Backwater Gamblers Images

While the British Car Show is one of the QC's hidden treasures, I would say the biggest thing we have that not enough people know about is the Backwater Gamblers waterski team. I grew up going over to their shows every year, but I had missed the last 2 or 3 years' shows. Fortunately I was able to make it over to see last night's show. They were great as always. This team took 5th in the Show Ski nationals, yet there were locals in the crowd that had only recently heard about them. There is still time to make it over there this season, as they have 7 shows left. They are every Wednesday and Sunday night at 6:30 PM. Their website has directions to their area on the Rock River in Rock Island. Best of all, admission is free, although they do pass the bucket for donations during intermission. I could easily see paying $10 per person to see this show and feeling it was well worth it. Here are some images from last night's show:

Towboats 1 and 2 bringing a bunch of skiers directly towards the beach.

It was tough to get good shots of the high speed jumps off of the ramp in the fading light, but here's one of a skier going underneath 2 jumpers.

Four 3-tier pyramids get pulled off the dock already on each others shoulders.


A large line of skiers gets pulled off the dock, leaving only one behind. This takes a lot of boat power, which is why they have two 225 horsepower outboards on each of the main boats.

The show always finishes with their most impressive pyramid. In this case, a triple-wide 4-tier pyramid that required 2 boats to pull everyone off the dock.

British Car Show Images

Here are just a few pictures I took at the Heartland British Auto Fest this past Sunday. I'm not necessarily a car guy, but I always like this event. I suppose its partly genetic, as my dad used to be a British car guy.

A few words about Terry Lunardi

I have been busy enjoying the many events in the area the last week, so I have a good amount of stuff to blog about, but I first feel like I have to say something about the sad loss of Terry Lunardi.

I mostly know him by reputation and the news coverage, because I didn't actually know him personally. I saw him a lot though, because whenever I showed up at the events, forums, and meetings that I've attended over the years, he was there. He put in an amazing amount of time into making the QC a better place.

The area that I do have some personal connection with is his contribution over the years to Garfield School. I was a 6th grade student at Garfield in the final year that Davenport elementary schools had 6th graders, which I believe would have been the '93-'94 school year. At that time, a lot of exciting things were happening at Garfield. A new addition had just opened (which has since been joined by several more additions), we were starting an AM radio station (later upgraded to FM), and we had 3 business partners. They were Lunardi's, KRVR (a long-gone radio station) and I believe Junior Achievement. The Garfield radio station's call letters were KLJG, which stood for KRVR, Lunardi's, Junior Achievement, and Garfield. Even though we were only in 6th grade, we felt like we were actually involved in helping make our school better. From what I remember, a bit part of this was made possible by the contributions of Terry Lunardi. Most schools back then didn't even have "business partners," much less their own radio station. Right around that time Garfield was named a Blue Ribbon school. I don't know how Mr. Lunardi got involved with this particular elementary school, but I know that my years there were better off because of it.

We could use a lot more like him, and I'd like to add my name to the long list of people who will miss his contribution to Davenport and the Quad Cities.

Downtown Davenport Tidbits

Construction continues on the new version of 605 Main. I'm working on a post about the city council's fear of halfway houses, but that's for another day. I wish that someone had taken a survey 5 years ago to see how many Davenport folks even know what was in this building...

If you're interested in buying your very own downtown building, the former bank, former Social Security building at 131 W. 3rd seems to be going up for auction on August 12th. Here's the auction ad from the QCTimes. Bidding starts at $350,000 for one of the uglier buildings in one of the better locations of downtown Davenport.

I have it from a pretty good source that the former gas station/former burger joint at 4th and Iowa will be a Crescent Cleaners. This fits right in to the Crescent Warehouse District, and also provides the kind of services that downtown residents should have walking-distance access to. I hope it does well.

The Forrest Block building at 4th and Brady got a new "renovations coming soon" sign on it in time for the Bix. The sign lists the website as FrontDoorIowa.com. FrontDoorSTL.com seems to be the website for all of Restoration St. Louis's properties in the STL area, so I guess FrontDoorIowa.com will be the website for their Davenport area properties. It does makes sense that "Iowa's front door" would be part of "Iowa's Front Porch." They're still talking a Spring 2010 opening for the Forrest Block building, so they must be working hard on it. I'm looking forward to being able to walk through luxury apartments where there's been nothing but blight for the majority of my lifetime.

