More Steam Train Images

This weekend was the "Rail Ride for Flood Relief" event in the Quad Cities. Two steam engines took passengers on 90 minute trips towards either Walcott or Silvis, and there were also a few dinner excursions between the Quad Cities and Iowa City.

This QJ steam engine was built in China during the 1980's. They were purchased by the Iowa Interstate Railroad in 2006. Here's a PDF file showing them being unloaded from flat cars in Rock Island. Back when they visited during RiverWay 2006, it was said that they were bought to resell. One of the more recent articles said they were bought for spare parts and "to operate and display on occasion." Personally I think that the owner of IAIS just thinks they're cool, and this is his hobby.

The Iowa Interstate Railroad has also been buying up some old passenger cars, including a couple that have been repainted in IAIS colors, which I didn't get a good picture of.



On the left is one of the IAIS's 12 new GE Evolution locomotives (bit over $2 mil each), which you may have seen in some of GE's television commercials. They are much more fuel efficient than previous locomotives. These are the first brand new engines ever purchased by the railroad. On the right is IAIS's chairman and owner, Henry Posner. He donated all of the coal, fuel, equipment, and man-hours that were involved in this charity event, which allowed all the money that came in from ticket sales to go straight to the Salvation Army and their flood relief efforts. He was the hero of the weekend, and it was interesting to see that he didn't dress like the stereotypical railroad baron.


Here are a couple of views of the Davenport skyline, as seen from the train crossing Arsenal Island and the Arsenal Bridge. If the QC ever finally gets Amtrak service to Chicago, the state of Iowa is interested in extending service over to Iowa City, Des Moines, and eventually Omaha. If this happens, these will be the tracks that Amtrak would use, and this is the view of Davenport that the passengers would get. Its a little better than the view from I-80.

There would also be plenty of views like this between Davenport and Iowa City, although its a pretty nice view in its own way. This was taken near Walcott.




Finally, here's a video I took through the unfortunately dirty windows during the return crossing the Arsenal Bridge.

Steam Trains (More Later)

I was fortunately able to take the 3PM steam locomotive-powered trip to Walcott yesterday, and it was great. I'll have more images, a movie, and such later.

For now here are the QCTimes and QCOnline articles.

Flames, Trains, and sparse blogging

Saturday night was the first home game for the Quad City Flames, and I'm happy to say they won 3-1. I'm not as happy to say that they only had a bit over 5,000 people show up at the game, with only around 2,000 coming to Sunday night's. I think they need to contact Main Street Baseball and ask them for some pointers on increasing attendance at minor league sporting events. Growing up I was never into hockey whatsoever, but whenever I go to a game at the iWireless Center or Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, I find myself paying more attention than I do in nearly any sport. So if any of you out there haven't been to a game, and feel that hockey on TV doesn't do anything for you, I would absolutely recommend going to a live game to see the difference.


Iowa Interstate Railroad wants to raise $75K for flood relief -QCTimes
The steam engines are coming back to town! Well, two of them at least.
When they were here in 2006 for the RiverWay celebration, I deeply regretted that I didn't get the chance to take any of the excursions that were offered. I'm hoping to make it on one of the $40 trips to Walcott and back this year. The fact that its for a cause that we all know first hand is deserving makes it ever harder to pass up. I especially look forward to the view from the upper deck of the Government Bridge. Check out Rock Island's city website for tickets.


Finally, I want to say a few things about my lack of posting. I feel there are a few reasons behind this. One of them is that frankly, city politics are less interesting since the new council came in. Suddenly we're not talking about awkward confrontations, DUIs, near-fistfights, sexual harassment, restraining orders, or lawsuits. Its kind of nice, actually. One thing I miss are the Council Updates being posted on the city website. I'm not sure why that practice was stopped, but if they're still being written, and are now secret, that's the opposite of transparency. While the decisions being made still concern me, its harder for me to jump on the computer and type out a post about rental policies surrounding St. Ambrose than it was to write about some of the various dramas with the previous council.

The second reason for my lack of blogging, and the more recent one, is that I've been following the 2008 election closely. As always, this blog isn't the place for national politics, but as someone who loves the strategy and details of politics, this election is an exciting one to watch. So instead of reading through the upcoming "requests for bids" on the city website looking for interesting tidbits, I find myself reading through polling data and doing electoral college calculations. If November 5th rolls around and I don't start writing more, then I suppose this excuse is a bunch of baloney.

I certainly miss some of the in-depth and fiery discussions that used to rage back and forth in the comments, so I'm hoping to get more involved in running this blog again one way or another.

A few good development things

Blackhawk Hotel redevelopment plan to be unveiled Wednesday -QCTimes
As I've said many times, this could be the biggest development for downtown Davenport in many, many years. Adding hotel rooms and the Gold Room onto the RiverCenter will make it more viable, and restoring the Blackhawk is important for downtown and its history. I look forward to riding in the glass elevator again someday.

Davenport Council: Taylor School, Showcase projects outlined -QCTimes
Things seem to be turning around on North Brady Street, and when 65th/67th finally connects over to Eastern, I can only imagine that area being even more successful. Maybe some of the positive changes can push into Goose Creek to help continue the slight improvement there in recent years.
Also, the Taylor School redevelopment should be good for that neighborhood, although I'd like to see the renderings of the addition.

Prairie Heights finally makes it into the newspaper!
After months of checking the Home section of the QCTimes with no mention of the QC's most innovative subdivision, PH finally makes a tiny appearance. One of the new houses in Prairie Heights is part of the QC Home Builders' Fall Harvest of Homes. Here's a bland video about it, showing a little of the developing almost-new urbanist subdivision.

Between the Blackhawk Hotel, Taylor School, the old hotel/cinemas site on North Brady, and the redevelopment of the old ShopKo/JoeVan site in Bettendorf, quite a few of the Iowa QC's ugliest or most endangered properties are being fixed up. All that during bad economic times too. The old cinema and hotel site and the old ShopKo are great examples of TIF being used for its original purpose of redeveloping blighted properties.

