More Menards Stuff

From the first time I heard that Menards wanted to move to the Alta-Vista site, I wondered how that could possibly be enough room, especially considering their reason was "to expand." The weather tonight is not ideal for walking the site as Alderman Meyer suggested in the previous thread, though that sounds like a good idea if the property owners consent. Tonight though, I decided to compare the sites from space, using Google Maps. I was definitely shocked to see how much bigger the new site is than their current location, although I'm not sure how much of this area is actually owned by the nursery, where the moved frontage road will be, building orientation, etc. Here are the raw pictures, with my estimate of the areas involved highlighted in red.

Current Menards area (with clouds, unfortunately)

Proposed new Menards area

Make sure to note from the slider on the left that these are the exact same scale, and I'm not trying to fool with anyone. I don't have a lot of opinion on either side of this issue. Businesses wanting to expand is generally good, but I personally also like Menards' current store and don't know what more they need. I'm just trying to get information out there, especially if other people have the same misconceptions about the 65th Street area that I did.

My biggest concern is what happens with the current store, as I can't image that building being useful for anything besides a Menards. How many other uses need a lumberyard and a glass elevator?

The Great Wall of Menards

Davenport Council: Menards rezoning clears first hurdle -QCTimes

A few interesting quotes from this article:

After the vote, neighbors said they were disappointed but not surprised. Several said they think the deal has been in the works since the city’s comprehensive plan was updated more than a year ago to designate the land along Brady Street for future commercial zoning.

I've been hearing rumblings about Menards on that property for quite a while, so I could easily see this part being true. Personally I think it makes more sense to locate on the southeast corner of that intersection, but I don't think the neighbors have much of a case here either. I don't see how anyone would move in there with the expectation that a plant nursery will continue to be the use for that busy intersection property for all time.

Since it first proposed the rezoning, the company has agreed to build a 50-foot “green space” barrier between its property and the neighbors in addition to an 8-foot-high earthen berm, a row of trees and a 14-foot fence, all designed to limit noise and create a visual barrier between the store and residences. Rohlfs said his family has offered to plant mature conifer trees from the nursery along the berm.

Hey, can we get a minefield and some coils of razor wire thrown in as well? I find that this is pretty funny in relation to yesterday's conversation of the previous post about connecting retail and residential. Now, I know you're probably not going to walk to Menards and walk back carrying 10 sheets of plywood and an air compressor or something, but I guess the Muscatine store does have a grocery section. Maybe they'll leave a gate or checkpoint in the 14-foot fence. It just seems a little excessive. Instead of living next to a home improvement store, it'll be more like living next to a prison.

The concerned neighbors got some legal advice from Meyer. He recommended that they continue to do their homework and make note of city staff errors in case they decide to challenge the pending rezoning in court.
“We do a lot of things wrong in the city, especially from a legal standpoint,” he said.
When Meyer asked interim corporate counsel Tom Warner if he could give the neighbors advice, Warner told Meyer it is typically not city policy to assist potential litigants looking to sue the city.

This one pretty much speaks for itself. Is it January yet?

Prairie Heights Progress Picture Post

Why, what is that skinny strip of blacktop in the image to the right? I do believe that would be the very first alley North of Kimberly. Garages face the rear alley? This means that the residents of this neighborhood will look across the street and see houses facing them instead of 3 car garages. It must be Prairie Heights, Davenport's first attempt at New Urbanism. I've got a map of the neighborhood at the bottom of this post if you're curious how its supposed to work. It wasn't exactly a nice sunny photo-friendly day yesterday, but I still went out to check out the progress.


If you click on the above image I took facing south towards 53rd, you can see the baseball diamonds shown on the map to the right. The road connecting the neighborhood to the park (possibly called Country Lane) ends in the foreground of this image. I assume it is to be completed sometime in the spring. The plan to the right is outdated, as you can see from the map below, but it kind of shows the relationship between 53rd, the park area, and the neighborhood. I may try to acquire a more up-to-date plan for the whole project, and post it later.

The plan, last time I saw it. It may have changed since then, although after driving these streets I feel its still fairly accurate. Yes, those are 30' wide lots, and again, yes, those are alleys.

Over on the other side of the railroad tracks, I took this shot looking East from 65th behind the old cinemas. The controversial 65th/67th Street connection looks to be graded and ready for paving in the spring. This should really make the 65th and Brady intersection (where Menard's is going) look a lot better to potential developers. Hopefully one will come along who's interested in redeveloping the old cinema and hotel properties.