Something you don't see every day

After tonight's River Bandits game a helicopter dropped candy and possibly marshmallows onto the field at Modern Woodmen Park. Hundreds of kids were out there picking it up, and getting additional sweets dumped on them from additional helicopter passes. The new ownership of the River Bandits certainly has a good imagination for new events. I get the feeling that almost nothing is off the table at their brainstorming sessions. Here are some videos of the event taken from the Centennial Bridge.



The first pass


The second pass


The third pass


Yet another drop


A closeup of the folks dumping the candy

An assortment of Bix 2009 images

It ended up being a great morning for the race, despite some crazy weather the night before. I watched the start and finish of the race downtown. Here are some of the pictures.


The crowd, and the leaders making their way up the Brady Street hill.


Here's a movie I took showing the crowd of runners and walkers waiting to start the race.


The first person across the finish line, Ben Lloyd, as part of the Rhythm City "Race for the Jackpot." He was only given a .9 mile head start, so that's pretty impressive. The image on the right shows the preparations underway at the finish line before anyone got there.

The winner, Meb Keflezighi, running down 3rd street.

The DavenportOne Street Fest, back on Friday night before the storm hit. I'm glad I wasn't down there at 9:30.

Bix Weekend Open Thread

Its the biggest weekend in the QC calendar, and it looks like the weather will cooperate. (Update: OK, not so much on the cooperative weather)I plan on getting some good food, watching a good race, and listening to some good music. I hope all of you have a great time as well. These are the kind of events that set Davenport apart, so enjoy them!

Davenport Political Sign Ordinance

This was requested in a previous thread:

From the Davenport City Code, which can be found here.

17.45.050 Temporary signs.
B. 3. Signs may be erected pertaining to the candidacy of federal, state and local elected officials; measures appearing on the ballot of any national, state or local election or caucus; or issues of individual or community concern not exceeding a total of thirty-two square feet and a maximum height of six feet in all zoning districts. Election or caucus signs may be erected not more than forty-five days preceding the election and must be removed within seven days after the election or caucus. Political signs shall be set back a minimum of five feet from any property line. (Emphasis added)

Edit: Also, in case anyone was wondering, the Davenport Primary Election takes place on October 6th.

Where in the QC is this #24 (Guest Contributor Edition)

For something a little different this week, I have a Where in the QC is this? image that was supplied by a reader. So, where was this taken?

First Event of the 2009 City Election Season Robby Ortiz Meet and Greet

I got this in my email:

We anted to make you aware of a "Meet & Greet" event that Alderman At-Large candidate Robby Ortiz is having on Saturday August, 8th. Everyone is welcome to stop by Phil & Larry's Saloon at 4811 N. Brady Street between the hours of 4 and 10 P.M. to get Robby's take on the issues facing Davenport residents.
Free entry and the event will be upstairs.

Friends to Elect Robby Ortiz

Bettendorf Train Derailment

Bettendorf train derailment closes downtown crossings -QCTimes

NTSB taking over investigation of Bettendorf train derailment; little information available -QCOnline

I took a drive this morning past the scene of the derailment, and it doesn't look good. There might be more to this than the media seems to know, because every command center vehicle in Scott County seems to be set up down there. I didn't see Davenport's HazMat semi, but I'd be surprised if its not down there somewhere. The articles are vague about the condition of the crew, but a big blue tarp blocking an area from view is never a good sign at an accident scene. Hopefully I'm wrong and everyone is ok.


Update: Unfortunately, both crew members were indeed killed in the crash. Hopefully this wasn't something caused by vandals messing with the rail switches.

Friday Morning Assortment

The Forrest Block building renovation is underway! Dumpsters have been dropped off along 4th street and are being filled. The project has already gotten as far as the last "redevelopers" took it. I suspect we'll start to see a visible difference soon.

Anti-downtown activist Mark Nelson wrote a letter to the editor pushing the usual Libertarian line. Any restrictions on private property violate the 5th Amendment! Oh no! Toss out the zoning laws, building codes, and neighborhood associations. Bring on the shoddily constructed strip clubs in residential neighborhoods! Or... apparently SOME government rules on what people can do with their property are ok...?
If as many people in Scott County bought into their platform as they think do, maybe their candidate would have gotten more than 00.23% of the votes in the 2008 Presidential election.