Cubs lose again!

As those crazy Cubs fans say, maybe next year.

Long-time readers will know that I'm a lifelong Los Angeles Dodgers fan, so I scraped together enough money to get tickets to Thursday night's playoff game at Wrigley Field. As much as I love Davenport's own ballpark, and as much as I root against the Cubs, Wrigley Field is still the best ballpark in America. Dodger fans like myself weren't very popular there tonight, as the Cubs lost 10-3. The way they were playing tonight, they looked like they'd be more at home in a Single A minor league stadium like Modern Woodmen Park.

Here are a few more images from the game:

Even though many new stadiums have tried, you just can't emulate the Wrigley feel.The Wrigley scoreboard, which everyone loves, at least when its not showing the Cubs losing 10-3.

Fans starting to head out, in the 7th or 8th innings. I thought it was Dodgers fans that were supposed to leave early?

Here's one of the few signs outside Wrigley I agree with. Wrigley Field will not be the same if its Dominick's Field, Boeing Stadium, or whatever else it could end up being. Maybe the corporate owners of Jim Beam should purchase the naming rights, and then leave it as Wrigley Field.

A partial Freight House review

This past Saturday night I had dinner at the Ripley Street Grille, which is the restaurant portion of the Freight House complex. As I've now visited 3 out of the 4 venues, I figured I'd give some of my reactions to each of them. I'm no food and drink connoisseur, (I like Ross', after all) so if you check out the place and totally disagree with my thoughts, don't be shocked. The new website for the entire Freight House complex is QCFreightHouse.com, and its got menus and calendars and all that good stuff.

Nan's Piano Bar
I didn't get much of an impression of Nan's, because I was only there for maybe half an hour on a night when there was no piano entertainment scheduled, which meant that the place was deserted. What I can comment on is that it was neat bar, appearance-wise. Its located on the 2nd floor of the Freight House, up the steps from the Ripley Street entrance. There were blue lights, exposed brick, and views of both downtown and the river everywhere you looked. I could tell that its probably a great place on nights with dueling pianos. I give it a B+ because it seems like a waste to have this great bar only busy a few nights a week.

Balls and Pucks Sports Cafe
I stopped down for a fairly quick supper a few weeks ago, and got somewhat of a neutral impression. The service was good, and my food was good, but it just didn't seem to jump out at me as a great bar. The folks I went with were less impressed with their food, and no one was impressed with the fact that their receipts include your entire credit card number. Hopefully they've fixed that. There was a selection of sports memorabilia on the walls, but unimpressive dining furniture. It seemed like extra space that they decided to throw a sports bar into, and I'm guessing that it works well as an area for people to wait in before shows at Penguins. Last Saturday when we walked past it seemed jammed, so maybe there's something I don't see. Until I get a different feel from the place (and check my credit card statement carefully) I have to give it a C+. It did have outdoor seating with a river view, at least.

Ripley Street Grille
I saved the best for last. Its a bit pricey for the pasta, steak, or seafood entrees, but the pizza and sandwiches were a good deal for a nice restaurant. Its not a place I would wear jeans to, but plenty of people were. I definitely like the exposed brick, and large windows that we could look out onto LeClaire Park, the Unity Fest, and the Mississippi from. I got the night's feature, which included pork, sausage, a vegetable medley and beans for $20. All of our food was good, but I will say that this isn't one of those places were the portion size is equivilent to 3 meals of food. That's probably good for our health anyway... and it was really just the right amount to leave room for dessert.

There were a few negatives, however. When calling to make reservations I was put on hold for 10 minutes, hung up, called back, got a busy signal, and then when I got ahold of someone I was told they weren't supposed to be taking any more reservations for that night. Since I'd been stuck on hold for so long they gave me one anyway. After getting there and getting seated, apparently there was a mix-up up front and no waiters were told that they were assigned our table! After 15 minutes or so without even being given water or menus, one of my fellow diners spotted someone working there who she knew, and he quickly remedied the situation. Once they figured out what had happened, the place was extremely gracious about everything, and I'm sure if I was the angry type they probably would have paid for the meal. As it was we got some free drinks and dessert. That sounds pretty bad when I type it all out, but it wasn't as big of a deal when you're out for an evening. If we'd been in a hurry, it may have been another story. I mostly chalked it up to them being new.

So overall, I feel they're probably getting a few kinks worked out, and seem to be shaping up into a nice restaurant for downtown Davenport. Without our unlucky mixup, my only complaint would have probably been that the prices were a bit steep. The Turtle Cheesecake pretty much made up for everything anyway, so I'll give it a B+.

Penguins
I haven't been there yet, but I'm kind of hoping to go see Norm MacDonald there on the 23rd. It was absolutely jammed last Saturday, and the QCTimes' David Burke gave it the thumbs up, so I suspect it will do ok. Its a better location by far than being tucked away in a casino strip mall. I believe the new Freight House complex has a better chance of succeeding than any of the previous attempts.

A different perspective on traffic cameras

This was sent in by longtime reader Alfred. It certainly speaks to the argument that traffic cameras are the first step on a slippery slope towards constant surveillance. There's plenty of room for debate on this one.

For you people who are 1) exuberant about the city's spy cams, 2) tolerant of them because they do bring in money, 3) nonchalant about them because you "never" speed so why should you worry about them, or 4) just don't care one way or the other, this article ought to warm your little law-n-order hearts.

Alfred sent me the entire text of the article, but I'll just post a quick excerpt. Links to the full text can be found below.

The technology would be integrated with the Australian company's existing red light camera and speed camera systems. It allows officials to keep full video records of passing motorists and their passengers, limited only by available hard drive space and the types of cameras installed. To gain public acceptance, the surveillance program is being initially sold as an aid for police looking to solve Amber Alert cases and locate stolen cars.

