Ward meeting

We attended the 5th ward meeting that was held in the new Police Station. It was held in the community room, and everyone seemed to notice that there were 3 cameras mounted in the room. It wasn’t a huge turnout, but it wasn’t bad either.

When Alderman Lynn walked in he informed me that I was the spokesman for the Guardian Angels.
That was a surprise to me, but we managed. The meeting opened with problems that the police representative handled. After that we moved on to City Legal, and the nuisance abatement lawyer.
She’s supposed to go full time in July.

An idea was discussed to allow landlords to evict a tennent if the police are called twice to the
apartment they reside in. We think property owners could use the help. A few landlords in
attendence seemed to like the idea.

Storm sewers and flooding were talked about also. Seems in some parts of SoLo, east of
Brady St., there aren’t enough storm drains. It was also mentioned that if we got water in
our basements we should let the city know. Right now any reinbursement is based on
income, but if we get declared a federal disaster area that won’t apply. Seems like it would
have been worth a shot if I hadn’t fixed our water heater.

Then I gave a short talk on the local Guardian Angels and answered questions. We thought it
went well. We even got some praise for things we’ve done in 5th ward areas. We will relay that
to the chapter tomorrow.

The flood was mentioned again, in general, because it’s too early for figures. We honestly
would have stayed, but about this time I got really thirsty. I hadn’t had a Coca Cola in a few
weeks and was drooling for one. Getting the urge, we left before the talk got around to the
zoo. If anyone knows more about that, please comment on it.

More went on, but you should know by now, we don’t do well at meetings. I could do a lot
better if I could go barefoot, grubby, and with my coffee mug in hand. But we cleaned up
and went, and lived to tell about it. That’s our take, comments on just about anything,
are welcome.

A few dry things

Lisa asked us if we could put something in a post to remind people
that the Scott County Democrats are reconvening the county
convention at 8 am, this Saturday to nominate a candidate for
for Auditor in the fall election. This event is open to the public,
but only seated delegates from the original convention can vote.
Registration begins at 8 am at North HIgh School. So if you’ve got
an interest in politics, or just want to find out more, circle
Saturday, June 21st on your calender, and we’re sure you’d be
welcome.

She also asked what happened to Ambrose’s blog, SOLO, and we didn’t
know the answer. Does anyone know why he changed it? We know we miss
checking out his slant on things and were just wondering. We hope
he’s doing alright and just wanted a break.

Also, this Thursday at 6 pm, is the 5th Ward Meeting, which will
be held at the Davenport Police Station, 416 Harrison. Representatives
from the Davenport Police Department and Guardian Angels are
scheduled to be there. This is the first time in our memory anyway,
that the meeting hasn’t been held in the 5th ward. We do look forward
to seeing the new Police Station though.

Lastly, Saturday evening, starting at 6 pm, is the Northpark Cruise-in
hosted by the River Valley Classics. It only cost a couple bucks to
get in and there’s usually over 400 vehicles. We’re going to make it
as spectators for a few hours. This is the first Northpark cruise-in
of the year and it should be a blast. If you like old cars, oldies
music, and having fun, it’s the place to be.

There’s a few things going on that don’t involve getting wet. Comments
on just about anything are welcome.

Ward meeting

For anyone living in the 5th ward who hasn’t heard, there’s a ward
meeting on Thursday, June 19, at 6 pm. It is to be held in the
community room of the Davenport Police Station, 416 Harrison St.
A police representative and a Guardian Angels representative will be
at the meeting to answer questions. So if you live in the 5th ward
and have questions that haven’t been addressed before, you may want
to show up for this meeting. We’ll probably go just to get a look at
the new police station.

Our air conditioner went out last week, and after the heavy rains we
also need a water heater due to water in the basement. On the bright
side, we’re looking at an automatic sump pump to replace the old one.
It won’t help this water heater, but should make the replacement last
longer than two years.