Love Your Farmer's Market Update:
Davenport's Freight House Farmer's market now has 214 votes and is in 29th place nationwide. Considering that Davenport is about the 267th biggest city in the US, 29th place ain't half bad. Lets see if we can climb higher yet. If you haven't voted yet, do it here.

I was in Cedar Rapids Wednesday for a few hours, and saw just a fraction of the damage that is still evident throughout the city from last year's floods. I didn't have time to take pictures, but DMRyan, over at AbsoluteDSM, got a whole bunch earlier this month. Their downtown seems to be on the road to recovery, but their version of SoLo makes our SoLo look like Beverly Hills.

And finally, a rare bit of negativity from QCI, or more of a Wundram-esque call for action. By all accounts, the Freight House complex seems to be thriving. Even some nights during the week it appears to be hopping, and I've heard its hard to get a seat for dueling pianos. With all this success, would it be too much to ask for them to keep their neon lights and all the letters in their exterior signs lit at the same time?? Perceptions and first impressions matter, and burned out lights don't make good ones.

...and I'll leave the whole "Bettendorf is too good for tattoo parlors" thing for another day.

100k

Congratulations to Davenport on reaching 100,000 residents again for the first time since the 1980's. Despite the vocal minority of naysayers, this city is growing again. I've edited the graph I made back in 2007 to reflect 2007 and 2008's estimated population numbers. I'm not sure what happened last in 2007, but aside from that one outlier year we've had excellent growth since 2003.

People from around the Midwest and hopefully around the country are discovering that we have a great mix of amenities, quality of life, history, a relatively healthy economy and low housing prices. We have things that cities larger than us envy. How many metro areas our size have a PGA tour stop, or a nationally recognized water ski troupe, or an art museum designed by a world-famous architect? How many metro areas our size have all of those things and more? While also being in the most affordable 10% (or 1%?) on housing costs? I'd suspect not very many.

Our sustainable growth should make us more attractive to additional residents, businesses, and event planners. If the State of Illinois can every function like like grown ups, we will have rail service to Chicago and a beautiful riverfront university. These 2 pieces can help turn the tide of the Iowa side population growth being offset by stagnant or declining Illinois QC populations. Davenport NOW may entice folks who would otherwise consider TIF-happy LeClaire, and Prairie Heights will become increasingly attractive the more it fills in, and as gas prices climb again. The west side sewer tunnel will open up the west side to large scale businesses and industries that have passed Davenport up in the past. The Blackhawk and Forrest Block projects downtown will hopefully show the amount of pent-up demand for market-rate downtown residential to timid banks and developers. Centennial, Credit Island, Sunderbruch, and Prairie Heights parks will continue to add recreational options to all corners of the city.

All of this sounds pretty good, but a lot of people only want to focus on Pachino Hill, potholes, or speed cameras. I would say the graph above shows that those people's negative outlook is being overshadowed by Davenport's positive growth. Let's keep it that way.

A mountain of interesting things?

I'd like to say I wasn't posting for some good reason, like I was out of power (which I wasn't) or distraught over all the celebrity deaths (sad to lose MJ, but not distraught) but the reality is just that life happens, and I didn't get time to sit down and blog.

The last commenter on the previous post pointed out: "QCI - there is a mountain of interesting things going on in City politics right now - get off your duff and give us your 2 cents!"

Well, I don't know about a mountain, but I'll give my 2 cents on a few recent things.

Centennial Park- The new system that closes the south side of the park to everything except fishing and boat launching makes some sense. I am surprised that bike riding wasn't also listed, but I suspect someone riding through on the bike path and minding their own business probably wouldn't get hassled about it. The idea of having a 24 hour park is great, and its working at the skatepark and the basketball courts. They're packed, and because they're packed, it tends to drive away most crime (except littering). However, the boat launch area is not packed with upstanding citizens, so less-than-upstanding citizens are congregating there and causing problems. As the rest of the park is finished up, hopefully the skatepark's success will spread throughout the area.

