Monday, May 9th, 2005
From The Desk Of QuadCityImages
New blogger unveiled,Critics unimpressed
This is my first post as a contributor to Daily Davenport Politics. I'll mention a few things about myself and then you should all get back to reading today's other posts. (They're that good) I am not focused on being anonymous. The only reason my posting name isn't my actual name is because hardly anyone one else is using their real names. If anyone really cared enough to ask, I'd surely tell them. I'm young (23 in a couple weeks) and I live downtown in the Davenport Lofts. I've always tried to participate in Davenport development stuff, and especially downtown planning. I don't go to council meetings, though I should, but I do attend special meetings such as RiverVision, Davenport2025, and the ill-fated "Riverfront Casino Hotel/Not a hotel/Meeting/Not really a meeting" sessions last week. I've been working exceedingly slowly, on my website, quadcityimages.net. Someday it might be a good tourism page, right now it should barely be made public. I graduated from Western Illinois Unversity (Macomb campus) with a degree in Law Enforcement and Justice Administration, minoring in Political Science. If anyone has any other questions about me personally, this is the thread for them.
Now for my soon-to-be-unpopular views. While I rarely like the process, I generally believe Davenport is on the right track. This should put me in position as an automatic devil's-advocate on a lot of issues discussed here. I believe Davenport's budget problems can't be solved without either cutting services or raising income. Whether that's a tax increase, or a fee of any sort is immaterial. Either more money had to come in, or everyone start enjoying 20 minute response times to your next police emergency. I think a lot of people are going to get elected to city council on the "No new fees or taxes" rallying cry, and then immediately find out that in the real world of city finance, new taxes are sometimes necessary.
I support downtown development. I supported River Renaissance with a vengeance, because it was an excellent starting point. Momentum isn't just a funny catchphrase, it can actually happen. I support bringing in more downtown residents, and I've done my part by moving down here myself. I also support the proposed casino plan, even though it literally blocks some of the river view from my living room windows. What's there now is a disaster, and if IOC allows the public up to the 10th floor of the hotel, it will provide views never before available. Currently the riverfront promenade is interrupted by both the casino and the former Dock restaurant. An on-again, off-again promenade is not what RiverVision pictured.
Please don't just judge me on those 2 unpopular views, because I'm sure I have many more unpopular views to share with the readers. Just remember as Fly says, debate is healthy. Listen to what ALL sides say, and try to understand why they say it.
QuadCityImages
edit from Fly: That ought to take care of that - this blog is definitely open to a variety of opinions! Now I just hope I don't regret letting this young whippersnapper in here..... :-)