"Imagine if you had 1500 or 2000 cameras out there that could look out for the partial plate or full plate number across the 21 states where we do business today," Elsadek said. "This is the next step for our technology."

ATS likewise is promoting motorist tracking technologies. In a recent proposal to operate 200 speed cameras for the Arizona state police, the company explained that its ticketing cameras could be integrated into a national vehicle tracking database. This would allow a police officer to simply enter a license plate number into a laptop computer and receive an email as soon as a speed camera anywhere in the state recognized that plate.

Here's a link he sent me to a blurb on the subject from John C Dvorak's blog, who is a bit of a legend in the computer/nerd world.

Here's a link to the full article.

Downtown loft construction images

I went downtown this morning to get some shots of various things, but due to the low light at 7am the only ones that turned out were of the former Salvation Army building. I'll have to get back down there to take some better pictures of the new Freight House deck, the basically-finished police station, and the former cement plant property at 4th and Iowa.

Here are 3 shots of the former Salvation Army building, which is either called the Riverwalk Lofts, or Riverview Terrace Apartments, depending on who you ask. Neither name is all that great, although Riverwalk is probably better, as the apartments are nowhere near Riverview Terrace Park.The less-finished east side of the building, as seen from Ripley Street.

The west side of the building, taken from Scott Street. Most of the new windows are in on the bottom 2 floors, and they're either starting to paint the columns, or experimenting on colors.

I'm liking the blue-black-tan color scheme, but I don't know if its the final plan. They are some colors not really found elsewhere in downtown buildings. Getting a good mixture of colors and styles is what makes for an interesting downtown, in my opinion.

Another wild night, but with better aim

Yet another night of shootings and criminal activity.

Early in the evening you had the carjacking/car-chase/demolition derby thing running from the West Kimberly Walmart all the way downtown. The guy wanted out of Rock Island was caught. Maybe this will show some folks that a good way to catch bad guys is to chase them. Here's the Times article on that one.

Then after midnight there were a number of shots fired calls that may or may not have been real, including one officer's warning that some of these thugs have police scanners. At one point several officers heard shots fired, and the phone calls started coming in. When they arrived at the area of the shots, 10th and Grand, at a house referred to by the dispatcher as "the Howard house," they found 2 people shot. One officer said a shotgun may have been used. The QCTimes also has a small article about that one.

Then sometime between 3 and 4, there was some kind of incident on Division bear the Putnam. I heard about officers chasing people on foot, and then calling for Fire and Medic. Apparently a car had rolled over in the street near there. I was never quite sure what all was going on with that one, but one officer did report that one of the victims had run off.

This kind of publicity does untold damage to the image of Davenport, not to mention the quality of life of those living SoLo. It seems to all involve thug on thug violence, but since they're using guns, it endangers all of us. If we could somehow get them to fight their family/gang wars with swords and maces I'd almost endorse letting them fight it out at this point. Some of these folks just don't seem to understand that we're not living in a movie or video game.

Some Conceptual plans for the new library

I did manage to make it to the meeting, and I took some pictures of a few of the PowerPoint slides showing some of the conceptual plans.
This image is looking north at the library with greenspace behind it towards the Prairie Heights subdivision.

Here's an overall interior shot.


A couple of more detailed interior plans. One of the best ideas shown was combining the cafe (which hasn't done well at the Fairmount Library) with the Friends of the Library Bookstore, which is staffed by volunteers. This would allow different options on providing food service.

Here's the overall site plan. A couple people seemed concerned about the fact that there's only one driveway to the parking lot, but as I pointed out at the meeting, the Fairmount branch only has one as well. Sorry about the images being somewhat angled; I didn't sit facing the correct screen. I'd imagine the Times will have a better image in the morning, or even post the entire PowerPoint.

Update, 9-17 6:30AM
Here's the link to the QCTimes article about the meeting, which quotes Art McGivern without mentioning that he's part of the development on the other side of Eastern that will benefit from this library. I sure hope he's generous with the donations to Friends of the Library. After the meeting I drove around the Prairie Heights area, and saw that the first house looks occupied, and at least 2 others are under construction now. The baseball diamonds and their parking lots look to be finished as well.

Also, if you don't like backing up a quarter of a mile or doing a lot of 3 point turns, be careful which streets you cruise down in that area. For example, 67th Street west of Eastern does not yet go anywhere, or have a place to turn around. A couple of streets within the subdivision also end rather abruptly. Seems like they should make sure the Road Closed signs stay in place instead of laying off in the weeds.

Library, signs, and the other bridge

A few assorted items this morning...

Public offered sneak peek of new Davenport library -QCTimes
Tonight (Tuesday) at 6 PM
at Grace Evangelical Free Church, 5520 Eastern
If you don't go to the meeting or somehow let your input be known, you lose the right to complain later. Folks still will, of course. I'm hoping to attend, but may not make it.


Shrunken SCC sign still irks neighbors -QCTimes
These folks need to get a hobby. Anyone who moved into that area in the nearly 40 years since the campus opened in 1969 knew that they were moving in across from a college. If they'd looked into it at all, they could have easily found out that the college planned to grow. Common sense says they don't have all that land for nothing. If you don't want signs or headlights, don't move to a decently busy street near a high school and college! For those neighbors that have lived there since before 1969, it is indeed unfortunate.


As always I don't want to start a Democrat vs Republican political debate on here, but does anyone find it interesting that our inaccurately-labeled "bridge to nowhere" is now a long way from being the most famous one?

A few upcoming events

Saturday

2008 Vander Veer Fall Festival -includes an Art & Garden Fair, frog jumping contest, doll buggy parade, fishing derby, apple baking contest, and a number of other activities for kids and families. There will also be a public input meeting about potential plans to reopen the south entrance of the park.