The Storm Approaches: Open Thread

It sounds like we may actually get something out of today's storm, unlike the Thanksgiving Eve false alarm. Seems like a great to stay inside and blog, or in my case, sleep. Here are a couple of headlines from this week that caught my eye.
(EDIT: Obviously the storm is pretty much past, so I'll try and have a new post this afternoon evening Whenever)


New York firm proposes hydroelectric stations in Davenport, Muscatine -QCTimes
This one has got to be one of the strangest articles I've ever read relating to Davenport. Some random company is hoping to build a hydro plant that "would measure 245 feet long by 160 feet wide by 60 feet high" somewhere near the Lock and Dam in Davenport, but doesn't bother contacting the city? I don't know how far away from the source of water this could be built, but I don't think anything like this belongs south of River Drive. If they could build it underground, it could be turned into some kind of green energy tourism attraction under the riverfront, but that doesn't seem possible with the floods. Who knows!

Davenport-made 'Sugar' to premiere at Sundance -QCTimes
A movie that may be about a minority struggling to play minor league baseball in the evil, racist, oppressive city of Davenport? Is this even a good thing? Hopefully that's not the theme of the movie at all, but its what I'm hearing. This is Davenport, people, a city with a fairly diverse population, not some hick town where we've never seen non-whites. I wonder if this is related to the hurry to change the Swing's name.

And to finish things off, an assortment of random images. (Note: I found a fix for the images, which requires me to edit html code. Not doing that is one of the things I like about blogs vs a website)


Here we have Black Friday madness. On the left, the moon hides behind Barnes and Noble before dawn. On the right, Menard's enthusiasts park everywhere but in lanes of traffic. Good times!

Here are a couple of shots from the jail tour, which was overtaken by Holiday Balloon Parade images a couple Saturday's ago. The image on the left is the new way visits are conducted, which is through a closed circuit TV system, and the image on the right is one of the "day rooms" where most inmates will spend their days. It may look nice, but try spending a month there. Its no hotel.

3rd Street Mark Liquor License Revoked,Business still open

Shelley forwarded me this ruling about the 3rd Street Mark liquor license. You can read the decision here, if you're into that sort of thing. I'll post the good part:

The Administrator hereby ADOPTS the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and the Decision and Order proposed by the administrative law judge in this docket.

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and the Decision and Order in this docket are hereby AFFIRMED in their entirety. The application for renewal of liquor license number LE0001172, issued to F & S 3000, Inc., d/b/a 3^rd Street Mart in Davenport, Iowa is hereby REVOKED.

Unfortunately, as of 5:15 or so this evening, the place was still very much open for business.

Update at 7:15am: Here's the QCTimes article

The downtown Davenport progress slideshow

Davenport Progress -a slideshow of before and after images

I'm sure that many of you saw this either at the Downtown Stakeholders Meeting or on QCTimes.com, but if you haven't, its definitely worth seeing. I may post more of the images later for those of you who may have problems with the slideshow website. Its basically a collection of stuff like this before and after shot I made a couple years ago during one of the many battles over whether the Crescent Lofts are a good thing. When viewing the slideshow, keep in mind how many of the changes have happened just since 2000.

Infill Standards: A Reminder

I know others have posted this info, but I'm going to throw it out there as well. This could be an important move in the city's pro-neighborhood efforts. Check out more info about this, including some of the proposed standards, here on the city website. (Click the link down at the bottom of that page for the proposed standards.) Hope everyone had a great weekend, and for those in retail, I hope you survived.

Neighborhood Infill Design Standards - Public Informational Meeting

Infill development refers to new construction of residential buildings in established neighborhoods. In response to community concerns about the quality and design compatibility of infill development in Davenport, the Staff of the Planning/Land Use and Design Center of the Community and Economic Development Department has been researching alternatives on addressing the issue.

Staff has developed a preliminary set of standards and has ideas on how they might be applied. The challenge remains establishing a set of criteria and approval process that protects the character of established neighborhoods while promoting infill development at the same time. Questions also remain concerning the level of detail and how the review and approval process might work.

Prior to specific proposals are shared with the Plan and Zoning Commission, Historic Preservation Commission and City Council, a public informational meeting will be held to share ideas. The meeting will be held:

Wednesday, November 28, 2007
5:30 p.m.
City of Davenport Design Center
102 E. Second Street (Across from the Radisson)

If attendees have photographs of infill development in their neighborhood, both good and bad, please bring them to the meeting. Everyone is invited!

For more information contact:
Matt Flynn
326-7743
mflynn@ci.davenport.ia.us

If you haven't looked outside this morning...

... it doesn't look like this. However, it may look like this outside later today, so don't forget your hats, gloves, and ice scrapers.

If I don't manage another post, have a good Thanksgiving everyone. I'm thankful that in the Quad Cities, despite our flaws and problems, we have been fortunate enough to be free of wildfires, earthquakes, typhoons, bridge collapses, invasions, and other catastrophes that happen around the world. I'm also thankful that Davenport and Rock Island have made it another year without declaring the first Iowa-Illinois War. You never know.

