Downtown Davenport progress (Des Moines, Royal, Ryan: neighborhoods, live, things to do)

[mfrerkes]

Originally Posted by zz4guy

My girlfriend used to live there. Drove all the way from just west of drake area until the sprawl stopped somewhere in a cornfield.

I lived around the Des Moines area for a good number of years between 1986 and 2006. It is not just sprawl. There are plenty of interesting neighborhoods to be found.

[ki0eh]

I lived in Davenport and worked at RIA 1996-98. There was a lot of turnaround even in those years. Lost a lot of weight biking around on the trails then. Went back recently for the National Trails Symposium and appreciated the further redevelopments. Although I'm more of an outdoors person and feel much more at home in the woods of Pennsylvania and upstate NY, in many ways I still miss the QC. (Especially Whitey's. )

[mofford]

Lots of good comments, information and pictures about the QC area, good thread. I was one of those that used to think Davenport/QC was kind of run down, my views have changed. Really like the Figge and other photos, might now say that Davenport/Bettendorf has overtaken Cedar Rapids for Iowa's #2 best city. Last years flood hurt CR pretty bad to be fair.

[anothermom]

Nice photo's. Des Moines is beautiful. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

[mofford]

Burlington should follow the Davenport model and start the work that Davenport has done to revitalize itself. Pretty good sized town to let fester away.

[QuadCityImages]

Originally Posted by anothermom

Nice photo's. Des Moines is beautiful. Thanks for sharing your pictures.

Do you mean Davenport?

[wallaby]

Originally Posted by mfrerkes

Having lived in both areas, I can't really tell which one is better. Des Moines has the better local economy with all those insurance companies, but I think the Quad Cities has a more picturesque setting and interesting historical backdrop because of the Mississippi. As far as culture/entertainment goes, both have very comparable offerings. The differences in crime and cost of living are negligible at best.

The notion that the Quad Cities is some dying industrial wasteland is only held by those who last visited the area in 1985. Over the past 20 years, the whole area has been transformed, and that transformation is ongoing. Moline and Davenport both have added marvelous amenities (The Mark, The Figge, The Skybridge, John Deere Commons, etc.) that any city would be proud to possess. Rock Island revamped its downtown with The District and was the first in the Quad Cities to convert abandoned buildings into loft-style housing. Bettendorf's riverfront saw the addition of Iowa's largest hotel complex when Isle of Capri finished construction on the Paradise Tower last year. Every one of "The Quads" has added something very impressive to the area in recent years, and more projects are in the works (Bass Street Landing in Moline, Rock Island-Davenport riverfront redevelopment, etc.)

I'm sorry, but as a native of Bettendorf and a transplant to Des Moines, I have to comment on this madness.

Des Moines is a real city. It has districts, sprawl, and more stuff than you could do in a week. Davenport barely qualifies as a weekend destination by comparison. Yes, there's been some revitalization of the downtown areas, but to try to compare this with Des Moines' or even Iowa City's downtowns is just trying too hard.

There are two reasons why the Quad Cities will never rival Des Moines. One, young people are flocking away from the QC, and to bigger cities like Des Moines. Young people bring their newly discovered disposable income with them, and create lots of opportunities for small businesses. Ambrose and Augustana bring some younger people into town, but the QC offers them no reason to want to stay.
Two, because the government of each city in the Quad Cities can never agree or cooperate on anything, and the whole "city" suffers because of this. Ever taken a look at Bettendorf's downtown? Besides the one casino (a BOAT casino), it's awfully depressing. Don't get my started on Davenport's new infamous "Bridge to Nowhere." The QC would be a lot more effective if city governments were more integrated, but each town has its heels dug in the dirt.

Sorry to be overly negative, I'm back to living in Bettendorf and just frustrated that I'm stuck here! Having a hard time finding jobs elsewhere...

[QuadCityImages]

For every amenity or attraction that DSM has that we don't, I can easily name one that we have that they don't. Aside from the skyline and the WDSM suburban sprawl areas, the metro areas are more similar than a lot of DSM fans would care to admit.

[Marlin96]

Originally Posted by QuadCityImages

I just thought I would post some pictures of what's happening in downtown Davenport, and maybe it will answer some of people's misconceptions about us being a washed up industrial town.

The best resource is this slideshow, which has dozens of before/after images of various locations in downtown. It really shows the progress that has been made in the last 6 or 7 years.That slideshow can be found here

Here are some images from my own collection that may show some of what downtown Davenport is about.




Downtown Davenport, Iowa

The Figge Art Museum was finished in 2005 and cost almost $50 million. It was designed by up and coming British architect David Chipperfield.

The grand opening of the new 32,000 square foot skatepark along the riverfront. Its supposed to be one of the largest in the midwest.

The Bix7 road race usually draws close to 20,000 runners and over 100,000 spectators.

The Crescent Warehouse District includes several historic warehouse and factory buildings that have been renovated into urban industrial lofts. Additional projects are in the planning phase as well. Over 200 residential units have been added downtown in just the last few years.

The Quad City Symphony Riverfront Pops concert.

The 100+ year old was renovated into a restaurant, coffee shop, live music venue and offices in 2004.

St Patrick's day post-parade party

The sun rises over the Mississippi.

Since 2002 there has also been additional improvements to our downtown theater, the renovation of a 10-story historic hotel into modern apartments, 2 parking garages and 2 modern office buildings constructed, a renovated baseball stadium, new police station, courthouse/jail addition, renovated Federal Building, and an arts warehouse/mall created from yet another historic building. With more in the works. So don't let some of the negative folks around these forums convince you that downtown Davenport is a ghost town or there's nothing to do in the Quad Cities.

Those are some nice pictures. Like to visit there someday. Me myself am interested in renovating and bringing my hometown back to life (although Davenport wasn't ever dead) from it's heyday.

[zz4guy]

DesMoines is fine until you want to do something OTHER than DesMoines. The place is stuck in the middle of nowhere with very little natural attractions.