First Congregational Church, 2201 7th Ave., Moline, will hold a rummage sale benefiting Davenport firefighter Bob Juarez from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Call (866) 323-1631 for details.

Fejervary Children's Zoo, 1800 W. 12th St., Davenport, will celebrate its 103rd Birthday by offering free admission from 10 a.m-.5 p.m. Call (563) 326-7830 for details. This is on both Saturday and Sunday.

Also, at noon the University of Iowa is scheduled to beat some other team from Iowa.


Sunday

St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church's Oktoberfest -"11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. right on Rusholme Street with an authentic German Dinner to be served in Denning Hall, 11:30-3:30 P.M. There will be plenty of food, entertainment, games and fun for all, plus the Big Raffle with $3,000.00 in Cash Prizes." -St. Paul's website


Monday

5:30 PM City Council Work Session about Traffic Cameras
Here's QCOnline's story on it.

Monday Morning Assortment

Friday night activities
Listening to the police radio Friday night, I heard a call of shots fire near the Skybridge. It caught my attention because as I've said on here many times, that sort of thing doesn't happen in that part of downtown. And I was right, because it didn't happen. Apparently the Children of the Corn remake is being filmed at least partly in downtown Davenport, and they were filming Friday night. I haven't seen the original, but I pictured it using more rural locations. All I can figure is they were using the fronts of maybe the USBank and Redstone building, which could maybe look at home in a county-seat sized farm town.

Unfortunately, I heard yet another call to the Mississippi Lofts. Fortunately it was nothing major, but it is still not good. I hope the group that will be managing the apartments being built in the former Salvation Army building takes note of the fact that less mixed income apparently means more problems. The downtown core is safe, so the last thing we need is some of our newest developments bringing in bad elements.

Ballpark hosts Riverfront Pops concert -QCTimes
I have been to quite a few of the Riverfront Pops concerts, and this one was about the best they could have hoped for without using LeClaire Park. Everything ran smoothly, and the actual music was great. As I commented on the article, it just didn't have the same feel as LeClaire Park. I think being able to see the river from just about any seat, and watching dozens of boats bobbing in the river nearby really adds something. Also an our of cold rain doesn't help. I'll probably put some images of the concert and the crowd up later sometime.

Gluba has global vision for Davenport -QCTimes
I'm surprised at the negative reactions to this one, although I shouldn't ever be surprised at negative reactions on the internet. What's the harm in working with sister cities to potentially lure new businesses and manufacturing on the QC area? Sure, it may not work, but I appreciate the effort. People don't seem to understand that the city is capable of doing more than one thing at a time. Just because the Mayor is trying to drum up business overseas, doesn't mean that the rest of city functions will suffer.

LST 325 Open Thread

I only took a few pictures during the excellent self-guided tour, so here are 3 of them. I was happy to see that 16,000 people took advantage of this great opportunity to visit a piece of WWII history right here in the QC.


Here's one of several 20mm deck guns, and a shot of the long line people were willing to wait in for a tour. Despite getting there at 9:05 Monday morning, my dad and I still waited in line for half an hour before we got onboard.

Other than the LST stuff, consider this an open thread.

LST 325 and Jumer's Casino

Today and tomorrow (Tuesday) are your last chances to see the LST 325 Memorial docked in Moline. I plan to tour it today. I was over there on Saturday, and the line stretched about 2 blocks long. I'd say the ship is being very well received in the Quad Cities, and hopefully they're raising a lot of money for its restoration and upkeep. If I get any good additional pictures during the tour I'll also post them.

LST (Landing Ship Tank) 325, ready to help invade Moline.


Also today, I have a few construction shots of Rock Island's new Jumer's Casino, submitted by a helpful reader. With gas prices being what they are, I don't make it all over the QC to take pictures anymore.

As far as I know, this casino still has a Styrofoam basement with water running underneath it, waterfilled bladders supporting the floor, or some similar trickery to be considered a "floating casino."

So although I posted images of 2 things that could technically considered boats, I don't think they could possibly be more different from each other.

And finally, happy Labor Day folks.

And God said, Let there be Parking

And a historic home was struck down, and parking flowed forth.
And God saw... that it wasn't good at all.


Effort to save the Deutsch House hits the bricks -QCTimes

Does anyone know if they even let Habitat ReStore in there to harvest any salvageable materials or architectural features? I wonder if they wanted to kind of sneak this up on people to avoid a public protest or something.

Monday's Good, Bad, and Indifferent

I kind of liked this format when I used it for the downtown comings and goings a while back, so I'm going to use it again.

The good:

The Blackhawk Hotel building getting $8.5 Million in tax credits. Check out Restoration St. Louis's website to see some of the things they've done with historic buildings. The $42 million renovation of the 15-story Coronado Hotel is particular applicable. Bonus good to the Forrest Block getting some state money as well. Hopefully it can get back on track.

The former Creative Tile building's reconstruction getting under way. This area at the foot of Oneida has a lot of potential, and hopefully something can be done with the site of the in-limbo Oneida Landing project.

What seems to have been a successful River Roots Life/Ribfest downtown on 2nd Street.

The new owners of the River Bandits. I never could have guessed that anyone could make as big of a positive impact on Davenport's baseball experience in only one year as they've made. I've seen several games listed with over 6,000 in attendance, which hadn't happened for years prior to this season. I'd much rather have 4,000 people pay $5 to watch a game than sit there with 2,000 people who paid $10 and have empty seats everywhere. And cheaper prices are only part of what these new guys are doing down there.

The bad:

John Lewis's problems. While people seem to take a disturbing amount of pleasure from the misfortune of the JLCS folks, and their clients, they may be missed in the community. The overextended themselves so much that this seems like it was bound to happen, but I don't think their failure is going to be a positive for downtown as suggested elsewhere.

