QCI's Top 5 New Year's Wishes

Instead of sleeping, which I should be doing, I'm writing down my 5 biggest wishes for Davenport in 2006. I'd post this closer to New Years, but my flight for sunny Arizona leaves in a mere 4 hours. I'm not sure how many posts I'll be able to make in the coming days.
Anyway...

I hope that in 2006 Davenport can:

5. Reduce crime. Somehow, some way, make Davenport safer. Enough said.

4. Help prairie Heights succeed. I'm a big fan of new urbanism, mostly because it reminds me of the way I grew up. I spent my childhood in a neighborhood where I could walk to the park for baseball, stop in at a corner store and buy some Laffy Taffy or baseball cards, and where the front of our house was dominated by a door for people, not cars. We can create new neighborhoods like this.

3.Continue the downtown "momentum." As much as people would like to pretend that all the downtown progress isn't working, it really is. The Crescent Loft district is sprouting new downtown living, new businesses are moving downtown, and PEOPLE can actually be seen walking around on downtown streets. Continuing this will help keep the 20-somethings (my generation) from going elsewhere.

2. Redevelop the former Showcase Cinema and Ramada/Wickliffe Inn on North Brady. These 2 parcels add up to over 25 acres, and don't provide the best welcome to Davenport to visitors coming off of I-80. Surely something could be done with the property.

1. That all of us could honor and respect Fly's Rule #3, and honor and respect each other, no matter what their personal politics or views are. No one deserves personal attacks just because they are passionate about their views, whichever side they're on. We're all doing what we think is best for Davenport.

A New Blog about the QC

As Fly used to say, I get email. I got this one the other day from a QC resident who has quietly started his or her own blog about the Quad Cities. Its located at http://bridgetosomewhere.blogspot.com/. Obviously, this is a play on the infamous "bridge to nowhere," although I haven't heard quite as much complaining about that lately. In the email which I've posted below, Pioneer asks some good questions, such as how the area can get a good perception to outsiders. I've experienced some similar things with people who last visited Davenport in the 80's when the only thing that was happening downtown was historic buildings being demolished. They tend to say something like "Davenport? There's nothing to do there" and go to places like Peoria that have similar or even fewer attractions than the Quad Cities. I was amazed at how many people at WIU in Macomb didn't even know where the QC is located. Hopefully we can change that over the next few years.

Hello,

I've been following the various blogs related to Davenport and the Quad
Cities that you guys have been running, and I've enjoyed reading them. I
just wanted to pose a question that you may consider as a subject for one of
your blogs, or maybe just for general discussion: How much of Davenport's
problems are purely perception?

To put it another way, it's the classic chicken-and-the-egg:
Do positive impressions about an area develop because it actually is a nice
area?
OR
Does an area become nice because people have positive impressions about it?

I think perception is a huge problem, but I may be biased. I grew up in
Davenport, went away for college and lived in other places around the
Midwest for about 8 years, before landing back here (a story for a different
time). I got to see firsthand how Davenport and the Quad Cities are
perceived around the Midwest. My first stop was in Southern rural
Wisconsin. Most people there assumed how glad I must be to be out of Iowa.
I usually told them I didn't see much difference between rural Wisconsin and
Iowa, and that, actually, I preferred Davenport because there was more to
do. My brother recently moved to Madison from Des Moines, and suffers
similar conversations frequently. He likes both Des Moines and Madison.

I experienced similar things elsewhere. The people who had heard of
Davenport or the Quad Cities usually had negative impressions. I think this
area does a very poor job about getting the word out about the good things
we have. So, most people assume we have nothing. All they hear is the news
reports about a plant closing, a crime, or the river flooding. The Figge
made a splash, but that good press is already fading.

Not sure if you've seen my blog (bridgetosomewhere.blogspot.com). I try to
stress the positive things happening in the area, because, quite frankly,
someone has to. I'm not trying to pretend that there aren't problems, or
that they shouldn't be discussed. I'm just trying to make a point that we
have GOOD things in this area, along with the bad that seem to get more
attention. I'm a big believer that changing perceptions goes a very long
way to changing reality.

I could talk for hours on this subject. What do you guys think?

Happy Holidays,

pioneer98

Christmas is Over Open Thread

I'll be busy preparing for my trip these next few days, but I've got a few posts planned. What else is on people's minds?

Merry Christmas from QCI

Have a wonderful Christmas, and enjoy the best time of the year.

Sears Joins the Silliness

If ever there was a media-created story it would be the so-called "war on Christmas." John Beydler had a pretty good post about it on his blog, Passing Parade.




Sears, however, seems to think its a real issue, as suddenly every one if their doors had a white paper with plain black text wishing people a Merry Christmas. I guess Sears goes whichever way the wind blows. It was clearly sent out by the high-ups with orders to post it everywhere.

Might as well open a discussion on it

D-port alderman-elect under investigation after train mishap

As Fly said when McGivern's thing came out, "people will want to discuss this."

Mr. VanFossen did email the Colonel, Ambrose Fulton and myself a written statement, which they have both posted at their sites. I find it strange that while he appeared to be unaware of DDP and the Rule #3 Party, he seems quite aware of who runs the 3 Davenport politics blogs now. However, I have to compliment him on getting a statement out, and including bloggers in his media release. I won't repost the statement here, as I bet anyone that reads this blog probably reads SoLo.

I suspect this will be a bit different than McGivern's DUI, coming at the beginning of Alderman VanFossen's service instead of the end. It will be interesting to see what happens here. Obviously he's innocent until proven guilty, but I don't think that proof will take long. Maybe he'll plead guilty right away like Fly always wanted Bob to do. I'm not sure what will happen if Mr. VanFossen is unable to keep his seat on the city council, and whether there would be a special election or not. It seems somewhat logical to me to just give the seat to Gibbs. Since it seems logical to me, I'm sure that's not what will happen.

It serves to remind me that my 3 drink maximum is a good policy.

Dismissed or not Dismissed??

One of our lead againsters has been anonymously posting all over the place about how the judge didn't throw out the Susie Bell lawsuit, yet I read this morning in the Times article about the police station groundbreaking that the lawsuit was dismissed.

The exact quote is:
In another court action, a judge Wednesday dismissed an action sought by citizen Susie Bell to block the current council from doing any more spending before new aldermen take office on Jan. 3.

So which is it?

I find it strange that the Times doesn't have an article about the hearing.

Crazy QC Hotel Scene

Davenport Holiday Inn now a Clarion

I must say that it fits the Clarion brand (supposedly the ritziest of the Choice Hotel chain) a lot more than the former downtown Clarion, now a Howard Johnson.

Too bad someone doesn't come along and rehab or demolish the former Ramada out there on Brady, with the old movie theater next door that's a big chunk of land close to I-80.

Happy Birthday Bill

Bill Wundram

One thing Davenport has that no other city can claim.

Triumph's Triumph Confirmed

As I predicted exactly 2 weeks ago, it looks like East Moline is moving forward with the hog processing plant. I wish it could have been a more thorough, more public process, and I hope there is some recourse if the plant isn't everything they claimed it wouldn't be.

Apparently pigs are in such a hurry to be slaughtered we couldn't wait another month.

Busy Week Open Thread

Sorry about the lack of posts, but I had a family Christmas get together here Saturday night, so there was some apartment cleaning to be done. I suspect most of my loyal readers are pretty darn busy themselves preparing for the big day.

Its only going to get worse around New Year's, because I'll be in Phoenix from December 29th-January 7th. I'll hopefully throw up a couple threads during that time, but no promises.

Some of you may want to discuss the impending EM approval of the pork processing plant, which I think is showing Davenport that IL folks know how to rush projects through even better than us.
Update 8:50pm: It appears they've approved it.

