had people offering to sell him lumber, satellite service, cleaning service, and contractors by the end of the meeting. He also explained the Section 42 housing stuff better than I have ever heard it explained before. Essentially the government allows companies to use cheaper financing methods if they limit their residents to 60% of the average local income. Most people would call that low income, but Mr. Whitsett was quick to point out that the average is around $60,000, so someone making $34,000 would be eligible to live in these apartments. Also, the rent isn't subsidized by the government, so the rents start at $550. This is the same financing that the Davenport Lofts use, but I never really understood the 60% of mean local income thing. PEDCOR even provided a list of some harmless sounding professions where the average pay fits into this range, such as school bus driver, graphic designers, or legal secretaries.

I'd call it low-to mid income housing, but some people would still be happy that its north of Locust. The question is always how well the complex is managed. The complex north of Culvers at 53rd and Jersey ridge is low income housing, and much gloom and doom was predicted when it was built. However, its been several years now, and it still seems to be in good condition, and I don't hear many police calls to it. Its all about the management, so I guess the only question is whether we trust PEDCOR Companies to run a low income apartment complex without turning it into Cabrini Green.

ScatterKats Ribbon Cutting

ScatterKats is located in the former Italian Village, practically next door to the parking garage and 2nd and Harrison. I didn't know what to expect, considering the exterior appearance of the building, but this is one of the nicest bars I've seen in the QC area.
D1 Redcoats standing around before the ceremony. The 2nd and 3rd floors both overlook the main floor, and the stairs to the basement level are very open also.There is a small bar on the landing between the first floor and the basement. This shot shows the pool table, darts, and other games available in the basement.
The 2nd floor bar area. I didn't walk up to the 3rd floor, but I was told there's a piano up there. The ground floor is more the typical tables and chairs restaurant setup, which can be partly seen in the top picture.

The Mayor and company, cutting the ribbon.

The problem with building your own computers...

... is that there's no Dell or Gateway to send 'em back to when they need fixin'.

Salvation Army building renovation? What?

http://www.heritageaffordablehousing.com/riverplace.html

Unless I've missed hearing anything about this in the local media, this is news. It is at least news to me. The fact that it refers to JOD as a AAA baseball stadium doesn't say much for the realism of this project though.

I just read about it on the AbsoluteDSM Forums

Stormy Thursday Events

Update at5:28PM: I need a proofreader!! The PETCOR meeting was at 5pm! I even pasted text that said that into my original post...



A few things going on today, and next week.

As usual, I'll try to get some photos of whichever of these I end up attending.


At 5pm: (From DowntownDavenport.com)

ScatterKats Grand Opening!
Drop by at 5:00 pm on Thursday, June 22 to celebrate the official grand opening of our newest bar & restaurant downtown! Also, ScatterKats will now be serving lunch from 11am to 2pm and dinner from 5 pm to 10 pm.

At 6pm: The newly and strangely controversial Bix at Six

At 7pm (ACTUALLY 5PM): (from Alderman Hamerlinck's blog)

The PETCOR Development meeting and discussion set originally for June 14th has been postponed to Thursday June 22nd at 5:00pm in the Council Chambers.
Representatives from Ruhl & Ruhl, PETCOR Industries and the City of Davenport's Community and Economic Development Department will be available to answer questions. The meeting will begin with a brief PowerPoint Presentation and Discussion from PETCOR Industries.

Next Week: (from Alderman Frink's blog)

[Alderman Frink] will be hosting an Open City Meeting - Idea Session in the 6th Ward, from 7-9 pm, Tues., June 27th, at the Duck Creek Park Lodge (Intersection of East Locust and Marlo). The lodge is the brick structure located just N of the main entrance into Duck Creek Park, a couple hundred yards N of East Locust.

The meeting will be split between current topics before the city and an Idea Session to generate your thoughts or ideas to strive for a better Davenport. I hope to have some city staff folks on hand, as well as another alderman or two. The meeting is open to individuals from throughout our community.

Looks like Davenport's efforts are working, sorta

Another item for the "no matter how many times you say something, it doesn't make it true" file.

People are frequently heard to exclaim how Davenporters are moving away in droves because of: (Pick one) taxes, fees, baseball stadiums, speed cameras, Mooses, circus councils, etc.

This is from this article in today's QCTimes. I meant to post it this morning, and now the Colonel beat me to it and already wrote an in-depth post about it.

In Davenport’s case, almost all of its population gains over the past five years came between 2004 and 2005, the Census Bureau said.

After the 2000 census, Davenport lost people until 2002 before inching upward again. It had regained the losses by 2004 and added 482 people by 2005, the government said. If that growth rate continues, Davenport’s population will hit 100,000 people in 2008. The last time the city reached that point was in the mid-1980s.

Yeah, we're growing. Not yet fast, but we're growing.

Midwest League Allstar Game 2006 Images

Teams line up during the national Anthem

The flag was flown in along with 4 parachuters, (is that a word?) but unfortunately one missed the stadium. He nearly hit the Centennial Bridge, the river, and the seawall, and then crashed through a tree before landing between Beiderbecke Drive and the river. My chance to have CNN-worthy video footage, and I didn't think to take a movie. He seemed ok, and gathered up his chute without assistance.

If only the crowd was like this for every game.

A mobile control room and TV satellite truck. I don't know whose these are, but I wouldn't have thought Mediacom Connection Channel 22 could afford them.

Final Score:
East 7
West 1

At least the Swing's Randy Roth won the home run derby.

Allstar Excitement

I just stopped down to pick up my Will-Call internet tickets before excitement really got going, only to find that its already in full "swing."

There are more people at JOD at 5pm (2 hours before the game, half hour before the home run derby) than are at a normal game by 7.

$5 for parking in the Florian Keen lot... The least they could have done is print out a banner to completely cover the $2 Parking sign. That way it wouldn't look as much like we're fleecing our Allstar visitors. Some of them probably figure there isn't any free parking, if they haven't been here before.

Despite that, I saw lots of states and different Iowa county license plates in the cheap lot. (Where I always park)

TV and radio stations are set up and and ready to go down there, and it should be an exciting night. I'll probably be sitting out on the berm, so I'm going to pull a Bill Wundram and take my glove.

Election whiners and allstar games

I think its strange to hear all these people complaining about how a special election in the summer is "rigged" for those on the side of 4 year terms. As Will Rogers said, "the world is run by those that show up." If you 2 year term fans think this is such a big deal, then rally your troops and get out the vote. If you lose, then its the non-voting people's own fault. Those who voted against 4 year terms will be the only ones with a right to complain.
Or, lose, and then get your own petition signed in September to put it back on the November ballot. That way we might end up having special elections every month.

I'm looking forward to seeing John O'Donnell Stadium full again tonight for the Midwest League Allstar Game. Assuming I don't have any more camera problems like I had this weekend, I should have some images up by tomorrow morning.

Looks like I get a letter too...

From this Macomb Journal article:

[Western Illinois University] School officials announced late last week that they closed a breach in computer security on June 5 and additional security measures were adopted. While university officials do not believe any records were copied from the system, data from anywhere between 200,000 and 240,000 students and alumni may have been compromised, Assistant Vice President John Maguire said. Letters will start being mailed on Monday to those whose information could have been viewed so that they can be diligent with their credit reports.

Here's an article on QCOnline also.

No Sturgis pictures this year

Due to various issues, I didn't make it down to get any photos of Sturgis on the River. Hopefully I do a little better with Ride the River today, and hopefully they have better weather. Here's a picture of the post-Sturgis party in front of Mac's/Carriage Haus/Paddys /Shenanigans clearing out late last night . Its all I got for motorcycle images this weekend.