Moline's Kone Centre project's continued troubles. Ten or twelve stories is nice, but hardly the massive impact that an 18 or 20 story building would have on the QC's skyline.

Taylor School not getting tax credits. While I put the Blackhawk at the top of the impact list for these tax credits, Taylor School is probably next. See below for who I don't think should have gotten them.

Me, for not posting enough lately. I'll try to remedy this one.

The indifferent:

The former Salvation Army building renovation (RiverWalk Lofts, Riverview Terrace Apartments?) getting tax credits in the same lottery as the Blackhawk and Forrest block. Section 42 housing isn't terrible, (people making less than $24,000 aren't what I'd call poor) concentrating people of one income level is not a good thing.
The perfect example is a comparison between the Crescent Lofts and the Mississippi Lofts. The Cresecent Macaroni, Waterloo Mills, and 4th Street buildings managed by Alexander Company are 2/3rds Section 42, 1/3rd market rate. There are very few problems. The Mississippi Lofts only have 4 market-rate apartments, and 42 income-limited Section 42 units. I hear the police called to the Mississippi Lofts on a weekly basis. Last night there was a stabbing there, along with the Shricker. Concentrating lower incomes together does not work. Also, management helps. I don't know much about the management at the Mississippi Lofts, but Lisa Stang, the property manager of the Crescent buildings, is excellent at tossing out people who cause trouble. When there are waiting lists for downtown apartments, there's no need to rent them to criminals.
Hopefully management of the building on River Drive can make up for the all income-limited units, but a better idea is to have some market rate units mixed in.

Jeff Speck's ideas for downtown Davenport

Now that I'm slower than even the mainstream media, I guess I'd better post my reactions to Jeff Speck's presentation at the Figge last Thursday night.

For background, here's the QCTimes article about it, here's their editorial about it, and here's a blog post about it from Information Swimming.

Now, one of the things that didn't make it in the QCTimes articles was that Mr. Speck never expected every one of his suggestions to be utilized. His phrase was that he was throwing a lot of stuff at the wall to see what sticks. The Design Center and I believe the Downtown Partnership will be working on more public input sessions about downtown improvement ideas.

Another misconception is that Jeff Speck suggested moving the Freight House Farmer's Market out of downtown. In fact, he suggested moving it farther INTO downtown, and onto second street. I understand where he's coming from in wanting to combine the popularity of the farmer's market with the success of the 2nd Street corridor, but I think the Freight House area could be the next success story and shouldn't be given up on. Second Street is great, but it doesn't have the river views or historic Freight House as a backdrop. The area of the Freight House was one of the few suggestions that I disagreed with.

One of the things I really liked were his suggestions of smaller buildings to fill in missing areas. One idea was to take out a couple of the drive-through lanes at the USBank on 2nd Street and replace them with a skinny building shielding the rest of the drive up from the Figge plaza. Plazas feel more like plazas when they're surrounded by buildings on 3 or 4 sides. As far as bank drive-up lanes, Mr. Speck correctly pointed out that you rarely see them full these days. The drive-up lanes near the Figge and the library on Main are both taking up land that could have better uses.

Another good infill idea was to build a narrow building along the east side of Iowa Street between 3rd and 4th street to connect the Crescent Warehouse District down to the 2nd Street corridor. Right now you have to walk between a demolished cement plant and a large parking lot, which doesn't provide a welcoming impression.

As you can see from the few things I've mentioned, a lot of the suggestions weren't for public improvements, but for areas ripe for private development. One of the problems that was mentioned at the presentation was that local banks are unwilling to finance condos downtown. Considering the extremely high occupancy rate of the apartments downtown, I have yet to understand why both banks and developers are so wary of trying condos and market-rate apartments. Something is going to have to change on this front for downtown to really take off like I feel its close to doing.

I'm going to stop there for today. Jeff had a lot of good ideas, but having visuals really helps. I'm hoping to be able to get a copy of the map that was shown at the presentation, and hopefully a video of the entire presentation will soon be available somewhere online.

Rough night for emergency workers

Last night was a busy one for police, medics, and firefighters.

There were shots fired near the Kwik Shop at Locust and Harrison, involving Phillip Bogan, who you may remember was charged in connection with the shooting on East 14th back in May. It sounded like he wasn't the shooter, but may have been the target. I think it really is about 1% of Davenport's population that both causes , and is victimized by, 90% of our violent crime. Nobody got shot, but I don't believe the shooter was caught either.

Then later this morning there was a car-motorcycle collision near Menards, which didn't sound too good for somebody. When the cops call out the accident investigation team right away, its never a good sign. Welcome Way was also closed for a while.

Less than an hour after that there was a head on collision in front of Sudlow on Locust, with at least 3 people injured. There were also some other medical calls around that time, so even though 4-5am is usually a quiet time for firefighters, I think quite a few of our companies were out on EMS calls. It will also be interesting to find out later if alcohol was a factor in either or both of these accidents.

Hopefully all the injured are ok, and thanks as always to our first responders.


Also: My Jeff Speck article is delayed again, but Pioneer98 has a post about it here.

Friday Morning Open Thread

Later today I hope to write a few things about last night's presentation by Jeff Speck, but for now I'll just put up an open thread.


In other news, there's a good write-up in the QCTimes about the HAPPEN program. Hopefully as houses are successfully renovated, more people will see this great program and take advantage of it.

Don't forget: Jeff Speck at the Figge tonight

Here's a quick article about it in the QCTimes.

Doors open and (I believe) appetizers at 5:30, with the actual presentation at 6.

I was able to spend some time with Jeff Tuesday night, and I'm interested to see what recommendations he can come up with for downtown Davenport. Like many outsiders, he seems to see that we have potential more than some of our residents can see. I also heard that the Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan thought Davenport was a neat town. Now we just have to convince the vocal minority of Davenporters who hate their city.