I'd also like to know some kind of timeline on the 3 lady lawsuit, as far as when the hearing or dismissal or whatever is supposed to be. I wish it would be settled, because surely there's some other contentious issue everyone could argue about.

Chicago City Images

I was checking out one of the blogs linked to on the Inside Dope blog, and that blog had a link to this blog. Its not a place you're going to find any in depth discussion, or political debate, but this guy takes some amazing pictures of mostly downtown Chicago. Kind of a 6 degrees of seperation type thing, but that's how the internet works.

http://www.iconeon.blogspot.com/

Linden may get torn down after all

Linden owner given 90 days to repair or raze apartments

It was originally reported that the Linden Apartments would have to be torn down because of structural damage after the fire that happened there in October. Then it was reported that they wouldn't be ordered demolished by the city, as the structural damage wasn't fatal. That's still true, but apparently the owner's insurance money won't cover renovations and repairs, so it will probably be torn down anyway. Its a bad situation, but you can't expect the owner who was basically running a tenement house to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on fixing up his building. Its too bad the building will probably be torn down instead of renovated, especially since it has a fairly small footprint on which to build anything new. Maybe a Davenport version of Rock Island's Clipper Condos can be built there.

Ok, this is just a cool picture

QCI pretending to be a real photographer

A Couple Things From the QCTimes

County frustrated by preservation action

The Davenport Historic Preservation Commission gave the county a taste of their own medicine in tabling their request to demolish the 5th street houses. The county folks seemed surprised by this, but when you slap down a plan to renovate historic houses instead of demolish them, and then go to the HISTORIC PRESERVATION Commission, how can they be surprised that the board isn't overjoyed with the demolition plan? Apparently the county didn't have drawings of artists renderings of what the property will look like after the demolition, or with any potential office buildings. The office building idea is a new one for me, and I kind of think that the 4th street government corridor has no need to jump across the railroad tracks and start moving up the hill.


Here's a letter to the editor from someone suggesting we return to partisan elections to "keep the mayor in line." You know... so nobody steps out of the lockstep party line, and for example, says things that people don't want to hear.

Somehow I don't think that's the answer. If there's one thing more screwed up and adversarial than Davenport politics, its partisan Democrat vs Republican politics.

If I wasn't sure before...

A copy of the 3 ladies' lawsuit is included in this week's Council Update.

Reading it further convinces me that it doesn't stand a chance. The IOC proposal is indeed mentioned, even though it has nothing to do with the bond issue.

Reading this, it becomes clear the lawsuit is basically 3 citizens suing a city for doing things that they personally don't agree with. Its filled with opinions and hearsay, and I didn't see anything in there that would make a judge mandate what Davenport elected officials can do during the term they were elected for.

EVERYONE should read it, if they haven't already.

Maybe I'm missing something

Several people have mentioned that the recent lawsuit to stop the city from accomplishing things is partly based on the city spending money on something they're not sure of yet, namely the IOC realignment. Maybe I'm missing it, but I don't see anything about that on the list of items.

Here's a file that list where all the money goes.

Someone show me where any of that relies on anything to do with the IOC hotel project?
I really could just be overlooking it.

Continuing Our Tradition of Crazy Lawsuits

Court action seeks to stop city spending

One of their complaints is apparently that the current council can't do this because its close to the end of their term. Here's a newsflash ladies: yes they can. They were elected to serve until January, not until November. Somehow I think if the roles were reversed, and the incoming council was the one going out, and they tried to limit city spending for the next council, the ladies wouldn't have any problem with that particular "tying up" of newly elected council folks.

Apparently this 50 cents per $1,000 of property value is just going to break the bank for these ladies. If they are living in $100,000 homes, that's $50 a year. I'd be more than willing to bet they spend that much money in a year driving to City Hall twice a week. Yet this weekly expenditure doesn't force them to move away. Better give the Today show a call and tell them their story about how affordable Davenport is must have been wrong. Or wait until you move to Seattle or Phoenix or even Des Moines and see what you can get for your $100,000, and what their taxes are.

Lets face the facts people: Federal taxes have decreased. This has put more of the burden for paying for services onto local and state governments. The state then turns around and passes their burden to the cities. Unfortunately, the cities don't have anyone to pass the buck to except us, the citizens. Fortunately, the lower federal taxes supposedly put more money in our pockets... to give to the city. People continue wanting the same, or even more services, but without an increase in taxes or fees. I believe the insurance of every person reading this costs more this year than it did 2 or 3 years ago, but the city is expected to pay for health care of its employees on a stagnant income? That's impossible, so our current council has tried to be proactive and do things that might cause Davenport's population and tax base to grow. The building I'm living in is an example, and driving through downtown last night I saw several more examples of increased tax base directly tied to River Renaissance and other proactive things Davenport is doing. When city costs still rise with a stable or even decreasing number of employees, staying the same is falling behind.

After watching this election, if I ever run for council in Davenport I'll just tell people I can quickly eliminate taxes and fees altogether, yet somehow increase services and pave all the streets with gold. Logic just doesn't work on some people. Quite possibly enough people to get elected.

It feels good to rant once in a while.

Continuing Our Tradition of Crazy Rich Guys

A few weeks ago when some friends of mine were in town, we visited the Figge and later the IMAX at the Putnam. The IMAX tickets now include admission into the museum, so we walked around in there a bit.

Between the two museums we saw a lot of stuff from V.O. Figge and the various Palmers, and I had to explain to my out-of-towners how we once had a surplus of world-traveling rich folks to fill our museums and galleries with random stuff.

Demonstrating that the Figges haven't lost their way, here's an article in Forbes about people who collect wooden duck decoys, some of which sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. One of the featured collectors is Thomas K. Figge, V.O.'s son. He apparently used to dress in jeans and drive junk cars to help in his bargaining efforts with decoy owners. The article estimates his collection of wooden duck decoys is valued at between 5 and 10 million dollars. Maybe in 30 years Davenport will have the World Museum of Wooden Ducks.

The article is here, but you do have to register with Forbes.com, which is free and may not even require a real email address.

What surprise?

Apparently, the QCTimes or Tom Saul didn't see the tax hike to pay for the $35million+ bond coming.

How did they think it was going to be paid for?

The Stars and Bananas Factory

Pick up a River City Reader this week, or head over to www.rcreader.com, because their cover story on the proposed nightclub for the East Village is the best article I've read about it anywhere. It discusses good and bad points of each side of the disagreement, to the point where I'm not sure which side Kathleen McCarthy is even on. I often disagree with the Reader's seemingly rabid dislike of the Davenport council, but they certainly provide a different perspective from Tom Saul.

Personally, I'm undecided on the issue. Parking is an issue, but I have to confess I don't know how full that lot to the south is at night. If the owners are just misleading people and the club will really be Los Bananas South, it clearly shouldn't be allowed. I remember watching 4-8 squad cars lining up next to Dahl Ford at closing time on certain nights of the week when the club would be extra busy. They weren't there in case something happened, they were there because they knew something would.

On the other hand, I would like to think that we don't operating on a 1-strike and your out rule. Its possible that Mr. Orozco got involved with the wrong kind of club, and now wants to open a better one. I do disagree with the Village folks portraying the East Village as some kind of crime-free family zone. There are bars down there now, and there are crimes. The real question is do we assume that the club will be another Bananas, or do we assume that it won't be? It seems like a tough decision to make before it even opens.

Holiday Slowdown

Since we're all new to this whole QC blog thing (seems like its been more than a year though), I'm not sure what normally happens to political type blogs over the holidays. Just in the last few days I've seen a definite decline in comments on here. It could just mean I've gotten boring-er, but that can't be! Actually, its probably partly that, and partly the fact that everyone's busy at the mall, stuck in traffic on Elmore, or at various holiday functions. I would think many people would be less interested in politics for the next month, including politicians, but that's not true. The local city councils don't take a break for December, so I'll keep posting what they're up to. Unless my 12' tree tips over sitcom-style and demolishes my computers.

