IOC now considering screwing 2 downtowns

Bettendorf event center over budget, temporarily delayed -QCTimes

So Bettendorf is holding off on their IOC-sponsored competition for the RiverCenter. According to the article, its a combination of being over budget and worrying about IOC's sudden desire to reexamine what they're doing around here.

I'm not sure where the worries are in Bettendorf, because I can't see them abandoning all they've done down there. I mean, the 2nd hotel tower isn't even open yet. If only they had something besides their ugly boat/building-on-a-barge tying them to downtown Davenport.

As I've said many times, I'm no lawyer, but I wonder what happens if Davenport takes a hard line and holds them to their agreement. If IOC backs out of the riverfront project, will they owe us compensation? Of course, I don't know if any lawyers read this, but I'm sure we'll see anonymous people claiming to be lawyers telling us how it is. I wish that the Isle understood that not every casino needs to be a mirror image of Riverside to compete. I'd rather visit a downtown casino than a sprawling resort casino any day. I doubt I'm the only one.

Another open thread?

Yes, another one.

I said there were gonna be holiday time open threads in lieu of much content, and I was right. I'm working on a few posts, but I'm not going to promise any of them will get finished before I jet off to Phoenix via Denver, where I'll probably be trapped by the coming snowstorm. This could end up being the one time that O'Hare would have been a better bet... Instead of interesting content, and in tribute to our missing hero, Ambrose Fulton... here's a cat picture:

Last year's New Year's Wishes

In true Bill Wundram style, I'm reprinting a post from last year around this time.

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.

So... I guess I could change the "2006" to "2007" and pretty much use the same list again this year, but we have at least made a little progress with the downtown. I didn't have "bring more development on Elmore" on the list, but we sure seem to be doing that. Prairie Heights is moving forward, but it is yet to be seen how well it works. Through cracking down and good police work (and probably lots of overtime), the DPD did make Davenport safer during the weeks after Vincelina Howard was killed. I wonder if they're still using the same strategy, or if they've gone back to their old rules on pursuits and such.

Instead of being lazy and using the same list, I plan to come up with a new list by the end of the week. What do you folks think should be on it?

Merry Christmas from QuadCityImages

I would just like to wish all of you out there a merry and peaceful Christmas.

The Genesis Remembrance Tree at 2nd and Iowa.

Almost Christmas Open Thread

I don't have much to write about this morning.

I unfortunately will be making a trek out into shopping madness today for a last few gifts. I don't see how the traffic on Elmore could get much worse than yesterday, but I'm sure there's a way. Seems like Best Buy and Target should be billed for the cost of the cop directing traffic at the Best Buy driveway as punishment for not connecting their lots. This would allow BB folks to use the stoplight at the Target driveway. That would be too logical I guess. At least the west side of Elmore is laid out in a somewhat logical fashion. You can drive from store to store without having to venture back out onto Elmore.

As usual I'll be taking a flight to Phoenix on the 31st, so I'll be out of the loop (more than usual) for a week or so. My hotel has wireless internet, so I'll still be able to toss up a post once in a while. I've seen most of the touristy stuff down there at this point; any suggestions for Phoenix area attractions to check out? I'll also be in Vegas for a couple days, but I'm sure I won't be bored there.

Also, thanks to Alderman Meyer for the Christmas garbage amnesty. Wrapping paper is technically recyclable, but plenty of gift packaging isn't. Having to buy a $4 sticker or being forced to use one of your 2 emergency free stickers isn't a great holiday gift. Lets hope the workers wear the back braces and don't use this as an opportunity to all file for workers comp.

Freight House solution

Well, Snarky beat me to it again.

Capitalism prevails, and the owner of Penguins over in Bettendorf is hoping to take over the Freight House for his comedy club, a restaurant, and martini bar. The best part is he also will give the city back some of the space to use for the new scaled down Farmer's Market plans.

The only downside is that he wants to pay less, considering he won't be using the whole space. I guess the City Council must decide if having an active use for the Freight House plus control over the west end of the building is worth $30,000 a year in lost lease payments. I would say yes, but I'm sure many people will say no. Hopefully a compromise can be worked out.

Here's the QCTimes article about the Freight House project. I'm sure the comments will be plenty rowdy by this afternoon.

Does anyone know what the plans are for the Builders Sand and Gravel building across the street from the Freight House and JOD? It has been sold, so I suspect we may be seeing some redevelopment there in the future too.

This has been a good week for Davenport. Since last Friday:
Several proposals were submitted for the Blackhawk Hotel.
We learned we're getting 500 new jobs.
The Freight House problem may be solved with minimal taxpayer expense.

Now if we can just get the damn casino to stay downtown.

Davenport gets an early Christmas Present: 500 jobs

Snarky has already covered this, and so as the Colonel, but Davenport is getting a $19.3 million Cingular customer service center.

Here's the QCTimes story.
Here's Snarky's thread.
Here's the Colonels usual inside info.

Unfortunately, judging by the Colonel's info it doesn't sound like it will be downtown. This could have been that 2nd new big office building that downtown really needs, but I'm not going to complain (not much at least) about 500 new jobs. As someone on the QCTimes.comments said, if you do the math, dividing their proposed $11,000,000 annual payroll by the 500 jobs, you get $22,000 a year average pay. So this is no Purina, but its no APAC either.

If they're going to go sprawl-style, I hope they at least build an attractive building.

Whhere in the QC is this? #12

I know I've been accused of only showing the shabbier parts of town in this feature, but today isn't going to be the day I break that habit. Part of the reason is that most new construction is uninteresting, but I'll try and do better next time.

Where's this gate located?

Clue #1: This location is within 50 feet or less of 2 One Way streets.

Overtime Open Thread

I'm off to work, so this is the first of what I suspect will be a number of holiday-time Open Threads.

Also, why doesn't anyone comment on positive stories?

2 stories to make you feel good

First, I just have to say something about Michelle Wie's recent gift to the Travis Hearn fund.

Here's the QCTimes article and the QCOnline article. Oh, and here's one from the Honolulu Star Bulletin.

Its amazing to me that she would do this for someone she's never met, and not just giving him money, but taking time to talk to Travis on the phone. According to one of the articles, Michelle even said he could call her back anytime he needed to talk.

I also just love the stuff that both Michelle and her father are saying about the QC and the midwest in general. From the QCOnline article:

"The people (in the Quad-Cities) are like people in Hawaii," B.J. Wie, Michelle's father, told Honolulu Star-Bulletin sports writer Dave Reardon. "I don't know what they call it in the Midwest, but it is just like the Aloha spirit."

It really makes you remember that no matter the problems we're going through here, the Midwest has some world-class folks.


My second feel-good story is not QC-related. A few years back, the 2 founders of Penny Arcade, which is a website and online comic about video games, decided that they needed to do something to show people that video gamers aren't all trench coat-wearing, basement-dwelling weirdos. They started the Child's Play Charity. Here's a quote from an LATimes story about it:

Founded in 2003, Child's Play's goal is to ease the strain of long-term hospitalization on children and their families by providing videogames, crafts, and other toys. By leveraging Penny-Arcade.com's three million person reader-base, last year's event was an overwhelming success, collecting nearly $250,000 in toys and cash. And because all involvement in the event is volunteer-based, 100% of the donations were presented to the Children's Hospital of Seattle.