Since we had never gotten more than a few inches of water in the
basement we thought we had the problem under control. Now we’ll go
overkill even though that type of rain probably won’t happen again
for years. We’re still trying to get it lit, but it doesn’t look very
promising. We’ll see what we can find out today.

Comments are always welcome.

Bonus local rant

We’ve been quiet about local politics lately, so we thought we’d do
a post on the subject. We are sad to announce that the zoo is dead. It
has joined our good friend, Common Sense, who died of neglect here
several years ago.

The zoo is gone, to be replaced with a handicapped-accessable Ecopark
at a future date. Funny how when Credit Island first opened, it was a
nature park with walking trails and wildlife running all over. Then
came the needed amenities; the roads, the golf course, the clubhouse,
the tennis courts and restrooms. And the wildlife all but disappeared.

Then at Fejervary Park we had Monkey Island and a zoo. The monkeys
left first, we think they’re in a bar in Panama trying to figure out
Midwesterners. And now the zoo is going to close, and the wildlife is
going to disappear.

Since it passed our City Council, and the Mayor was all for it, we
have a question or two. The most obvious is; how much is it going to
cost us? Since the city claims it doesn’t have the couple-hundred-
thousand dollars to restore the zoo; is the Ecopark going to be less
money? We notice nobody was willing to put a price tag on this
wonderful destination of the future. Or do we wait until an exploritory
committee is formed and comes up with a total.

We’re not even sure what an Ecopark is, or why we need one to bring
people here. We figured we’d help the city out and give them a starting
figure. We’d guess the total to rehab will run $1.4 million.
we believe this to be an accurate, low end, figure. Depending on the
number, and quality of amenities, it could go higher.

We would suggest our City Leaders take care of other things first-

1. Look into how to bring our population back up to what it was 25
years ago. For those who wear rose-colored-glasses; population growth
measured in tenths of a percent is not growth, it is stagnation. We
would like to see Davenport with a bigger population than Cedar Rapids.
We did years ago.

2. Do damage control on the perception that crime is rampant in our
city. Just stating we have a ‘zero tolerance on crime’ is not enough.
We’d like to know what has been implimented to make it happen. Doesn’t
zero tolerance imply that if you commit a crime you will get some sort
of consequence for you actions?

3. Get busy and repair the potholes. It should be budgeted for some
streets to be repaved completely as opposed to patched. The streets
aren’t going to get better on their own.

4. Tighten up, or at least clarify some of your actions. Contract sales
of houses comes to mind. Are there people slipping through the cracks
and renting? When is a rent to own, a contract sale? And do we have
anyone who looks for fraud?

That’s our little extra rant of the day. Comments on our opinion, or
anything else are welcome.

Interesting day

There were some things going on over the weekend, not the least of which was a meeting to start another neighborhood watch group. We attended as Guardian Angels to answer any questions about our group. Around 25 people showed up along with our Police Chief, Alderman Lynn, our son and myself. As with some areas there was concern about drug houses, and rental properties. We thought it was a good fist meeting.

At the meeting, someone asked the Chief about this seat belt stop deal going on. Some of us, myself included, had forgot about what all the brainstorming had come up with. At some point during all the talks about crime, making criminals uncomfortable came out. Ticket them for anything and everything. According to the Chief, that’s what this program is about. This way it allows the police to stop known felons and drug dealers, and gives them cause to search the vehicle. They’ve arrested several people on warrants, one was even out of Kansas! It has even gotten some guns off the street. So even though we know of people who were ticketed along with the bad guys, we like the idea. If it’s working, we should just make for sure our plates are up-to-date, and grin and bear it. Everyone has noticed the increased police presence in our area.

Rental properties were discussed, and again, not being in the business we learned a few things. The first is that not all landlords look at the law the same way. Some don’t do background checks at all, and some just turn everything over to professional property managers. Some of these managers are also well known for not doing background checks. The other thing we learned about was evictions. We always assumed it someone was selling drugs out of your rental property they could be evicted. Boy did we feel stupid. As long as they’re paying rent the judge won’t evict them.