Wisor vs East Village- This is one case where I am quite happy with the council's decision. I'm not at all sure why they don't value historic buildings on Main Street as much as historic buildings in the Village, but hopefully they've learned from their earlier mistakes. There are plenty of luxury homes available in McClellan Heights. A couple new expensive infill homes were even built. If Mr. Wisor really wanted the ambiance of the Village and modern conveniences, he should have bought one of them. If he wants to build his own home, there are plenty of subdivisions available. If he really wanted to build condos and not a home for himself, than shame on him for lying. If he wants to buy and tear down the strip mall at River and Mound, and build architecturally appropriate condos, I'll be first in line to cheer him on. The city's Design Center even has a rendering of what it could look like, seen here.

Davenport NOW- Technically I was against this, but I'm not worried that it passed. Like the Promise, its not perfect, but it could bring new people to Davenport. It should even the competition a little bit with cities who TIF new subdivisions like LeClaire does. It sounds like the details still need to be ironed out, so hopefully they use some good lawyers to keep this from causing trouble down the line. All the people who have been asking why only big developers get tax breaks should now be running out to get building permits for new homes and renovations.

Malin contract renewal- This one's pretty interesting, in that it sounds like even those who wanted him fired are ok with him now. Even if Ambrose and Lynn still hated him, the majority is clear on the council, and they are not it. I still feel like the whole story about the pay raise controversy never came out in a way that explained why everyone backed off. From what I understand, Malin was in the right all along, and those that wanted him nailed for it (including Thee) were shown their mistake and decided not to continue with a losing lawsuit. Many on the previous council who wrote the contract certainly felt he was within his rights to take his previously-deferred raise. But who really wants to get into that whole mess again...

Vote for the Freight House Farmer's Market

Everyone should go to this website and vote for downtown Davenport's Freight House Farmer's Market for the Care2/LocalHarvest "Love Your Farmer's Market" contest. If we get the most votes, the market would get $5000. There are also random weekly drawings that would win the market $250.



Update: Just a few more votes and we'll be in the Top 100 markets in the country.

Update#2: Thanks to Darcy's mention of the poll in her market email, the Davenport Freight House Farmer's Market is now ranked #52 in the United States.

Quad City Air Show 2009

Here are a few (actually quite a few) quick images and movies from this year's air show. I went on Sunday, which involved both getting rain poured on us and then later getting sunburned.

This was easily the most impressive part of the show for me. A stuntman who had earlier performed as a wingwalker on top of the Stearman biplane actually climbed from the plane onto the skid of the "Otto" helicopter while in midair. He tried it a few times and finally made it on his third attempt. Here's a movie of the stunt:





Instead of Shockwave the jet truck, this year we got to see a jet school bus. There was also a jet outhouse, believe it or not. The helicopter on the right was the one used in the midair transfer stunt, and was otherwise directed towards the kids. If you click on the image you can see that the canopy has a face painted on it.


Attendance wasn't too bad, considering the weather. I also heard that Saturday's show was packed. On the right is an AV8B Harrier, which hadn't flown here since one crashed in 1992.


The A-10 Warthog, and a Stearman WW2 training biplane, which was used in the midair transfer.


And of course, the Blue Angels.

Here are a couple videos of the harrier. The first one shows it flying backwards, and the second video shows the aircraft making a vertical takeoff.

A few storm images

I was over checking out Bettendorf's version of downtown development (the new Hardees) when the storm hit yesterday. It didn't seem all that bad, until we left and started seeing all the damage. Fortunately nobody was too badly hurt at the air show or Sturgis. It could have been really bad. Here are a few quick images.

Who says I'm not against things...

A couple things in the news that I'm on the naysayer side of:

Property owner, historic group clash over Village's future -QCTimes

I've defended Mr. Wisor on some of his projects, like the building on Mound, but he's kind of worn out his welcome in the East Village as far as I'm concerned. Between more parking and more suburban-type structures, these are the last things the Village needs. The Design Center created renderings of various historic-looking infill buildings that could be built in the village, and there are plenty of vacant or underused spots for them. No need to tear down a historic building in Iowa's largest historic district to build a new house. If he really wants a half million dollar house, maybe he should walk a block up Fulton and see half a dozen of them. I hope the council has a spine on this one instead of ignoring the Historic Preservation Committee like they did with the Deutsh House. Why even have an HPC if the council ignores its wishes?
Also: Cruiser covered this yesterday.


