Saturday, February 3rd
10am-5pm: Free admission to the Figge Art Museum
4:30pm-1am: Shuttle bus running between parking and venues (see below)
7pm-12:00am: The QC Parrot Heads' 3rd annual Havana Daydreamin' at the RiverCenter
8pm: The Quad City Symphony Orchestra returns to the Adler Theatre
8pm: Iris DeMent with Pieta Brown at the Redstone Room
There are also a couple of other meetings, such as Mel Foster's annual banquet going on, which should add up to several thousand people being downtown. The weather won't help, but what better time to go to Havana Daydreamin' than a night with single digit temperatures.
(Click to enlarge)More info at DowntownDavenport.com
54 comments:
Cool concept but I guess no one knows how to spell theater (or even theatre) in Davenport
With the new vandelism on the skybridge Monday, council needs to limit the hours the bangers can get in there from 9am to 5pm, and during those hours, there needs to be a city employee on duty. Also, has the fire extinguisher that was stolen ever been replaced? With all the parties that go on there, we better be prepared for fire. Parties should be stopped until the water damaged elevator is repaired, just incase there is another emergency, and it is needed.
I was going to post on this but you beat me to it :)
This sounds like a great weekend for downtown. I wish it were this busy more often. The shuttle was a brilliant idea, especially running until 1am. I wonder how much that costs? Valet parking in the winter is brilliant. The QCT article says they will have some Palmer students at the Adler for valet parking. Great way to earn some money in these temperatures (if you can handle the cold - not me!).
Yeah, I am surprised they've never done valet at the symphony before. It just seems like the right kind of crowd.
QCI, have you heard anything about vandelism and Grafitti problems at the new million dollar skate park?
I haven't heard anything about vandalism, but there was some graffiti last time I was down there. That's kind of a hallmark of skateparks across the country, but if its gang-related that's not acceptable. I think the city has been painting over it anyway though.
QCI - isn't grafitti vandalism?
so who IS paying for these shuttles? In a perfect world it would be subsidized by the downtown DavOne group. And there was vandelism on which skybridge? The finish line for the Bix one (3rd St)? The one that all the balloons have to duck under during the Festival of Trees one (2nd St)? Or the bridge to nowhere with the fancy lights?
Hopefully someone made arrangements with public works to sweep streets downtown, and pick up the crap in the alleys. Also, hopefully they called Bladel and asked that the police do a cleanout of the downtown of all the drug dealers, hookers, and homeless that camp themselves in the ramp. If someone was planning well, they would have checked and painted over all the graffitti on everything. With this big event, Davenport should have it's best foot forward. We'll see how well the organizers of this event do.
To 9:05pm, do you know how to look at a newspaper?
8:31am,
What downtown are you talking about? I drive thru the 'D1 corridor' to go to work and I haven't seen the trash or the graffiti. As far as all the drug dealers and hookers in the ramps do you have police records to back this up or are you secretly from Cedar Rapids who wants to talk trash about another city?
Maybe QCI should post something about cute puppies and see how long it takes for someone to turn it negative cuz this seems like a trend in all his entries.
First the director of the River Music Experiment quits, then Dan Huber throws in the towel, now in todays QCTimes, the AG/TECH director has given notice. It appears that D1 and the River Rennissance Projects are like a sinking ship; and the rats are always the first to jump overboard.
8:57 must need new glasses if she can't see how dirty our downtown appears. She must not read the Times about the problems with the parking ramps, about parked cars being broken into, and in the last couple months, the Times reported about a vagrant that started a fire inside the parking ramp. Dee doesn't have to worry anymore about getting the trash that has been on the Centenal Bridge all summer swept up by the State, as it's not there anymore. During the snowfall 3 weeks ago, the snowplow lauched the trash (including the muffler) over the side and into the river. Out of sight - out of mind. That will give Chad Pragrackie and his group something to fish out in the next cleanup.
There's nothing wrong with the way the downtown looks. In fact it is impressive and something for us to be proud of. These same few bloggers take an isolated incident and will work it for 2 years in describing how dangerous the city is or how bad it looks. It's not as if these are everyday occurances.
The downtown corridor isn't the problem. It is the surrounding areas that need a good cleanin. Garbage is everywhere all over the central city in the high rental property areas. It does look bad and gives a bad impression to the city ahd our guests. I just think we should enforce our codes, that is all. We shuld not welcome people who cannot even bend over to pick up a piece of garbage of the street in front of their homes. Take a drive in the SOLO area. What you will see if that the high rental areas are dirty and the areas where there are mostly homeowners the places are clean. Yes - there are areas in the central city that are mostly homeowners. Believe it.
Anyway, my guess is that the tenants would bend over to pick up a crack pipe or some money or a check from the government. But garbage is beneath them.
One of the reasons that the bike trail stays clean downtown is that when Shabonie takes Keith for a walk, they take a sack along with them, and Keith keeps the riverfront picked up. Too bad others don't follow their example.
