Isle of Capri ≠ Forthcoming with Info

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

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

Bix at 6 #3

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

QCTimes.comments hurt my brain

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

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

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

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

Misplaced Riverfront Condos

High-end condos planned for riverfront -QCTimes

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

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

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

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

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

Jersey Ridge over Duck Creek Closing July 5th

From the city's website:

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

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

I'm a sucker for cranes

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

Kaplan-view Condos

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



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

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

Tuesday Morning Assortment

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tomorrow's the big day...

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

One River Mississippi (Quad Cities Edition)

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







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

Taste of the Quad Cities

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

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

PEDCOR (with a D)

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

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

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

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

ScatterKats Ribbon Cutting

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

The Mayor and company, cutting the ribbon.

The problem with building your own computers...

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

Salvation Army building renovation? What?

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

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

I just read about it on the AbsoluteDSM Forums

Stormy Thursday Events

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



A few things going on today, and next week.

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


At 5pm: (From DowntownDavenport.com)

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

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

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

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

Next Week: (from Alderman Frink's blog)

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

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

Looks like Davenport's efforts are working, sorta

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

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

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

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

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

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

Midwest League Allstar Game 2006 Images

Teams line up during the national Anthem

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

If only the crowd was like this for every game.

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

Final Score:
East 7
West 1

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

Allstar Excitement

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

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

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

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

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

Election whiners and allstar games

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

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

Looks like I get a letter too...

From this Macomb Journal article:

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

Here's an article on QCOnline also.

No Sturgis pictures this year

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

SCC getting 2nd entrance (someday)

College road project might include U.S. 67 entrance -QCTimes

This is LONG, LONG overdue. I was told this was happening "soon" back when I was going to Scott, about 4 years ago. Clearly they have a different definition of soon than I do. Its sad that they have to use "homeland security" concerns to get funding, but at this point, they have to do whatever gets the money.

Right now there is a single 2 lane driveway into Scott Community College's campus on Belmont Drive in Bettendorf. At the beginning of the semesters (when people still go to class) and during finals time, the parking lots are packed. One of the overflow lots is on the opposite side of the entrance road from the rest of the lots, causing frequent situations like I have drawn below. I once waited for 10 minutes until people figured out what was happening. Of course, the frequency of this happening doesn't speak well for us SCC graduates...Anyone who says MSPaint isn't the ultimate graphics program just doesn't enjoy a challenge.

What the QCI saw, it was against the law. *

Some utility construction is going on in the area of 4th and Iowa. You wouldn't know it from the above image, but Iowa Street is CLOSED to southbound traffic. Yet its practically a constant stream of cars driving around the Road Closed signs and onto the wrong side of the yellow lines, and directly towards oncoming traffic. I hate people who feel that signs and laws don't apply to them, and I think that the police could beat the red light cameras at fund-raising if they posted a squad car at the intersection to ticket everyone who ignores the barricades and signs. And then double it for being a construction zone. As if people can't drive 1 block out of their way.

Sometimes I have to rant about things.

*Apologies to Paul on the post title

Bix at 6 #1

Runners going past the under-construction Sieg Iron Lofts.

Despite being nearly surrounded by the bix route, I just can't list myself as one of the people that complains about it disrupting my Thursday nights. In fact, I'd be pretty tolerant of having a Bix at 6 every Thursday of the summer. Its just great to see so many people coming together (downtown) for a community event, especially involving keeping healthy. I know it was the first one, so maybe there were fewer runners, but traffic seemed to be having an easy time getting across the route except for the 3 minutes when the crowd pictured above was going past.

Its definitely important to me that it is possible to get across the Bix at 6 route. For example, if I couldn't get across the route, in order to get anywhere I'd have to go up Iowa to Federal, east on Federal to River Drive, and then either up Brady or practically over to Bettendorf to get north.

But come on, its 6 nights a year.

The house wins

Corps of Engineers gives Rhythm City permission to move -QCTimes

Update: Friday's longer, better article

I believe this is the final piece of the regulatory puzzle, but they may have a few more boxes to check off before construction can begin.

Though some disagree, I feel that this is good news for Davenport. It will open up a wider stretch of the riverfront, and move the casino operations more towards what I consider the east edge of the downtown riverfront. Now if we can just convince them to turn the music down...

What will be interesting to see is what they do with the Blackhawk at this point. Will they spend money fixing all the fire damage, just to turn it over to Davenport in a couple years when the new hotel is built? Will they just stop using the most heavily damaged floors and save whoever ends up with it the trouble of gutting them? Or is it all just insurance money anyway...?

Big Weekend Open Thread

A sculpture that may or may not be new, next to the parking building on River Drive. If its been there forever, I sure didn't notice it.