P.S. Fly's site has quietly started disappearing

Triumph Triumphs

Its a done deal.

That's my prediction after reading that the EM council voted unanimously to continue negotiations about the pork plant. I'd even say its more of a done deal than Davenport's IOC riverfront hotel was, which is saying quite a bit. There are a number of similarities, even down to the somewhat well-organized groups in opposition: SmartRiverfront for Davenport and Progressive Action for the Common Good in East Moline. Both of the opposition groups even have vague names that disguise the fact that their sole purpose is to oppose their particular enemy project. There are also differences though. Davenport's political scene is rowdier, and the EM city council doesn't have any Keith Meyers on it. The pork plant is also not in the middle of their downtown.

Some folks would assume that I think the open-shut/done deal strategy that both these projects used is a good thing, just because I supported each of the proposed projects. This couldn't be further from the truth. SmartRiverfront.com saved Davenport money by questioning the agreement with IOC. If there had been little opposition to the hotel, think how few concessions Davenport would have been able to get in the bargaining process. Hopefully PACG can accomplish something similar in East Moline, and get their city a better deal with Triumph.

What I wish both groups could have done is run an honest campaign. SmartRiverfront did some stuff on their site that I thought bordered on propaganda, such as showing "what the hotel will block" by inserting a giant grey box into current pictures representing the hotel. Any building would be opposed if its artist's conception was a giant grey box, but fortunately that's not what IOC is going to build. Now PACG is adamant that new Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) will start springing up everywhere around here, but ignores the fact that the hogs could be trucked in from longer distances, or that our local counties might have something to say about a sudden influx of CAFOs. I don't believe in scare tactics when there are real issues to debate. Smell is a huge one. If all of EM smells like a pig farm when the plant opens, that won't be worth 1000 jobs. Pollution is another, and the quality of the new jobs is yet another good topic that EM citizens need to ask hard questions about.

East Moline's dealings with the public started out even worse than Davenport's were during the casino hotel "debate." The River Vision proposal didn't have a red box that said "We don't know anything about a proposed hotel," because our city leaders at least managed to avoid flat out lying to us. Unfortunately that can't be said for our Illinois brethren. Its not too late for EM to make this a more public, more inclusive process.

Brits are reading about us

This article in the Guardian, a British paper, is about Figge Architect David Chipperfield. It mentions Davenport and the Figge a number of times, in a completely positive light.

People in the UK are reading about OUR art museum here in Davenport.

Once again, this would not be happening without River Renaissance.

Open thread = Failure

My favorite comic lately is Pearls Before Swine.

Besides all the silly stuff with the police station, pork plant, and stormwater fee, what else is on people's minds?

Update: Quiet day Sunday... I'll leave this up here today in case there's some big D-port story waiting for a blog commenter to break it.

No idea...

As far as the police union delaying the new police station they've been waiting decades for over parking? I really hope there's more to it than having to park too far away during construction.

QCTimes & Keith Meyer Possibly Blind

Sometimes reading the paper just makes me shake my head.

Earlier this week, the QCTimes had an article praising the collaboration between the Scott County Family Y and local schools, hospitals, and organizations. Towards the end of the article they said this:

This wonderful collaboration sends a powerful, can-do message. It’s not necessarily a new message. We heard it before with Rock Island and Davenport RiverVision planning; and Scott County, Davenport and Bettendorf’s support of River Renaissance. But in a community where a new Davenport police station is being built independently right next door to a new Scott County jail and sheriff’s headquarters, these collaborative lessons still are needed.

Then today the Times says this about the planned skywalk between the jail/courthouse complex and the new police station:

Alderman Keith Meyer, 3rd Ward, questioned the need for a skywalk that will connect the police station to the Scott County jail and courthouse complex. Now, he said, he sees very little foot traffic crossing Ripley between the police department and the jail.

What??

Ok... first of all, later in today's article they say this, pointing out how wrong they were in the previous article.

But the new station will share a number of functions with the Scott County Sheriff’s Department, such as evidence storage and processing, training, record keeping, fingerprinting and, potentially, dispatch services, said Police Chief Mike Bladel. Davenport detectives also routinely bring inmates over from the jail for questioning. (Emphasis added)

So... they need lessons in collaboration, yet they're going to share multiple services.

Then we have Alderman Meyer saying that people rarely walk between the police station and jail/courthouse. During short involvement with the DPD, I made that walk at least 50 or 100 times. During a murder trial myself, officer witnesses, and detectives each made the walk across Ripley many times. Also, if someone is arrested in the police department, which happens fairly often, they don't typically get driven half a block to the jail. Officers "walk them over" to get booked in the jail. A big reason for having the jail downtown is its proximity to the courthouse, so why shouldn't they be physically connected?

Hogs, NIMBYs, Dopes

The Inside Dope blog has been the site of an ongoing debate about the proposed pork processing plant being vaguely discussed for East Moline. There's a group trying to convince people that having one of these will cause an influx of concentrated animal feed operations (CAFOs), or basically commercial hog lots. I haven't seen a great increase in cattle farms in response to meat packing plants, but maybe they're right.

The secretive process taking place for the last few months over there would incite a riot among blog-readers if it happened in Davenport, but as usual, things are different in Illinois. Annexing land to the city without telling the citizens what its really for makes the Davenport IOC hotel ordeal look like a public process.

My big question with the processing plant is the smell. If that can be negated, its just another heavy industry with its associated traffic problems. The smaller question is whether locals will work there, or if it will bring in mostly immigrants, who then become locals. Hopefully a mixture of both, and I would think some of the folks that stand around Labor Ready would be happy to do a nasty, but decent-paying job like that. The temp jobs they end up doing for $7 or $8 an hour aren't exactly glamorous.

If these concerns could be answered, my next question is "If they don't want it, can we put it in our failing Eastern Iowa Industrial Center?"

Why the heck not HERE??

Isle of Capri plans to move corporate HQ to St. Louis -QCTimes

Its only 150 jobs, but they're probably decent paying jobs, and its a billion dollar company. Bernie Goldstein is from the area, and they have 2 growing casino operations within 5 miles. The optional second phase of the Mississippi Plaza office building would make an ideal home for IOC's head honchos. The Iowa Values Fund seems like the perfect source for an incentive to move here, and surely they'd fork over something for 150 white collar jobs. Plus it sounds like St. Louis county isn't all that thrilled about them coming anyway.

Come on Clayton, give Bernie a call.

IOC Permit PDF

Check out my *favorite* website, SmartRiverfront.com, to see a copy of Isle of Capri's Corps of Engineers Permit Application. There's some interesting stuff in there. For instance, the ramps from the hotel to the boat will be low enough to block the 50' of river access on the south side of the hotel when the river is extremely low. To remedy this, it sounds like they will have sort of an underpass/ramp dug below grade level to allow people to move beneath the access ramps to the boat even when the river is low. The application also discusses bald eagles, mussels, and even light pollution. Its worth reading, and maybe I'll post some further highlights from it later.

Needed: 50 kids with shovels

Its pretty interesting to read the city's page of current purchasing bids. That page can be found here, http://cityofdavenportiowa.com/finance/purchasing/current.htm. Everything's on there from copiers, sod, or downspouts all the way up to the new police station. Its a good way to see what the city is really spending money for. For example, I have no idea what the "gateway features" they're bidding out are. Maybe new "Welcome to Davenport" signs?

The bid process that just expired today is for snow removal of various downtown items such as the parking garages. I never knew that the city hired this out to private contractors, or maybe this is the first year for it. Included in the same bid request is clearing sidewalks along parts of River Drive and the various bus shelters around town, among other things. Fans of privatization will surely be pleased that the city is utilizing private industry for some things that could be done by city employees, but it also begs the question of whether there are idle cty workers during the winter who could do some shoveling.