That article is from 2004, and in the following years the total amount raised passed a million dollars, and they've expanded to dozens of children's hospitals. In 2006 alone they're approaching half a million bucks. People can either donate money, or go to a special site where you can pick things that hospitals need off of Amazon, and them have them shipped directly to the hospital of your choice.

The Child's Play website can be found here.

So next time you hear about the evils of computer and video games, keep in mind that gamers do good works too.

PEDCOR Strikes again

Here's the QCOnline Story about it
(Available for a limited time only)

Instead of sprawling to the West, they hope to sprawl out on Elmore with everyone else. I guess we'll see if 6th ward folks are more accepting of the project. I've said it before and I'll say it again, low income housing isn't bad if its done correctly and managed well. It would also bring a different income level to that area of the city. We'll see what happens.

If the project works fine and there's no trouble out there, and they get spin-off development, I suspect the 2nd ward will be kicking themselves.

What?

For some reason, the link to the story about a possible sewer rate hike has been removed from the QCTimes' links to other stories within each article. It was there this morning, and now its missing. It can still be found if you do some looking though.

Pretty strange. Any comment on this Tory B?

Edit: Ah... I probably overreacted on this one. It may have just gotten bumped off the bottom of the list by new articles. I've seen the Times do some weird stuff with online articles before though, so I was quick to think that. Maybe I'm being infected by all the conspiracy talk around here.

Davenport Library Stuff

One of the many email lists I'm on is the Davenport library's newsletter. Here are a few of the more interesting things.

-The Davenport Public Library is on MySpace! A 100+ year old library is trendier than me now I suppose. At least somebody down there is "with it" as far as how to advertise in the internet age.

-Quoted straight from the newsletter:
"FIRST EPISODE OF THE LIBRARY CONNECTION ON TV!
The PR Department of the Library, in cooperation with the City of Davenport Public Information Officer, has created a brand new television show to help keep you updated on the latest Library happenings! The Library Connection is a show all about the Library – including special guest appearances from Library guests and staff. Our first show was taped last week, and is already airing on Channels 9 and 18. This information is so new that we don’t have a list of air-times yet, so stayed tuned to eConnections for more info. If you like the show, or want to see something specific, send your comments to the PR Department’s email at: marketing@davenportlibrary.com"

- Someone has written an excellent entry for the DPL on Wikipedia, which can be found here. It talks about the history and buildings the library has had over the years, including mentioning how the Main Library was designed by Edward Durrell Stone. Stone also designed the Kennedy Center in D.C. and the Aon Center building in Chicago, which is one of my all-time favorite buildings. Again, good use of free internet advertising.

-And of course there's the library's new hours, which will be starting in January

Open Thread

Somebody's not shoveling the whole width of the stairs at the Figge. This picture was taken this past Saturday, over a week after the snowstorm. Not a big deal, I suppose... I'm sure of the Negative Neds around here will jump all over it though.

I was pretty disappointed with the sidewalk shoveling job all around downtown. Walking down to Front Street the day after the storm, there were still many sidewalks that hadn't been touched. A vibrant, walkable downtown will require someone, either the businesses themselves or D1's Gator, to get the sidewalks cleared faster. Just my bit of Tuesday complaining.

Unfortunately I'm not going to be able to make it to Alderman Frink's meeting tonight, but everyone who can should attend. He certainly got some positive press from the QCTimes about it today.

I also noticed the windows are going into the Mississippi Hotel, so we can all look forward to that bringing even more downtown residents.

Monday morning assortment

-Today we've got another day of QCTimes articles about Quad City development-related topics. This article is a strange mixture of saying we need to attract new jobs and saying we need to attract new workers to fill old jobs that will soon be available as baby boomers retire.

-Yesterday, buried in an article about Deere getting a new military contract, we have this quote:

Olson said the contract does not translate into additional jobs at Davenport Works, which has already added about 700 employees in the past several years due to record high production levels and the introduction of several new products.

I recently talked to a Deere employee that was telling me about this. We both wondered where the news releases and media coverage have been? If a new company came in and hired 700 people, that would practically be the QC Development story of the decade. For some reason though, we've heard very little about Deere's recent successes. Its one thing not to pat yourself on the back, but when all we're hearing is doom and gloom, it would be good for the QC to hear about some success.

-That brings me to my next point, which could probably be an entire post in itself. Davenport and the Quad Cities as a whole do not sell themselves well. Over on AbsoluteDSM, when I mentioned that we had the first 3D IMAX in the state, many of the people from Des Moines said they didn't even know we had a science museum. Does the CVB bother advertising outside the area? Many people didn't know about the festivities that took place this weekend downtown and in the East Village. We should be showing off the Figge, the downtown housing options in Davenport and Rock Island, the skatepark, and all the other things we're doing. Getting people looking at Davenport is the first step in getting people looking at moving here.

-And finally, a link to a crime article from Time magazine. The article is about the crime wave sweeping Milwaukee over the last few years. Its not very reassuring, but at least it tells us we're not the only city dealing with large increases in crime. Here's a quote from the article:

If police are struggling to answer 911 calls, they have even less time to patrol neighborhoods, so they can't build the trust essential to preventing crime. Tensions between the city's African-American community and police are particularly high--40% of the population is black and 47% is white, but there are three times as many white cops on the force. As Alderman Ashanti Hamilton explains, "If the only time people in black neighborhoods see a police officer there it is to arrest somebody, then, of course, they're going to be nervous." Chief Hegerty says repairing this relationship is critical. "We have to count on law-abiding residents to tell us what's going on in their neighborhoods," she says.

Here's the link to the article. Its definitely worth reading.

-Ah, one more thing. Ian Frink is having an All-wards meeting Tuesday at 6 in St. Ambrose's Rogalski Center. Read about that here. I wonder why only Frink and Hamerlinck have blogs and regularly hold ward meetings.

Christkindlmarkt Images

From Wikipedia:

In many towns in Germany and in Austria, Advent is usually ushered in with the opening of the town's Christmas market or Weihnachtsmarkt, in the southern parts of Germany and in Austria often also called Christkindlmarkt or Christkindelsmarkt (Ger. literally, Christ child market). Generally held in the town square and pedestrian zones, the market combines food and drink in the open air, shopping and pageantry as well as tradition.

So now everyone knows what that is, if you didn't already. Here are the images.


There were groups selling gifts from at least a dozen different countries.

I was there towards the end, but it was still pretty crowded.
How many Christkindlmarkts have a view like this?

Lights of the Season - Downtown Davenport

I don't watch a lot of TV, but I hadn't heard much at all about this until I read it in the D1 E-newsletter. It should have been more publicized, because it sounds like a great event. I wish I could have posted this earlier than the day of the event.

Here's the site about this event

Date & Time
Saturday, December 9
10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Location
All over Downtown Davenport!

Admission
Free!

Click Here to Print the QC-Times Ad!
(Lists individual business specials)

Event Highlights
Check out the downtown business below and the special single-day events!

Many more downtown businesses will be open late and offering discounts and other specials. Look for the full-page Ad in the Thursday, Dec. 7 QC-Times!

Visit the RME courtyard to a chance to win free downtown parking smart-cards! On your way, stop by each participating business to check out their own specials, give-aways, and events!

