Redstone Room Promise Meeting (Part 1)

I attended the QCTimes debate on the Davenport Promise last night, and came away fairly disappointed. I was disappointed in the format, which Mark Ridolfi admitted was more like an editorial board interview. I understand that they don't want it to turn into a screaming anti-Promise mob, but I would have liked to see more of the written-down-and-submitted questions read by the moderator. The other thing I was disappointed in was the quality of both sides' representatives. Ken Croken is a little too snarky, and Mark Nelson said some completely bizarre things. Unfortunately for the Pro-promise side, Croken didn't really capitalize on those. Another odd thing was how much Mark Nelson referred to the UpJohn study as a source despite frequently saying that it was junk. If you say something is worthless, don't constantly quote pieces of it that happen to support your side.

The main problem with the anti-Promise folks is that they're being led by a band of Libertarians. I have nothing against that party, but of course Libertarians would oppose an expansion of government! A lot of them, even possibly their hero Ron Paul, would like to see public schools go away altogether, so having them argue the against side put a spin on things that I don't think fits the population. The fact is Davenport does not elect a lot of Libertarians, so I would suspect that that isn't what the public wants right now. If we wanted to be Texas, and have lower taxes and fewer services, we'd vote in that direction. It doesn't seem that we do. I know I don't. At one point Mark Nelson said that if this was passed, the people would like it too much to ever vote to get rid of it. What??

Many times during the debate, Mark Nelson showed that he really could care less what happens to Davenport public schools. At one point he pointed out how nice our private and parochial schools are. That's great (actually I don't think they are) if you've got parents willing to send you to those, but many students do not. I guess in the market-based system that they're just out of luck.The absolute worst thing that Nelson said all night was that taking money from the "city pocket" to help the "school district pocket" doesn't make sense. He flat out said they never relate to each other. I'm sorry Mark, but they absolutely relate when the tax bill comes and they're both on there. Let's say the city passes this, and as he so often repeated, it never "breaks even" for the city. If the Promise brings in enough students that the school district stops raising their share of the property tax, that would more than even out the money that the city loses. The school district gets a much bigger share of our property taxes than the city, and will have to keep raising them if enrollment continues declining. Even if you send your kids to Assumption you have to pay for Davenport public schools.

There ARE reasons to oppose the Promise. I have serious concerns about the capital projects that will be delayed, even if it only affects Centennial Park and Prairie Heights Park. I don't like the idea that we're trading something that I believe in, city parks, for something that is a risk, the Promise. I'd honestly rather see an additional 0.3% sales tax used for the Promise than to have it taken away from the capital budget. Of course, considering how much resistance this has hit, I can only imagine the reaction to a new tax. The other thing that I could use against the Promise is their completely screwed up study that they had done. It ended up hurting the Promise's case more than helping it. Whether it was skewed towards the city's desires, or just badly done, the idea that the city is going to fail without the Promise is wrong. However, the idea that the Promise is going to ruin the city is also wrong. I would have preferred to see a non-Libertarian argue against the Promise based on the actual issues, rather than their ideological beliefs that the government shouldn't do anything. At the end of the night, I felt like, "If this is the best you guys can do to argue against it, this thing might pass after all."

Coming later: What happened when Opt4Better was asked what "better" is. Also, Bill Lynn the "expert economist", and the No folks conspiracy theories.

Monday Morning Open Thread

This is just a good ol' thread about whatever people want to talk about.

Just a few conversation starters from me:

I watched the Davenport city council committee meetings on TV last night, and they definitely made it sound like the Forrest Block building would be market rate units. That's great news. As far as the parking, it seems like a bigger deal is being out of it than needs be. The great thing about adding residents downtown is that they have the opposite hours of the thousands of people who work downtown. There's plenty of free parking downtown after 5, so when residents come home from work, there it is.

Don't forget the Promise meeting tomorrow night at 7PM in the Redstone Room, although I'm not sure who is left that hasn't picked a side. If I had to bet money, I'd suspect that it won't pass, but I wouldn't have guessed that River Renaissance would get 70% percent of Scott County's votes either. Its easy to underestimate the silent majority. I'll have a post about the Promise sometime in the next week here.

Also tomorrow night is a presentation about the Corridor Study drafts, that are now available here. There's some very interesting stuff, but I'm hoping to do a post about that later also. The presentation is at 5:30PM in the Police Station community room.

14th and Harrison Fire

What a night to not have my police scanner on. A coworker came in at 6 and asked what was up with this fire downtown, and I told him I had no idea what he was talking about. He said some big apartment building was on fire downtown, and I was pretty shocked and worried. I pulled up the news and saw where it was, and actually felt relieved. I was afraid it was one of the new developments downtown, or even the Blackhawk (again) or the Forrest Block building. Its a terrible thing for any building, especially a decently historic one, to burn down. However, if it had to happen, this wasn't a bad building for it to happen to. Over the years its been generally blighted and currently it was unoccupied. Its good to hear that no firefighters were injured either.

Hopefully this building doesn't sit in semi-demolished state for months on end like the Linden did downtown.

What should I wish for tomorrow?

Tuesday I bemoaned the lack of market rate apartments downtown. In the comment section, it was mentioned that Restoration St. Louis had an interest in the Forrest Block building, but I said I hadn't heard anything concrete yet. Fortunately, the commenter was correct, as this morning we have this news:

St. Louis-based developer aims to develop Forrest Block property -QCTimes

The article doesn't specify, but I would imagine these will be at least partly market rate, if not all. I'll try to find out if possible, or if someone knows, chime in.

The only question now: What should I wish for tomorrow?

What does a downtown have to do to get some market-rate apartments around here?

We currently have a huge shortage of market-rate apartments downtown. Market-rate units are those that rent for whatever the market will support, as opposed to units limited to certain income levels. The Crescent Lofts, Mississippi Lofts, and now Riverwalk Lofts are turning away dozens of potential downtown citizens because they don't fit the tax credit requirements. What about market rate units downtown? They're nearly all full, especially in newer developments. Even the all market-rate CityView Apartments (former Courtland) have at times had a waiting list. I've seen this shortage firsthand, and I had it confirmed yet again when I toured the Riverwalk Lofts a couple weeks ago. People who make good money are calling to inquire about getting a place downtown, and being told there aren't enough market-rate units for them. How many of these people might be finding a place in downtown Rock Island instead? Downtown Davenport needs more residents, and we're turning them away.