Davenport Beach & Harbor -- that has a nice ring -QCTimes

Barb Ickes thinks that Mayor Gluba's son has a good idea here, and I can't completely disagree. A beach (while gross) and harbor would be good things for the Davenport riverfront. The problem is that while this is one person's suggestion, there were several hundred Davenport and Rock Island folks that got together a few years ago and decided what to do with this space. Its called RiverVision, and its already in the works. I'm curious if the Glubas don't know about RiverVision's plans for Crescent Park, or just feel that this harbor idea trumps what large numbers of Davenporters came up with.

Now, I can think of a place that already has a lagoon that could be reconnected to the Mississippi and used for boating and a beach, and that place is Credit Island. Replace the causeway with a bridge, raise some of the land around the lagoon, and you could have the same exact proposal another mile or two down the river. Seems like a good compromise to me, which I guess ruins my cred as a naysayer.

Why do we need NOW now?

Davenport crafts housing stimulus -QCTimes

Short answer: We don't need NOW now.

Long answer: We're turning the tide without it. Our population has stopped the slide that was happening through the late 80's and 90's, young people are becoming more interested in the QC area, and downtown is being revitalized. Just because Bettendorf is out subdivision-ing us isn't reason to do something this drastic.

On one hand, the Davenport NOW program is what a lot of people have been asking for for a long time. Instead of only giving incentives to companies or residential developers that come in and build big projects, the NOW program would actually provide them to the little guy. Is 50 new business created 10 jobs any worse than 1 AT&T type place creating 500 jobs? If Alexander Company can get property tax incentives to renovate a huge blighted building, shouldn't an average homeowner get some for fixing up a run down single family home? So I guess I don't think the idea is crazy. I just don't think its necessary.

I think Davenport is turning itself around WITHOUT this, just like it is without the Promise. Maybe rather than try to come up with a new gimmick every few years, we should sit back and give what we're doing a chance. Improving city departments and making them more professional, increasing the capital improvemt budget for streets, sewers, and parks, and revitalizing downtown... these things are working. I don't know where all these abandoned buildings and businesses are that Cruiser talks about. Sure, there are some around, but any city of 100,000 has vacant commercial property. I definitely don't feel like there's more now than there was in the 80's. I also know quite a few young people who left after college who are now returning to the Quad Cities. Lets show those people how much has changed since the 1980's before start giving away the tax farm.

In the rumors department, I'm hearing that this project is the Mayor's baby. Apparently most Alderman were somewhat willing to go along with it, but many are now having their doubts. This kind of seems confirmed by the tabling by the council, but possibly not. There are questions about the legality of the program, and how the "up front" tax break could work. How can the city rebate property taxes up front for 10 years when they don't know what the property value or taxes will be 5 or 10 years down the line? Will folks who take the "up front" money sue later if it doesn't cover their actual tax bill? So there are a lot of questions, and little public input.

I'd like to see the city skip the NOW program and at least wait to see the results of the 2010 Census. I feel like Davenport is going to end up with a surprising amount of growth. If the sad state of Illinois can ever make the new WIU riverfront campus and Chicago rail line happen, those projects could easily be the final piece that puts the QC area on the road to success. Davenport needs to sell itself and its amenities rather than just try to underbid the suburbs on tax prices.

Where in the QC is this #23 Answer

Anonymous at 8:22 was correct. The image is of Lincoln School, or "Lincoln Academy" along Pershing in Davenport. I was going to get a shot of the deer with downtown in the background, as I wasn't originally intending to do a Where in the QC with it. The deer wasn't much for posing the way I wanted it to though.

Where in the QC is this #23

Where in the Quad Cities is this deer wandering?

Coming soon: My take on the Davenport NOW idea.

Summer Events Suggestion Thread

I'm putting together a list of summer events worth traveling 2 and a half hours for, which I plan to post on the AbsoluteDSM website. Obviously this is a subjective thing, because while I may feel that its absolutely worth driving 2.5 hours to see the Quad City Air Show, others may not. Especially those without interests in planes or sunburn.

Here's a quick list of possiblities, which is certainly missing things, in order by date. This mostly comes from the QC CVB website.