A few things on the schedule:

Santa at the Library
Main and 4 th Streets
10 am – 12 pm & 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm

3rd Annual Christkindlmarkt
Davenport Skybridge
10 am – 6 pm
Do your shopping with gifts from around the world!

Ornament Workshop
Figge Art Museum
Noon – 3:00 pm
Free for kids with paid adult admission
Cookies and Cider will be provided

Bucktown's Art Bazaar,
Give Art..It's Original
Bucktown Center for the Arts
225 E. 2nd St .
10 am - 6 pm
Origami Ornaments by Undiscovered Art.
Great Make & Take for all ages! Suite 103 (first floor)

FREE Family Fun at the River Music Experience (R.M.E.)
11 am
"A Christmas Story” Shown on the big screen in the Redstone Room
1pm
Kids Band in Mojos Local kids come together to rock in the holidays!
3 pm
“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” Shown on the big screen in the Redstone Room

And there's more, but check out the website yourself.

Where SHOULD the casino go?& Open Thread

I know I shouldn't do another post about Rhythm City, but the QCTimes had another article about it, so what the heck.

This time my question is where do you folks think it should go?

These suggestions don't need to be realistic, cost effective, etc, but they should involve Davenport, as that's where the gambling license "lives."

Other than that, I heard there was a big accident this morning on Locust, and what else is happening around town?

12/6/06 Council Meeting

So I attended tonight's "Special City Council Meeting" and stuck around for the regular city council meeting scheduled immediately after.

First of all, while the special meeting was indeed related to the potential Rhythm City Casino relocation, it wasn't a meeting to vote to allow them to move. The actual vote was simply to direct staff to study the areas that should be zoned for casinos. The way it is explained now, there is currently no special zoning required for casinos, so IOC can basically locate a new casino/hotel complex wherever they wish. What the action taken by the council tonight does, is start the process for creating a special zoning type for casinos. This would allow the city to have a lot more leverage in choosing where IOC could build. Alderman Meyer questioned the entire process, why it was being done, whether the city administration is trying to force IOC to stay downtown, why a "special meeting" was needed, etc. Staff attempted to assure him that they would study all options, and not just downtown, but he added an amendment which would insist that they not rule out sites outside of downtown. This was passed by the council, I believe unanimously. Then the council passed the motion.

Here is the official text from the agenda of the pre-amendment motion:
"Motion directing staff to review the zoning ordinances so that the placement of casinos or gaming operations is addressed in specific zoning district(s)."

I am unsure, but it seemed like Alderman Meyer hopes the casino does leave downtown. As a third ward resident, I disagree with this, and any efforts to move (relatively) upstanding businesses out of my ward. Alderman Ambrose was clearly supportive of the casino moving out by the interstate. Both Alderman Brooke and Howard seemed to at least "hope" that the casino would be able to stay downtown. Alderman Hamerlinck and Lynn pointed out that any new agreement with the Isle will need to honor their existing responsibilities to the parking garage, skybridge, and Blackhawk Hotel. Alderman Dumas, as usual, said nothing.

All of the Council seemed to feel that the Isle is keeping them out of the process, and I spoke to "Tory B" of the QCTimes who also felt like they were being very closemouthed about their intentions.

The rest of the meeting mainly involved a 40+ minute discussion of Fejervary Zoo, and the council logically voting to refinance some bonds at a cheaper rate. The rezoning of the Mound/Locust apartment project that I've heard very little about was deleted from the agenda. Also, the guys were back with their request for a memorial in Lindsay Park to the Dakota tribe human remains that are, according to them, scattered around the McClellan and Lindsay Park area. There's always something to see at a Davenport City Council meeting.

Where oh where might the casino go?

According to Cruiser, according to a trusted source of his, tonight's special council meeting will have something to do with Isle of Capri's plans for the Rhythm City Casino. (and Hotel?) I'm going to try and make it to the meeting, so we'll see what goes on tonight.In the mean time, get your guessing caps on, because we're playing a little game called "Where will IOC want to move to now?" I've created 6 choices, as follows:
A. The area between Gaines and Marquette, and River and 5th. Lots of cheap/crappy property in this area.
B. The downtown core. Not much room for a casino complex, except maybe near the Blackhawk.
C. The Crescent Warehouse District and "Crossings" area along 4th and River. The large industrial site of the cement works north of 4th would be a sizable enough area of land for a large casino complex.
D. Somewhere south of River Drive and west of the Centennial, but still near downtown. Unlikely unless we totally scrap the RiverVision plan
E. Somewhere near the existing location south of River Drive near the downtown core
F. Somewhere outside of downtown, such as near I-280. In this case F can stand for "F'in terrible idea."

So, all the anonymice (yes, I made that word up) out there might want to pick a name so they can brag later about choosing the right location.

Personally my bet is for C or F, but as I stated before, the city council should take a dim view of the casino abandoning the downtown.

Are we doing more damage than good?

Or, should we be taking the Bush Administration attitude that saying things aren't ok is what makes them not ok?

This blog can be found the following ways:
#6 on a Yahoo Search for city images
#5 on Google for downtown davenport images
#12 on Ask.com for davenport lofts
#1 on Google for davenport skatepark
#15 on Ask.com for quad city blog
#1 on Yahoo for quad city images
#2 on Google for new urbanism davenport iowa
#15 on AltaVista for davenport images
#1 on Google for Apartments in the quad cities that u dont have to be 18 to rent (Yes, someone really found us that way)

There are a million more specific search engine results that people find this blog through, but my point is that for a decent number of people, this may be their first introduction to the Quad Cities or Davenport. What do they find when they get here? A mixture of good things, like images that show us being more than corn, and bad things, like people saying they're moving away because of speed cameras. Rampant discussion of our crime problem on all the local blogs is another thing that probably isn't so good for out of town google searchers to find. I've been aware of this worry ever since I started the blog and started getting listed on search engines.

My question is, are we actually hurting Davenport through talking about it? That is horrifying to me, because I will never never advocate sitting around saying everything is fine when it isn't. Its almost like I wish I could have out of town folks be sent to a separate blog, and us current residents will have our own area to discuss the real nitty gritty of QC life. A visitor reading Cruiser's blog, for example, would assume that we have shootings on every corner once an hour based on how much the crime problem is being discussed. We all know that things aren't that bad here, but they're not as good as we want them to be.

Debate is a good thing. Good things have come out of discussions on the blogs. I just really hope that no potential businesses have read some comments on QCTimes.comments or on the real blogs and decided that the Quad Cities are entirely populated by negative folks. I don't see a solution for this issue, because limiting free speech is 100% the opposite of what I'll ever do as a blogger. I could get myself de-listed from search engines, but I like the fact that people searching for random things can stumble across pictures of our beautiful riverfront and be like "wow, where is this?" There would be nothing interesting about a Pollyanna blog about how great everything is, but maybe I wish we had a couple positive comments once a month or so.
What do you folks think?

6 degrees and its barely December

I'll just call this another Open Thread

One downside of working 3rd shift: Its really freaking cold.

I don't think I'll be sitting outside at Bent River tonight.

Look for a real post later today.

The Times is back at it again

QCTimes Editorial: Will River Gulf's lease ever expire?