The tax credits that come with Section 42 housing are important to developers, but there are also ways to make market-rate apartments work. As I'll give examples for later, its working other places in Davenport. Other than that, I believe this is a case of the local developers still clinging to their 1980's view of downtown Davenport as an empty wasteland. If you notice, all of the big residential projects happening downtown are out of state folks. Alexander Company (Crescent Lofts) is out of Madison, J&T Development (Mississippi Lofts) are out of Chicago, and MetroPlains (Riverwalk Lofts) are out of the Twin Cities area. The one bright spot currently on the horizon is the Blackhawk Hotel redevelopment, which will include 30 high end lofts. The company doing that, Restoration St. Louis, is of course out of St. Louis. This is a fantastic project, but I believe there is demand for far more than 30 high-end apartments downtown. Unfortunately it seems to take an outside perspective to see it.

Another problem may be the banks, especially when it comes to condos. I've heard from multiple sources that none of the local banks (again, old money with old views of downtown and housing choices) will loan money to developers for owner-occupied developments downtown. I think there's a market for it, but they apparently don't. Jeff Speck even mentioned it while he was here. Unlike apartments, there's no real proof of the demand for condos. With apartments, there is absolute, concrete proof that there are lots of people who WANT to live downtown but aren't being provided the option to.

This isn't how capitalism is supposed to work! If there is a demand for a product, someone is supposed to see that demand and cash in on it. Middle-to-upper income people are willing to pay literally $1000 a month to live downtown, and we're turning them away. Where is the new condo or apartment building construction? I don't believe that it is financially impossible. Look around town, and you will see multiple examples of condo buildings and apartments succeeding. The examples I always use are the condos behind HyVee on Eastern, and the apartments on Washington just north of Locust. Neither of these are out in the 53rd Street "hot" area, and neither of them are low income, or cheap, yet they seem to succeed. Or even look just up the hill to the CityView. Its barely downtown, but has great views of both downtown and the river. It happened when local landlord Matt McDonnell rehabbed the Courtland, charged $600, $700 and up per month, and has had TONS of interest. If someone built or rehabbed a building similar to any of these downtown, I truly believe it would be full within a month of completion, if not before. Between the 1st Army coming to the Arsenal, and a lot of former home-owners becoming renters again, now is the time to build apartments.

So why isn't it happening?

Survey and the Farmer's Market

Survey: Jobs top priority for Davenport residents -QCTimes

“I think, clearly, the city is moving in the right direction,” he said, noting that Davenport residents’ overall satisfaction score for their city as a place to live — at 82 percent good or very good — is 13 points higher than the national average.

Anyone think that 82% of the blog commenters or QCTimes commenters would call Davenport a good or very good place to live? So basically what this tells us is that blog and QCTimes commenters do not accurately represent the citizens of Davenport. Of course, I knew that ever since 2005 when blog commenters were all atwitter about how Niky Bowles would be the next Mayor of Davenport. There's a vocal minority that does a lot of talking, and a silent majority that doesn't necessarily agree.



And, in completely unrelated news, this message was sent to me by some folks involved in the Farmer's Market:

SHARE THE LOVE FOOD DRIVE

THIS SATURDAY AT THE FREIGHT HOUSE
Valentine's Day is no longer just for lovers! Join the Freight House Farmers' Market in our efforts to "Share the Love" by helping the Central Community Circle Food Pantry THIS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14! Bring in grocery items, purchase from your favorite FHFM vendors and donate the purchase, or consider buying a Freight House Farmers' Market gift certificate and donating it. The gift certificates make an excellent alternative to fresh foods because the pantry can come in and shop for what they need when they need it! Nothing will go to waste! The certificates come in $10 increments and can be purchased at Full Circle Soap's booth.

Cathy Lafrenz, Miss Effie's Flower Farm and our very special Buy Fresh, Buy Local connection will be on hand to help collect the donations and get them to where they are needed most. Our generous vendors will be donating as well on this day to ensure their healthy fruits and vegetables, meats, cheeses, and the rest may warm someone's heart and provide sustenance during this long, harsh, winter season. Our newly formed "Friends of Market", a consumer-based volunteer committee, will be on hand as well to help your children design and create one of a kind Valentine's Day Cards. The cards can be taken home to share with friends or family, or even sent along with the food donations to brighten someone's day!

Riverwalk Lofts Tour

Last week I got a chance to check out the newest downtown Davenport residential project, the Riverwalk Lofts. This is the former Salvation Army building on River Drive across from the Freight House. I wasn't sure whether they'd be showing apartments yet, but I found out that not only have they been showing them for a few weeks, but that well over half of them are already spoken-for. Its clear that the rental market is healthy. Reading back through some of the old threads about this where people complain that everyone should be able to buy a house seems kind of funny now that we've had a few changes to the economy. I hope we can also avoid the usual junk about limited income, as not everyone is going to make $40k+ a year, and those making $24k still deserve somewhere decent to live. With the right management, these moderate-income buildings can work. I wish there was more market-rate residential downtown, but rather than rant about that here I'm saving it for another post.

Moving on to the actual tour, here's a pretty great Before/After shot of the building:
This corridor will improve even more with the hopefully-upcoming streetscaping along the north side of the Freight House. I believe that may even be coming this summer.


Here are a couple shots of the views. The one looking east towards downtown is from the 2nd or 3rd floor, and the one looking towards the River is taken from the 4th floor, if I remember correctly. There are quite a few units with river views, which is always a selling point. There is also a rooftop deck that I'm sure will be amazing for watching the riverfront fireworks, but I was unable to get up there last week.


Here are a couple of the more finished units. Its interesting to see the developer going with darker wood cabinets, which is unlike any of the other downtown loft projects. The decorating style in the hallways is also more contemporary than the Mississippi or CityView apartments but less industrial/minimalist than the Crescent Loft district. For example, the Riverwalk Lofts has colors in the hallways other than the white, black, gray, metal, and brick that my former building has. Not that there's anything wrong with that; its good that all the new downtown apartment buildings have their unique characteristics. While some of the floors are polished concrete, other areas have carpet or laminate flooring. There are also some apartments with lofted upper level areas.

