An article in the Times about housing starts has spawned some interesting comments. Getting past the mindless drivel is easy, to see some interesting comments about the good and bad that is Davenport.
4-6-08 Davenport Leaders Worry About Tumbling Home Starts
Every US city, regardless of region, has good and bad aspects. I currently choose to live here and rather enjoy it. The only point I see in moving away from here is the weather, and after this winter, most of you may be nodding your heads in agreement at this point.
The good…
I like being in a city that has many of the amenities of large cities without the headaches that they present. We have good shopping areas, recreation, a small touch of culture and great attractions and festivals. I can guarantee each and every person enjoys at least one event in the area every year. What we don’t have is traffic jams, minus the occasional bridge delay, a high rate of crime, over priced amenities, and most of the other problems faced by areas with high density populations.
The complaints fly, but what is there to really complain about? Is it really that bad? We complain about parking downtown. Well, I went to the University of Iowa and had to have a vehicle due to the job that I had at the time. I paid almost as much in parking as I did in tuition. At 10-15 minutes for a quarter, that was an expensive day, especially with the lack of residential parking and meter-less areas. Parking ramps are a complaint as well. To eat dinner in downtown Chicago costs over 20.00 at a parking deck. Much more expensive than anything I could imagine paying here.
Police are an issue, always complaining about how the cops don’t do what they are supposed to and are ineffective. Well, I did notice that of all of the homicides in the QC in the last couple years, it seems that the alleged inadequate DPD has had someone in custody within 48 hours. Personally, I think this is a bar that is set pretty high, and one that larger cities couldn’t reach if they wanted to.
We have excellent fire protection. If you have questions about that, ask your insurance man. Mine says we have one of the best fire ratings out there, hence a cheaper policy premium. Though I take exception to some of the rest of the city services as being in need of improvement, if you compare this again to other cities we are doing pretty well. Have you driven in Clinton, Iowa City or other areas during or shortly after a snowstorm? I would say the snow removal we have here is pretty good. Unfortunately, we have Bettendorf next to us that exceeds expectations on this one.
As far as cost, I think we are on the level with most places in the area, and certainly living a lot cheaper than other areas of the country. If you want to point to Bettendorf all the time, remember, they are the first ones to charge more. They were the first to charge a garbage fee, the first to charge for yard waste pick-up and has more city fees. And for all that, here’s what you don’t get… Bettendorf has been horribly behind on fire protection. That blew up in their face recently in the major house fire, that likely wasn’t the fire department’s fault. To have fire protection where you must rely on other cities, including Davenport, to fight a simple house fire, is not an amenity that I would like to sacrifice. I think I would rather have a little snow on my street than have to worry if the fire department could put out a fire in my home. Bettendorf, though on the surface looks to have better amenities, it is evident that they are cutting corners where Davenport does not.
The bad…
Streets. But look at a statement in the article. Bettendorf has done better on development starting in the 1970’s since the town was all new. New streets, new infrastructure, and after all, we all like new things. But look at Bettendorf now. I would argue that the streets in Bettendorf, once new and attractive to development, are deteriorating to levels that are at or worse than Davenport. The problem becomes keeping up with maintenance and replacement of deteriorating streets, especially in a region with weather that is horrible in relation to heating and freezing, rendering havoc on pavement. I think that in the very near future, Bettendorf is going to need to address the issues of their deteriorating infrastructure, just as Davenport does, causing a cutback in amenities that currently exists due to Bettendorf’s seemingly minimum expense in this area.
Crime. For the density of population, crime is a little high. But I see many positives here. The crime free housing program seems to be having an impact, at least in the public eye. It would be interesting to talk to some of the officers and see if they are seeing impact with this program at all. I know that comments have been made in relation to crime and its source being in rental housing. Hopefully the new chief, with experience in other areas of the country, will provide a vision of how some mitigation in the department can help improve efficiency and maybe even prevention strategies.
Infrastructure. I think a serious lack of good decision making in the past has led to a situation in a couple areas that are now at just short of crisis level. The sewer situation and the fact that we have a large business park along I-80 that doesn’t have the infrastructure to support it. I am hopeful that the current council has the priorities right to get some of these critical projects underway. I am not upset at the investment in Centennial Park, as it has been years of planning and countless hours of public input. There does have to be a balance between attractions and necessities. I am interested to see if the council, mayor and Malin are able to secure federal funds for some of these projects. I think that if the city gets aggressive in securing outside funding, this may come out in the end as a relatively significant win for Davenport.
So that’s what I have off the top of my head. Maybe someone can add to the list. Here is the challenge. Instead of complaints like are present on the Times. Try this. If you list a bad, also list a good. It’s worth thinking about good things on occasion.
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14 comments:
The crime free progam has done little. Go to 14th and Gaines and take a look. The central city is a shithole and getting worse. Time to move people of SOLO. Get out before the market really gets worse. The gangbangers are living in the slums and the city does nothing to help.
I think 8:12 is a great example as to why Davenport has a perception problem. Davenport seems to have hundreds of people running around telling everyone the sky is falling, and maybe a handful of people trying to stress the positives about the city.