To 9:05. The damaged was done to the bridge to nowhere early this week. Some of the banger drug dealers that prowl our downtown after dark went into the skywalk between 1 and 2 am, and broke off the head to the overhead fire sprinkler system, then stole the part they broke off. The water gushed out of the broken pipe and ran down the elevator shafts causing damage. One elevator is still not operating because of the heavy water damage. There is absolutely no reason for the skywalk or the skatepark to be open 24 hours without some kind of supervision. These repairs are costly, and the city is self insured, meaning it's the people who pay property tax that are paying for these little bangers that have no good home training to destroy every improvement that we try to make to this city.
QCI, in your comment of 5:39, you talk about some cities and grafitti. Are you saying that some cities think that it is ok to mark up their skateparks? If you could define hallmark for us please.
Maybe a camera would be a good value in that skybridge.
You can bet that if the vote for River Renissance was done over again, that it wouldn't pass after people saw how the thing really turned out.
2 things for Alderman Meyers: During the trouble at the skybridge this week, I heard that there was a glass window damaged. Would you know if that is right, as nothing was in the newspaper about the glass, only the water damage. Plus, when the city calculates the damages to public property, do they add in the labor of calling in someone to fix it at 2 am, the cost of the fire and police department wages, and also the cost of the days it takes for them to investigate and prosecute. Also, the cost of the city attorney should be added to get a true picture of what these incidents cost. I ask about the police costs as one time Hammerlink and Bladel were talking about the cost of each time the police are called to an address, that it averages to between $100 and $200 per officer. So you can bet the bill really goes up when you put detectives on a case like this. Hopefully you know about this, as I'm sure lots of us are interested in the real cost of this destruction. Thank you.
Why don't you just call Keith?
There's no need to shut down the Skybridge at any time. Something happens a few times a year, and you againsters get all excited about it. Yes, I used that word again, because you guys are saying bridge to nowhere again. If the riverfront of the greatest river in the world is nowhere to you, than we're never going to see eye to eye.
Don't they have a web cam on the skybridge? How much would one be to install? Having a live web cam on the skate park would be cool and would be able to catch or document the taggers. Keeping any place that skate punks or teens congregate totally tag free would be futile.
I just got a look at the new police station that is nearing completion. It must have been designed by the same moron that designed the new library in N/W Davenport. It should have been designed to match the City Hall, and fit into a historic neighborhood. We need the people that designed both the county Juvenile Detention Center, and the New Jail. Now those two projects look great. We are always spending all this money, and the stuff looks aweful.
Yes, there is a camera on the Skybridge, and yes, I agree it would be a good idea to have one near the skatepark.
I know its an unpopular thought, but what would the harm be in allowing non-gang, non-obscene graffiti in the skatepark bowl? The only issue is somehow explaining to kids that its tolerated here, but nowhere else...
From searching the internet, it seems like allowed graffiti isn't that common anymore, but here's what I was picturing.
It wouldn't be visible from anywhere but the skatepark, so unless you chose to go there you wouldn't have to see it. And yes, I know this is probably the most unpopular thing I've ever said...
..and to 4:47, if humans always designed things to match the neighborhood, we'd still be living in caves.
There is no difference between how Habitat for Humanity ruins a block in older neighborhoods, and what the design of the new police station has done. The city should learn to lead by example. Maybe the neighborhoods would follow.
Here is an idea worthy of discussion for our grafitti artists and skateboard aficianodos. Grafitti at skate parks is nearly inevitable but could be channeled as well as save tax payer money instead of painting over it. It might even attract more kids to a very cool place. I have three kids who skate board and they love the place.
http://www.devon.gov.uk/press_grafitti_makeover
The project recommended the development of graffiti art murals as public art, to be painted at the skate park. The intent of the project was to pursue the beautification of a public space through the installation of public art. The skate park was seen as an ideal opportunity to demonstrate graffiti as an art-form and to replace the graffiti vandalism that was inevitable.
I love our river, but hate your skybridge.
I agree - Habitat has got to curb it. They are doing harm to our old neighborhoods. They are helping them deteriorate.
Allowing the kids to graffiti the skatepark would be opening a can of worms. This would spread all over the riverfront like a plague. It needs to be stopped in it's tracks before it is out of control.
JLCS must use the same building designer as the City of Davenport does - look at the cheap things they put up. You might as well have trailors on those lots.
Winding Hills must still be drunk from the Iowa game if he's agreeing with QCI. :)
Channel 6 did a live shot from the Figge for the newscast that said it all. The turnout was sparse, which just proves that if nobody cares to go there even when it's free, that it was, and continues to be a waste of taxpayer dollars. In this budget, we should cut the purse strings, let this lemon go, and spend those dollars more productively on some project that will benefit the community.
And I'm sure it didn't have anything to do with the fact that it was about 1 degree out...
Its amazing how happy some of you sound when amenities struggle. Do you want to go back to the rust-belt 80's?
Yeah a live shot on the 5pm news showing not many people there since it was free up UNTIL 5pm and oh yeah it was MAYBE 1 degree out without the wind.