All of the units have washer/dryers, which is becoming increasingly common in apartment construction. Another new feature of these lofts is the availability of 3 bedroom units, which the other recent developments lack. There are the usual computer, exercise, and community rooms, and the community room may be available to the community for ward meetings, etc, although I got the feeling that was still being worked out. While some of the apartments on the first and 2nd floor seemed very close to being done, some of the upper units are still under construction. They hope to have people moving in sometime during March, which is only a few weeks away. The units range from 550-770 square feet, and the rents range from $520-$770 a month. There will also be some underground heated parking available, which I always regretted not taking advantage of when I lived downtown.

So, if you or someone you know is looking to move downtown, and they fit the income restrictions, take advantage of this new building before its entirely full. These are great brand-new apartments with fantastic downtown views. If the building does fill up as fast as it seems like it will, hopefully we'll be seeing another new downtown residential building announced soon. Thanks to Robin, the site manager, for giving me an informative tour and explanation of the Riverwalk Lofts.

Edit: I almost forgot. Here's the link to the website for the building.

2009 Iowa-Illinois Regional Auto Show

Here are some images from this weekend's Auto Show at the RiverCenter in downtown Davenport. Its always a fun event to dream about what cars you would like to buy, and also check out cars that you actually have a chance of buying without sales people hounding you.
The slightly changed 2010 Ford Mustang.

The 2009 Dodge Challenger. They have a couple of these and they are pretty nice.

The long-awaited 2010 Chevy Camaro.


A Dodge Charger and a Porshe 911 Carrera.

Movies of the QC

Sugar, the movie that was shot here last year, will be premiering in New York and LA on April 3rd, with a possible larger theatrical release coming later. Here's the website, and here's the trailer:

(I had the trailer on YouTube embedded here, but it broke the blog. Just click here to watch it.)

I would think it looks pretty good, but I'm still worried that its going to portray Iowa as some "white's only" hick state from the 1950's. At least it appears to portray Modern Woodmen Park as the beautiful ballpark that it is. Hopefully it will show in theaters here so we can find out before it goes to video.


Speaking of movies filmed here, remember The Hideout? Whatever happened to that? The Avatis' movie that was filmed here a few years ago never seems to have gone anywhere. There's a website for it, and it can be found on DVD in Italian, but it never seems to have made it out in English. I know the plan was for the American actors to do their parts in English, and the Italian actors to do theirs in Italian, and they'd dub half of them for each release. I emailed some public relations firm in Italy to ask about the movie's status, but got no response. I probably should have emailed the QCTimes's David Burke. Any readers know what happened? I know a lot of locals got small parts and worked as extras.

Where in the QC is this #21 Answer

While not all that specific, Anonymous at 8:32AM on Blogspot, and lnelson56 at 10:55 on Quadsville both were the first to say "the airport." Even though we have a couple airports, I am sure by "the" airport they meant the Quad City International Airport (QCI Airport) which is correct.It was taken on my way out of town back on January 12th, when I was lucky to have my plane take off before the snow got worse. I was also lucky to miss that week of -25 degree temps. Congrats to those who guessed correctly.

Where in the QC is this #21

Time for another round of my little "Name that place" game. No clues yet, because I think this one will be way too easy. If somehow it goes until this afternoon without being guessed, I'll post a wider shot.Where in the QC is this?

People who can't follow the rules

No, this isn't a post about Pachino Hill.

I've noticed quite a trend lately in both of our local papers. There have been a number of stories of people essentially complaining that they were punished for breaking the rules, laws, or ordinances of the community they live in.

Example #1. The uproar over the red light and speed cameras.
Mostly people's anger about these comes down to the feeling that its not "sporting" for the police to have automated enforcement. I'd like to point out that we don't have some inherent right to get away with breaking the laws just because there aren't police around. Don't speed or run red lights, or loan your vehicles to those that do, and you will never get an automated enforcement ticket.

Example #2. Snow removal policies bother many residents -QCTimes
This article features a landlord who hadn't shoveled his walks for 4 days after a snowstorm, and complains that the city charges him too much when they have to do something that is his responsibility. While I believe, as mentioned in the previous post, that the 10 hour rule is a bit too strict, the rule has been in place for years. It didn't just go into effect this year, and if the guy wanted to avoid the city bill he could have just shoveled his walks, as is required as part of owning a house.

Example #3. Parking headaches cause clashes in downtown Davenport -QCOnline
The guy featured in this article moved his business out of downtown after his car was towed away from the front door of his business. The reason? He had 10 unpaid parking tickets! He felt that, despite the laws, it was his right to be able to park in front of his business without paying the meter. Many people disagree with the fact that we have parking meters, but that doesn't change the fact that we have them. If he didn't want his car towed he should have followed the rules.

Example #4. Lack of notice irritates residents -QCTimes
This guy stores his junk outside and then gets upset when the city enforces their ordinances. A lot of people have been wanting the city to crack down on this kind of stuff for years, and now the paper is going to make him out to be the victim. Most of the article bemoans the fact that he didn't get the letter (since he isn't the property owner) warning him about it. If he'd kept his yard clean he wouldn't have had to worry about any letters.

The moral of these stories to me is that if people want to avoid trouble with the city they should follow the laws! Who would have thought? As I said in one of the article comment sections, from all the threats of people to leave the city over this stuff, Davenport will probably become an even better place to live.

If you feel that a certain rule is unjust, you don't need to break it to make an example of yourself. Call your alderman, run for council, or otherwise participate in the democratic process. Not shoveling your walks doesn't make you the Ghandi of city ordinances, it just makes you a jerky neighbor.

Yet another Monday morning assortment

Prairie Heights, shoveling, and a public service announcement

I was interested to see a couple mentions of Prairie Heights in the QCTimes in the last 2 weeks. Last Sunday in the Home section the featured open house of the week was a home in Prairie Heights, and yesterday there was this article featuring the first family to move into the subdivision. I was waiting for the storm of comments relating to the dad's comment about the Promise being part of the reason they chose Davenport, but for some reason there was only 1 comment, and not about that. Since Ruhl is doing a terrible job of promoting the development, at least the Times is hyping it a little. I'd hate to see it fail due to lack of publicity and then for people to point to that and say that new urbanism doesn't work. I wonder if Ruhl is purposely neglecting it because promoting tradition neighborhood design by definition makes suburban style developments (which 95% of new construction is) look worse.