Many of the more juicy construction projects on the bidder page require that contractors either spend some money to get the project specifications or register for an architectural design website in the case of the police station. I suppose this makes sense so every Tom, Dick, or Blogger can't go constantly request pricy blueprints and such for every city project, but it seems like it could all be put online for free. I'm considering registering for the site to view the PD plans, but I'm not sure if non-contractors can even register.

Update on JLCS article: The pictures are stuck on my non-functioning computer, but I'll probably just post an image-less article in the next few days.

DDP Archive

I saved all of the DDP pages and zipped them up.

Download it here, if you're into that sort of thing.

Goodbye Annie

Last Wednesday was the final day that the Annie Wittenmyer branch of the Davenport Public Library was open. There was an open house during normal hours, and at 7 they had a farewell ceremony which was sort of a loving roast of the building's deficiencies. Some of the employees even got a little choked up as they each talked about their memories in the old building. It was touching, but I felt somewhat out of place. Ten years ago I would have known most of the people there, but I've slowly become more of a downtown library user than the biweekly branch visitor I was growing up. I have good memories of being careful not to let Dewey the library cat escape when entering the library, or checking out Boxcar Children or Hardy Boys books as a kid. I also thought about the fact that I've never gone into the library via the front door, as I grew up to the west of Annie Wittenmyer.

The staff was quick to point out that the new branch is opening on January 14th with many of the same people working there who worked at Annie Wittenmyer. While it seems like its way over there, its still within 6 miles of the current library. A 15 minute drive isn't too bad, at least for the 2 or 3 years until the new East side branch gets built. I'm curious to see what the city is going to do with the soon-vacant building that has housed the branch for so many years. I also wondered what happened to the aerial view of the neighborhood that they used to have hanging over the Xerox machine. Maybe it will reappear when the new branch is built. I'm thankful to all of the folks who've worked there over the years to provide us with a cozy neighborhood library.

Happy Thanksgiving to me

Instead of having a relaxing 4 days off, my motherboard decided to break on my main computer. Posts delayed further... blog in a downward spiral.... someone talk about something.

Thanksgiving

Today we should take a moment and reflect on the last year. Bitter debates, tough and close elections, new fees, etc. Just remember to use some perspective. Tens of thousands of Americans won't see their family today because they're serving their country overseas. Thousands of Americans are missing family members and homes this year due to Katrina. Take a moment to see that Davenport does at least some good things, and be thankful that our biggest problems are stormwater fees and elections.

I doubt any of my pending posts will be ready today. Maybe tonight, but more likely later. Family ranks somewhat higher than blogs for me.

Have a great holiday.
QCI

Coming Soon: JLCS Meeting Review

Ambrose Fulton of SoLo and I met with Kate Ridge and Kris Clements today and toured some of their properties. I'll attempt to write up some of my thoughts on this tonight and post something about it tomorrow afternoon.

Update: "tomorrow" is here, and no JLCS post. Holiday real life things intervened. If I don't get some stuff posted by morning, it won't be happening for a couple days. Sorry.

Tuesday Open Thread

Maybe someone has something to say about these things.

Gilmour and Boom want recounts

Apparent agreement reached on new role for levee panel

Commission and council find future for riverfront

Or Maybe:

RDA Grants total $1.4 mil

Or, just talk about whatever, since its an Open Thread.

Pass the Muntins

I'm unable to find the thread, or remember if it was on DDP or SoLo, but a few months back some people were jumping all over the Crescent Macaroni building for using enormous undivided windows. I believe the pieces that divide windows into individual panes are called muntins. I posted then that the Lofts were still planning on adding "decorative" muntins to maintain the factory look of the building. A month or two ago they started putting these on, but ran out of the faux-muntin material before they got to my apartment. My river view remained unobstructed! But alas, I got up today and my giant view had been divided into many smaller river views. Oh well, it does look more factory-like now. Plus now the againsters have one less thing to complain about regarding the lofts.

Where's the Rage?

Habitat to build 7-house complex in Rock Island
-QCOnline

Look at the article quick, since it'll be unavailable to non-subscribers soon. That's why I don't generally link to QCOnline.

Edit at 16:04: Yep, the article's down already. Apparently that should make you go buy a newspaper instead of reading it online. Seems more like it sends people to QCTimes.com.

Essentially the article states that the city of Rock Island will give Habitat slightly less than a block of park land to develop into 7 Habitat for Humanity houses. The article does not mention the neigbors' reactions, but if it were Davenport they'd be sharpening their pitchforks and lighting their torches. Don't any neighborhood folks use the park? I don't know the area, so maybe there's an obvious reason why its no big deal. Any RI natives want to explain this?

You Too, Can be QCI

Due to the fact that I have yet to go to bed after getting home from work at 6am, I may not make it to this year's Holiday Parade. If any of you other amateur photographers such as myself, or even some of you folks who actually are trained in taking pictures, want to email me some of your Holiday Parade pictures, I will post as many as I can here on the main blog page. Chances are I won't get any submissions, but if you've got a digital camera, snap a picture and send it this way.

Hopefully I'll make it down there anyway.

Hmmm...

I may choose to participate on other local blogs, but I will do so as myself. Fly will be permanently retired.

-Fly, 11/12/2005

Now we have this...

Rich Moroney said...

I was involved in the 2003 recount of the Hean v Lynn aldermanic result. And I'm one of the few people that have actually been around to participate in the pre-election testing of the voting machines.

None of these results will change by more than a vote or two. I understand Gilmour's desire for a "voter verification count" but basically this is a case of "been there & done that". The Scott County machines work very well. Given the closest election is 7-votes, a change in winner just isn't going to happen.
18/11/05 12:14


The Inside Dope said...

Thanks Rich. And welcome to the blog.
18/11/05 13:03


Several people at the Rule #3 party believed that Mr. Moroney is the Fly, and I'm starting to come around to that point of view. It just seems strange that he suddenly appears on a site that Fly frequents within days of Fly calling it quits. One thing that's strange to me is that Lynn was against the casino hotel proposal, and Fly was semi-for it. I guess campaign managers don't always agree with their candidate. It would also be admirable for him to hate the QCRPA so much, considering they helped get Lynn his seat in the first place.

Transparency Relapse?/ Friday Open Thread

Without Fly pestering the folks down at City Hall to post everything online that we should have access to, do you think they will slide into their old, even more secretive ways?

I wish the Council Updates could at least be posted in a timely manner.

Also, how would the reporters in attendence at the Rule #3 Party have known if someone was Fly? Both the the reporters I talked to didn't seem to have a way of identifying the true Fly. If I had claimed to be him, how would they have known otherwise? They should have emailed him in advance and asked for a special password or coded message that only Fly would know about. He said something pretty random to me in one of our last emails that I suspect was for this purpose. And of course, I always say "he," but Fly could still be a female. But I don't think so.

We may never know.

Sorry Shawn

No, I'm not apologizing for my endorsement, although after talking to you I think you'll work out ok as Alderman.

I'm apologizing for spelling your name wrong every time I used it ever since you announced. I was hunting around for your blog site, which I've added to the link bar, and I couldn't figure out why my search for "Hammerlinck" wasn't coming up with results. When I finally found your blog, I saw that its Hamerlinck, and I'm sorry for never noticing that.

Some Folks Can't Play Nice

So we had the Rule #3 Party. As reported by Tom Saul, (finally) Fly was a no show.

Unlike Mr. Saul reported, Jen Olsen did attend, she was just a bit late. There was never a set time anyway. Both the reporters present had to leave to file their stories, so they didn't stay the whole time.

I didn't see Alderman-Elect Dumas there, but I believe he was.

Alderman Ambrose was the ONLY current alderman to not attend.