They're back demanding that one industry (grain transfer) be kicked out of the neighborhood because another industry (newspaper printing) wants a pretty front yard and no dust on their cars.

I hope that the Crescent Warehouse District and the possible "Crossings" project really take off, so 10 years down the road we're demanding that ugly QCTimes building and its trucks full of newsprint be kicked out of our neighborhood.

CNN Likes New Urbanism: Part 2

A few months ago I posted a link to a CNN article about some new urbanism-based communities.

Today they've got a video online, for those of you with broadband, about how new urbanism can create healthier neighborhoods.

Check it out here

Snow Day Open Thread

Makes me wish I was still waiting to see "Davenport Community School District - Canceled" scroll across the bottom of KWQC. I actually did watch to see that it was this morning, even though it doesn't affect me any more.

What's a good topic for our usual educated discourse around here today?

Louisville and Indy Trip: Part 2

About a week late, here are a few thoughts about the Indianapolis half of the Louisville and Indy tip.

The development is called White River State Park, because the state created what they believe to be the first urban, downtown state park. This allows for more state funding, but according to Executive Director Robert A Whitt, he is outside of the normal state park system and answers directly to the Governor. Mr. Whitt was also was the one kind enough to lead us on our tour of the park.

The park includes the Indianapolis Zoo, the Indiana State Museum (which appeared to be free) and IMAX Theater, the NCAA headquarters and Hall of Champions, Indy's AAA baseball stadium, the Congressional Medal of Honor Memorial, the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, and a variety of amphitheaters, plazas, and promenades.

Two other features stuck out in my memory. One is the Central Canal, seen below, which is a recreational and scenic canal that was built over the last 20 or 30 years. The other was the complete LACK of surface parking. I thought this was very strange, until Mr. Whitt pointed at a ramp descending under the front lawn of the State Museum and said that it led to an 829-space parking garage. For perspective, our MidAmerican building's parking garage holds about 880 cars.
It was quickly obvious that these projects are on a different scale than anything in the Quad Cities. Being the largest city in the state in addition to the state capitol allows Indianapolis to grab state money much better than we're able to. Near the park the new $625 million dollar NFL stadium for the Colts was being built with about 10 cranes, so that showed a lot of differences right there. I believe the total cost for the park project itself I heard mentioned was around $550 million.

Both Louisville and Indianapolis showed a huge amount of cooperation with their state governments, even personally involving the Governor in some cases. Why can't we do that here? Those cities are both the biggest in their respective states, but we're Iowa's front door, and one of the main metro areas. I'd like to see the state offer us some money, instead of us having to beg for our own gambling revenues to be given back to us.

Three unrelated articles

The first one is a rare outside-the-QC topic that just really pissed me off. Since when did a peace sign become something evil? Simplistic or naive I can handle, but evil? Come on.

A homeowners' association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan. -CNN

And back to Davenport, we have news on the Freight House. Actually its not really news but an article about the report that came out weeks ago (and was reported here) with some quotes from Steve Ahrens. That said, $200,000 to create a better feel for the Farmer's Market doesn't seem insane. I wish they would fish for private donations first though. Ten rich people donating $5,000 gets you a quarter of the way there without any public funds.

Report suggests Freight House has potential -QCTimes

And finally, an article about the building at 14th and Harrison I mentioned a couple days ago.

"Eyesore" comes down in Hilltop neighborhood -QCTimes

Hopefully I'll toss up some reactions from the Indianapolis part of the recent trip later today. It just didn't seem all that applicable to this area compared to Louisville, so I'm having trouble saying much about it.

My thoughts on the possible casino move

Ok, here's the QCTimes article with the background information for anyone that hasn't read it. Its also been discussed on some of the local blogs, including relative newcomer Davenport Snarkiness, which I have added to the link bar upon commenter request.

Here's another thing that's important to this discussion. Its from the website of the Riverboat Development Authority.

The Riverboat Development Authority (RDA) was founded in 1989 for the purpose of becoming the qualified sponsoring organization for a riverboat casino in Davenport, Iowa. Iowa law requires that the gambling license be held by a non-profit organization.

In 1991 RDA received a gambling license in partnership with the President Riverboat Casino, which operated in Davenport until October of 2000. At that time, the casino was sold and is currently operating as the Rhythm City Casino. RDA approved the use of their license and the Rhythm City and RDA received a license from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission at that time.

The way that reads to me, the RDA's purpose is to control the gambling license for a Davenport-based casino. That said, all the comments about the casino "leaving Davenport" appear to be baseless. If IOC decides that Davenport's casino isn't profitable enough for them, RDA could just find another casino company to operate their license.

As veteran blog-readers know, I supported the current casino hotel plan. I feel its a better solution than the current situation, which Isle of Capri could legally continue for many years. I also believe that there is some benefit to downtown to have this attraction, despite the fact that many people go directly to the casino, gamble, and leave. Basically, the visitors probably have a better chance of visiting downtown if they're already down there than they do out by I-280 or something.

So my feelings about any change of plans boil down to this:
Move it off the riverfront if you want, but it has to stay downtown.
If they insist on leaving the downtown area, they shouldn't receive a single penny in city assistance or tax breaks.

Too Busy to Blog Open Thread

Between Thanksgiving with the family, visiting the grandparents, erecting the Christmas tree, and having folks in from out of town, I've been to busy to finish of either of the three articles I'm working on.

Sometime in the next few days, look for posts on:
-The 2nd half of the Louisville/Indy trip
-The casino reversal
-Davenport's Design Center

Until then, what else is going on around town?
I've heard that the building being torn down at 14th and Harrison is going to be replaced by a building for the use of the church next door. It also appears that it will reuse the trusses from the building that's currently being demolished. Here's a picture I snapped while waiting at the light. You can see some of the old brick and stone foundations that have been uncovered during the demo.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'm thankful we live in an area with the best river in the world, which gives us frequent chances to see beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

I will return to regular programming, probably starting with "Louisville and Indy: Part 2", tomorrow. Until then at least, lets try and keep it civil.

Happy thanksgiving.

Louisville and Indy Trip: Part 1

Today I'll cover the first half of the Louisville and Indianapolis trip that I went on this weekend, and tomorrow I'll hopefully cover the second half.

Twelve of us left from Public Works a little after 2pm Sunday, and headed down I-74 and I-65 towards Louisville, Kentucky. We stopped in Champaign for supper, and made arrived at the Galt House in downtown Louisville around midnight because of the time change. This is where we met up with Mayor Winborn, who had flown into Louisville directly from the Mayors' Institute on City Deisgn. A few of us attempted to go out for drinks, but apparently Sunday night at midnight isn't the most happening time down there, because we were unable to find anywhere open downtown.

Early Monday morning we headed out to meet with David Karem, the executive director of Louisville's Waterfront Development Corporation. He explained how they'd progressed through 20 years of land acquisition and development for their riverfront park.

After his presentation and discussion, we went into the chilly Kentucky morning for a guided tour of the project. Many of us expected that it would be warmer, considering we were in "the South." One thing that was clear was David Karem's complete enthusiasm for the project.

Here is a link to the .pdf map of the entire 3-phase development.