And then there's this one...
Snow removal policies bother many residents -QCTimes
While even I will admit that 10 hours is a short window to get your walks shoveled, the landlord quoted in the story didn't have his shoveled 4 days later! He threatens to leave the city and never have rental property here again. I say don't let the door hit you on the way out. I wonder if he's the same person that posted this rant several times on the City-Data.com Iowa forums. Hopefully what comes out of this complaint is an extension of the time to shovel from 10 up to maybe 18 hours after the snow ends. I mean, people work 12+ hour shifts, and shouldn't be punished for it. On the other hand, if its still not shoveled 4 days after the snow, I wouldn't be opposed to the city charging an extra fine. Its part of the responsibilities of owning a home.

Finally, I wanted to do somewhat of a "Public Service Announcement". I know a lot of people are working their way through the switch to digital television. If you don't know what I'm talking about, and don't have cable or satellite, go to this website. As most of you have surely read, the government is even considering pushing back the final switch to the digital-only format because so many people are still unaware. Also, if you have an HDTV and digital Mediacom cable, you can go out there and trade in your digital box for an HD one that gets 15 or 20 HD channels for free.

However, this isn't my main topic. Many people are buying new HD TVs, both because of the digital switch-over, holiday sales, and the upcoming Super Bowl. If you have certain things like a HD cable box, PS3, or a Blue-Ray player, you'll need to connect them to the TV with an HDMI cable to get the best picture. Here's my point (finally): Do NOT buy one of these cables for more than $20. The brick-and-mortar stores are all banking on people just accepting the idea that these cables should cost $40, $50, even $100. This week Best Buy has an HDMI cable "on sale" for $80. Its ridiculous. Here is a review on CNET.com, which is a well-respected computer and electronics website, explaining how the $6-10 cables that can be found online are just as good as the $40 cables bought at Best Buy or WalMart. The fact that these stores are essentially price-fixing these cables in order to fleece people makes me want to open an HDMI cable store that sells them all for less than $20. It would work until the big stores realized that their free ride was over and lowered prices to a reasonable level. Here's a link to the cables I use from a reputable seller, which I plan to add to my link bar later. Feel free to donate some of the money I just saved you to the Promise, Riverfront Thumbtack fund, or D1.

Jobs Jobs Jobs

The good news of this week...

Carleton Life Support Systems to add 80 jobs in Davenport -QCTimes

...was pretty much overshadowed by the bad news of the week:

Nichols Aluminum lays off 55 in Davenport -QCTimes

Deere lays off 120 at Davenport plant -QCTimes

...and of course there's the impending Alcoa layoff news, which remain to be seen.

Honestly, the Nichols news doesn't surprise me as much as the Deere news. Nichols, I believe, makes a lot of materials used in home construction, which is down. Deere's Davenport works makes construction equipment. As always, I hate to mention politics, but it appears that there is going to be billions of dollars spent on "infrastructure" which means billions of dollars in construction in the next few years. You'd think some of the folks doing the heavy construction might want a new road grader or two. Hopefully the layoffs are temporary.

I'm curious whether the QC area ended up in the positive or negatives for job creation/loss in 2008. I would guess in the positive, but its hard to say. Deere doesn't advertise when they hire new people, and there have been several smaller businesses open up in Davenport, in addition to the low-paying AT&T and relocated eServ. Here's a list of the top 100 labor markets, by jobs gained and lost from November 2007 to November 2008, as posted by DMRyan over on the AbsoluteDSM forums. It varies from Detroit losing 67,700 jobs all the way up to Houston gaining 42,400 jobs. Since we're not one of the 100 biggest labor markets, we're not on the list. I tried finding my way through the Bureau of Labor Statistics website to get the info, but it makes the City's website look as user friendly as Google in comparison.

I sure hope our city economic development and D1 folks were going after the 1300 IBM jobs that ended up going to a historic building in downtown Dubuque. As much as I love that city, I don't see what they have that we don't, aside from Mike Blouin in their corner. The best museum in Iowa probably wasn't IBM's deciding factor.

Monday Morning Assortment

My plan to start posting more was derailed by a trip to Arizona. The trip had been planned since early December, but boy did it end up being a good week to be out of the Midwest. I had intended to post a few things while I was gone, but it didn't end up working out.

Every time I visit the Phoenix metro area it reminds me how much I like it here. Sure, being able to walk outside in January in shorts and short sleeves can be nice, but driving anywhere in our metro in 15 or 20 minutes all year is nice too. It was also quite noticeable that I was visiting an area that is very much affected by our current economic crisis. Lots of closed car dealerships, closed stores, and "Foreclosure house auction" signs around. There did seem to be a good amount of development along their light rail route, which just opened, but I can't say for sure its directly tied to the new mass transit option.

Some good news for downtown Davenport
There is now a large construction trailer in the parking lot of the Blackhawk Hotel. Also, if you look at the Scott County Assessor's page for the property it still shows IOC as the deed holder, but if you click on the Auditor/Treasurer Report you can see it listed as "HOTEL BLACKHAWK LLC" with an address in St. Louis in the same building (restored by Restoration St. Louis) where Restoration St. Louis is based. So I think its safe to say that IOC actually followed through on something for once, and transferred the hotel. It will be interesting to see what the sale price is shown as when the Assessor's section updates. I'm very excited about this project. It will be great to get some market-rate apartments in downtown, and great to get the Blackhawk back to its former glory.

Vandalism
What is with people? I was saddened to read the news online about Sunderbruch park being vandalized. I would like to see something done to catch whoever may be doing it. Maybe the VIPs or Guardian Angels can stake out the place come Spring.
In other vandalism news, when I was downtown taking pictures before I left for vacation, I stopped in the Skybridge. The wreath at the North end looks great from the outside. Then I went inside and saw that it looked like the strings on the bottom half were out for some reason. I walked up close to look and saw that the strings were fine, but people had stolen all the bulbs out of everywhere within reach. Nice. I think people caught doing stuff to the Skybridge should be assigned the job of cleaning bird crap off of the observation deck. This is another area where I'd like to see some kind of volunteer effort to really patrol the place frequently. Maybe some coordination between the VIPs, GA's, and maybe some additional volunteers? Maybe even Rhythm City's security, since it is supposedly the "Rhythm City Skybridge." I doubt people would do this stuff if someone else was in there, and I'd be willing to spend an hour or two a week strolling back and forth in the place with my cell phone handy. Its too bad its not always as popular as it was during the floods.