And finally, the big fight at 14th and Gaines Streets. This was at the same property that has been causing that area of our town problems for years. Maybe that would be a good place to do a nuisence abatement on. That’s our thoughts on a couple of things, and what we learned over the weekend. Comments on this or any subject are welcome.

Local perception rant

We had the scanner on yesterday and heard a call to West 1st. Street about a big fight with pipes, chains, baseball bats, and golf clubs. First we chuckled that at least some sports were involved. But that got us thinking how other folks must see our town. The QC Times is running an online poll about crime. As of yesterday 51% said our crime rate is high in the Quad Cities. 38% said they believe crime is on the rise, and only 6% said it has stayed steady. What’s that going to do for tourism?

Our City Leaders had better get on this before it becomes a real problem. Why are some people afraid to go downtown? We know people are leery of coming to our house because of shootings within a block of our place, but we don’t feel crime is that bad right now.

Any action on the zoo was tabled at the last meeting. We still say leave it alone. Don’t make any more “destinations” until the perception of our crime rate is changed. You won’t get too many tourist if they think there’s a shooting every day. If our city is percieved as a rowdy wild west setting, most people will go elsewhere.

Speaking of making our city a destination, have all the street sweepers broken down? In some places there is so much muck people couldn’t walk if they wanted to.

And grafitti. Nothing says “destination” more than seeing grafitti sprayed on signs, overpasses, vacant houses, and walls throughout the city. That’s our rant for today, comments on this or any other subject are welcome.

Local rant

 If it’s Thursday, it must be time for our rant. We’re going to go
out on a limb with this one and try to predict the future. If we’re
way off we are adult enough to admit it. We certainly hope we’re
wrong on some of it. So read this rant at your own risk, and please
remember it is our opinion. As such, that and a buck and a half
will get you a small cup of coffee.

The figures aren’t in yet on the damage to Credit Island. A lot of
people are wondering how much it’s going to cost to repair the
flood damage. Here’s our thoughts on that.

 Now, let’s just say that the golf course
doesn’t get rebuilt. That means they don’t spend the $70,000 or what-
ever the figure is on rebuilding it. Instant savings! And what about
the roads, which in some parts weren’t that good before the flood?
We think we have a handle on that also. If they redo the park into an
RV park, the roads would have to be repaved to handle the extra
weight. That doesn’t have anything to do with the flood. Instant
savings! Shift the cost over to developing the NEW park, not fixing
the old park. No flood damage costs!

 And what about the cost of converting the golf course over for use
as an RV park? Well that could hardly be the fault of the flood. It
would have to chalked up to the development of the NEW park. But what
about the loss of the greens fees during the flood and the rest of
the year? Well, that can’t be counted as a loss because a study has
to be done before the park can be changed into an RV park. No loss!

 Now of course, if you follow our line of thinking, there will be
no cost to repair the clubhouse, because it won’t be a clubhouse any
longer, it will be a ecological learning center, or the RV park
office. Hence no money spent to repair flood damage. It will be
monies spent on the NEW park. We are just amazed at how cheap the
 cleanup for this flood is going to be.

 Let’s shift gears and talk about the zoo. The instant we heard the
magic word “destination” we got a sense of dread. The City leaders
now want to make that area a destination. God give us strength! So
now the plan is to get rid of all the animals, have a petting zoo
take over, and add a handicap accessible eco-learning center on the
site. Perhaps a few things haven’t been thought out very well
by our learned City leaders. First thing that comes to mind is that
it has been tried at least twice in the past. In the 1990s’ it was
called a disaster. During Charlie Brookes term it just fizzled out.
It would seem, in this town at least, an independly contracted
petting zoo doesn’t do well.

 Eco-learning center? Isn’t that what a park is? Don’t most parks
already have grass, plants, trees, and critters native to our area?
To really learn kids need to be in the environment and experience it.
Just smell the grass after it’s mowed, watch the birds building
nests in a tree, and the squirrels carry acorns to another.
And if the city couldn’t afford the to keep the old zoo open, where’s
the money coming from to build this “destination”?