The Smashing Pumpkins at the Adler

Friday night the Smashing Pumpkins opened their tour with a great show at the Adler Theatre. They had been rehearsing for their tour at the Adler for much of the week, and several fans met or spotted various band members around town, including Billy Corgan. He was seen at the Woodfire Grill, Shogun, Greatest Grains, and some local antique stores.

Like last year's Wilco concert, this is another "big deal" for the Adler and really the whole Quad Cities. People traveled from many states to see this concert, and I would say it all went off without a hitch. There was infinitely more security present than the Wilco concert, and the crowd seemed very well-behaved anyway. Here's a link to a thread on a Smashing Pumpkins forum talking about the show. Beware, as it has plenty of ads and swearing.


The concert was more targeted at serious fans of Smashing Pumpkins rather than the ones, like me, who only knew a few of their more popular songs. One part I really liked was Billy Corgan doing a bit of Jimi Hendrix and blaring out a feedback-filled rendition of the Star Spangled Banner during their song United States. It was also a heck of a loud concert.


Here's a video I took of one of their most popular songs, Bullet With Butterfly Wings.

In a surprise move, to me at least, the encore consisted of the Pumpkins' song "We Only Come Out at Night", with kazoo solos, followed by a cover of Mungo Jerry's "In the Summertime," also with kazoo solos. They appeared to be having a good time, but the spontaneous messing-around feel of it was diminished by the fact that they did the same encore at Saturday night's show.

The next show, by the way, cost nearly $100 compared to the Adler's $45-ish after fees. I also think its pretty interesting how the Adler can be beautiful to older generations who remember the art-deco heyday of big movie houses, and also loved by younger generations who dig the retro architecture.

Jeff Speck returns to speak at the Figge

From the city's website:

From pedestrian friendliness to attracting Millennials, New Urbanism expert Jeff Speck to speak on revitalizing downtown Davenport in free presentation at Figge

The public is invited to attend a free presentation, given by New Urbanism expert, Jeff Speck. This presentation will take place at Figge Art Museum auditorium at 225 West 2nd Street on Thursday, August 14, 2008. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with the talk starting at 6 p.m. The presentation is hosted by Downtown Partnership and the City of Davenport. Mr. Speck is helping launch a new downtown planning process and providing the foundation for an updated Downtown Master Plan.

Last year, Mr. Speck presented in Davenport to an overflow crowd of 150, comprised of interested citizens, business owners and city government. During that talk he covered New Urbanism in general terms. This year's presentation will focus on specific recommendations for continued downtown Davenport revitalization.

Mr. Speck is very familiar with Davenport and visits the area often, as his wife is from the Quad Cities. He is also the co-author of Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream (along with Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk).

Church Garage Sale Open Thread

I'm way too busy to post much of anything this week, but I did want to at least put up a general discussion thread. I did manage to make it to the fair tonight, and that was good food as always.

This morning I was driving past the old St. Joe's on Marquette, and I saw that there was a garage sale going on inside. I stopped and went inside, and didn't end up buying anything, but it was neat to look around the old church. On our way out, I talked to one of the members for 10 or 15 minutes, and I was quite impressed with what they've been able to accomplish with only about 30 members. New bathrooms have been built, and geothermal climate control was added. This is the church that former Alderman Meyer tried to prevent from removing the pews from, but despite the lack of historic seats, it is still a beautiful building, and using folding chairs instead of permanent pews allows them to hold other events in the church. Its worth stopping down, if not just to see the inside of the church. The sale runs from 8am to noon tomorrow.

Edit: I wrote this just after midnight on Friday night, so my references to "this morning" and "tomorrow" may have been confusing. The garage sale is from 8am-noon on Saturday.

A few Bix Pix

For the last 3 years, I've watched the Bix downtown. Watching the start from the Midamerican parking garage is one of the most exciting things, and it usually makes for good pictures as well. I also enjoy the sound system down there that updates you on the progress of the race, and the fact that a quick walk over to 3rd street will allow you to see the finish as well as the start. This year I decided we'd watch it from somewhere else. I couldn't decide between the top of Brady, or near the turnaround on McClellan, but as you can see below I ended up going with the turnaround. Here are a few images from that area.
Volunteers setting up hundreds of cups of water before the race. One thing I did like about where we sat was the view of the Mississippi in the background.


The leaders coming into view, and some people a bit farther back in the pack, along with the empty cup wreckage.

I took this one Friday night at the Brady Street Sprint, which is always exciting as well.

Downtown Morning Images

Here are a few of the images that should have gone with yesterday's posts (but they hadn't been taken yet) and a couple of others I took this morning.

The pavilion is really coming along next to the skatepark. There's also a heck of a lot of other landscaping and concrete work going on in that area, including sidewalks being added along River Drive.

The Bix Streetfest is ready for tonight.

The Freight House, with all 4 venues' signs visible, along with the newly painted boxcar.

LeClaire Park sadly has a long way to go, but it looks like the par nearest to the bandshell is being prepped for re-sodding. Maybe the Pops concert is still a possibility?


The RiverWalk Lofts/Riverview Terrace Apartments (the sign on the side of the building still says River Walk Lofts) from Ripley looking west. The sign also says Opening November 2008... I'll believe that when I see it.

Downtown Comings and Goings: Good, bad, and indifferent

I've been meaning to do a post about some of the businesses opening and closing downtown, and in a piece of good timing, the Downtown Davenport Partnership recently updated their website covering some of the same things. I had planned to get some pictures of a few of these things, but those will have to wait for a separate post. I've divided the comings and goings into what I personally consider to be good, bad, and indifferent events for downtown.

Good:

Azteca - Azteca is opening what I believe is their 4th location in what is currently ScatterKats. Finally some Mexican food downtown! ScatterKats really turned out to be a disapoinment compared to the "upscale" New Orleans-themed bar and restaurant it was originally opened as. I think I hear even more police calls to there than Shenanigans. They may not be closing the bar completely though, so we'll see how that works out.