Neither Alderman-Elect VanFossen or his opponent Mr. Gibbs attended. I didn't see Mr. Franken, but I suspect he was there also.

Keith Meyer did show up, although him and his opponent didn't get together to buy each other drinks. I was told that Alderwoman Bushek and soon-to-be Alderman Hammerlinck did chat.

Craig Malin attended. I didn't see Ed Winborn. Some of the LOLs attended. Clayton and Dee did not.

In the name of full disclusure, I had drinks bought for me by Alderman Barnhill and Candidate Boom's campaign manager, Bruce Kenady. I don't plan to go any easier on either Barnhill or Boom, but I did appreciate the drinks. They clearly understand Rule #3.

However, since several people do not understand civility among political opponents, or do not agree with it, Fly was entirely within his right to not out himself. A comment from supposedly-Fly was posted over at SoLo, saying that he was there. I'm not sure if its really him that posted the comment though. I'm not sure if he was really there or not. There was a pretty good turnout altogether, and I'm sure Mac's appreciated it. Thanks to all who attended.

P.S. Maybe Fly WAS there?





















Candidate Boom and QCI (and Fly) show off some yard signs that fortunately aren't still in yards.

The best compliment I could give

The way I voted this year was generally based on what I call my Fly-rule. Could the candidate be Fly?

Now this doesn't mean literally, is this person Fly. For example, Alderman Lynn was opposed to the casino hotel whereas Fly somewhat supported it, but not the way the public input and presentation were done. Therefore Lynn probably isn't Fly, but the point is I believe he's intelligent, well spoken, and fair enough that he could be. There are current and future aldermen who I don't believe are capable of the entries Fly posts. Originally I had planned to post a list of local folks who I thought were capable of being Fly, but in the spirit of his Rule #3, and tonight's party, I will just keep that to myself.

I just use Lynn because he's the perfect example of someone who I disagree with about many, many things in regards to how I'd like to see Davenport operate, but he's a smart and decent guy. He supports and explains his opinions. He's a good alderman. I felt Mr. Boom would be similar, in that even if he disagreed with you, you didn't come out of the disagreement wanting to strangle him. It was just something you had differing opinions on. If we could all say that about people who we agree to disagree with, Rule #3 could be a lot more possible.

I think if we all used the Fly-rule we'd have some good politicians representing us.
Thanks, Fly.


P.S. To those that think Fly couldn't be an alderman, just think about the facts that he was gone on both Primary and Election night, and that it seemed important to quit after the election.

Not the point

Today the QCTimes has an article about how we're going to spend $100,000+ on consultants for the Blackhawk hotel's future use.

The way the article puts it, much of the outrage over this has to do with the fact that we don't currently own the building. This seems silly to me, as we've signed an agreement with Isle of Capri that gives Davenport the option to buy the building for, I believe, $1. The building's not ours, but it will be.

What people SHOULD be complaining about is the high price for these consultants. $112,000 is 2240 hours of $50 an hour pay. That's 56 weeks of full time, 40 hour a week, $50 an hour work to figure out what we should do with the Blackhawk. Ten grand I can see, just to have a hotel expert fish around and see who's willing to give us the best deal on buying and fixing up the building. That's still a lot of money. But $112,000?

Let me save them the trouble. Here's what to do with the Blackhawk:
Make an agreement with a private hotel company to sell it to them for $2 (double our money!) if they agree to do X amount of renovations and keep it open for a minimum of X years. Make sure it'll be on par or at least close to as good as the Radisson, so we can get bigger conventions downtown. When we have more conventions, people can stop complaining about the RiverCenter. If a company was willing to pay us money for the Mississippi Hotel building, someone will take that deal for the Blackhawk.

Common sense. I'll give them a discount, since I don't have a degree in Hotel-ology, and only charge them $20,000 for my recommendation. It will be interesting to see how similar it is to the $112,000 one.

Where's Waldo? Or QCI?

For the 2 or 3 of you that wondered, sorry about the lack of posts this weekend. I had a couple of college pals over from Bloomington and Macomb. Its nice to see out of town folks' reactions to some of our downtown progress. They tried to goad me a little bit by asking to see the bridge to nowhere, knowing how I despise that phrase, but I wouldn't fall for it. Once we were standing at the south end of the bridge overlooking miles of river and downtown Rock Island, one of my friends pointed out that it didn't seem like "nowhere" to him. I also continued my tradition of spending more at the casino diner ($10) than I did actually gambling ($6)... Casino owners hate people like me. Sunday we went to a $5 IMAX movie, which currently includes free admission to the rest of the Putnam. Hopefully the powers-that-be up there will decide there's more money to be made having 50 people in the seats paying $5 each than having 3 people watch a movie for $9 a person. More likely its just a move to increase the museum's visitor count at the end of the year. Later tonight I'll post something about visiting the Figge for the *gasp*.... first time!

There's Something About Moosie

Everyone's talking about Mayor/Alderman Brooke's tiny margin of victory. It is certainly true that he barely barely barely made it. But....

He didn't even try.

He didn't attend the forums, and he sent a controversial figure in his stead, which I don't think gained him any votes over not showing up at all. He didn't have a website, he didn't have all that many yard signs, and he just didn't seem too put much effort into it. I could be wrong, as I don't live in that ward, but I just didn't hear much from his campaign. It was probably just assumed he would be able to slide right into McGivern's spot without much effort. This is what many would call typical Brooke arrogance, but he was (barely) right.

Also, the 6th ward is one where I would guess more people like where the city is headed then some other wards. As the QCTimes' informal poll showed, people in the east end are more likely to visit the downtown attractions that have been developed in the last few years. I would say the Figge probably has more members from the 6th ward than the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd combined. This could explain why Gilmour also seemed very supportive of the downtown progress, which is part of why I endorsed him. If he had the loyalty to downtown of Charlie with better, ah... people skills, he would be a great alderman. Maybe next time.

Why I was wrong on Boom

Answer: I don't know

124 more people voted in the 3rd ward in 2005 than in 2003. However, Meyer only got 18 more votes than he did in 2003. Apparently a lot more of the people who voted for someone other than Keith in the primary switched their vote back to the incumbent than I predicted. Whether some of this is due to some voters outdated views of Mr. Boom's lifestyle will never be known. I would also be curious to know how many of the new voters were new downtown residents such as myself, or the other 100+ residents of the Lofts.

I haven't heard yet if there's going to be a recount in the 3rd, or any other races. Those 16 under-votes in the 3rd ward could really come into play if there is a recount. Also, Bill's 475 votes would have defeated Keith's 466 in 2003. If it wasn't for those 18 new Meyer voters, Keith would have lost. Maybe Alderman Meyer will borrow an idea from Bill and form a 3rd ward council with representatives from various neighborhoods and neighborhood groups. He could appoint Bill to the 3rd ward council in homage to Fly's Rule #3.

One thing I find most interesting. Only the 2nd, 3rd, and 7th wards had more votes cast for their ward's alderman than in 2003. The 7th ward isn't even a fair comparison, consodering Alderman Barnhill was unopposed in the 2003 election. Out of these 3 though, the 3rd ward had the highest increase in voter turnout in the city. I'm proud to be 1/961 of that.

Results

Mayor:

Winborn by 1690 votes

At-Large:
Frink with 7016 votes
Howard with 6569, defeating Vance by 41 votes

1st Ward:

VanFossen by 44 votes

2nd Ward:
Hammerlinck by 698 votes

3rd Ward:
Meyer by 9 votes

4th Ward:
Ambrose by 418 votes

5th Ward:
Lynn by 458 votes

6th Ward:
Moose by 4 votes

7th Ward:
Barnhill by 253 votes

8th Ward:
Dumas by 903

Source: KWQC


Obviously I was wrong on almost half of them, and many of them were extremely close. Frink is a big surprise, but so his Howard's lack of a landslide. Will Boom, Vance, Gibbs, and Gilmour request their allowed recounts? Discuss.