I-74 Bridge at night

I went out last night and got some nighttime images. I plan to post a few over the next week.

Here's the first one, of the I-74 bridge. Its hard to imagine that in 15 or 20 years this may all be gone. I think this picture almost looks better in black and white.

Bald Eagle Days Open Thread

Well, I had hoped for more discussion in the post below, but I'll stick up an open thread anyway. Partly I wanted to remind folks that Bald Eagle Days is going on Saturday and Sunday at the QCCA Expo Center.

In other news, the skatepark lights have been off before 10 the last few nights, so the naysayers prevailed on that one. I wonder what it takes for them to flip them on if we get some freak 50 degree days in January or February. If it doesn't take much to get them back on if folks want to skate or bike some warm evening, then I might not be as against having them off for the 10-below nights.

Speaking of the Eagles, the list of cities that the world's most expensive band is hitting on their tour puts the Quad Cities in pretty good company. Chicago, Orlando, Cleveland, Kansas City.... Cities that have top-level professional sports teams. And Moline. Not too bad. Now we'll see how many people can afford to go.

Walking to school and playing outside

I've been wanting to do a post on this for a few weeks now. I got started thinking about it when I read this article in the paper: Initiative encourages walking to school -QCTimes. The article talks about parents' reluctance to let young children walk to elementary school alone, and some of the negative results of this.

It got me thinking about how much things have apparently changed just in the last 15-20 years since I was a student at Garfield Elementary. I'm not sure what grade I started walking. It was rarely by myself but generally with friends, neighbors, or my younger sister, but I believe it was around 3rd grade or so, or about 8 years old, that I walked to school without an adult. These days if you see an 8-year old walking around by himself, most people wonder where his parents are. One person in the article was quoted as saying that while child predators and amber alerts are highlighted by the media more now, its really no more dangerous to let kids walk to school than it was 20 years ago. That actually seems around right to me. A great suggestion in the article is "walking school buses," where kids are picked up by an adult that walks a bunch of kids to school together. I'd love to think we could return to the days of not worrying about kids walking alone, but the adult escort seems like a good start compared to each parent dropping their kid off from a car.

The other thing that came out of thinking back to walking to school, was the amount of freedom I enjoyed to play outside. My parent-approved territory constantly expanded as I got older. First it was the fenced yard that I regularly escaped from, then our half of the block, then both halves of the block (people with alleys know what I'm talking about), then a couple blocks, then the 9-block area I grew up in that was bordered by busier streets, then essentially freedom to go places (within reason) prior to true freedom, a driver's license. I guess I don't know if this kind of thing still exists anymore, or if parents are constantly in fear of the children being snatched by a psycho. I know I see kids playing outside in the street, so it must not have changed too much from when I was a kid. Maybe I'm getting too nostalgic here, but are kids still allowed to roam their neighborhood for hours at a time without being thought of as unwatched hooligans? I remember that there were kids whose parents didn't really care, whose excessive childhood freedom I was jealous of, and were the types of bad influence kids I'm referring to by "hooligans." I'm also curious how this stuff works out north of Kimberly where going "around the block" could be a squiggly, dead-end filled half mile walk. If you live at say, 40th and Forest Rd, where is there to even walk to?

So I haven't really said a lot here of substance as much as put thoughts and questions out there, but I'm hoping for some good discussion. One of my big reasons for supporting traditional neighborhoods and traditional-style new urban developments is my belief that this idyllic "walk-to-Golick's, bike-to-little-league, play-in-the-alley" childhood was beneficial to me as I grew up. Or maybe I can just blame my parents for not buying me a Nintendo.

Oneida Landing/ Creative Tile building images

I managed to get a couple pictures today of the reconstructed Warren Radio or Creative Tile building at the foot of Oneida Street in Davenport. Here's an old QCTimes article about the renovation, which added 1 and a half stories to the existing building. One thing I don't see in the article is what the building will be called. Hopefully something better than "the former Warren Radio building."
Hopefully they can landscape or otherwise disguise the blank wall of the underground parking level. Aside from that, its a great building for visitors to see when disembarking from the riverboats that dock at Oneida Landing.
Hopefully these sell like hotcakes and demonstrate to the timid local developers that people want to live near the river. Maybe they'll even notice that people want to live downtown.

And yes, I'm trying to post more in 2009.

QCI's 2008 Wishlist: 1 year later

Here's my top 5 wishes for the Quad Cities from last January's post, "QCI's 2008 Wishlist." I'm reviewing last year's list before I post my 2009 wishlist. I've also written whether or not I think we've achieved these goals.

#1. Illinois comes through for us
This refers to both the QC-Chicago rail connection funding, and the years-overdue WIU-QC campus. They are both no-brainers, but as I've said before, that is about the number of brains that seem to be in Springfield lately. The WIU campus has the land, has Federal grants for improving the area, and already has private businesses lining up to build projects in the area. The Amtrak project looks to be equally logical, at least according to the feasibility study. Illinois, lets get your act together!

FAILED. Instead of Illinois politics being the laughing stock of the Midwest, now they're known worldwide. And we still have no WIU, no Amtrak connection, plus closed parks and historic sites!

#2. Land a large downtown project
Our downtown progress has shifted to smaller projects like the Skatepark, Capitol renovation, and the former tailor shop being renovated on Ripley. We need something big to really send a message about downtown's increasing vibrancy. My top two choices would be a mixed-use building with office, condo, and apartment components, or the Gameworks/InPlay/Dave & Busters idea that I've been hoping for for years now.

Somewhat Failed. The Blackhawk renovation probably qualifies as a really big project for downtown, but it hasn't really gotten started yet. Instead there have been several medium-sized projects this year, such as the Salvation Army building's transformation, the Freight House, etc.

#3 Figure out the Casino
Speaking of large downtown projects, it would be nice to get the amazing Blackhawk renovation plans in motion. It would also be nice to put the LeClaire Park revitalization into action. What are these waiting on? Of course, they're waiting for IOC to stop screwing Davenport for a few minutes and allow some progress. At this point I've given up on them actually doing a useful project of their own, but it'd sure be nice if they'd at least get our of our way.

FAILED. We still have no public announced plans, and the economy isn't making any large investment in a casino likely. The riverfront is still marred by the parking lots and ugly, "local-oriented" casino. IOC needs to go, but I haven't heard anything from the council about it lately.

