25
Dec
2001
If 2001 is, in America, the Year That Changed Everything, the same label might apply to the past 12 months in the Quad Cities, but for much different reasons.
Rightly, one day in 2001 casts a massive shadow over the other 364. The September 11 terrorist attacks had a profound and immediate impact on our national psyche and our sense of security, but those effects, for most of us, have begun to lose their sharp edges with the passage of time.
The economic blow to the country was nearly as quick, but less obvious at first. An economy that was already shaky, teetering on recession, fell down.
In different times - certainly in the 1980s, but perhaps throughout the 1990s, as well - the Quad Cities would have meekly followed the lead of the national economy. That wasn't the case in 2001.
I'm not arguing that the Quad Cities are immune to the current economic downturn - far from it. But in 2001 this community began to build a more resilient and more sustainable economy, better equipped to withstand economic rough times.
Redevelopment efforts in the Quad Cities might not yet be to the point of "economic critical mass" (in the words of the area's oft-used and increasingly redundant consultant), but they have momentum. Davenport, Moline, and East Moline all took big steps forward in major downtown-revitalization projects. Economic-development leaders in Rock Island, as usual, took an idea that everybody recognized as good and actually implemented it, creating an "urban neighborhood" with 52 new loft-style apartments. And Bettendorf, although it dropped out of the River Renaissance proposal for Vision Iowa funds, is moving forward with plans for a new performing-arts center that should prove to be an ideal complement to existing performance and rehearsal spaces in the Quad Cities.
Nothing can or should take the place of September 11 in our memories of 2001. But in the Quad Cities a decade or two or three from now, this might also be considered the Year That Changed Everything - a time when a diverse group of urban projects came together to revitalize the central cities of all the Quad Cities.
Renaissance Reservations
Most impressive of all was the ability of DavenportOne and other backers of the River Renaissance project to successfully campaign for a referendum on a $5 million Scott County contribution that was the linchpin for the entire $113 million effort; if voters had rejected the bond issue, state Vision Iowa money would have disappeared, and the wheels would have fallen off the Renaissance collection. Certain components of the project would have still moved forward - the Figge Arts Center and two parking garages, most notably, had already secured all or nearly all their funding - but the AgTech Venture Capital Center and the River Music History Center would have been scrapped if the bond issue failed.
The timing of the referendum could not have been worse. The state awarded Davenport $20 million for River Renaissance on August 8, but that was contingent on the county throwing in $5 million. More than 10,000 Scott County residents - some opponents of the county contribution, some merely thinking that citizens ought to vote the gift up or down - signed petitions, forcing the issue to referendum, and the Scott County Board of Supervisors set an October 23 date for the vote.
Then came September 11.
That gave River Renaissance backers exactly six post-attack weeks to secure the 60-percent supermajority required for passage of the bond issue - six weeks of trying to reach people who were numb with shock, grief, and anger.
And they did, amazingly. Signs, advertisements, direct mail, research and get-out-the-vote phone banks, networking, arm-twisting, and rallies disguised as press conferences all contributed to a 73-percent "yes" vote - a landslide victory. (The city must still finalize a contract with the state for the funding, however.)
But let's be clear. That vote was not a community-wide validation of the merits of River Renaissance components. DavenportOne and the committee it formed spent a lot of time, money, and effort on the campaign, and its success is more a measure of public-relations acumen than the strength of the project. DavenportOne declined to meet opponents of the county contribution face-to-face, and the campaign barely mentioned specifics of the various projects. Instead of educating the public and engaging in debate, supporters of the bond issue warned that "no" votes would jeopardize the entire project, and appealed to citizens' porkier instincts (by essentially saying, "We're bringing the gambling money back home").
And while DavenportOne was right to pour so much energy into its effort, it's disheartening that post-referendum the organization has done little to dispel the perception that unless it needs something (such as votes), it has little use for the general public. The group's reaching out during the bond-issue campaign suggested that DavenportOne perhaps had opened up and broken its pattern of insularity, but its behavior since then says otherwise.