Gumbo Ya Ya
Ride the River
QC Air Show
Sturgis on the River (off the river until Centennial Park is done)
QC Pridefest
Blues Fest
John Deere Classic
Bix7
Bix Jazz Fest
Mississippi Valley Fair (although Des Moines folks have their own fair, I hear)
Tugfest
Ya Maka My Weekend
River Roots Live
Rock Island Grand Prix
QC Symphony Pops Concert
QC Marathon

Some of these may not be worth driving 2+ hours for. Others, like the fair or the marathon, are probably worth driving over for, but Des Moines has their own (bigger) version. I don't have any car shows on the list, but many could argue that some of those are regional events. What do you folks think belongs on the list vs what doesn't? If I were directing this towards Chicago folks rather than Des Moines residents, I'd expect it to be a different list.

Weekly Post?

Well, I took a week off from blogging for no particular reason. Here are a couple of websites I ran across during that time.

After reading this QCTimes article about Fejervary Park's progress, or lack thereof, I was doing some surfing around the internet. I found this page, possibly run by someone from long before my time called Captain Ernie. There also seem to be some things from former Alderman and Fejervary Park defender George Nikolas. If you look around that website there are a lot of neat old postcards and pictures. In the section about Fejervary, there are many images of Mother Goose Land. My parents always told me about going there as kids, and I always thought it would have been great to pan for "gold" right here in Davenport. Somehow I don't think whatever the city comes up with will be as fun.

The other website I found over the last week is called ScanAmerica.us, and it has the audio from police radio frequencies from around the US, including some in the QC area. Check out the Iowa and Illinois pages, or almost any other state. They stream in Windows Media Player, which almost everyone should have. They can be kind of tough to follow, but its definitely cheaper than buying a police scanner. It also may include random frequencies like Bettendorf garbage collectors. I actually haven't listened to it enough to know just how good it is or isn't, but its definitely not perfect. Edit: I just discovered this site archives radio traffic, so you can listen to what went over the police radio on a certain day and time. I'll have to mess with this feature later.

I'm hoping to do a post one of these days on Bettendorf's "downtown" plans, but whenever I start writing about that particular town I seem to end up in a giant rant that I don't post. Maybe I can do better this time.

Friday Morning Assortment

Old News Department

-Last Sunday night, or really Monday morning, at about 1:30AM I went out to pick up a healthy meal at Hardees. As I was going out Brady I got passed by 2 squad cars at a high rate of speed, and then a police SUV. They all headed east on Kimberly, and then I saw another squad car go through Brady and Kimberly at a high rate of speed. I decided to take a small detour to see where they were off to. Over half a dozen police vehicles were at Las Bananas, so obviously that bar isn't totally cleaned up yet. Four or 5 years ago, half a dozen squad cars were there every week, so I suppose you could call that progress. Its too bad that the place hasn't been shut down.

-Back on May 17th, in Ask the Times, there was this blurb about some development on East 29th Street in Davenport: "Rita Pribyl, senior manager for the city’s community planning and economic development department, said plans are for the building to be demolished and replaced with 26 condominium-style, high-end apartments with rents ranging from $1,100 to $1,200 per month." This refers to the old nursing home just east of Brady. I'm pretty sure that I'm one of the few guys my age that never broke into that place at some point during my childhood. I don't think I missed anything, and its great to see this longtime eyesore going away. Its too bad they couldn't have rehabbed the building though.

Wind Turbine Update, or not
According to a more recent addition of Ask The Times, no one seems willing to say whose windmills are sitting in Mt. Joy. However, a commenter posted this in my photo thread:

The wind turbines are being stored and electronic components added by DH Blattner Energy Systems. http://www.blattnerenergy.com/ They have a temporary location in Mt. Joy. I don't know if they plan on looking for a permanent site or not.

Hope they can join the QC Business community permanently!

So maybe that answers it? Or maybe its as inaccurate as many blog comments? Who knows.