One of the biggest obstacles to the park idea was the large elevated highway running right down the river's edge through downtown Louisville. If anyone thinks that River Drive is a barrier between downtown and the river, imagine something ten times worse. There's even a website, 8664.org, dedicated to realigning the interstate around the waterfront. One of the ways that this psychological separation is currently addressed is the Great Lawn, which provides plenty of sightlines underneath the interstate. The Great Lawn is also lit with stadium lights until somewhat late at night. This gives people a place to play football, soccer, or whatever later than would usually be possible.
One of the differences between Louisville and here, besides their larger population, is that they have several corporations based there to beg for money. The other is that they are their state's largest city, and therefore have a lot of muscle in getting state money. Despite those advantages, I still felt like they went through a similarly slow process of raising money for the park that we'll be going through.
...unlike Indianapolis, but that's a story for tomorrow.

Let me know what else you want to hear about, because there's no way I can cover everything that was seen, heard and discussed over 2 days.

Read Part 2 here.

Monday morning open thread

Update at 7:15AM Tuesday: After getting home from the trip and then going to work an hour later, I now need sleep. Hopefully I'll post some reflections about the trip later today or tonight. I had a great time and saw a lot of great concepts and attitudes.

We reached Louisville last night at 10:30, which was 11:30 local time. We found out that midnight on a Sunday night is not exactly the most lively time here either.

We're now heading out to meet with the local riverfront development entitiy. Then I believe we'll be taking a chilly walk around the recent projects.

Festival of Trees Parade Images

Despite the chilly temperatures, it was an awesome turnout and a great parade. There were more big balloons than I remember in the last few years' parades. As always, I love to see big crowds having a good time downtown. Here are a few shots, and I'm hoping to post a link to a gallery of more images later tonight.Bob the Builder makes the turn onto 2nd Street.
Bob does a face-plant to get under the skywalk.There were tons of people watching from all the parking garages, skywalks, storefronts, or anywhere else they could stay out of the cold.
A Purple Heart-wearing soldier balloon.Santa and his modernized sleigh bring up the rear.

Stuff happening this weekend

Update: I added this picture of the balloons, ready and waiting, taken at 6am this morning.

Tonight (Friday): Special Festival of Trees events for rich people, and the Festival of Trees is now open. Here's the entire schedule of FoT.

Saturday morning: Festival of Trees Parade 11am
This year its starting at River and Ripley and going down River Drive to Pershing, and coming back on 2nd Street. Here's a somewhat unreadable map from QuadCityArts of the route and parking. I'm hoping to make it down there after grabbing a few hours of sleep. Maybe this year I actually will.

Saturday and Sunday: Great Train Expo at the QCCA Expo Center from10am-4pm. Seven bucks for adults, kids under 12 free.

Sunday and Monday I'll be out of town with various folks from the city council, levee commission, etc visiting Louisville, KY and Indianapolis, IN to see what they're doing with their riverfront and downtown areas. I plan to have many photos upon my return.

Just try and find something bad about it...

New York retailer heads to Davenport -QCTimes

Steve & Barry’s University Sportswear will open next week in the former Eagles on West Kimberly. Honestly I hadn't even looked in that direction lately, so this is news to me. Its great news for the Village Shopping Center, which has been pretty quiet lately after losing some major tenants.

Blackhawk Hotel RFP

I'm not sure how well I can link directly to this stuff on the city's website, so I'll first explain where its all located on the website. If you go to the main page and click "Bids" over in the City Information box under Document Center, it will bring up a list of bids that are currently out. There are 8 pdfs relating to the Request for Proposal (RFP) for redeveloping the Blackhawk Hotel.

Here is the main document, minus most images (if the direct link works)

Many of the suggested plans seem to include hotel rooms on floors 3-7, possible residential uses on 8-10, and a restaurant or banquet room on 11 where "High Notes" was most recently located. The RFP also urges the developer to basically leave the Gold Room alone because it holds special meaning to Davenport and Quad City residents. I don't think that the potential developer has to follow these guidelines necessarily, but they are what the study recommended.

Here's a quote about what "kind" of hotel the city envisions:

The recommended hotel configuration is as a 100-room, mid-price, limited service hotel (e.g., Hampton Inn, Fairfield, Holiday Inn Express)

There are significant obstacles to attaining a higher-priced nationally recognized brand (e.g., Hilton Garden Inn, Courtyard by Marriott, Holiday Inn), including:
o Reluctance to consider conversion of an existing hotel property
o Additional renovation issues to comply with brand standards
o These brands are more expensive to build and require higher room rates than appear to be attainable in the local market

It will be very interesting to see how many proposals are submitted by the December 15th qualification deadline.

Tuesday Miscellany

I'll start off with 3 QCTimes articles that will probably lead to discussion and (hopefully) respectful debate.

City tries to clean up Linden mess -QCTimes
Looks like they've already torn a lot of it down, judging by the picture in the Times. I meant to drive by it this morning and I forgot. Now if we can just get the $90,000 that the owner is basically stealing from the city. I still hope somehow the Ledo/Shricker ends up biting the dust because of this.

JOD, Swing deals still not official -QCTimes
Hopefully they'll get this worked out, although I pretty much agree with the "againster" side on the idea of a 5% late penalty being too low. If the owners are frightened off by a higher interest rate, they must think that late payments are a possibility. This may mark the only time I ever agree with Susie Bell.

Homeless man charged in arson fire in city parking garage -QCTimes
Yeah... its not a headline I wanted to see, that's for sure. People are going to bring it up though, so I might as well just put a link in. Hopefully the whole topic's discussion doesn't center on this one.

And in other news:
-Here's the job description and such for the job of Housing Renewal Coordinator that's posted on the city's website. If SoLo's Ambrose Fulton were able, I bet he'd make an excellent candidate for this position. $20-21.20 an hour.

-I was down at the casino Sunday night (walked in with $5, walked out with $9) and I definitely noticed the results of this norovirus scare. The self-serve soda fountains were closed, the drinking fountains were turned off, and there were bottles of hand disinfectant about every 3 feet through the casino.

-Its $2 burger basket and $2 pint night at Bent River Brewery. Its one place that I wish would join the smoke-free campaign on its own, but I'll leave that debate for the Colonel's blog.

-Only 40 days until Christmas!

Guest post: West Locust

Here's a guest post from Pioneer98 of Bridge To Somewhere:

Steady progress on W. Locust

As I was checking out the construction progress of the apartment building near Locust & Washington St., I got to thinking about a lot of the buildings on that stretch of Locust that have gone up in the last 5 or so years:
- The new Northwest Bank on Locust
- Next door to that is a new strip mall (the one with Hungry Hobo & Cartridge World)
- Directly behind these two buildings is apartment building construction (pictured)
- Directly across Locust from that is a rebuilt Taco Bell (much more attractive then the old one, I might add)
- Just West of there, at 5 points, there is a relatively "new" Walgreens and Osco (now CVS) - these probably have been there the longest of any of this "new" stuff
- On Division, just South of 5 points, there is a newer Quad City Bank & Trust building
- A few blocks South of that is the IMAX Theater
- Just a little further West down Locust is a relatively new Hy-Vee
- Finally, there is a Jimmy John's restaurant going up near Marquette and Locust

All of these things, with the exception of the Hy-Vee, are concentrated on or near Locust between Division and Marquette. It's a very middle-class neighborhood, certainly not a wealthy one. I'm not trying to pretend that this area is "booming" or anything. It's just seen nice, steady progress. And with the exception of the Putnam & IMAX, I think it was pretty much done completely without tax dollars (correct me if I'm wrong).