Restoration of the Redstone building began without any clear articulation of what the River Music History Center might entail, yet crucial site decisions that will affect the layout and operations of the center have already been made. The process of generating and refining ideas for the center is also not ideal, because while DavenportOne wants an advisory board of people who know the past and present of the Quad Cities music scene, it has yet to give that body any authority. (In contrast, the City of Davenport has shown a willingness to be more open in the past few months, with requests for proposals for the River Renaissance skyway bridge, then city-owned land at 53rd Street and Eastern Avenue.)
And while it takes time to develop and execute a plan for a new entertainment facility, it certainly looks as if the business components of the project are taking precedence over the public-amenity side; the office floors of the building are slated to open next year, while the River Music History Center might be open in 2003.
Scott County citizens need to be vigilant in 2002, ensuring that DavenportOne follows through on its promises, including those of local construction jobs and community involvement.
The Model
River Renaissance was just the noisiest among the projects that got off the ground in 2001. Moline and East Moline hit some early benchmarks for their riverfront mixed-use projects that include housing, while Bettendorf has purchased a building near the Family Museum of Arts & Science that could be used for a new performing arts center.
Progress on these projects in 2001 represents baby steps, and in no way guarantees their completion or success. But it's still significant. The Quad Cities have been notorious for a can't-do attitude, with Rock Island and Deere & Company-supported downtown development in Moline the major exceptions. All of the Quad Cities have moved out of the idea and planning stages and into implementation.
The Quarter in East Moline broke ground this fall following several years when the project went nowhere. (Kaizen Company of America had been attached to both residential and commercial facets of the project but pulled out of both.) Dial Quad Cities has begun construction on riverfront condominiums, and other components of the project include a regional sports center and a Mississippi River Interpretive Center.
The City of Moline this past year also executed developer agreements on its Bass Street Landing project, which will feature commercial space and roughly 70 upscale housing units, including approximately 50 condos, 10 row houses, and 10 apartments. The project is hoped to pull Moline's downtown revitalization farther down the riverfront, near Interstate 74.
Those big-ticket items hog a lot of attention, but Rock Island - quietly - remains the model. Without much fanfare - and without nearly the amount of contentious debate and false starts - the city has accomplished in The District what all the other Quad Cities are trying to do downtown: get people to shop, play, work, and (eventually) live downtown.
The ultimate goal with these downtown and riverfront projects is to create self-contained areas so that residents - theoretically - never need to leave their downtown neighborhoods. All downtowns have workplaces, specialty retail, and entertainment, but only Rock Island has made significant progress on the housing front. And residential areas should lead to the final part of the equation: service businesses such as dry cleaners and groceries.
With 52 new downtown apartments in the Goldman and Renaissance buildings, Rock Island continues to lead. Granted, it's taken time for the city to re-build its downtown - The District is now 10 years old - but Rock Island also has the fewest resources available, without a Deere & Company or Vision Iowa benefactor.
With The District, Rock Island created a downtown identity and then assembled a roster of outdoor weekend festivals in the summer to reinforce it. You can see a similar effort at work in Davenport, where downtown interests have built the River Renaissance proposal on the theme of arts and culture. While The District caters to nightlife and festivals, downtown Davenport is poised to become a center for the arts, with a focus on musical heritage and a new arts center. (It would also be nice if Davenport, in its Gold Coast historic district, aped Rock Island's efforts in the Broadway neighborhood.)
These 2001 developments are impressive individually, but what's startling is the strides the Quad Cities have made moving at the same time - even if the confluence is accidental. It seems that we're pushing forward together yet separately.
But that's not completely true. The Midwest Arts Mecca joint-marketing initiative has brought together Quad Cities' arts organizations large and small. The goal is to provide "one-stop shopping" to visitors, locals, and business-development officials when it comes to information about the area's cultural programming. Branding the region as an arts center started with a Web site (http://www.artsmecca.org) and has continued with brochures and public-service announcements at our newly expanded airport. And in a community that's known for being fractured and competitive because of state and city boundaries, that's no small feat.