#4. Redevelop the former hotel and cinema sites on North Brady
I'm glad the new Davenport welcome sign wasn't put farther north, because at least this way we can pretend these eyesores aren't actually part of our city.

Succeeded! The hotel is torn down, the former movie theater is slated to become a religious center, and Tri-City and other contractors are going to be building new offices out there. Finally. When 65th/67th Street is connected and Menards gets around to building their new location, this will be a completely new intersection and a better entrance to Davenport.

#5. Learn to market the Quad Cities better
I believe we have a great community here, and a lot of people feel the same way. The question is why we sometimes seem to be aiming for the "best kept secret in the Midwest" title. We should be advertising in Des Moines, Peoria, Chicago, etc. Show off our low cost of living, many recreational opportunities, history, culture, and multiple downtowns all making progress. Show people that we're not the Quad Cities of the 1980's anymore.

Unknown? I'm not sure how many opinions about Davenport have been changed this year. We need a CNN special on how we weathered the floods and are completely back to normal.


1 out of 5? I hope we do better on my 2009 list...

An interesting donation

Former resident offers $50,000 to fix Clinton church's bell tower -QCTimes

Its always neat to read about someone making something of themselves and then returning to make a difference for their home town. In this case, a man whose father was a pastor at a church in Clinton returned to the city for the first time in 42 years, and decided to put up $50,000 towards repairs to the church bell tower. I just read this article last night, and was interested to find out that the person donating the money, Curtis Priem, is one of the co-founders of NVIDIA, which makes graphics chips for computers and video game consoles. I've been using NVIDIA graphics cards in every computer I build simply because I prefer them to the competition. Now it looks like I have another reason to support this company.

Now if we could just get the CEO of McDonalds to put some money into the city he went to high school in...

Happy Holidays 2008

I hope everyone had as great of a Christmas as I did.

I'd also like to suggest everyone take some time to remember those who had to work on Christmas and Christmas Eve. Police officers and firefighters who keep us safe, the military of course, those in the medical professions, the oft-maligned Public Works employees out plowing the streets, newspaper delivery folks, Walgreen's employees, and anyone else who had to spend time away from their families to keep our world in order. This year I was lucky enough to be at home, but many others weren't.

I'm hoping to put together my occasional New Year's Eve wishlist for the Quad Cities, and even better, I'm hoping to post it sometime before May.

Again, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season.

The Skatepark In Winter (2008-2009 Edition)

Last February I took this picture, before the lights were installed and construction on the pavilion began.

Here's how it looks now:


This was the first time I'd been down there at night with the lights on, and I was surprised how bright they are. Its like daylight when you're under them. I was kind of surprised that some hearty skateboarders hadn't shoveled some ramps off, but this ice/sleet/snow/cement mixture that came down the other day isn't easy shoveling. Since the contractor didn't get the pavilion done by the end of the skatepark season, its fenced off with portable fencing.

Idiot Governor Open Thread

Nothing QC-related from me today.

Someone requested a thread about Blagojevich, so what the heck. What is there to say? The guy's either an idiot or crazy, and I don't think we'll see anyone jump up to defend him. When I first read the news I was pleased, because the sooner he's out of office, the sooner Illinois can get back to business like WIU:QC and Chicago-QC rail service, not to mention reopening parks and historic sites.

Just a few things

Hearing the long list of school closings as I drove home in the rain seemed silly, but I hear its a lot worse up north already, with more to come. After local drivers' performance yesterday, I suppose I can't blame the school districts for wanting to keep kids out of the demolition derby. Hopefully the weather doesn't get too bad and we can drive safely out there.

Scott County vehicles to be fueled by Davenport -QCTimes
This is a great example of inter-government cooperation. There are rarely lines at the city fueling stations, so why not get more use out of them (and make some money from a service the city already provides) by letting county vehicles use the pumps. My only question is why we built a brand new fancy fueling station in the middle of the Centennial Park-Crescent Park RiverVision area? I suppose that so much has already been changed from the old plan below that a bit more isn't a big deal.


Dogs might get to roam free at proposed Davenport off-leash area -QCTimes
My only question is why not fence off the fourth side and just call it a dog park? Reading this article after reading the article above (more traffic on Marquette Street) makes me wonder if having the only avenue of escape for dogs facing towards a street is the best plan. I'm historically more of a cat person, so maybe there's something here I'm missing. Again, we're a long way from the original RiverVision concept. (See above)

Ales may default on Marycrest building -QCTimes
One of the final pieces in the complete collapse of a rehab empire. Tax credit addicts beware.

Rock Island's historic Mitchell House open for tours -QCTimes
If only we had hundreds more people with the resources to do things like this, SoLo would be a very different place. Stuff like this proves that there is still hope for a lot of nearly-given-up-on buildings around the QC area.

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train in Davenport

Here are a few quick images from tonight's visit of the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train to downtown Davenport. There was a great crowd considering that the temperature was around 25 degrees with a windchill of 10 or 11. They had metal firepits and propane outdoor heaters scattered around. It really made me feel like people in the QC will come out, even in the colder nights of winter, for the right kind of event. I'd like to see more stuff done around the holidays here. I think it would be great if we had a New Year's firework display over the river like they did in 2000 every year.

Canadian Pacific recently acquired the Iowa Chicago & Eastern (IC&E), which runs through Davenport. That's why we were added to their route for the Holiday Train. The last stop Friday night after Davenport was Muscatine.


One of the boxcars slide open to reveal a stage, and a band singing Christmas songs. They gathered a pretty good crowd around them.


The train was led my one Canadian Pacific locomotive and one IC&E locomotive.

Monday Morning Assortment

As a night shift person, Black Friday can just be considered more convenient shopping hours. Unfortunately, for the 2nd year in a row I made the mistake of visiting Younkers to try and spend their "$10 off anything over $10*" coupon. (*Excludes... everything.) It wasn't a good experience. First they mark anything remotely close to $10 to $9.99, and then everything else they call a doorbuster, great value, or red tag clearance and exclude it from the coupon. All I can say is that if they're going to act like lawyers about excluding things from their coupons, they should be equally worried about accuracy when it comes to labeling their products and displays. I spend 2 minutes looking around the display of Hawkeyes sweatshirts to make sure it wasn't excluded, only to find out that it was technically a doorbuster even though there was no sign and the price was inaccurate. I think I'll take a pass on shopping there for a while.