I'm hoping to get out this weekend and get some shots of Sturgis on the River, the Bix at Six tonight, Ride the River, and whatever else is going on. Also, I need to buy tickets to the MidwestLeague Allstar Game, because the majority of the box seats are sold out. It'll be nice to see JOD packed again.

A Visitor's View on Davenport/Iowa City

I'm not sure what kind of website www.chattanoogan.com is, but here's an article in their Travel section about the Quad Cities (mostly Davenport) and Iowa City.

The grammar and punctuation make the bloggers around here look like English teachers, but if you can get past that its an interesting view of what visitors see when they look at Davenport.

Why WiMAX?

Here's a QCTimes article detailing a company called Solo Direct Connect's plans to add WiMAX wireless broadband internet to Scott Community College campuses.

Here's an article on HowStuffWorks explaining what WiMAX is and how it works.
To quote that article:

WiMAX has the potential to do to broadband Internet access what cell phones have done to phone access. In the same way that many people have given up their "land lines" in favor of cell phones, WiMAX could replace cable and DSL services, providing universal Internet access just about anywhere you go.

WiMAX is so new that very few US cities are covered at this point, so it could really send a message to tech-savvy young people that the Quad Cities are more than just corn and tractors. I must say that the idea of being able to get wireless service anywhere in the QC, at nearly broadband speeds, has definite appeal to bloggers such as myself.

What is downtown Davenport?

A while back, Alderman Frink sent me some census stats on downtown and its population of both residents and workers. Anyway, I was curious how downtown was defined in the study, so I looked more into the statistics, and found that it defined downtown as the zip code 52801. Finding zip code maps online for free is nearly impossible (try it) but the only one I've found is here. If you enter 52801, it shows the boundaries as being the river to the south and east, Gaines/Brown to the west, and 5th/Federal to the north over to River Drive again. I found this to be decently close to my vision of downtown's boundaries, which I've drawn below using Google Maps.
I made this in about a minute, so I'm sure that it doesn't entirely reflect even my opinion. My point, however, is that I think we all have different definitions of what is and isn't part of downtown. Is Central High School downtown? Is Kraft (Oscar Mayer) or even Ralston? To the east, is the former Wonder Bakery downtown? The Cityview has been called a downtown apartment building, but to me anything at the top of the hill is above downtown.

When the QCTimes pushed to kick River Gulf and Builders off their leased riverfront land to keep their cars from getting dusty, they referred to those businesses as downtown. At the time I thought to myself that those businesses were on the fringe of downtown if anything. When I went to draw the map I started with the railroad embankment as the northern border, and then realized I was mapping myself out of downtown. I consider the warehouse district to be downtown, but I could see how others might not.

What do you people consider the boundaries of downtown Davenport to be?

Davenport's Scandal (The NEO/Loos thing)

I really don't have much new to say about this, so everyone should take a look at the many discussion of this on SoLo and the Colonel's blogs.

It pretty much comes down to one sentence for me, and that's , "Davenport doesn't need this." I like to make fun of Illinois politics for being dirty and corrupt, but this time its a bit of corruption for Davenport to be embarrassed about. The Moline cops get a break for a while.

I really don't like the QCRPA. I don't think they're all evil like many people do. In fact, I think the majority of the members, and EVEN most of the leaders, are probably decent people and good landlords.

...However. When we get into things like election-time autodialers, attack ads, doing their best to catch people they don't like breaking the law, buying aldermen, or making illicit deals with city staff, there's nothing to like.

I firmly believe that its possible to be an advocate for Quad City landlords without badgering voters, aldermen, and city staff, and WITHOUT autodialers. I don't think a group should have enough power to successfully push for the elimination of the department that regulates their industry. I believe the rank and file members of QCRPA need to stand up and ask for new leadership, or a new direction for that organization. Politics is a rough enough business without a group bringing out the worst aspects of it.

Even better airshow images

I don't know who Liza Eckardt is, but she seems to be some sort of airshow insider. She has over 65 professional-grade pictures from the 2006 Quad City Airshow posted on pbase.com.

Here's the link

Friday Open Thread

Anyone else think that its weird to have the Northpark carnival in the one area of the mall where the parking lot is usually pretty full?

If that (crappy) carnival can make money, I really think that a regional destination amusement park built on the former Case plant property on the East Moline riverfront could succeed. I'm sure I'd end up buying a season pass every year.

I-74 Bridge Stuff

(Yesterday was good photography weather)

Check out the River Cities Reader this week, as they have a great article about the I-74 bridge project.

Included in the article are these excellent links:

Images of the 4 Design finalists

Ultra-detailed maps of the entire project, down to how many lanes every street will be, and where the turn lanes will be. I spent like 30 minutes poring over this.