Why I think Boom will win.

This is probably a bad idea, considering its quite possible I'll be proven completely wrong in a mere 14 hours.

I think there's 2 sides to Boom vs Meyer. Out of only the people who voted in the primary, I believe Bill Boom will win a clear majority of the votes. The fact that 2/3rds of the primary participants voted against the incumbent means a lot to me. I think when you go in to vote in a primary, you first ask yourself if you want to reelect the person who's already there. If the answer to that is no, then you pick one of the challengers. If most people follow that logic when they vote (a BIG if) then Boom should get somewhere like 60% of the primary voters. That's allowing that 8 of the 68% who didn't vote Meyer were willing to vote for someone other than Keith, but not Bill, and therefore switch their vote back to pro-incumbent in the general.

However, the primary is not the election. Common belief is that voters who didn't vote in the primary will tend to split more for the incumbent. I agree with this, as if you plan to vote for the person already in office, in most cases you can assume they will make it past the primary and into the general, so why bother? So in that case the 68% who voted against Keith in the primary shouldn't matter.

But wait, this is the 3rd ward. In the 2005 primary, 674 people cast votes. In the 2003 general election, the number appears to have been a measly 837. Unless a large number of new voters have decided to participate this year, most of the 3rd ward voters participated in the primary. (This seems like a good thing to me, since primaries have historically had low turnout) If 60% of this year's primary voters split towards Boom, that would be 404 people. So if the same number of people vote today that voted in 2003's general election, Bill would only need to pick up 17 of the people who didn't vote in the primary. I think he can do this. My prediction is that Alderman Boom will be elected 55%-45%. We'll find out tonight.


P.S. The more I look at the stats here, it appears that over half the number of the 2003 general election participants voted in the 2005 primary in several of the wards. Is Davenport increasing voter turnout in a big way? Guess we'll find that out tonight too.

P. P. S. Sorry of this is more rambling than even my normal rambling. I just got home from work and I should be going to bed, not analyzing the 3rd ward.

Who I think WILL win

This is different from my post advocating who I thought SHOULD win the election.

I believe this is how it will really turn out.

Mayor: Winborn
At-Large: Howard and Vance
1st Ward: Gibbs
2nd Ward: Hammerlinck
3rd Ward: Boom
4th Ward: Olsen
5th Ward: Lynn
6th Ward: Moose
7th Ward: Swanson
8th Ward: Dumas

Is this really news?

Bettendorf teen’s video games stolen

Its a good thing they don't try to write an article that long about all Davenport's burglaries. Every day would be like the Sunday paper.

Scott County Says No

Here's the Times article on the subject.

On one hand, its a slap in the face to those who had planned to develop the houses, because it was a good plan. However, it was a costly plan for the county, and they have valid points about the jail being landlocked. I suspect that the block will be paved soon after demolition, so it can be used for parking during the Police Station/Jail renovations.

I would have understood if the County had gone either way with this decision. Hopefully the group with the propsal can find another block for their project.

My Picks

These are not who I think will win, but who I would like to win.

Mayor:

A race where I wish we had a 3rd candidate (but not Niky). Alderman Ahrens has done nothing in particular to displease me, although I can't name anything in particular he's done that was extremely pleasing either. Winborn is somewhat of an unknown to me, as I've never particularly followed county politics. Many people in my parents' generation seem to know and respect him for his sporting goods store and political service. This is almost a coin-toss, especially since Ahrens speaks entirely in "politician" sometimes. I wish Winborn had spent a term as alderman first...

My Pick: Ahrens by a nose.

At-Large:

One of my picks is easy. Alderman Howard. She's been the lone sane person on the council on several occasions. I went to school with several of her kids, and I just feel that she is a good person. She had the courage to stand by her vote on the stormwater fee, even though it probably cost her some votes. Out of the other 3, none jump out at me as being the clear choice. Cunningham seems like he'd be a fighter on the council, which has its up and down sides. Vance and Frink seem like they have a lot of similar views.

My Picks: Howard and, oh... lets say... Frink

1st Ward:

VanFossen all but made a fool of himself at the first Police/Fire forum. He somehow inserted his opposition to fixing the River Drive retaining wall into his answer to a question about improving police services. He (wisely?) stayed home from the next forum. Gibbs had clear, logical answers for all the questions, even though I felt like his fix for the budget was overly simplified. He represented the city well as Mayor, and hopefully he will support continued downtown and riverfront development.

My Pick: Gibbs. I wish he had run for Mayor

2nd Ward:

I can't fault Hammerlinck for being young, but I can blame him for only telling people what they want to hear. Bushek has been bold in standing up for her vote on what I believe was a necessary fee. She has served the city in different forms for a long time, and hopefully would take a leadership role in the next council. Plus she provides an endless target of short jokes.

My Pick: Bushek, although I don't think she'll win

3rd Ward:

From the minute he chose to read "Black Christmas" at a city council meeting, Alderman Meyer was not going to be taken seriously. This is truly a shame, because I admire him as a person, even though I hold differing opinions than him on most topics. Whether or not the poem was offensive is immaterial; what Keith should have known is that it wasn't appropriate for a council session. He has improved greatly over his time, but he's still not taken seriously. Bill Boom has good ideas and works well with others. I believe he can compromise, which is a much-needed trait at City Hall. His only downside is his recent wishy-washy-ness about the stormwater fee. His idea for a 3rd Ward Council representing different neighborhoods makes sense, and I would very much like to see Alderman Meyer on THAT council. I would like to believe that the two of them could work together on 3rd ward issues.

My Pick: Boom. I consider myself a Boom supporter.

4th Ward:

This is an interesting one. I've been accused of being Anti-Jen and Anti-Ray, which in some ways is true. I believe Mrs. Olsen served a valuable purpose in fighting for her beliefs against JLCS. If she hadn't stood up against Cobblestone, instead of nice (but small) houses, there would be a 20+ unit building on the site. However, I think she's been a little too rabid in blaming all the city's problems on low income housing and JLCS. Attracting homeless people may cause an increase in vandalism or public urination, but its not causing shootouts at Northwood Village. Alderman Ambrose seems to have outdated opinions on a number of issues, and his anti-dog and anti-sex offender initiatives were clearly just feel-good political moves. His supporters are another large (and bigoted) strike against him.

My Pick: Olsen (Didn't see that coming, did you?)

5th Ward:

This is another tough one for me. I personally disagree with Lynn's "basic services only" agenda, but he is a good alderman. His website actually provides reasoning and justification for his votes, and he is very well-spoken. I think he would make a good at-large Alderman. Mr. Franken just moved into town, and has some controversy in his past, so it should be an easy choice. After all, I've lived here over 23 times longer than him. However, I was quite impressed with his answers at the first forum. He also seemed more in line with my pro-downtown, pro-riverfront feelings. If he isn't elected, I hope he will stay involved in Davenport politics and run again.

My Pick: Lynn (I wish I could vote for both)

6th Ward:

The next three are toss-ups for me. I have never liked the Mayor's attitude towards the public (including Niky) at council meetings. He also doesn't seem to be a big fan of Fly's famed "transparency." That said, he supports things that I generally support. Gilmour, however, might also support much of the downtown and new urbanist ideas being debated currently. He hardly comes across as the opposite of Charlie. The anti-Brooke, Pro-Niky crowd has already had their big defeat, so....

My Pick: Gilmour

7th Ward:

When I first read Swanson's candidate statement on Fly's blog, I didn't see a single thing in there that wasn't the easy way out. He told people what they want to hear. He'll improve services and lower taxes/fees! Too bad that's a lot harder than people seem to think. Also his past issues as a police officer pointed out by the QCTimes don't help him. Barnhill doesn't come across as the best or most well-spoken alderman on the council either, but he tends to vote (along with a crowd?) for things that I approve of.