Another new blog, and an open thread

Another new QC-related blog has started up. Its continuing the tradition of long-dead historical figure running blogs, we now have Thomas Paine, and his Davenport Growing Paines blog. His first two posts are very well-written, so hopefully we've got a keeper here.

I've added a link on the link bar, but otherwise the blog can be found at http://davenportgrowingpaines.blogspot.com/


The QCTimes had a few things that made me laugh last night.

Rogue cell phone in Iowa continuously calls 911 -QCTimes
As you can see in the screenshot to the right, this used to say "rouge cell phone." A commenter pointed it out, and it was changed.

Iowa's three biggest cities are fairly according to analysis -QCTimes
For one... fairly what? The title of the article(at least as of 1:13am) is missing a word, and I assume the missing word is "safe". When you read the article, you find out that the AP has somehow forgotten the existence of Davenport, and refers to Sioux City as Iowa's 3rd largest city. Unless 15,000 people moved into Sioux City yesterday, or some horrible catastrophe lowered our population by over 10%, I don't believe that's correct.

Don't worry though QCTimes.com, you're still my favorite local newspaper website.

Holiday Parade 2007 Images

It was a great day for a holiday parade. The sun was shining so brightly that I actually wished I had dressed less warmly at one point.

Some returning favorites from last year, the Soldier and Bob the Builder.


Rhythm City may be screwing us in every other way, but they at least sponsored the coolest balloon in the parade.

Get ready for balloons!

Ice skating Santa and Mr. Spaceman are ready.

The Davenport: 100 Years

I got a chance to walk through The Davenport apartment building downtown today, on its 100th anniversary. She's definitely looking great for her age.The Davenport, as seen in a 1922-postmarked postcard from my personal collection.
The Davenport: Today
Like urban views? Here's one. I wish the people reading about pigs running the streets could see this view of Iowa.


The view from the apartment featured in the QCTimes article, and the former fountain in the lobby. As you can see, and as the article mentioned, its been converted into a seasonal planter.

This building is often overlooked as part of the downtown housing rebirth, as it was rehabbed a decade and a half before any of the recent stuff. Much like the market-rate units in the newer projects, it has pretty much no vacancies. According to the staff, none of the 70+ units stay available for long at all. This makes sense to me, because if people are willing to spend a grand a month on the Alexander properties, I'm sure there are even more people willing to spend less to live in a beautiful historic building across from the library.

The apartments that were shown as part of the open house were extremely well-decorated, and seemed in great shape as well. I hope a lot of you folks got an opportunity to check them out if you're into this kind of thing like I am. Thanks to the staff of The Davenport for showing me around and helping keep residents in downtown Davenport.

New blog for QC bar enthusiasts

I got an email telling me about a new blog, QuadCityNightlife.com. It appears to be just starting out, but so far it has a good collection of drink specials from around the QC for any given night. I'll add it to the link bar, so check it out next time you're going out for a drink or two.

Weekend Events

I'll resurrect my practice of listing weekend events, at least for this weekend. There are a bunch.

Friday

Annual Downtown Davenport Stakeholder Meeting
7:30AM at the River Center North, Iowa Rooms

100 Year Anniversary Open House
11AM-2PM at The Davenport, 324 N. Main St

Festival of Trees
12PM-4PM in the River Center

Saturday

Festival of Trees
9AM-9PM in the River Center

Festival of Trees Holiday Parade
11AM in Downtown Davenport

Tours of the new Scott County Jail
10AM-2PM at the Jail, 400 W. 4th St

Great Train Expo
10AM-4PM at the QCCA Expo Center

Lighting of the Commons
3:30PM-6:30PM on the John Deere Commons

Quad City Symphony Holiday Pops Concert
7:30PM at the i wireless Center

Sunday

Great Train Expo
10AM-4PM at the QCCA Expo Center

Festival of Trees
10AM-7PM in the River Center

Downtown Davenport: 2 Steps Forward, 1 Step Back

2 Steps Forward (more like 5)

The cement plant at 4th and Iowa is slowing being demolished, as seen at the right.

The old building at 2nd and Ripley that Bill Wundram calls "Willie's place," is being renovated into a "tavern restaurant." As far as I know this is without public funds. Hopefully it's a bit classier than some of the bars downtown. Its already looking better than I remember it during my lifetime.

The QCTimes articles from this weekend point out that work will be beginning soon on even more downtown residential, in the form of the former Salvation Army building. Having this occupied should really make the under-renovation Freight House seem less isolated. One of the articles also mentioned that the Alexander Company is looking at starting on Phase 3 of the Crescent Warehouse District. More residents downtown means more chance of retail taking a chance on the area. Which brings us to...

The Putnam/Parker buildings renovation and remarketing as One Putnam Centre. This is also being done with private money, and the QCTimes article states that they're looking for the type of retail that downtown residents need.