The other side

The vast majority of the pictures I've posted of the Sieg Iron lofts (Davenport Lofts, Phase 2) are taken facing west. Here's a view facing east. I believe they are starting to repair the surface of the concrete, much like they did on the Crescent Macaroni building.

Tuesday Topics

I've heard that Wacky Waters won't be opening this year? The website says it opens June 4th (this past Sunday) so maybe it was just a nasty rumor. I don't catch the TV news much, but I haven't seen anything about this in the QCTimes. Any summer lifeguards out there with info on this? It wouldn't be good news for the area if WW closed. Maybe I'll call out there this afternoon and find out.

Over on Alderman Frink's new blog, below the post trying to justify the East Village bigotry, is a post about walking door to door. Within that post, someone asks about some West Davenport sites in the Kimberly/Fairmount/Hickory Grove area. In response, Alderman Frink mentions "The 'Tractor Supply' project" without any explanation of where this is proposed. Is this also a case of me being out of the news loop, or is this breaking news? Tractor Supply is sort of similar to Farm and Fleet, so I doubt they'll be pleased with this possible development.

Former-Mayor, Former-Police Lieutenant Yerington has a letter to the editor in the QCTimes today.

Also in the Times, apparently they tried a different version of the dam lighting again last night, but didn't advertise it to the (unimportant?) citizens of Davenport and Rock Island. Maybe afraid of more negative comments? Lighting the dam is a good idea, and it doesn't need to look amazing... just less dark. That said, I like the blue lights idea. Read the article here.

I had a friend from WIU in town this weekend who had never been to Davenport. As I usually do with visitors, I showed him the Skybridge both during the day and at night. In the daytime it feels like a fairly dignified structure with an amazing view, and at night its more like "this must be what alien spaceships are like." Both versions are worth seeing. What I was struck by was the number of people visiting the bridge both times we were up there. At 9:30pm or so Saturday there must have been 25 people up there. Many of them seemed to be out of town guests, probably in Davenport for the airshow. I wonder if this will be one of those things that people dislike at first but slowly becomes appreciated over time. Or maybe its just a vocal minority that dislikes it, and the rest of town brings any guests from out of the area down there to enjoy the amazing river view. I think its the latter.

Airshow Images

All 6 Blue Angels in delta formation pass over the giant American flag at show center.
Tomorrow will probably bring a lot of sore necks. I thought the crowd was great, and it couldn't have been better weather for the show.
A crash truck on loan from the real airport. For some reason I just love this thing, and I really would have liked to see it driving across the I-74 bridge.

The most beautiful plane to come out of WW2, the P51 Mustang, and our local life-saving helicopters of MedForce on display.

An AH-1W Super Cobra attack helicopter, and the ever-present Shockwave jet-powered semi tractor.

This last image was taken from east central Davenport, and emailed to me by occasional photo submitter "AIF." A shot even good enough for the mainstream media, I'd say.

"Where in the QC is this?" Returns

I don't remember what number I was up to, but here's another round of Where in the QC is this?
This one could be interesting, so I'll even throw in an extra picture. Make sure to click the images for a closer look.

Pigs are greater than diplomas

Everyone knows that I supported the Triumph pork processing plant, and I'm glad to hear that those 1000 jobs will be coming to the Quad Cities, but....

Come on, Illinois can find 16 million dollars within a couple months for a hog plant, but can't find $14 million for the first phase of a COLLEGE CAMPUS?? For crying out loud, for less than the price of the Chicago bean we could have a riverfront WIU campus. Sometimes I just don't understand the Land of Lincoln.

Downtown Park Groundbreaking Images

About 20 minutes ago (go blogs) I attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Bechtel-Lincoln Public Park at 2nd and Iowa Streets. Here are the images.The plans for the park. I believe the blue-ish areas inside the circle are fountains or reflecting pools. (click for a closer, but still crooked, view)
D1 Diplomats, Alderwoman Howard, and others prepare for the actual groundbreaking.
Mr. Bittner, a trustee of Bechtel Trusts, speaks about the park's location and features. The mural seen on the pawn shop wall behind him was created by Felicia Feldman, a QC Metro Arts Apprentice.
I would say a total of about 45 people attended the ceremony, but anyone who arrived 15 minutes late missed it entirely. I can appreciate brief speeches, especially when its 80º out and I foolishly wore a black shirt. This park should be a great thing for downtown Davenport. There are so few places downtown between River Drive and 4th Street where you can find grassy areas. (Across from Majors outside the RiverCenter, and next to the ground transportation center are the main two) Having a park with fountains and benches nearby will be another selling point for downtown residents in the continuing lofts projects also.