My Pick: Barnhill (Can I vote neither?)

8th Ward:

I cannot think of anything of note that Alderman Engleman has done. However, I cannot vote for Dumas. I think its clear he is planning a career as a politician and "Alderman" is just the first box that needs to be checked. I can't picture him running for a second term, because someone that can get a possible presidential candidate to speak at their fundraisers is going to be on to bigger things as fast as possible. In a supposedly non-partisan election, he has gone out of his way to be Mr. Republican. Plus I like where the city has been going, so I should endorse a few more status quo guys.

My Pick: Engelman (Franken should move to the 8th)

My Picks for Council '06 Coming Soon

Obviously I know that many, if not everyone, will disagree with some or all of my endorsements and my reasons. That's how it should be in a democracy.

The main question I have to ask myself is this: Do I like where Davenport is heading? I don't even have to take a minute to think about that, because yes, I do think we're generally headed in the right direction. I want Davenport to have name recognition and awareness on the level of Madison or Peoria. Most, if not all, people around the Midwest know of those cities, and have an idea where they are. During my time at WIU in Macomb, I found that many Chicago-area residents have no idea what or where the Quad Cities are. Once we change this, we will be more attractive to both visitors and potential residents. We're not going to put Davenport on the map by having gold-plated sewers and pristine streets. It requires culture, attractions, and a (relatively) safe community. In the last few years we've made excellent progress on the first two, but lost ground on basic safety. We need to continue working for an innovative city, but also increase safety, because I believe there's room for all 3 in Davenport. Once we increase our population and our tax base, streets, sewers, and sidewalks will improve.

The few people who read my posts instead of just assuming I love/hate things may have noticed I have rarely said anything in support of any particular alderman ever since joining the blog world. I have never really counted myself as a "McGivern supporter" or a "Lynn supporter" or a whoever supporter. That said, several of these races are a toss-up to me. In the 7th and 8th in particular, I wish I had a third option. I've tried to pick someone in each race though, even if it comes to flipping a coin. My choices are made, so feel free to guess who I'll pick.

Oh yeah... anyone that uses the phrase "bridge to nowhere" is not getting my vote.

3 Cops, 2 Real Issues

This article is somewhat in reply to Fly's un-comment-able post regarding today's Quad City Times article.

The article lists 3 cops and what their "problem" was with the police. In their defense, I don't know as much about VanFossen and Swanson's incidents, as they were before I was born.

Here's what they did according to the QCTimes:

Swanson: fired from the Davenport force in 1978 for allegedly lying about the shooting of a suspect who had been stopped for a misdemeanor traffic offense
VanFossen: indicted in 1973 for embezzlement while serving as a Scott County sheriff’s deputy in an investigation that eventually resulted in a guilty plea and the resignation of former Sheriff William Strout.
Gibbs: a series of suspensions, including one in which an alderman witnessed him delivering a bag of ice, while on duty, to a downtown ice cream parlor Gibbs owned.

Lying about shooting a guy, embezzlement.... dropping a bag of ice off to his wife. You pick the one that is the least serious.

The issue with Gibbs was extremely bad blood/vendetta between him and also former cop/then Mayor Yerington. The alderman who "caught" him was actually following him in his car. He delivered the ice to his wife on one of his allowed breaks. Police Officers in Davenport are allowed to drive to their home for their breaks, but driving somewhere to pick up ice and drop it off to your wife is clearly corrupt...? According to some, Phil Yerington may have run for mayor simply to get the power to fire Chief Lynn from the police department. He then tried to get hired as Police Chief himself while still Mayor. Instead Chief Bladel was hired, who later fired Yerington.

As someone who's interested in both, its would be hypocrtical of me to say that Police and Politics shouldn't mix, as Fly did... but when you lay it all out like that it does seem like there's a lot of controversy. Or maybe the problem was just Yerington.

Hotels, Streetlights, and Skybridge Sleepers

I've always thought the old-timey lamp post street lights along 2nd and other downtown streets were just for looks. However, as I walked from the east part of downtown that doesn't have these into the area that does, I noticed a big difference. The blocks with the street lamps are much brighter and the sidewalks just seem safer in general. Having a couple street lights at the intersections doesn't do much to light the middle of the downtown blocks. Now I see why Alexander Company wants the same kind of streetscaping in the the Crescent Loft district.

The Radisson was clearly having some sort of John Deere meeting or event over the last 2 days, but it was certainly a happening place. It was quite a difference coming from the desolate downtown streets into the bustling lobby/courtyard of the hotel. I heard many languages and accents, and there were people coming and going constantly. Groups of people were sitting at tables and standing around talking. It felt like a big city hotel. I doubt the Radisson is always that vibrant, but if it is... I'd say they have nothing to worry about from any casino hotel.

After I'd had my fill of spin and fence-sitting at the candidate forum, (around 9pm) I walked over the skybridge to check out the Halloween light programming. It was cool to listen to things like the Halloween theme and Monster Mash while walking down the strobe-flashing orange-lit walkway. However, a few yards from the south tower, there was a young man sleeping on the floor. I didn't roust him, but it occured to me later that I just assumed he was sleeping. I nearly walked back to the skybridge to check that he was actually alive. Hopefully he was just tired, and not dead nor homeless.

Candidate Forums and the Colonel

I have no idea why I haven't put up a link to fellow DDP-alum Colonel Davenport's new blog, with which I am associated in a small way. Its fixed now.

I attended the first 2 and a half hours of the candidate forums held by the police and fire unions at the Radisson last night. I assume it ended as scheduled at 10, but since I left early, I couldn't say if it went long. It seemed long already at 9:30. I decided I was going to pretend to be a true CNN style blogger and take my laptop and actually take notes at the meeting. In addition to possibly annoying Bill Boom with my keytapping, I've decided that I don't get paid enough ($0) to be a real reporter. I took 5 pages of what I would call decent notes, but it took me a couple hours last night at work to assemble my gibberish of typed shorthand notes into something remotely readable. I'll post them in their boring entirety later today for those of you that have a lot of time on your hands. I did manage to write an article for the Colonel's blog about it, but it got so long that I split it into 2 parts.

If I go to tonight's forum, I don't think I'll even take my laptop. Also, 3rd ward candidate Bill Boom pointed out that since my exit from DDP, my email address is nowhere to be found in cyberspace. I'm throwing it over there on the right with the new link to the QC Backstage. For the 4 or 5 of you that might have tried to email me, I'm sorry.

Question #6 Below Answered

6. Speaking of that (historic hotel buildings), whats the Mississippi hotel developer up to? Still trying to work out financing? Construction is started on the Adler expansion, so to avoid having 2 seperate construction periods for that block, they should begin soon on the Mississippi.

The October 24th Council Update had this to say about the Mississippi Hotel development.

Extension of the Mississippi Hotel purchase agreement to J & T Development - On November 18, 2004, the RCPA Development Co. LLC (managed by the City) executed a real estate option contract with J & T Development, LLC for the purchase of a portion of the Mississippi Hotel. J & T Development was selected by the City to redevelop the south wing of the Mississippi Hotel into apartments. It was anticipated that the closing would occur by August 15, 2005. Earlier this spring, the developer's application for 9% tax credits was denied. The developer then structured alternative financing to allow construction to begin later in the fall, but as a result, needed more time to secure the funding. Staff granted an extension until October 15. By early October, the developer had secured the financing for the project. However, the City's surveying and abstract work was not yet complete, in part due to the complexities involved with selling a portion of a single structure. As a result, staff has asked the developer for additional time for the completion of this legal and title work. It is expected that the property will be transferred in early November with construction to begin in December.

So that's good news for future downtown residents, but its never good to hear that the city is the cause of delays. Better delayed then abandoned though.