I believe this is the kind of steady progress that the city would like to see in similar areas they are studying along Rockingham, Brady, and even other parts of Locust. The odd thing is, I'm not exactly sure what has made this area successful while others have floundered. I believe the Northwest Davenport Business Association may have targeted this area for redevelopment, but beyond that I really can't explain why this area would have an advantage. Whatever they are doing, perhaps it could serve as a model for the others.

Armistice Day Open Thread

Thanks to my Dad, my Grandpa, and all the other Veterans who kept us safe.

From the city's website:

"The [Veterans Day] parade will begin at Third and Pershing Streets (former Blackhawk Hotel parking lot) and go south on Iowa to Second Street, west on Second Street to Main Street, north on Main Street to Third Street returning to the staging area."

Now lets try and keep conversation in this thread civil in honor of the day. Hey... I can hope.

RiverHawks and K's

Here's a QCTimes article about our new ABA basketball team, the RiverHawks.

Looks like they had about 300 people at their first game, so I don't think they'll be moving up to the Mark anytime soon. I wonder why amateur basketball doesn't fly around here as well as the other 3 sports? Oh yes, and the ABA has 4-pointers.


Speaking of failures... (just kidding Acie, you know we love ya...)

I stopped in at K's Merchandise yesterday, and found that its not quite time to start checking it out every few days like I did with Sam Goody. Of course, with Sam Goody their prices weren't reasonable or comparable to Best Buy until they got to about 60% off. K's is at 20% off on most stuff, and 40 or 50% off of a few things. These store closing sales don't get really interesting until all that's left for sale are random hilarious things and the shelving.

Does anyone think Davenport could support another Best Buy or Kohl's or something in that location? I suppose it isn't far enough west.

A call to Alderman Meyer

With SoLo somewhat decommissioned until 2007, there needs to be a place for the give and take discussions about SoLo issues. I'm sad to say that many people are unwilling to enter the blog of someone with my views, so I don't know that this is such a place.

I believe Alderman Meyer should throw his hat into the blog publishing arena, and provide a forum for SoLo residents until the SoLo blog resumes.

Keith Meyer seems to have 10x the online presence of any other Alderman, although Hamerlinck and Frink at least make an effort. The 3rd ward is entirely SoLo, so a 3rd ward blog would be the ultimate place for these issues. It takes about 15 minutes to set up a simple blog, and maybe an hour for a customized one. I am not trying to take readers away from SoLo, because Ambrose Fulton has done a wonderful job running it and his views are needed and appreciated. However, 2 months is a long time, so I'd like to see at least a temporary fill-in.

The pendulum swings back

The results are in, (mostly) and we're back to a Democratic Congress... at least probably. Now all of you politicians who have been either slamming on the party in power, or the opposition party, switch places and begin again. Both parties can resume doing everything they can to screw the other party instead of working together, as is our system.

However, it still beats armed anarchy in the streets as far as methods of exchanging power go.

A few thoughts:

-Looks like Susie Bell will be able to remain a fixture at city hall, instead of heading to Des Moines

-Congrats to former Alderwoman Moritz for her return to politics. Makes you wonder where former Alderman McGivern would be minus the DUI?

-At one point, and I wish I'd taken a screenshot, CNN.com's running totals had a difference of only 10 votes in Virginia with over 1.5 million votes cast. So anyone who says 1 vote doesn't matter, keep that in mind.

-Do these folks really have inside info? Whalen's camp kept saying how Scott County was going to win them the election, and that they'd seen a big R turnout. Were they just wrong or knowingly keeping people's hopes up? If so, what's the point of that?

-My precinct, 33, had terrible turnout as usual. Here are the totals of actual voters vs registered voters over the last few years:
2002: 245/2051 or 11.95%
2003: 177/???? or ?% (at 2000 voters you get 8.85%)
2004: 516/1717 or 30.05% (Go Presidential Elections...)
2005: 167/1751 or 9.54%
2006: 282/1904 or 14.93%

Apparently we in the 33rd are much more interested in State and Federal politics than the local stuff. We also seem to trend heavily Democratic, voting over 2 to 1 for Kerry in '04. The 33rd precinct consists of the area from Gaines to the area near the Wonder Bread bakery, and then zig zags up to 7th and Perry, and then up to the north border, which zig zags between 12th, 13th, and 14th. See the map here. Its basically downtown and its northeastern neighbors. One interesting thing is the increase of 153 potential voters from 2005 to 2006. Some portion of that is probably increased downtown residents.

If central city residents want their concerns heard, they NEED TO VOTE.

Election Day Open Thread & Illinois?

Everyone get out and vote, even if its for the Pirate Party.

Also, if there are any Illinois readers left... what's going on over there? Anything? Is this rock crusher/cement plant thing a big deal across the way?

Update: Voted about quarter to 5, and I believe I was only the 206th voter at the Scott County Administration Center (33rd Precinct). It appears that 516 people voted there in 2004, and 760 in 2005. I'm thinking I either read the machine wrong, or a lot of people vote after work.

Downtown living article

Here's an article in today's QCTimes about urban living.

If anyone knows someone interested in living down here, feel free to send them my way. Alexander Company has recently started a referral program. Since I've been preaching about the Lofts for 2 years now, I might as well get some credit off my rent for it.

Edit at 1:39PM: At Pioneer98's suggestion, here's another article from today's Times about a smaller scale renovation near the Centennial Bridge.

2.6 Billion dollars would pay for....

2600 cops at $50,000 a year for 20 years
or
288 Skybridges at $9 million each
or
260 $10 million schools
or
21 $120,000,000 F/A-22 Raptor stealth fighters
or
74 F/A-18 Hornet attack fighters at $35mil each (threw that one in there for Huck)
or
4 space shuttle missions
or
1.7 million $1500 military bulletproof vests (a few more than our 1.4 million troops need)
or
6.5 million $400 laptops for underprivileged children

What did the USA decide to spend $2.6 Billion on?

1 2006 election

QCI may mean QC Idiot

I attended the Adler opening ceremony last night, and was all set to post a half dozen images of the new stage house and dressing rooms. However, as I was getting ready to walk in the front entrance of the theater, I figured I'd attempt a shot of the searchlights sweeping the sky above downtown.

I was rewarded with the unfortunate message: Battery Empty.

So maybe I'll get some pictures in another 75 years on the 150th anniversary...

Aside from my camera idiocy, it was a cool evening. Performances by the QC Symphony, the QC Opera and QC Ballet groups, and tours of the new areas.

Many of us were surprised to find out that the theater backstage area now goes all the way to Brady. There's what they call a "crossover" to get from stage right to stage left without crossing the stage, and it has windows looking right out onto the sidewalk along Brady. The other thing that impressed the heck out of me was the computerized curtain control touch screen. Graphical representations of all the curtains and backdrop rigging showed exactly what was moving where, and the electric motors were practically silent.