I'm not saying Davenport doesn't have problems. I'm saying I don't believe the problems versus positives are that far out of whack. Davenport has many, many things to be proud of but you'd hardly know it.
This lack of pride also goes to the larger Quad City area in general. It's frustrating and almost embarassing. You don't know how many times I've had a conversation with someone who's telling me about how great some other city or area is, and about all the amenities they have elsewhere. 99% of the time I explain to them, that, yep, we have the same stuff here, too, but it's usually cheaper and closer to my house than in their town. And some of these are people who used to live here!!! Somehow the whiners have brainwashed their neighbors!
You think Bettendorf has better services? Pah! When they have a big fire, they have to call in the DAVENPORT fire department, because their service can't handle it!
I could go on about this subject for hours. This cuts to the heart of the reason I started blogging - perception is seriously lagging reality around here.
And no one seems to remember that Bettendorf RAISED there fees this year and Davenport didn't.
Sorry, I miss spoke (as Jim Fisher would say).
Bettendorf:
Stormwater fee: Up 50 cents per month, or $6 annually for the average household.
Garbage: Up 33 cents per month, or $3.96 annually for the average household.
Sewer: Up an average of $1.46 per month, to $17.52 annually
Davenport:
Sewer increase of 18 cents per 100 cubic feet from $1.68 to $1.86
(From http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/03/19/news/local/doc47e0992152af0949179278.txt and http://www.qctimes.com/articles/2008/03/13/news/local/doc47d8c3239d94b654634429.txt
parking,drivel, drivel golf, drivel drivel, sewer, drivel, drivel, increased assesements, drivel drivel,wait until next year, sales tax, drivel drivel, property tax ,drivel drivel.
Bettendorf just leeches everything off of Davenport, like all suburbs. How many festivals and cultural amenities does Bettendorf have? The library, children's museum.... and 4th of July. They let Davenport handle providing big city attractions, while they simply collect the tax money from people who don't want to live around big city diversity. (IE, people who aren't upper middle class white folks). As people have said, with their recent growth, they don't have the aging infrastructure that Davenport has to pay for either. It will be interesting to see if in 20 years PV does to Bettendorf what Bettendorf has been doing to Davenport.
This is why I consider the Quad Cities to be Davenport, Rock Island, Moline, and East Moline. Bettendorf is just a suburb. Attack me for not being supportive of the QC as a whole, but I just don't think Bettendorf brings their share of benefits to the table.
QCI,
I feel the pain as you do, but see the naysayers point. I too, am frustrated with the progress with crime and trash issues. One would think that if the city departments were to work together for the same cause, we would see progress. Long gone are those days that we could call one office (NEO) to get nuisances abated. Now I call three departments with nobody on the other side of the phone actually listening. I'm not saying that I'll move to Bettendorf, but things do seem a bit calmer there. I hope someday that those alderman saying "this is best for the city" start actually doing just that. The city needs to come together and work for the common good and not just preform for a paycheck or make decisions based on them getting (re)elected.
blame Mark whjat's his name at the Fire Department . Dumba as a hydrant. and who cares about solo. Long lost long time ago. Bob McGivern is the hero.He knoew better.go noptrht.
QCI - The leeching of Bettendorf by PV is already happening. The effects are somewhat mitigated by the fact that a big chunk of the PV school district is in Bettendorf. Is Bettendorf still considering closing schools? Oh, so I guess Davenport isn't the only city with this problem. Check out this editorial. Or, according to this article, Bettendorf School District actually lost 521 students over the 10 year period ending in 2006. That is a fewer number than Davenport has lost, but as a percentage of their enrollment, it's probably just as bad or worse.
I honestly think all of this eastward expansion is bound to come crashing down someday, whether its due to rising gas prices, sprawl growing faster than the population, or whatever. There will always be some greener grass further east. If things continue this way, Bettendorf may start to have some of the problems that Davenport is having now (assuming they already aren't). But their situation will be worse than Davenport's, because as QCI said, they lack the amenities and urban center that Davenport has. At least Davenport has a fighting chance to recover.
Drive over to 14th and Gaines on a warm day and see the progress made with the NETS program. Leave you children at home and lock your doors.
NETS were hung out to dry...No more support by other city departments like it had in Goose Creek. Too bad!
I didn't mean to say that there are no gangs or problems SOLO. However not all young people on the street are criminals. I think that things are improving SOLO and constant negetivity doesn't help anyone. Why not be part of the solution instead of just a complainer. Davenport is a great place to live and raise our children.
Perhaps some of you need to consider where you shop and where your tax dollars go. Keep your shopping in Davenport and use locally owned stores when ever possible and you only help Davenport.
Look at the Bettendorf downtown area and at Davenports. I would much rather spend time in the Davenport downtown then in Bettendorf. As for the roads. Bettendorf doesn't have much to be proud of in that department.
You mean like Quad City Images and go to Chitown Chicago to buy his bookcase? QCI is always talking about what a big supporter of Davenport he is. Duh.
Crime in SOLO can be the same as 6th Ward if SOLO does the samething as 6th Ward residents.
Nitrous55
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