Sad News
A longtime institution of the Hilltop neighborhood passed away last Sunday. Don Saforek, of Don's Barbershop, took some time off to have heart surgery a few weeks ago. He posted a sign that said "Back in 2 weeks (I hope!)." I had noticed he hadn't come back, and then I saw a sign that said he was still in the hospital and it would be a while longer. Then I was sad to see in the paper that he passed away. I think Don probably new every past and present politician in Davenport, and had thousands of stories ranging from the Cardinals to the Air Force to the history of the Hilltop area. There just aren't many barbers like Don anymore. He'll be missed by many.

Somebody order a wind farm?

The answer to this morning's "Where in the QC is this?" was answered by Anonymous at 7:11AM. The image was wind turbine blades stored at the former Caterpillar plant in Mt. Joy. I haven't seen a news story about this, so does anyone know any more about why these are being stored there? According to my source, they've been seen coming in from the north on Highway 61. I can't figure why they would bother unloading them in a parking lot just to have to reload them later. Apparently the manufacturers of the various parts must not have enough on-site storage. The only other possibility I can think of is that they're part of the shipment that Alter barge lines helped move last year. That only involved the blades though, whereas the blades, nacelles, and tower segments are all stored at Mt. Joy. I guess I should "Ask the Times." Here are some more images.

As a commenter said in the previous post, these the turbine nacelles look a lot bigger on the ground than they do at the top of a 200 foot tower.


For those who don't know where this is located, it is across from the Davenport Municipal Airport north of town. They are best seen from North Harrison, which is also 1st Street in Eldridge. To get there, take Brady/Highway 61 to the Mount Joy exit, and go west. When that road comes to a T at the airport, go right and start looking to your right. Unless they move these all out within days, you'll see the windmill parts.

Where in the QC is this #22

This should be an easy one, but I can give hints if people don't get it.

Lindsay Park Meeting

Lindsay Park patrons wary of changes -QCTimes

We were wary alright. Most even more wary than I was. Despite lots of people taking a turn at the microphone, no one said they were in favor of more surface parking being added to Lindsay Park. Only one business owner spoke, and he said his business does fine with the current parking situation. Several Aldermen were there, including Alderman Frink, Boom, Justin, Lynn, and Meeker. Alderman Justin went up to the mic to tell everyone that the elected officials were hearing us loud and clear.

Most of the meeting was actually about other issues than the rumored parking changes. With the large turnout relative to how little the city seemed to be pushing for the parking change, I almost wondered if it was a trick to get dozens of people to the meeting. Leak the idea that the city wants to get rid of the basketball courts, get 50 or 60 people to show up, and then try to get them to help design a new master plan for Lindsay Park. I don't think that's what happened, but it wouldn't have been the worst idea. There were several new processes for neighborhoods around the city that were discussed, but I'd suggest watching the meeting online or on the city channel rather than me trying to paraphrase it all.

After the meeting, I was talking to someone who hadn't been involved in this kind of thing in Davenport for very long. He seemed surprised that people would think the city would spring something like this on them. I told him the story of the River Vision meetings, which drew hundreds of people with hundreds of great ideas for Davenport's riverfront. Then at the final meeting, a little red box labeled "casino hotel" appeared on the map, which hadn't been talked about at any of the previous meetings. Davenport has actually been doing much better than that since, but the problem is that the city has a long way to go to regain people's trust.

I believe Lindsay Park is safe from parking lot expansion, but try getting some folks to believe that.

City does one thing right, figures they should screw up something else instead

So, the City of Davenport resolved their problem with handicapped signs. They took the good ideas, like checking occasionally to see if the signs were still in use and needed, and dropped the bad idea of charging $40 to have them installed. It was almost like a logical compromise.

Now that one issue was solved, apparently they felt the need to fix something that's certainly not broken, which is Lindsay Park.

Changes slated for Lindsay Park -QCTimes

Basically, some of the business owners down there want to move the basketball courts, thereby paving over an area of grass near River Drive, and replace them with a larger amount of concrete, in the form of a parking lot along 11th Street. Here's an overhead image, courtesy of Live Search, of the area. Incidentally, at whatever point during the winter this was taken, there was plenty of parking available. The basketball courts are located just to the west (left) of the baseball diamond. Their new location, from what I can tell, would be just to the east (right) of the city parking lot along Mound. So they'd like to trade in some park for some parking, to save people from having to walk a block or two from a city lot, or an on street parking spot. I personally have rarely had to park more than a block from anywhere in the Village. However, unlike visitors, I know that there's parking behind some of the businesses, such as Rudys. So maybe, as Barb Ickes mentions in her take on it, all the Village needs is more signage directing people to where parking already exists.