1 Step Back (More like 2)

And now the negative. My favorite restaurant in the QC area, Centro, is closing at the end of this year. I will have to go a couple last times by New Year's. While all the articles say how it wasn't failing, we all know that if the place and been a great success it wouldn't be closing. I do agree with some of the quotes in the articles that they weren't hurting that bad for customers. It seems like whenever I was in there, weekend or weeknight, it was decently busy. Unfortunately, I also never saw it overflowing to where anyone had to wait outside. Why this is, I have no idea. Olive Garden is packed constantly, and I know I'd rather pay a couple extra bucks per meal (and that's all the difference is) to eat at a unique, Iowa-based restaurant rather than the image of corporate dining.

Savitri's also bit the dust, and the planned "Red River Steakhouse" never made it past the "Coming Soon" stage. This one isn't that much of a surprise, as the one time I was in there I only saw one other table in use. The only way I ever heard people describe Savitri's was expensive, and if you're looking for fine dining downtown we already had Duck City. If only a Mexican place would go into that building! Downtown has a variety of food, but that's one of the missing pieces.


Still moving forward:
So a couple of restaurants didn't make it, and a new one's already replacing one of them. According to some, its one more indicator that downtown is a failure. According to most, its something that happens, and is more than balanced by all the progress happening down there. One thing that Centro's failure demonstrates to me is that downtown has an image problem. People are willing to fight Kimberly traffic and park over by Office Max to go to Olive Garden, but not willing to park diagonally across the street in the free parking lot for Centro? Are some people still holding onto the false feeling that downtown is dangerous? Come on folks, 2nd and Main has got to be one of the safest and cleanest intersections in town. I hope that the incoming Woodfire Grill is supported at least as well as any similar NoLo restaurant.

Saturday Morning Open Thread

I drove down to Wildcat Den earlier this week to see what was left of the fall colors. I knew I was late in the season, but had hoped for some good images anyway. I got a few, which I may post later, but it was clear that I was a couple weeks late.

I also swung through Muscatine, and was very impressed with some of the progress happening in their downtown. I'll have to return (possibly in the Spring) and take a walk around to see more.

Some election tidbits

The highest turnout in Davenport was in Precinct D63 (35.80%), which is the area from Kimberly to 53rd, and from a mixture of Eastern and Jersey Ridge over to the Bettendorf border.

Riverdale, the only place around here with more of a city hall circus than us, had 61.56% of their registered voters come to the polls yesterday.

The only precincts with lower turnout this year than in 2005 were D21 and D53. In a true demonstration of consistency and stability, if not voting for the right guy, D52 had the exact same number of voters (188) that they did in 2005.

Overall in Davenport, voters increased from 15,548 in the 2005 election to 17,031 this year.

The ward that increased turnout the most was the 1st ward, followed by the 6th and 2nd. Sadly, the 3rd Ward had the lowest rate of increase in voter turnout.

Within the 3rd Ward, the D33 Precinct (Downtown Davenport) increased by the highest percentage and highest number of additional votes. This doesn't really explain Keith's 126-vote deficit, however.


Possibly more to come, but for now I'm going to bed. Consider this an election rehash open thread.

Your 2008 Davenport City Council

The results, as of 9:45PM

Courtesy of the Scott County Auditor's Election Returns site
Winners are in bold, and the candidates are listed in order of my endorsements.

Mayor:
Bill Gluba 62.35%
Phil Yerington 37.07%

At-Large:
Ian Frink 30.59%
Gene Meeker 29.36%
Jennifer Olsen 28.36%
Tina Gillispie-Clawson 11.31%

1st Ward:
Nate Brown 61.95%
Pat Gibbs 37.91%

2nd Ward:
Thomas Carnahan 25.11%
Shawn Hamerlinck 74.61%

3rd Ward:
Bill Boom 56.09%
Keith Meyer 43.40%

4th Ward:
Lisa Lewis 48.18%
Ray Ambrose 51.7%

5th Ward:
Doug Cunningham 42.07%
Bill Lynn 57.93%

6th Ward:
Jeff Justin 60.15%
Dale Gilmour 39.72%

7th Ward:
Barney Barnhill 64.48%
Marcia Patch 35.40%

8th Ward:
Mike Matson 59.51%
Becky Schabilion 40.31%

Some Results Already!

It looks like all precincts are reporting for the 3rd Ward, 5th Ward, and 6th Ward.

From what I can tell, winners in these wards appear to be:

Bill Boom
Bill Lynn
Jeff Justin

It also appears that turnout is up over 2005.

Absentee Ballot Results

The QCTimes pointed out that the Absentee Ballot results are up for Scott County, although the County website doesn't identify them as such. They call it the November 06, 2007 Municipal Elections Summary, which makes it sound like the final results. Its kind of strange really.

If these results match the final in-person voting results, my predictions are spot on. We will see.