Museum of Abandoned Armories?

Looking across the river at Rock Island, their riverfront skyline is dominated by our own local building that looks like Katrina tore off its roof, the RI Armory. They can't seem to decide what to do with it. Condos? Commercial? Tear it down? Demolition seems to be one option that has been deleted from the list, so I guess they've managed to decide that its worth saving. I would say it would be a good place and building for a museum, but what else can we make a museum to? We've already got a museum to Roots music, one for John Deere, an arsenal/small arms museum, a planned chiropractic museum, and possibly a museum about the first bridge over the Mississippi. Maybe a museum about the planning and construction of museums? I'm not actually against any of those museums, especially if they draw visitors, but its fun to list them all out. I would have suggested an IL National Guard museum, but there's already an IL Military Museum in Springfield. National Barge Traffic Museum? Maybe us Davenporters can think of something RI should use the Armory for.

As far my opinion, for once I'm not necessarily opposed to tearing it down. If they leave it there, I hope they get started soon on painting it anything but white, and gluing its roof back on.

P.S. I took a picture of it out my window, but it wasn't even up to the mediocre QCI standards, so use your imagination today.

Good Blog Stuff

While I'm sure the few readers of this blog all probably read SoLo Davenport, I'd like to direct you to a pretty good discussion about Prairie Heights and New Urbanism. As Alderman Meyer points out in the thread, there's no name calling, or personal attacks. Its good stuff.

Here's the link.

Sunny Happy Day

Find somewhere north of Kimberly with that view and I'll give you $1.

As I haven't received any answers from readers about the things I'm wondering about, I'm going to start bugging the people "in the know" about those issues next week.

I'm also going to add:

#7 Why has there been no news articles about the fact that the Courtland has supposedly been bought and is being renovated into non-slum apartments?

Dreary Day Open Thread

There's a view that's sure to cause me to spring into action when getting out of bed. Open thread? Like I really need one of those. Let me know if there's anything you want discussed on here, or changes I should make that don't start with "go to h..."

Stuff I'm wondering about

Before I go emailing anyone important to bother them with these questions, maybe I should ask on here. I was always impressed with the collective amount of knowledge about local goings-on over at DDP.

1. What's the status of the Rhythm City hotel? Is the EPA/Corps of Engineers looking it over? Is IOC worried about other things? (Mississippi) Bettendorf's project is moving forward, but I haven't heard an update on Davenport's in months.

2. How is Davenport PD's "test" of Chevy Impalas going? Is the DPD going to begin switching over to smaller cars, possibly against officers' wishes? Are they going to also test a Dodge Charger squad car? Is the plan still in place to switch Davenport's cars back to white for more "professionalism?"

3. I haven't actually looked at it in a few weeks, but is the former Trinity North still being converted into a long-term acute care hospital? Last time I saw it there wasn't much activity. I haven't read anything about it since this. Any of you NoLo people see signs going up there?

4. Why can't we do SOMETHING, ANYTHING with the former Showcase Cinemas and Ramada/Wicliff/Rat-matress hotel on Brady? Niky listed it as a large concern, and I certainly agree with her on that. Visitors coming into Davenport from I-80 are welcomed with blight. Even an empty field is better than those buildings. In addition to our high school's having on the job classes that teach building a home, we could have one that teaches demolishing a hotel/cinema.

5. Any interested parties for buying the Blackhawk hotel, assuming Question #1 is answered by progress on the IOC issue? If we can find takers for the Mississippi hotel, I suspect we could find people who'd be willing to accept an 11-story historic building for free.

6. Speaking of that, whats the Mississippi hotel developer up to? Still trying to work out financing? Construction is started on the Adler expansion, so to avoid having 2 seperate construction periods for that block, they should begin soon on the Mississippi.

Sellout

The handful of you that read this might notice a couple things appearing today in the lower right corner. Ads... evil, evil, ads. Even without "writing for" DDP I still spend a decent amount of time per day reading all these blogs, and I plan to have daily posts on mine. I figure if I can make $1 a week from ads, I might as well. As long as they're compltely unobtrusive. Google knows how to do ads, and you've probably all seen Google ads on millions of sites without even noticing them.

Fly spoke several times about how ads would cause bias. I completely agree. However, using a giant mega company like Google possibly helps to alleviate this. I don't see the Google corporation being discussed in city council meetings very often. If they decide to build an office in Davenport someday, I will admit my bias, and encourage the city to welcome them with open arms. However, I don't think that's all that likely.

Call me a sellout if you will, but they're here to stay.

Not Exactly a Scoop

Quad City Times article about DDP

Only 4 months after the Leader ran an article about Daily Davenport Politics, the QCTimes got around to printing one. I don't blame the author at all though, as when he called me he too seemed to believe that an article was overdue. I'm not really one for conspiracy theories, but maybe DDP is seen as competition by the Times high-ups?

Whereas the Argus/Dispatch/Leader article was based almost entirely off of an email interview with Fly, the Colonel, and myself, the QCTimes didn't allow anonymous sources in their article. Instead there's a wide cross-section of people quoted about DDP, and blogging in general. Its a different perspective than the previous article, and hopefully renewed publicity will get Fly enough clout to get all of the required folks into his Rule #3 Party. Being above the fold on the front page of the Quad City Times is nothing to sneeze at, no matter what you think of the paper. Also thanks to the author, David Heitz, for not making me sound crazy.

Tumbleweeds

I've returned from my journey to the Garden of the Gods in southern Illinois. I see that its quiet around the new blog. I don't have a stat counter, and I don't know if I'll set one up. I'm not sure if I even care. The fewer people read this the less I have to worry about being remotely diplomatic. The Colonel has something in the works, but that's as far as I'll go about that. SoLo invited me to join their blog, but I don't think the posse of negativity I seem to attract is needed over there. If I start writing for them it will be in a very minor role.

P.S. Yes, that's me in the picture. Although I've done a decent amount of traveling within the US, I had never before been to Shawnee National Forest, a mere 6 hours away from the QC. Its an amazing place, and I recommend everyone check it out, especially if you enjoy scampering around on rocks.

Away message...

Enough of this blog stuff for a while. I'm off to Bloomington, and then down to Shawnee National Forest for some camping. I'm sure the blog can administer itself while I'm gone.

Lofts Phase 2, Before

Yesterday I was able to tour the next phase of the 4th Street Lofts, Davenport Lofts, Crescent Lofts or whatever its called. The building I went through was formerly Roederer Transfer. My parents were able to go also, as my dad worked in that building in the late 70's. I was immediately struck by how similar all the floors were, except for the 5th. In the Crescent Building, every floor is a different height, and somewhat a different arrangement. This makes for 30-some different floor plans in a 73 apartment building. The next phase looks like it will be easier to have similar floor plans on each floor. The concrete ceiling has extremely easy to see impressions of the wood plank forms that were used when it was poured. The 5th floor was divided up sometime before the 70's into essentially the original Mini-Storage. Each of these small lockers or rooms has heavy iron doors that hopefully will be used in the final product. The freight elevator is quite functional still, and an adventure to ride. The pile of bricks and concrete is where a "test window" was cut through one of the walls to determine how easy this would be to do. They've also done test floor polishing, as parts of the building may have polished concrete floors. Estes Company should be starting to tear into things over there within the next few weeks, and soon we'll have another 50+ downtown apartments.

I want to give a huge thank you to Alexander Company for allowing this tour to happen, and Lisa and Scott for walking us through and operating the elevator controls.
Click these for bigger pictures


P.S. I had these all lined up so there'd be two next to each other all the way down, but Blogger apparently wouldn't have that..

Looks like I'm gonna be cleaning out my desk over at DDP.

Maybe I'll run this instead.

More news to follow.

News: Yeah, I stole Fly's links. Actually he gave them to me... I swear.