And, hopefully, it's also something we can build on in 2002, as River Renaissance, The Quarter, Bass Street Landing, The District, and a new performing-arts center in Bettendorf continue moving in the right direction.
The economic blow to the country was nearly as quick, but less obvious at first. An economy that was already shaky, teetering on recession, fell down.
In different times - certainly in the 1980s, but perhaps throughout the 1990s, as well - the Quad Cities would have meekly followed the lead of the national economy. That wasn't the case in 2001.
I'm not arguing that the Quad Cities are immune to the current economic downturn - far from it. But in 2001 this community began to build a more resilient and more sustainable economy, better equipped to withstand economic rough times.
Redevelopment efforts in the Quad Cities might not yet be to the point of "economic critical mass" (in the words of the area's oft-used and increasingly redundant consultant), but they have momentum. Davenport, Moline, and East Moline all took big steps forward in major downtown-revitalization projects. Economic-development leaders in Rock Island, as usual, took an idea that everybody recognized as good and actually implemented it, creating an "urban neighborhood" with 52 new loft-style apartments. And Bettendorf, although it dropped out of the River Renaissance proposal for Vision Iowa funds, is moving forward with plans for a new performing-arts center that should prove to be an ideal complement to existing performance and rehearsal spaces in the Quad Cities.
Nothing can or should take the place of September 11 in our memories of 2001. But in the Quad Cities a decade or two or three from now, this might also be considered the Year That Changed Everything - a time when a diverse group of urban projects came together to revitalize the central cities of all the Quad Cities.
Renaissance Reservations
Most impressive of all was the ability of DavenportOne and other backers of the River Renaissance project to successfully campaign for a referendum on a $5 million Scott County contribution that was the linchpin for the entire $113 million effort; if voters had rejected the bond issue, state Vision Iowa money would have disappeared, and the wheels would have fallen off the Renaissance collection. Certain components of the project would have still moved forward - the Figge Arts Center and two parking garages, most notably, had already secured all or nearly all their funding - but the AgTech Venture Capital Center and the River Music History Center would have been scrapped if the bond issue failed.
The timing of the referendum could not have been worse. The state awarded Davenport $20 million for River Renaissance on August 8, but that was contingent on the county throwing in $5 million. More than 10,000 Scott County residents - some opponents of the county contribution, some merely thinking that citizens ought to vote the gift up or down - signed petitions, forcing the issue to referendum, and the Scott County Board of Supervisors set an October 23 date for the vote.
Then came September 11.
That gave River Renaissance backers exactly six post-attack weeks to secure the 60-percent supermajority required for passage of the bond issue - six weeks of trying to reach people who were numb with shock, grief, and anger.
And they did, amazingly. Signs, advertisements, direct mail, research and get-out-the-vote phone banks, networking, arm-twisting, and rallies disguised as press conferences all contributed to a 73-percent "yes" vote - a landslide victory. (The city must still finalize a contract with the state for the funding, however.)
But let's be clear. That vote was not a community-wide validation of the merits of River Renaissance components. DavenportOne and the committee it formed spent a lot of time, money, and effort on the campaign, and its success is more a measure of public-relations acumen than the strength of the project. DavenportOne declined to meet opponents of the county contribution face-to-face, and the campaign barely mentioned specifics of the various projects. Instead of educating the public and engaging in debate, supporters of the bond issue warned that "no" votes would jeopardize the entire project, and appealed to citizens' porkier instincts (by essentially saying, "We're bringing the gambling money back home").
And while DavenportOne was right to pour so much energy into its effort, it's disheartening that post-referendum the organization has done little to dispel the perception that unless it needs something (such as votes), it has little use for the general public. The group's reaching out during the bond-issue campaign suggested that DavenportOne perhaps had opened up and broken its pattern of insularity, but its behavior since then says otherwise.