 That’s our story and we’re sticking to it! You can agree, disagree,
or bring up whatever’s on your mind. Comments are welcome. 

Roberry, clean up, and Happy Mother’s day

Last night there was an armed robbery around 11th. and Perry Streets around 10:30 pm. We don’t know if the police found this guy or not, but they did make arrests and got two guns off the street. It appears that some people were at 12th and Brady Streets at the time of the armed robbery . The van they sat in reeked of marijauna, which gave police cause to search the van and find the 2 guns. Now they know why it’s called dope.

Flood clean-up cost are rising. Now it’s estimated at three-quarter of a million dollars. How high will it go after the river goes down enough to get on Credit Island? At least LeClaire Park seems to have weathered the flood pretty well. After a winter with so much snow, a flood this spring, and crater sized potholes, we hope for an uneventful summer. The city budget had to have taken a hit on these things.

Happy Mother’s day to all. At some point today, we’ll have to stop and get a gift.

Comments are welcome.

Odds and ends

 Bill Woodward lost his daughter after an extended illness. They buried her today and our heartfelt condolences go out to Bill and the family. Bridgeway Auto Parts will probably be closed at least today.  Words cannot express the loss when someone loses a child.

 It’s going to be a rainy weekend, but if you get a chance the City is extending the free yard waste pickup next week. It will be for next week only if we heard correctly. If we can stay dry long enough, we’ll take advantage of this over the weekend.

 If things keep going like they have, the first cruise-in tomorrow may be cancelled. We haven’t heard anything definite yet, but we’re sure the QC Cruisers will update their website, or have answers on their hotline.

 The Sippi’s project doesn’t seem to be making much headway. Once again we’ll say that we’re all for the project. We see nothing wrong with using ones own money to rebuild and existing building and make it usuable. We hope the city doesn’t hold the owners hostage much longer.

 That’s a couple of things stuck in our craw, comments on any subject are welcome.

Thursday rant

 Before we rant, we wanted to clarify a few things about the Guardian
Angels.

 On an earlier post, br8392 commented on the Guardian Angels. They stated
that they were surprised they hadn’t seen the GA’s. First, WE would like
to tell them that information has been passed on to the leaders.
The Guardian Angels are out every weekend. We patrol on foot, and usually
after dark. We have been in the area mentioned several times.  If one
has a concern about crime in their neighborhood, contact one of us.
Any comments on this blog regarding crime are forwarded, and the
local Guardian Angel website is-
http://qcguardianangels.org/
There is a place to leave comments on the website.

the post referred to by br8392, and the comments, are at-
http://cruisin2.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/guardian-angels-now-welcome/#comments

 We now return you to our regularly scheduled rant-

 Well it’s April, when some young mens thoughts turn to blasting away.
With this recent rash of shootings we feel like they should rename the
area the OK Corral or something. We don’t know what’s responsible for
the recent outbreak of violence, we just hope it’s not an omen of how
the summer’s going to be.

 There seems to be talk about Eagle Crest. We haven’t been by that part
of the westend, but haven’t heard anything good about the place. It
makes us wonder why the place isn’t tagged as uninhabitable. We have a
feeling this subject will come under the ‘pass the buck’ heading. And
this being a new administration, that may be justified. We just hope
since people are talking about the problem, it gets fixed.

 Some people are overjoyed at Nicky Bowle’s decision to put her dream up
for sale. This is the property she fought the City for 8 years to get a
variance for the sewer on. While some hate the entrance, we have nothing
against it. We feel this speaks volumns about how our City treats
business people.

 A recent report said we are breaking even on our population in Davenport
while all around us towns and cities are growing. Why is that?
 Millions of tax dollars have been spent to make Davenport a
destination, and yet people are leaving. Will getting the Promise program
up and running help, or just be more empty promises about growth?

 That’s a couple things going on in our area, comments are always welcome.