A few items ...
A few items I wanted to pass along:
- I have been asked by a few folks about street sweeping, a map/schedule is on-line: click here.
- Youth Fest is set for July 11th at Fejervary Park, the free event has a great deal of activites scheduled. To learn more, click here.
- Urbanist Jeff Speck will be in town for a speaking engagement at the Figge July 9th. To learn more, click here.
- QC Bicylce Club's Bike to the Ballpark is set for July 8th, 1 pm, Swing game.
Details:
Want to spend an afternoon in one of the Midwest's most beautiful ball parks? Want to get there at a relaxed pace, following a scenic trail along the Mighty Mississippi? Join us for Bike to the Ball Park! We've been offered a discount and a secure area to place our bikes inside the park. $6 for general admission; $12 for admission, hot dog, and a soft drink. Free in stadium bike parking.
Call in or e-mail your reservation and roll your bike in through the southwest gate between Noon and 1 pm.(563)328-2000- ticket office; www.swingbaseball.com.
- The city is seeking input from downtown residents on the new downtown living strategy. To learn more and to take the survey, click here.
posted by Ian Frink @ 9:38 PM
19 comments
19 Comments:
Gosh - I hope you all listen to this guy. All you seem to do is approve more and more plats for more and more sprawl new construction and then ignore the crappy infill going up in the rest of this town. Take 15th and Main for example. IAN - WHY did you let that crazy bad fit fiasco go in there? Do us all a favor and pass design standards for residential. Meyer is the only one talking about this. WHY - you are the at large alderman. It does matter to us living solo. By the way. How our neighborhoods look. Make a stink about Crapitat for a change and how these stupid infills look please.
Anonymous 11:18,
Thanks for the post. I would have to disagree with your statement that all I do is approve more and more new construction sprawl.
My voting record shows a commitment to neighborhoods with support of the new: Community Partnership Program, 100 Homes Program (with 11 lending partners), Neighborhood Specialist position, nuisance abatement specialist in legal, NETS officers, and support of the juvenile offender program. All of these initiatives, many brand new in this budget, are geared toward helping older neighborhoods and helping us preserve and protect these areas. In addition to this I have held five ward meetings in the area South of Locust.
We can look at design standards as we continue to move forward on these other fronts. I did touch on this subject in a December (2006) post (on this blog), looking into a Neighborhood Preservation District in areas South of Locust.
- Ian
When will you be proposing design standards?
Design standard won't happen overnight, but I'll re-visit the topic this month and look at best practices from other communities.
Thanks for the post, Ian
I know it won't happen overnight, but are any of you actually working on it? Time is a wasting. We continue to have such inappropriate infill that is terrible. We need a discussion like yesterday. When can we expect some action?
6:48,
You can expect some more discussion later this month. I will start with something similar to what I discussed in that 12/06 post (click the achieve on this blog to read it, along with plans in other communities).
I'll need to discuss with my colleagues, Legal, and staff - we could introduce a formal plan for council consideration at that point. Thanks for the post, Ian
Thank you for the answer, now I will look for some action. Thanks Ian.
4:19,
I e-mailed Legal, CED, and City Administration on this topic today. We will start with the discussion we had in December and look at bringing forward some potential options to council.
Thanks, Ian
Thank you thank you. I had heard recently that the properties at 15th and Main did not need to be approved because they were considered residential. They are, however, rental units and they are apparently being built by owners from parkview I hear. Go and look at them. These properties should not be allowed. I do not live by them, but if I did, boy would I make a stink. They are going to be duplexes I think. What a way to ruin that corridor. I am ashamed to live in this poorly managed city sometimes. Why on earth was that project allowed? First of all, we do not need any more rentals in that area and secondly, we don't need badly designed prefabbed rentals that are newly built in that area. Those who objected were told that because they are residential, they didn't have to follow any rules. I say that a rental property is commercial.
Ian - this is the perfect example of why we need better staff and better policy when it comes to design standards for residentials use.
Hope that helps you.
Really the entire project just reaks of people trying to make a buck on older areas of Davenport wtih little regard for those of us who are trying to maintain its integrity. I tell you that it is so hard to keep fighting the city sometimes. One would think that the people we elect and those we pay would look out for us, and not for these developers. it gets exhausting. I hear this from the GOldcoast people too who say that they have to constantly fend off JLCS and the agencies down there. The city often approves everything that encrouches on our neighborhoods. It is shameful.
Easy Jack, things aren't that bad. How about that mess on Gaines St? That mess should be raised, like yesterday!
Which place are you refering to?
The Fish, 1314, 922, the list goes on and on. All rentals, all run down, all filled with criminal tenants over and over and over again. The city bustes, then and then allows the same rifraff to move back in over and over.
Ian - what is being done to address these chronic nuisance issues?
Thanks for the posts; I'll look at 15th/Main tomorrow.
As for chronic nuisance properties, the city has identified this as a problem and will sub-contract with a private attorney (20 hrs./wk. aprox.) to assist us with resolving these issues.
Ian
I think we can all agree on the 15th and Main houses(?) being horrible, but the question is what to do about it? Currently the laws apparently allows such things, so what do we need to do to fix that?
Citywide design guidelines on new construction matching existing neighborhoods seem logical, but some of the best neighborhoods in Davenport are a mixture of many architectural styles. For example, McClellan Heights wouldn't have been legal if all houses has to "fit the neighborhood." Nearly every style and size of home are represented in that area. I just don't want efforts to prevent ugly houses in historic neighborhoods to stop the good mixture of styles that can sometimes happen and make interesting neighborhoods. It doesn't seem like it will be an easy law or policy to craft.
And just to repeat, I'm not at all defending the garage-shaped houses on Main.
Okay QCI - let's just do nothing.
It's funny how you people, and Ald. Meyers want dsign standards for residental, but not for the downtown area!
1:45,
FYI
I supported the downtown design standards. - Ian
We need people in office who are bright and who support residential design standards. It is pretty interesting that my guess would be that the non-east block aldermen would support residential design standards, but not the others, except Meyer. He would.
If you recall, Meyer did vote for the standards downtown. It needs to be a campaign issue.
7:53,
At Thursday's committee meetings, I requested a review of options for residential design standards. We will keep the process moving forward, the next step is to look at best practices in other cities. We will know more soon, thanks for the post - Ian
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