Speaking of old news, last Wednesday night (Thanksgiving Eve?) there was a police chase through Davenport. I never saw it in the paper, but maybe I missed it. Apparently the Illinois State Patrol initiated a stop, the driver didn't stop, and somehow made it into Bettendorf. When I first started listening to it on the radio, Bettendorf PD was chasing the car up Iowa or something and across Locust. They went up Tremont, Arlington, and Carey at what seemed like high speeds until they reached 29th, which they took east to Eastern. There they went north, and the driver made the mistake of turning down E 35th, which goes nowhere but back to Kimberly Downs. The interesting thing was that Davenport PD was essentially pacing the chase, but was clearly not involved. It sounded like they helped block the car in at Kimberly Downs, though, which is where they finally caught it.

I felt like the chase could have ended much sooner if DPD had been allowed to participate instead of just follow along. I doubt Bettendorf officers know the streets of Davenport as well, after all. I know I harp on this a lot, but the car running from the police could have 2 bodies or a kidnapped kid in the trunk, and unless it was known to be involved ina serious crime, Davenport officers would be forced to let it escape. The risk to citizens of being hurt by a police chase is outweighed by the risk to citizens of letting criminals get away. Fortunately this time they were caught.


Davenport lauded for green projects -QCTimes
Of course since this is a positive story about Davenport, there are zero user comments. This and other good publicity about Davenport's change from an abandoned industrial town to an evolving progressive city on America's greatest river is all part of changing perceptions of those both around the Midwest and here at home. I'm still waiting for a lot of people to realize how good we have it here, although the economic disaster on the coasts might cause more to take notice of our relative stability here. Reading some of the posts on absoluteDSM.com's forums dating back to 2004 compared with current posts show a definite change in some of the Des Moines-area members' opinions on the QC area.

2008 Festival of Trees Holiday Parade

Here are a few images I got today down at the parade. I wanted a different perspective than I'd been getting the last few years on 2nd Street, so we spent most of the time in the Skybridge.

As always, click the images for an larger version.





It wasn't a bad day parade compared to some we've had lately, and I felt like there were more balloons than last year. This is just one more event that the QC should be proud to have.

Promise will be decided in March

Davenport Promise program headed to ballot -QCTimes

People have asked where I stand on this, and I have made various comments about it in the past, but when it really comes down to it I'm undecided. I have several thoughts on both sides of the issue:

My biggest criticism of many of the people who oppose this idea is their frequent repeating of this idea that college shouldn't be publicly financed. For one, it already is. But even more importantly, why is the space between 12th grade and "13th grade (Freshman year in college)" inherently important? Its a completely arbitrary line to draw between one type of school that people apparently are ok with taxes going towards, and another level of school where the idea of taxes going towards it seems to enrage them. When trying to get a job in today's market, a college degree is the equivalent of a high school education 40 years ago. Modern times require more education, yet our attitudes towards how college is paid for haven't changed.

Another criticism is that this is only going to draw students away from other schools, like Bettendorf or North Scott. I'm fine with this, because they've been doing their best to steal away our students and residents for years. If all the QC-area communities end up doing this, it will put the QC as a whole on the map.

On the other side of the issue, I very much disagree with the study that was commissioned to prove that the Promise must be done. The idea that Davenport will lose 9,000 residents without the Promise is bizarre to me. We're on an upswing without the Promise, and our downtown is being revitalized and re-populated without the Promise, so why would these things suddenly reverse? The Promise may very well help Davenport, but I can not agree that we are doomed without it.

Finally, there's the money. People say that private money is unwilling to invest in this, and that's untrue. However, it doesn't appear that any person or company, or group of people or companies, is going to be able to come up with the large amount of cash required to fully fund the Promise. So we're left with some form of tax money. I don't care for temporarily (hopefully) gutting the capital improvement budget to pay for this. I think I'd actually rather see a partial-cent increase in the sales tax rather than a partial-cent decrease in capital projects. I would suggest that putting $1 million into the skatepark may have attracted as many new residents as $1 million in college tuitions. Others will say, to hell with amenities, its all about sewers and roads! I have never in my life met a person that moved to a town because it had smooth streets and free-flowing sewers. People move for quality of life, and that includes parks and amenities. And potentially, free college tuition.

One more thing I want to point out, is that Promise only pays tuition. When I went to WIU in Macomb, tuition was a small part of the cost compared with room and board, books, and meals. My point is that the idea we're giving people a free ride to go off to college is simply not true. A free ride to stay here and go to Scott Community , maybe.

This ended up being longer than I intended, but its a pretty important issue for our community. I'm currently undecided, so I'm hoping one side or the other can convince me with well-thought out and reasoned arguments.

Where in the QC is this #20 Answer

Ok, the winners anonymous at 9:07am on the blogspot comment area, and Mayor Melissa at 11:33am over at Quadsville. It is indeed the LeClaire Park bandshell. While I'm guessing this is similar to what LeClaire Park looks like today, it was taken back in March of 2007. I hadn't noticed the odd seat staggering myself until looking at the image I used for the contest. It seems like every 3rd row would end up staring at the back of someone else's head...

Thanks for playing, folks. Hopefully I'll do another one of these in the near future.

Where in the QC is this #20

I haven't done one of these in a while, so I dug through my 12 gigabytes of QC images for something I could use. The only clue is that its somewhere located within the circle made by I-80 and I-280. It may be too easy, but I never can tell.

Post-Election Open Thread

I suppose I'll allow political comments on this post as well, but then I should be returning to more local issues. In that vein, here's a picture I took this morning of the new lofts getting finished up across from the Freight House at River Drive and Scott Street. I like the color scheme. It definitely looks a lot better than it did as the Salvation Army.

Election 2008: QCI Off Topic

I'm going to suspend my "No National Politics Rule" for this post. I generally avoid getting into the deeply partisan world of Democrat vs Republican contests, partly because I don't want all that I have said and will say to be judged against my political views. I feel that what I want to say today is important enough to risk that.


I'm an Independent. I've stated many times before that I don't believe political parties in general are good for America. I won't get into that now. I am not and have never been a fan of George Bush, so I did not vote for him in 2000 or 2004. Many of you will say that he's not running today. To them, I put forth the parable of the house-sitting companies.