[Edit: Colonel Davenport, making a brief appearance in the comments of the previous post, suggests somewhat of a compromise. Remove the basketball courts (entirely?) and replace them with a path leading directly from 11th street to the city parking lot along Mound.]

If you want to tell those in charge where they can stick their parking lot idea, please attend the input meeting tonight (Tuesday) at 6:30 in the Park and Rec building. This was formerly the Art Museum, and is located next to the Putnam. I'm hoping to be able to make it.

4 Years

On May 9th, 2005, I introduced myself as a guest blogger on Daily Davenport Politics, hosted by Fly on the Wall. Here I've linked to a reprint of that first post, since DDP is no more. Four years of QCI. In some ways I can't believe that I've been doing this for that long, but in other ways it feels like its been longer.

When I started, the big issue of the day was whether the casino would build a new 10 story hotel in the riverfront. If you'd asked me back then what the status of that project would be in 2009, I would have guessed it would already be open by now. Instead we have a casino that treats us like 2nd class citizens to its "main" property in Bettendorf. Coincidentally, I've evolved from an IOC-defender to someone who believes the first step to getting the most out of our gambling license is getting it away from the Isle. People really do change their opinions.

On the other hand, 4 years ago people were complaining about the skybridge and the Figge and D1, etc. Four years later they still are. My feelings on downtown Davenport haven't changed a bit in the passing years. It is the heart of Davenport, and the rest of the city won't succeed without a healthy heart. Its time for some other people to change their opinions on that.

I got in around the peak of Davenport political blogging. Fly loved getting into the nitty gritty of campaign fundraising and politics, and people loved to send him juicy tidbits. Colonel Davenport had all the inside gossip, and I was there to stir up people and invite dozens of insults. It was rowdy but productive. Aldermen, activists, and other movers and shakers of Davenport were frequent commenters. Much of that seems to have died down. I do miss seeing debates play out between rivals like Bob McGivern and Niky Bowles.

Do I ever want to hang it up and retire from the world of blogging? Sometimes. While I'm always glad that the people who have nothing to bring to a debate except insults seem to disagree with me the most, sometimes the insults and lies get old. See Cruiser's recent post for the kind of garbage rumors that people start. However, I'm a fighter, and I don't like to give in to those kind of tactics. So I stay at it because I'm stubborn, but the bigger reason I stay at this is the comments, emails, and personal contacts that have come from writing this blog. A lot of people read but don't comment, and that's ok. The words of encouragement, the occasional great debate or discussion, and the frequent emails from people outside the QC interested in visiting this great community... those are the reasons I keep writing. So thanks to all my readers. And to those who just like to start rumors or espouse negativity, I'll still be here fighting the good fight.

Drunken antics

Its always interesting what comes across the police radio in the middle of the night.

Last night, or this morning really, a car crashed into a tree near Central Park and Farnam, and then somehow managed to drive off, leaving a trail of fluids and debris. It ended up parked on Central Park near Grand. From what I could tell from the radio, the driver then got out, started walking away, and then came back and retrieved something and locked the doors before running off again.

According to the dispatcher, around this time the owner of the car called in to report his car stolen. This is pretty much standard procedure when the police have captured a car but not the criminal that drove it. Then it becomes the police who have to prove that it wasn't stolen. The officers figured they'd like to talk to the owner, who then changed his story to say that he was out of town. It sounded like they ended up getting the guy anyway though. If he was as drunk as it would seem, hopefully they lock him up for a while. He's just lucky it was just a tree that he ran over and not a kid or someone's grandmother.

3 Saturday Morning Images

A few images to start the weekend:

First of all, today's the first outdoor Freight House Farmer's Market of the year. Just think, last year when they had their first Saturday market they had to have it on River Drive because the Freight House parking lot was flooded.

The sun rises over downtown Davenport. You can read into this as good things ahead for the heart of Davenport... or just think its a sunrise.

Much like last Saturday, here's the new building going up to replace 605 Main. Since its pretty much the biggest thing being built around here right now, I'm considering having a weekly Saturday image of the construction progress.