Is It All That Bad?

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.

Consolidated Dispatching

This seems to be a hot topic, more so with the Bettendorf crowd than anyone else. This one took a lot of research, but I think this is a good thing. I tried to break this down into sections of what costs the taxpayers money. There’s personnel, hardware and management.
Personnel seems to be most of the against argument by the Bettendorf crowd since they seem to be pleased with their dispatch as is. According to the articles that address the personnel issue, it seems that there will not be a loss of numbers, or even the people that exist as of right now. How this would affect day to day operations seems to be slim to none, as there are going to be plenty of dispatchers to answer the calls.
Another issue that comes up is that the Bettendorf folks say that there will be a delay in getting services. I think that is a large heap of speculation and really has no merit. As a matter of fact I think it will decrease delays and here’s why. Cell phones. I don’t know if this has happened to any of you but a friend of mine was in the area of 53rd and Elmore and dialed 911 from his cell phone. He got Bettendorf. He wasn’t in Bettendorf. Had that been a consolidated center, it wouldn’t matter, that dispatcher could send him Davenport’s assistance from the same desk. One call, no transferring from place to place.
Hardware was a lot more involved than I thought. After reading the report that is posted as a link from the Sheriff’s Department site, it seems that getting everyone to communicate with each other may not be that difficult, as long as all of the departments involved are willing to work together. The term interoperability keeps surfacing in the sites that I went to and it seems that agencies that develop interoperability are eligible for federal grants. I stumbled into a lot of information at the federal level about national incident management and it’s everywhere. The fed is supporting it, and not only is willing to put funds into it, they already have.
These dispatch centers are working well and interoperability was proven to be very important and successful in the Minneapolis interstate bridge collapse. If interoperability isn’t in place here in the QC I think it should be. I think that all law enforcement, fire departments and ambulances need to be able to talk to each other. If they all had the same dispatch center that can’t hurt. If that center knows where everyone is would they be able to send the closest responder instead of what is now in their limited span of control? I couldn’t find that answer definitively, but it makes sense.
I think the true issue with Bettendorf is the management side. If they lose control of the management, they may seem like the little guy being bullied around by Davenport, just because of mere numbers. I’m not sure how that issue could be resolved, but it sounds like everyone would maintain some control over their portion of the world. I really don’t think that Bettendorf is going to lose the ability to get a police officer in a decent amount of time, unlike Davenport on occasion. It seems the change is limited to changing dispatch, not departments themselves. I doubt after all the crying about the fire department in that city that the citizens there wouldn’t want emergency services to be able to communicate with other agencies in the most efficient manner. It appears that they are the only city that cannot handle a moderate to major emergency without the assistance of other jurisdictions, namely when it comes to fire. (No offense intended.) It seems overall, it’s not going to change emergency response, just save us money and increase the efficiency when someone calls for help.