"The Parable of the house-sitting companies"
Lets say you're going away for a number of years. You want to hire a company to maintain your home and yard, and basically house-sit for you while you're away. When you return 8 years into your absence, you find that the crew sent out by the company did a terrible job, burning down part of your home, flooding another part, and somehow turning all of your neighbors against you. Unfortunately, you still need someone to take care of your place. The company you hired before (We'll call them "Grand Ol' Property Maintence") says, "Hey, don't think about the last 8 years; we'll send a different crew out for the next 4. They're totally different from the previous bunch, we swear." Do you give them another try, or do you maybe say "No, you've lost your chance at earning this job for a while. I think I'll try the other company in town." The end.

The Republican candidate needs to be defeated in this election to show the formerly-honorable GOP that they've strayed far from their roots. When Bush won 4 years ago, I was saddened by the results but also by what I saw coming in 2008. I have been a fan of John McCain, and I correctly assumed he would be the Republican nominee to succeed Bush. Unfortunately, I knew I would have to vote against someone who I respected because I believe that the current administration has done so much damage that the pendulum needs to swing back the other way. Unfortunately, John McCain has made it all too easy to vote against him this time around. He's not the man he was in 2000. Actually I believe that he is that man somewhere deep inside, but he's sacrificed his character to win the election.

I am an Independent, but the Republican Party keeps trying to make me a Democrat. When I opposed the Iraq war, they called me a traitor and said I didn't support the troops. Apparently they don't remember opposing nearly every military action taken by Clinton. When I was outraged by the United States of America using torture, I was told that I was sympathizing with terrorists. I hear Republicans accuse Barack Obama of being a terrorist, a Muslim, a socialist. Since when do others decide what religion we are? Now we have to prove what religions we aren't? I'd like to see John McCain prove he's not a Dark Lord of the Sith. As Colin Powell said, even if Obama was a Muslim, so what? Has religious freedom been eliminated as well? I hear Republicans shout "off with his head," "traitor," and "kill him," at rallies, yet there is no national outrage. During this election, several McCain folks have called Obama supporters "un-American", "unpatriotic", and said they're not part of the "real America." I am not some raving Democrat activist, but I am still deeply bothered by these things. I don't see Barack Obama questioning people's patriotism or love for this country.

To me, all of these things are deeper than politics. On a purely political level, I agree and disagree with some of both Obama and McCain's policies. I lean towards Obama's economic and diplomatic solutions, but I also value McCain's experience as a veteran, war hero, and long-time Senator. I would have loved to see a clean election about the real issues facing America. A real discussion about taxes, health care, diplomacy, etc. Instead we've had a race to the bottom of garbage campaigning, led by former Bush campaign strategists. Barack Obama could be a great President. The John McCain of 2000 could have been as well. However, since he seems to be once again Missing In Action, I'll be voting for Obama today.

Whoever you vote for, I'd urge you to remember that both sides are trying to do what they believe is best for this country. Neither side has a monopoly on patriotism or love of this country.

Fall Drive Images

Here are some images from a Sunday drive we took to check out the fall colors.

We drove up the Iowa side, taking Highway 67 all the way up through Clinton to Iowa-64, which we took through Sabula and over to Savanna, Illinois, where we took IL State Route 84 to Mississippi Palisades State Park.

I really like the 3 previous ones, because of both the scenery and my love of trains. They were taken from the Lookout Point overlook.

This is the bridge between the island town of Sabula and Savanna, Illinois.

This one, looking down the walkway towards one of the overlooks at Palisades, was taken by my girlfriend. We both liked it so much that I had to include it.

We came all the way back down Highway 84 on the Illinois side, which I hadn't been down in years. I was impressed with downtown Savanna, which I think was one of the neatest of the river towns we went through. The image above was taken of the Dutch Windmill in Fulton, Illinois. We were about half an hour too late to get inside, if its even still open for the season. As we got back to the QC, we stopped at Sneaky Pete's in LeClaire for supper. It was actually the first time I'd been there, and I was impressed with the place, the view, and the food. I'm also very impressed with what LeClaire has done with the downtown, but I may post more about that later.

Overall it was well worth the drive, especially now that gas prices are approaching $2 again. The crazy wind isn't helping keep the leaves on the trees, but I'd say that the fall colors should last at least another week up there.

Chilly Saturday Assortment

Just a few things from around the QC

The Leader, not the Reader

A few posts down, one of the commenters was wondering about a rumor that the River Cities' Reader was going away. It turns out, at least according to this blog post by Dispatch-Argus columnist and blogger Shane Brown, that its the QC Leader that is going away. This was formerly just known as the Leader, and recently underwent a makeover that turned its exterior appearance into a blatant ripoff of the RCReader. Quite a few years ago, I delivered the Leader on Wednesdays in a few Davenport neighborhoods. It was amazing to me the lengths people went to to avoid getting this free newspaper. People would yell at me not to deliver it to them anymore, I'd tell them they had to call the cancellation number, they'd refuse, etc, etc. Its not a good sign of a newspaper's quality when people are willing to get in an argument to avoid getting it for free.


Convicted felon runs campaign against Scott Co. attorney -QCTimes

Prior to this article I was leaning towards voting for Pries, because I believe there needs to be some serious change down at the courthouse. However, the fact that the Steen smear-factory is against Walton makes me wonder if I've underestimated him. The important thing is that we all vote out Judge Christine Dalton Ploof, so she won't be handing out light sentences and giving 65th chances for the Quad Cities' worst criminal. Every time Pachino Hill goes to trial it should be looked at along the lines of using tax evasion against Capone. Find something to get him in prison. Now I sound like some of the attack brochures... I'm still undecided on the County Attorney thing.


DavenportOne awards grants for façade projects -QCTimes

This seems like a great use of the extra tax that downtown businesses pay. If this kind of gradual upgrade of the downtown appearance continues throughout the years, it will make a huge difference in the perception of downtown Davenport by both visitors and citizens. I think the conversion of the Salvation Army building into lofts and the hopefully-soon Freight House streetscaping will make a big difference in that end of downtown as well. In other Downtown Partnership news, the sidewalks in front of the 4th Street Lofts are being redone to match the rest of the downtown streetscaping. This was done in front of the Crescent Macaroni building a few years ago.