When the tour headed down under the stage, a lot of memories of my Central orchestra concerts came back, but I think that only one room was really recognizable after the renovations. The room where we used to pile our instrument cases is now the "catering room." From what I could tell, the new dressing rooms were carved out of the former basement of the Mississippi Hotel's west wing, and there was plenty of room for the most finicky divas. The old freight elevator has been replaced with an elevator moved by something similar to a Spiralift, which is kind of a slinky-powered jack. Go here or here to try and understand how it works. I just saw these kind of lifts on a documentary about a Vegas theater, so we must be world-class now.

The whole place really did seem top of the line, so I'm hoping we see a huge increase in the qualify and quantity of shows at the Adler, and more people coming downtown.

New webcam & new 53rd St Strategy

I don't know how long this has been up, but I just noticed that on the webcams section of the Davenport site, there's a user-controlled webcam showing the progress on the new police station. You can also use it to see how many cops are in the station writing reports.


A year ago I never would have guessed that the 6 Aldermen that voted to hang on to the 53rd and Eastern land would do something like that. Many of them were elected in the "What is the city doing owning land at 53rd and Eastern??" election. I seem to recall one or more of them suggesting selling this land (possibly for less than was offered this time) to help pay operating expenses a couple years ago. Who knows around here.

Must-Read Reader Article

This article in this week's River City Reader explores the possibility that all these negative ads we're being blessed with are partly directed at scaring off unpredictable or undecided Independent voters.

"Independent voters in this formulation are variables that campaigns seek to neutralize or eliminate. Campaigns have become less about shaping opinion - winning or changing minds - than herding people whose votes are easily predictable and marginalizing those whose ballots are not."

I'm not sure if this is really what's going on, but its definitely worth considering. As someone who is registered Independent, I pretty much agree that these ads disgust me with "both" sides and make me less enthusiastic about the 2 party system in general. They don't quite bother me enough to where I "turn off and tune out," by not voting however.

Besides, I'm a local politics guy, so there'll be no endorsements from me this November.

605 Main moving meeting

It seems like all the meetings I go to have an us vs them feeling to them, and this was no exception. Not a single person in the crowd said anything positive about the proposal.

Neighbors made the obvious and logical point that this neighborhood has plenty of problems already, and is trying to claw itself out of crime/poverty. However, Mr. Wayne made some good points about having a parole and probation officer presence, and his obligation to the taxpayers of Iowa to run an efficient operation. I'm still pretty neutral or undecided on the issue, because it does have two sides. The neighbors have legitimate concerns, but Mr. Wayne isn't just trying to screw them and their neighborhood over either. I don't see these groups ever agreeing though, and he practically said that towards the end of the meeting.

One thing I appreciated was Mr. Wayne's candid answers about things. Some people there seemed to feel he was avoiding questions, but I thought he did his best to answer most of them. When asked about the possibility of escape, he admitted there was some, and he refused to guarantee there wouldn't be problems. An interesting thing that was said was that this same building was looked at some years ago, but it was decided that the crime in that area was too bad to consider locating there. Many residents seem to feel that there has been no improvement, but there was a time when 6th and Vine was like the OK corral, and I wouldn't have parked there on trick-or-treat night for $100. Whether the problems have just moved to the surrounding streets and alleys is something the local residents would know better than me.

As Alderman Ambrose pointed out, the city council has no voice in this decision, although he said he would look for a "loophole." It will be interesting to see what the ZBA says, and I would also be interested to hear from some of the residents of the Perry Hill Apartments across Brady from the existing facility.

Freighthouse Study is here

To the relief of some, it seems the study pretty much recommends against turning the Freighthouse into an indoor market at this time. I haven't read through the entire thing yet, but that's my feeling after some skimming and reading of some sections.

It can be found here, or if that link doesn't work, go to www.cityofdavenportiowa.com, and click on Council Updates on the left under City Information/Document Center.

This week's regular update, found here, also discusses the fact that there is still a group interested in renovating the former Salvation Army building across from the Freight House into apartments.

Downtown at Dawn

I noticed that QuadCityImages was looking more like QuadCityText, so I took a walk at 6:15 this morning. Here are a few images I saw along the way. I took a moment to say goodbye to warm weather too, as I expect this will be the last time I can take a 45 minute walk through downtown without coming home a QCI-sicle.

The 110-year-old Government Bridge, looking pretty good for her age.

Another sunrise shot, and what we got instead of the pushpin. A streetsign with a bike wheel on top. Somehow I don't think they'll be talking about that one on the trip home.

A missing fire extinguisher on the Skybridge, and the future home of even more downtown residents: this Mississippi Hotel.

...And finally, the Figge, and the new police station progress.

We all miss SoLo - Open Thread

I was tempted to post this open thread on SoLo, but I don't want to start trouble. I hope Ambrose Fulton is ok, and we should all wish him a speedy recovery from whatever he's dealing with.

Speaking of SoLo, Alderman Meyer has an excellent question/answer discussion with the folks at 605 Main. Its posted way at down at the bottom of the many comments on the last thread posted, which has turned into a giant everything thread. Check it out, as the responses from James Wayne of the Seventh Judicial District Correctional Services do a good job of explaining what the new facility would be entail.

Here's an image I snapped with my phone (hence the worse-than-usual quality) of a cloudy sunrise from the roof the other morning.

(I don't recommend clicking to enlarge this one...)

3 Other news items from the QCTimes

Riverfront company requests extension -QCTimes

I actually wrote a letter to the editor back when all the QCT-created furor was going on about RiverGulf and Builders, in support of the industries. I still feel that industry has a place on our riverfront, as that's the only reason Davenport exists, but I've come to accept the decision about these two businesses. What the QCTimes article doesn't explain is why the ethanol plant opening is tied to RiverGulf's Davenport operation. I assume that they're just going to move all of their grain operations to the Buffalo site? Anyway, I say unless there are imminent (and finacially feasible) plans for that site, or the site across River Drive, give them a 1 year extension and tell them to get a move on.

Swing of the Quad Cities might be sold -QCTimes

This is almost certainly a good thing. The article (purposely?) doesn't mention what they're paying now, which is $490,000 per year. The new owners would only have to pay $273,000 a year for the first 3 years, and then $385,000 for the next 22 years. Its like refinancing a mortgage from 15 to 30 years to lower payments, but unfortunately the city is the bank on this deal. The reason to accept this would be if the new owner is able to lower prices and get people back to the ballpark. Currently a night at JOD has been priced out of the market of families of 5 or 6.

"Pirate" station taken over? -QCTimes

Mostly I just found this hilarious. When the guys hadn't paid their rent for 4 months, the property manager not only locked them out, but he took over the radio station's operation and is taking payment from their advertisers! Seems like he's asking for his own FCC fine though. I love this comment (for once) at the QCTimes.comments:

Argh matey...ye pirate station be mine now! wrote on October 26, 2006 1:36 AM:
"I wondered what had changed...the music seemed to improve a bit (no more Jeremy Jordan's "Right Kind of Love") and it's started to sound more like a radio station (with weather reports, etc.). About being taken over, that seems kind of amusing to me. Live by the sword, die by the sword. That's the pirate way."

Seriously though, I thought it was interesting what these guys were trying to do, because if the President and others are able to refer to us being at war constantly, why wouldn't the FCC's war clause apply? Unfortunately they obviously aren't the most upstanding citizens to be making this argument.

Not the kind of residents downtown had in mind

Plenty of QCTimes articles worth talking about today, but I'll start with the one most likely to be talked about anyway, and maybe post something about the others later today.