It would be different if only one ammenity was a Flop, but when they all are failures, you have to wonder if Davenport is going in the right direction. The scary thing is, when these things go belly-up, that D1 will come crying to the taxpayers to bail them out. We have been trying to bring the downtown back to life for the last 25 years, and every attempt has failed miserably. It's time for The Davenport City Council to do the same thing as the director of the RME, the director of the AgTec Center, and Dan Huber, who saw the writting on the wall, and quit. Davenport needs to quit throwing money away. It's useless.
Was anything in the Sunday QCTimes telling about the 'big day' in the downtown? You would think they would be all over it, as they pushed for RR, and are members of the downtown partnership.
One amenity that really has worked out ok is the new branch library. It just shows that if you get things out into a safe neighborhood that people will use it. Maybe we should consider closing the main library downtown, and opening a 3rd new one right in the center of town, possibly close to Vandever Park. Anyplace would be acceptable for a new main library as long as it was away from the homeless, and had lots of free parking next to the building.
The library should call JLCS and see what they are doing and ask for some of thier funding because they are attracting the homeless here and then the library gives them a place to live.
The new library is literally a block away from one of the most dangerous sections of Davenport, the 3500 block of Heatherton. So I don't know where that "get things out to a safe neighborhood." comment came from. I feel much safer downtown than on Heatherton. There's a reason that the new library parking lot came equipped with hookups for the Mobile Precinct Station.
To Alderman Meyer: If the recomondation goes forward from staff about revising the way council does business, I would hope you would bring up something again that you suggested a year or two ago. That being to eliminate the two at large positions. Also I would like to see some wards combined to where there are only 3 or 4 wards. With all that reduction in council persons, we could easily afford to pay them what they deserve. I have told others that i think you Keith, deserve at least to get what the city administrator is paid. You do far more work, and make far better decisions than he does. If you have the ability, check with Cedar Rapids, as there was a little blip on the news awhile back about them downsizing the number of councilmen, and my bet is that it's working better with less people.
Who did pay for the busses that nobody used, and did the citibus drivers get double time for doing nothing?
Conservative Demo here:
Young man, back on the 3rd you said,
"If the riverfront of the greatest river in the world is nowhere to you, than we're never going to see eye to eye. "
How on earth can anyone see that greatest riverfront on the greatest river for all the honky-tonk carnival-midway gambling boat tackyness down there at the foot of that bridge to nowhere?
Hey, no argument here. The current setup is horrid, which is why I advocated them moving upstream to the hotel. Now it sounds like they'll be off the riverfront entirely, which isn't a bad thing either. We'll see what happens...
Once the IOC leaves downtown for a location near the interstate, it will be the end of the downtown. All the commercial will dry up, and the thugs will take over just like what happened to 11th Street in Rock Island.
You can bet Jim Fisher was the first one standing in line for the Free Figge "Kids first Homemade Quilt Exibit" downtown this weekend. The last time he was there, he gave rave reviews of the "Fingerpaintings of the MonDoobie Tribe."
The Figge needs to learn a lesson from CitiBus. When Davenporter's were complaining about how few people actually used the bus, the new Fleet Director came up with the perfect plan. He sold advertising, and painted 3 sides of the buses, so people couldn't see what was happening inside. The Figge should follow suit by selling huge signs that would cover the whole side of the building so nobody could see inside, and how it's absent of visitors due to lack of interest. You can bet that Lujacks would puchase a sign that was 8 stories tall, and a half block wide. And on the south side, the QCRPA could purchase that space and put pics of those who have affected SOLO the most. Every morning passers by could see a huge rendering of Dan Lubell smiling down at them, his bald head glistening in the sun. As suzie bell proclaims - we only have to think out of the box.
We could rotate the pictures of the people Dan has ripped off. Adn teh neighborhoods he has helped blight. He thinks we are all stupid, but we know what he has done.
QCI: Heatherton Drive isn't a problem anymore since the new library opened. Mike Loos cleaned that up as one of his last official acts before the trouble between him and the QCRPA started. So it's safe in that neighborhood. The trouble all centers around the Shricker area, and Gaines and 14th.
To 02/03; 1:20PM
You said "....The damaged was done to the bridge to nowhere early this week. Some of the banger drug dealers that prowl our downtown after dark went into the skywalk between 1 and 2 am, and broke off the head to the overhead fire sprinkler system, then stole the part they broke off."
Sounds to me like you know who did it. Better call the cops!
Has the restaruant in the Figge closed now QCI?
It closed many months ago, because it was too friggin expensive. Downtown already has Savitris, Centro, Duck City... we need some mid-range options. Also, one of the things that never gets talked about with the Figge is their reception income. Many nights I drive past and the parking lot is full of cars. Since the museum isn't open at night, this means that they have a lot of receptions, which I would assume pay a decent amount of money. Yet the newspaper articles never mention this.
And Heatherton is not "cleaned up." Listen to a police radio sometime.
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