Chicago Trip, Horizon Homes, Neighborhood Financing
THREE ITEMS OF NOTE, FOR THIS WEEK:
CHICAGO TRIP
Community leaders, staff, and aldermen made a quick trip Tuesday to Chicago. The trip gave Davenporters an opportunity to receive a behind the scenes look at public/private partnerships and the economic impact of Millennium Park, a presentation on land use by City of Chicago staffers, along with a short tour of City Hall.
Chicago had success by partnering up with corporations to help fund amenities in their park. Three examples included: Exelon Energy's welcome centers, the McDonald's bike/recreation facility, a pedestrian bridge sponsored by BP. The bike/recreation facility was very interesting, a company leased space and rented bikes, provided bike repair, and had parking for bikers. The facility also had lockers, restrooms, and locker-room facilities. A public/private partnership, similar to this, might have use in our Centennial Park - with skateboard, BMX bike rentals, and rentals of more traditional road bikes. It wouldn't need to be fancy, but could serve a purpose - just something that came to mind. Overall, it was interesting to see how the funding was generated to assist with the processes. I realize Centennial Park and Davenport are much smaller, but components might have potential here.
It will be interesting to see how River Vision discussions play out. We need to take small steps and look at some natural fits that benefit the most citizens. I think the proposed basketball courts; greening of the surface parking in LeClaire Park, and the simple fishing/boat piers might be nice additions.
HORIZON HOMES
Ald. Hamerlinck has done a good job working with the developers for Horizon Homes. He had a nice meeting last night and today introduced some good amendments for the project. Many of the ideas are modeled after what has worked at the Castlewood facility. The initiatives focus on joint accountability for landlords and tenants at the property. The vote on the revised resolution comes forward next week.
NEIGHBORHOOD FINANCE CONCEPT
I would like to thank all who attended the Neighborhood Finance Program conceptual meeting last night. Thanks, especially, to Bruce Berger and Ald. Howard for their assistance. The new ideas included: looking at re-hab. financing options for existing residents, looking at structural process to ensure that the loans are given to equal numbers of individuals in all income brackets (high, middle, low), looking at more grant versus loan dollars from lending institutions, and looking at new construction for in-fill areas (i.e. vacant lots). A follow-up meeting and a potential road trip to Des Moines are next on the agenda. To view links on the program: click here.
posted by Ian Frink @ 7:20 PM
12 comments
12 Comments:
If we are going to do infill, for gosh sakes please stop the prefab Habitat kind in our old neighborhoods. They do not fit in and we shouldn't spend any of our money on these abd looking cheap garage style homes. We need an infill ordinance - can you do that for us too Ian?
Anon. 8:54,
Infill was discussed the other night - we can make a determination on this, one way or the other, in the coming months.
I do like the idea of an infill ordinance of some sort - I'll contact legal and see what options might exist.
How much did the chicago jaunt cost the city?
What are your thoughts on a moretorium on the development of more new construction low income rental property? This is greatly needed here in a city this size. We have too much non-taxed rental property.
Anon. 1:11 am,
Chicago trip cost fuel and transportation. Everyone paid for his or her own meals. In return we met with Chicago’s land use planners for free and received a free behind the scenes look at how the city has effectively used private partners to help fund park amenities.
Anon. 5:56 pm,
Thanks for the post. I would be interested in seeing a cap of some sort. I would like to see some comparable numbers for similar cities of our size and geography. Some of the recent new "low income" prospects have featured apartments with rent ranges in the $500-750 bracket; based on our demographics I think there is a need to a point. Defining the cap would be important
You need to be looking past the rents Ian. "Decent" low income tenants do not want to live in these low income villages. Plus, anohter reason for a cap would be that the "decent" low income rental projects are taking all our "decent" tenants - leaving the central city slums with no tenants but criminals. It is much like urban sprawl. We need to plan our city better.
Breaking topic here
What can you tell us about the Kentucky trip that QCI mentions in his blog? Did you go along? Who all went representing Davenport? I did not know that just ordinary citizens could go on these fact finding journeys with officials. How many members of the public went along besides QCI? How can we sign up for these trips? Did you / they garner any valuable information suitable for use here in Davenport?
Thank you sir ... curious minds want to know.
Anon. 8:08,
The Levee Commission sponsors the trips - Steve Ahrens is the director and organizes trips of this nature.
Email, sahrens@ci.davenport.ia.us
Commission link:
http://209.43.125.183/department/board.asp?fDD=30-57
::
I did not go along on the Kentucky trip, but did go on the Chicago trip a couple weeks ago. The commission is looking, first hand, at best practices by other communities for waterfront re-developments.
I did visit Louisville, on a work trip, a few years ago. They did put forth an impressive effort on their riverfront. A lot of open green space, parks, and so forth.
This was coupled with re-investments in their downtown (lofts, renovated ball park, business attraction initiatives, public/private partnerships, etc.).
Louisville also utilized Hargreves Assoc., the same firm that helped Davenport and Rock Island in the River Vision planning sessions a couple years back. It is an impressive downtown, they are known for having large events in their riverfront park areas, including a 4th of July celebration that attracts hundreds of thousands.
It never hurts to look around at what has worked in other cities. I believe we have a great deal of potential to develop our riverfront parks, but need to seek out private partners to help with funding and to utilize assistance from Vision Iowa. We will need to look at each project on a case-by-case process and be smart about our investments as we continue moving forward. The net result can help with attraction and retention of our work force and better utilization of our amenity base in the downtown.
Ian, I don't get over by Marquette and Kimberly very often but noticed yesterday that there was a new occupant in the old Davenport Medical Center building. Some kind of specialty hospital the sign said. Can you let me and any other curious folks know what kind of operation this is and what services are provided? Like I say, I happened to notice a couple of wheelchair patients out enjoying the nice weather yesterday and saw the new sign. As usual I am probably the last to hear about this.
Thanks Ian.
Anon. 11:22,
The new facility is: Select Specialty Hospital, which is "a specialty hospital dedicated to the care of critically ill, medically complex, and catastrophically injured patients requiring an extended acute care hospital stay."
No ER.
Visit: www.selectmedicalcorp.com - to learn more.
SELECT SPECIALTY HOSPITAL
1111 W KIMBERLY RD
468-2000
- from QWEST yellow pg. listing
Fits the bill as the new retirement home of the current city council.
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