Dillon Fountain - After being in disrepair for years, the Dillon fountain is back in action. Bill Wundram must be thrilled, as he's been complaining about it for years as well.

Riverview Terrace Apartments - Apparently the "RiverView Lofts" are now the Riverview Terrace Apartments. Despite being 100% medium-income, they should give a boost to that end of downtown. As always, it depends on the management.

Snap Fitness - The first piece of the redevelopment of the Putnam and Parker buildings is a 24/7 fitness center. I'm not sure if E Squared Fitness is still in the Executive Square building, but if it is, hopefully downtown can support two fitness places.

Skatepark Pavilion - The structure is together for the multipurpose building being erected next to the skatepark, and the surrounding area's earthworks are progressing as well. This can only help what is already the most popular amenity Davenport has built in years.

The Freight House - All 4 venues are now open, including the Ripley Street Grille. I have yet to check the place out, but from the pictures all the places look great.



Bad:

Starbucks - I don't drink coffee, and could care less about Starbucks closing their downtown location, but I did feel that it lent an air of corporate confidence in our downtown. That said, I think its closing says more about over-saturation of coffee shops downtown and their own business model than the health of downtown Davenport. I almost included this in "Indifferent."

LP Studios - The closing of the Living Passion Studio and Coffee Shop at 2nd and Iowa is a greater loss for downtown than Starbucks. It was a unique place where you could get a coffee and watch them work on the backdrops for their productions as well.

Still missing - A new Figge restaurant, a replacement for Savitris, and of course, casino progress.

Indifferent:

Sippi's - This has been discussed at length, but I'm leaving it in the indifferent category. I will say that the building looks better than I was afraid it was going to, but it was a fight to get it that far. The council passed design guidelines, so people shouldn't be surprised when they come into play.

Salon Luce - The "Mentality" hair salon in the Executive Square building was replaced by "Salon Luce." Ok.

Hilltop Hair Variety Shop & Neat Stuff - A couple junk shops move down the hill into downtown. I suppose having entrepreneurs selling a mixture of items is better than a vacant storefront. Seems like they could have changed the Hilltop name at least.


Check out the Downtown Partnership's page about current downtown projects.

Bad storm

I had planned to do a post this morning, but I don't have power and I don't feel like typing a whole post with my thumbs. I drove around a bit and this storm seems like one of the worst we've had in a while. The damage seems worst east of Brady and also in the southwest end. There are a lot of power lines down and trees and branches on houses and cars. I kept wondering when Davenport is going to catch a break this year! It seems like its been one natural disaster after another.

Missing Roof Open Thread

At this point I have no idea what they're doing in the conversion of the old Salvation Army building on River Drive into the Riverwalk Lofts. They've torn the roof off, and taken down the pillars that held the roof up. I can only guess that they're either getting rid of the 4th floor, and rebuilding it and maybe even adding another floor on top. Or maybe they're just going for the 1945 Berlin look... any readers know what they're up to?

There have been some closings downtown, and I'm also hearing about some planned openings, so I'll save that for another post. Aside from the casino stuff I've been dwelling on, what else is up in the QC area?

Some More Casino Stuff

I'll get to the Davenport vs Isle of Capri stuff in a minute, but first I wanted to mention that Friday night I visited Casino Rock Island for the first time. (The fact that I'd never been there before shows that I'm not a big time gambler, and the fact that I lost a total of $6 shows it even more.) I wanted to see it before the opening of the new casino opening snuck up on me, because I'd always heard that it was different than the 2 Iowa side boats. I like that it actually feels like a boat, probably because it actually is a boat, or several boats to be more accurate. I'm a bit too young to have ever been on the President, but I hear that you could tell that you were on a boat there as well. The other alternatives are essentially just casino buildings on barges.

I would have greatly enjoyed the smoke-free atmosphere at Casino Rock Island, but for some reason Friday it had a bit of a sewer/gas smell on the bottom floor of the southern boat. I assume it was something leftover from the flood. The rest of the place smelled fine though, and I didn't have to wash my clothes when I came home. In some ways, I feel like its a shame that this unique casino will soon be closing, but I also think the new park Rock Island is planning to replace it will be a great asset for the QC.


And now back to the regular topic, Davenport's Rhythm City Casino:

Davenport gaming license valued at $169M -QCTimes

So a Davenport casino could be worth $169 million to someone. As I've said before, we should be looking for that someone. Unlike Alderman Lynn's crazy suggestion last year, we should not even consider a casino operator that has another casino within 200 miles of here. Casinos are willing to pay $500 million just for a license in the Chicago area, so I think getting them to spend $60-90 million on a complex in Davenport, where they wouldn't have to buy the license, isn't out of line.

As I have posted many times, I would like to see this plan, involving a casino, hotel, and indoor water park. The Grand Harbor Hotel and Waterpark in Dubuque only cost $26 million, and IOC is supposedly spending around $40 million on their land-based casino in Bettendorf, so that puts the figure right at the low end of the $60-90 range. The study also said that a downtown casino wouldn't do that much worse than an interstate-side casino, so I think the benefits of a downtown casino outweigh the costs. The main reason would be the ability to use the casino investment as a match for state grants aimed at fixing the riverfront after the casino boat leaves. I also think a more urban location with a number of amenities within walking distance would be a unique attraction for a casino, and if people are willing to find the Riverside Casino, I think they could find downtown Davenport. You can argue that gamblers don't visit surrounding attractions, but I would argue that they have a better chance of visisting downtown attractions if they're visiting a downtown casino vs one along the interstate.

As a commenter on my previous post pointed out, Mary Ellen Chamberlin couldn't come out and say that the Isle $9 million offer is a pile of crap, as giving away your opinions like that isn't good for negotiating. However, the fact that she tried to put a positive spin on it with this "Its not a bad offer" stuff isn't a good sign. Its a terrible offer! If she's not on their side, how about a "no comment" or something? It appears she's worried whether anyone wants to come into this market and take the license, but somehow I think there are casino companies out there willing to gross $80-90 million a year.