Old Sears store may house prisoners -QCTimes

I'll just explain what went through my mind as I read this article.

First reaction after reading the first paragraph: This is a terrible, horrible idea. Turning the old Sears building on 4th Street into a halfway house is really not what downtown needs. Many people would have thought it'd be tough to find something worse than JLCS, but at least with the homeless its possible that they're not convicted criminals.

After reading that this would be replacing 605 Main: Oh... this is replacing the existing halfway house/probation office in the former hotel at 605 Main Street. The article doesn't say if the whole multi-story building would be abandoned, or just parts, but apparently it has mold problems. Moving a halfway house 10 blocks seems a lot less bad than bringing in a new one.

After reading that the number of inmates would increase from 84 to 120: Ok, I'm back to negative feelings. Moving inmates around downtown is one thing, adding 50% more is another. Sure it may be efficient to have them all in one place, but downtown has enough issues at the moment.

Final Thoughts: I've been in 605 Main, (as a visitor, not a resident) and its a piece of crap building. The outside hallways used to be outdoor hotel-type balcony/hallways, and were enclosed at some point, probably before I was born. The floors slope about 15 degrees, and you feel like the hallways could just peel off the rest of the building. So I understand why they want to move, even without society's new evil, mold. Putting a jail-type thing along the "Government corridor," as 4th is being reimaged as, does make some sense. The inmates are still considered incarcerated, so they aren't just out hanging around outside. Drive past 605 Main and you don't see crowds hanging out. I'd suspect they don't run off much, because that would land them back in all-the-way jail just when they're about to be released. It seems like a good reuse of this under-used building.

But..... MORE inmates? No way... not downtown. I'd support it if it were just moving them around, but adding 36 more is not a good thing. Also, even though I don't despise D1 like some do, why the heck are they so up on this project?? This is a long way from senior citizen housing, and while I can see the benefits for the Department of Corrections Services, what are the benefits to downtown, or the citizens of Davenport? Is there some grand plan for the property at 605 Main?

If they could just work out a way to house the new 36 inmate/residents outside of downtown Davenport, I could see myself defending this idea. The way it is... I'm at best neutral, and at worst completely opposed to it.

Crime stuff, Phoenix, Guardian Angels, etc

I started this post originally as a comment on this thread over at Cruiser's blog. He's made several posts lately about the crime problem, so without trying to disagree or rebut what he's saying, I thought I'd take my too-long comment and make it into a post of my own. As usual, I'll preface this by saying I fully agree that Davenport has a crime problem, but disagree about some of the things being said about it.

There was some discussion about Sheriff Joe down in Arizona's Maricopa county. Basically, I said that his tough love brand of Sheriff-ing must not be working too great, because crime is terrible down there. The bad parts of the Phoenix metro make the worst parts of the QC look like luxury housing. I've spent at least a week down there every year for the last 5 or 6 years, and some areas are pretty rough. Someone asked for stats, and Cruiser posted them, showing that per capita, Davenport is worse than Phoenix on some crimes. Murder was one of the few that Phoenix was worse in, even taking population into account.

The fact that even per-capita they have more murders than us is the scariest part. Murders tend to look the worst for smaller towns, because it only takes a few, divided among a smaller number of people, to look quite bad. For example, if McCausland, Iowa (population 300) had 1 murder last year, it would be 5000 murders in Phoenix terms. According to Cruiser's stats, Phoenix only had 220 murders. Obviously Davenport is no McCausland, but the same kind of distortion can happen.

The fact is, stats can only show so much. Crimes that go unreported don't count at all in the UCR index, small towns' per capita crimes can provide distorted pictures, etc. It doesn't take statistics to know we have a crime problem, because its obvious just from living in Davenport. Stats tell us what we already know, and they give no help on solving the problem.

For example, stats don't tell us how nearly all of Davenport's murder victims in the last several years knew their killer. I honestly can't think of a murder in the last 3 years where they weren't associates or enemies. If you don't hang out with drug dealers, gang members, or insane teenagers, you have almost no chance of being murdered in Davenport. However, bullets don't care who they hit, so the rest of us can't sit back and say "let them kill each other off," because our kids could be killed by a stray round. Its just a complicated problem. If juries decide to turn loose people as bad as Pachino Hill, something's wrong with us (or our peers) too.

And for the record, I feel much safer here, and would MUCH rather work as a cop in the QC area than the Phoenix area. The fact that even lower-to-middle class families have burglar alarms should tell you something about people's feelings of safety in the PHX area.

As far as the Guardian Angels, Cruiser asked why Bill Davis would possibly be against them coming to Davenport's aid. I would guess that he's wary because its essentially a group of people who are at best amateurs, and at worst, cop wannabes or vigilantes, trying to "help" with the crime problem. If these people simply stand watch and call the police when they see a crime, there would be few problems besides how well a red-bereted "Angel" would play with a jury as a witness.

However, if this is all they're going to be, we already have the VIPS program. Why not just expand that program, which provides volunteers to patrol the skybridge, downtown, or other fairly safe areas, therefore freeing up cops to spend more time in the places that need them. If the Guardian Angels do anything beyond whipping out a cell phone and calling the police, such as apprehending people and making citizens' arrests, you've got a whole slew of possible legal trouble and liabilities. Expanding the VIPS program beyond the senior citizen activity that it currently is seems like a great idea, but when it comes to guys wearing berets marching down the street, we have to think twice.

Madison: Not a tropical vacation spot

Weekend Open Thread

I'm skipping out of town today and heading to Madison.

Hey, whatever it takes to go a day without hearing the words QCRPA or Mike Loos...

Talk amongst yourselves.

National Trails Symposium Image

2 Things happening today

From the National Trails Symposium 2006 site:

Building Trails Public Awareness Event

Location: Great River Hall
Time: 3:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Cost: Free -- Open to the Public

To provide the local community with an opportunity to visit exhibitors and learn about the Symposium, the Exhibit Hall will be open to attendees, guests and local trail enthusiasts free of charge. Music entertainment will be provided by The Flip Flops, a husband and wife duo, whose fun, frivolous and crowd favorites are sure to make for a festive evening. Dozens of outdoor recreation groups from the Quad Cities will offer table-top activities for everyone. There will be a special presentation on the American Discovery Trail and other programs on off-the-beaten-path travel. Iowa's centennial celebration of the Antiquities Act of 1906 will also be featured. An Iowa Congressman, John Fletcher Lacey, authored and championed the act, which allows Presidents to preserve federal lands. Many National Parks were first proclaimed as National Monuments. Federal and state officials will conduct a ceremony to honor this visionary Iowan since the National Trails Symposium is being held in his own state.

From Alderman Hamerlinck's blog:

Ward Meeting
This Thursday I will be hosting our October Ward meeting at 5:30pm at the Elks Club (4400 West Central Park). All are welcome to attend.

RiverVision: Centennial Park

When I was given a handout about Centennial Park at the skatepark event, I kind of thought to myself, "Yep, the same plan I've seen dozens of times already." Thinking about it more though, aside from the people who really follow this stuff, I doubt many people have seen the full River Vision plan. Here's a large image (if you click on it) of the current plan for Centennial Park. I believe the brighter areas are considered Phase 1, but someone correct me if I'm wrong.