Restoration of the Redstone building began without any clear articulation of what the River Music History Center might entail, yet crucial site decisions that will affect the layout and operations of the center have already been made. The process of generating and refining ideas for the center is also not ideal, because while DavenportOne wants an advisory board of people who know the past and present of the Quad Cities music scene, it has yet to give that body any authority. (In contrast, the City of Davenport has shown a willingness to be more open in the past few months, with requests for proposals for the River Renaissance skyway bridge, then city-owned land at 53rd Street and Eastern Avenue.)
And while it takes time to develop and execute a plan for a new entertainment facility, it certainly looks as if the business components of the project are taking precedence over the public-amenity side; the office floors of the building are slated to open next year, while the River Music History Center might be open in 2003.
Scott County citizens need to be vigilant in 2002, ensuring that DavenportOne follows through on its promises, including those of local construction jobs and community involvement.
The Model
River Renaissance was just the noisiest among the projects that got off the ground in 2001. Moline and East Moline hit some early benchmarks for their riverfront mixed-use projects that include housing, while Bettendorf has purchased a building near the Family Museum of Arts & Science that could be used for a new performing arts center.
Progress on these projects in 2001 represents baby steps, and in no way guarantees their completion or success. But it's still significant. The Quad Cities have been notorious for a can't-do attitude, with Rock Island and Deere & Company-supported downtown development in Moline the major exceptions. All of the Quad Cities have moved out of the idea and planning stages and into implementation.
The Quarter in East Moline broke ground this fall following several years when the project went nowhere. (Kaizen Company of America had been attached to both residential and commercial facets of the project but pulled out of both.) Dial Quad Cities has begun construction on riverfront condominiums, and other components of the project include a regional sports center and a Mississippi River Interpretive Center.
The City of Moline this past year also executed developer agreements on its Bass Street Landing project, which will feature commercial space and roughly 70 upscale housing units, including approximately 50 condos, 10 row houses, and 10 apartments. The project is hoped to pull Moline's downtown revitalization farther down the riverfront, near Interstate 74.
Those big-ticket items hog a lot of attention, but Rock Island - quietly - remains the model. Without much fanfare - and without nearly the amount of contentious debate and false starts - the city has accomplished in The District what all the other Quad Cities are trying to do downtown: get people to shop, play, work, and (eventually) live downtown.
The ultimate goal with these downtown and riverfront projects is to create self-contained areas so that residents - theoretically - never need to leave their downtown neighborhoods. All downtowns have workplaces, specialty retail, and entertainment, but only Rock Island has made significant progress on the housing front. And residential areas should lead to the final part of the equation: service businesses such as dry cleaners and groceries.
With 52 new downtown apartments in the Goldman and Renaissance buildings, Rock Island continues to lead. Granted, it's taken time for the city to re-build its downtown - The District is now 10 years old - but Rock Island also has the fewest resources available, without a Deere & Company or Vision Iowa benefactor.
With The District, Rock Island created a downtown identity and then assembled a roster of outdoor weekend festivals in the summer to reinforce it. You can see a similar effort at work in Davenport, where downtown interests have built the River Renaissance proposal on the theme of arts and culture. While The District caters to nightlife and festivals, downtown Davenport is poised to become a center for the arts, with a focus on musical heritage and a new arts center. (It would also be nice if Davenport, in its Gold Coast historic district, aped Rock Island's efforts in the Broadway neighborhood.)
These 2001 developments are impressive individually, but what's startling is the strides the Quad Cities have made moving at the same time - even if the confluence is accidental. It seems that we're pushing forward together yet separately.
But that's not completely true. The Midwest Arts Mecca joint-marketing initiative has brought together Quad Cities' arts organizations large and small. The goal is to provide "one-stop shopping" to visitors, locals, and business-development officials when it comes to information about the area's cultural programming. Branding the region as an arts center started with a Web site (http://www.artsmecca.org) and has continued with brochures and public-service announcements at our newly expanded airport. And in a community that's known for being fractured and competitive because of state and city boundaries, that's no small feat.
And, hopefully, it's also something we can build on in 2002, as River Renaissance, The Quarter, Bass Street Landing, The District, and a new performing-arts center in Bettendorf continue moving in the right direction.