Also, why would IOC spend $9 million on the current Davenport casino boat building-on-a-barge. When they spend all their millions to build a land-based casino in Bettendorf, couldn't they just float that building-on-a-barge down here? I don't want that, as it would possibly block even more of the river than the current boat, but I do wonder what their plans are for the current Isle of Capri boat.

Friday Assortment: 90 Degree Edition

Blackhawk Hotel: A wasted renovatoin -QCTimes Letter to the Editor

This one gets July's Worst Letter of the Month Award, I think. The letter writer clearly hasn't been following what's happening with the Blackhawk, the RiverCenter, or Restoration St. Louis. Why take the time to write a letter to the editor about a subject that you apparently know so little about?


Davenport population inches up -QCTimes

Its not the best news, but compared to the losses that Davenport took from 2000-2002 (almost 1000 people) gaining 94 isn't too bad. This figure is also an estimate, so who knows the real number. Apparently all the people who claim they're moving away because of thumbtacks, stormwater fees, floods, etc are being more than balanced out by new residents.


The Battle of Newark, starring Cory Booker -Esquire

This is a pretty interesting read. Newark has some similarities to Davenport, and if more people were as passionate about fixing Davenport's problems as Mayor Booker, we'd be gaining a lot more than 94 people a year. Instead a lot of people just complain, or tell everyone they know how bad they feel Davenport is instead of working to make it better. We need more Cory Bookers.


And then the casino stuff... (QCTimes article here)

I like Mary Ellen, but it seems like she's a little too ok with IOC's screwing of Davenport and the RDA. The RDA's job is to maximize revenue for the gaming license that they hold, and continuing this relationship with a casino operator that openly admits to using us as a secondary location doesn't do that. The only solution to Davenport's casino is a new operator. A company with no other operations in the area, who will compete with Casino Rock Island and the Isle instead of just remaining a halfway casino property.

Municipal Residency Requirements

As any of you who read the QCTimes know, they've been running a series on cities' residency requirements, how they affect their applicant pool, and some of the reasons behind the rules.

It seems like the common thread through the articles is a general dislike of the rules, which in some ways is understandable. I completely disagree that rules that allow employees to work for a different city/county in one state, but not a closer city/county across the river. The example was where a city's firefighters could legally live in Muscatine, but not Rock Island. I understand, and will explain below, requiring government employees to live in the jurisdiction of their particular city or county. However, if you're going to let employees live outside your city or county, there shouldn't be requirements by state either. A radius in miles from the city hall, police station, fire station, or public works building would make more sense to me. I know there were a couple jobs for Rock Island that I was intrigued by, but despite being able to see the city from my living room window, I couldn't have worked there without moving. However, someone that lived south of Milan would have been eligible. That makes little sense to me.

On the other hand, I completely agree with cities/counties requiring some (or all) of their employees to live in the particular municipality they work for. These government jobs are usually decent paying and have good benefits, so what's wrong with one more job requirement? There are already plenty of things that employers insist on in order to hire someone. If they're going to pay you well and give you good benefits, the least you can do is give them back some loyalty in the form of property taxes.

I especially feel this rule is justified for police, which apparently the new Chief does not. Forcing officers to live in the very same community they're responsible for protecting should give us all a sense that we're in this together. Someone can't say, "well, good enough for government work" and then drive home to a nearby suburb, unaffected by how well they did or did not do their job. If cops don't feel safe in their town, that should just give them more empathy for the rest of us depending on them. We're all in the same boat.

I know there are some strong feelings out there about Davenport city employees living elsewhere than Davenport, so lets hear it.

PHeights, Window Washing, and a big night downtown

A few assorted things today...

Here's the progress on the first house in Prairie Heights. Notice that it actually looks like a house instead of a garage! Whoever moves in will have the benefits of an attached garage, but the front yard and curb appeal of a traditional home. Why did we ever stop using alleys?

Driving downtown this morning to check out the July 4th preparations, I saw that even the Figge was getting cleaned up for the occasion. This job ranks right up there with wing-walker in the "not for me" category.


And speaking of July 4th, what a night July 3rd (tonight) is going to be for downtown Davenport. The Bix at 6, a River Bandits Game, the Blues Fest, and Red, White, and Boom. While I think the fest belongs on the riverfront, it should make for a neat urban atmosphere with River Drive and 2nd Street packed with folks tonight. Hopefully a lot of the Bix@6 crowd will hang around downtown for the rest of the evening. Also, props to the QCTimes for giving the appropriate kudos to Davenport's flood rebound. Now if we could just get CNN to stop by and take notice...

A new QC photo website, and cross-posting at QC

I thought I would pass on a bit of info about a new web page that has been created featuring Quad City-oriented photography. Its called QC Shots, and its located at qcshots.spaces.live.com. It is run by Davenport resident Josh Nash, an immigrant from Belgian who has lived in many places around the US before settling in this area in 2000. It takes bit to figure out the naviagation of the website, but you'll find he has a number of photo albums, and several videos. These images of the Walgreens being built at Brady and Locust were submitted to me from Josh. I may be featuring more of his photography in the future.


The left image was taken on May 12th, and the right on May 28th. Additional progress photos can be found on Josh's website.


In other news, my blog posts should be cross-posting now, both here at the same address as always, and over on the QCTimes' Quadsville. That blog, which may or may not allow comments (I haven't decided yet) will be located here. I kind of hate to get two different comment streams going about the same post, so I may just leave comments off on the mirror blog. That's the same reason I didn't just create a duplicate blog on Wordpress for those of you who have trouble with Blogspot.

I know I haven't been posting much lately, but hopefully I'll get back into daily posting soon.