Quad City Images Blog

Where in the QC is this #20 Answer

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:26:00 GMT

Ok, the winners anonymous at 9:07am on the blogspot comment area, and Mayor Melissa at 11:33am over at Quadsville. It is indeed the LeClaire Park bandshell. While I'm guessing this is similar to what LeClaire Park looks like today, it was taken back in March of 2007. I hadn't noticed the odd seat staggering myself until looking at the image I used for the contest. It seems like every 3rd row would end up staring at the back of someone else's head...

Thanks for playing, folks. Hopefully I'll do another one of these in the near future.

Where in the QC is this #20

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 12:45:00 GMT

I haven't done one of these in a while, so I dug through my 12 gigabytes of QC images for something I could use. The only clue is that its somewhere located within the circle made by I-80 and I-280. It may be too easy, but I never can tell.

Post-Election Open Thread

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 13:14:00 GMT

I suppose I'll allow political comments on this post as well, but then I should be returning to more local issues. In that vein, here's a picture I took this morning of the new lofts getting finished up across from the Freight House at River Drive and Scott Street. I like the color scheme. It definitely looks a lot better than it did as the Salvation Army.

Election 2008: QCI Off Topic

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:23:00 GMT

I'm going to suspend my "No National Politics Rule" for this post. I generally avoid getting into the deeply partisan world of Democrat vs Republican contests, partly because I don't want all that I have said and will say to be judged against my political views. I feel that what I want to say today is important enough to risk that.

I'm an Independent. I've stated many times before that I don't believe political parties in general are good for America. I won't get into that now. I am not and have never been a fan of George Bush, so I did not vote for him in 2000 or 2004. Many of you will say that he's not running today. To them, I put forth the parable of the house-sitting companies.

"The Parable of the house-sitting companies"
Lets say you're going away for a number of years. You want to hire a company to maintain your home and yard, and basically house-sit for you while you're away. When you return 8 years into your absence, you find that the crew sent out by the company did a terrible job, burning down part of your home, flooding another part, and somehow turning all of your neighbors against you. Unfortunately, you still need someone to take care of your place. The company you hired before (We'll call them "Grand Ol' Property Maintence") says, "Hey, don't think about the last 8 years; we'll send a different crew out for the next 4. They're totally different from the previous bunch, we swear." Do you give them another try, or do you maybe say "No, you've lost your chance at earning this job for a while. I think I'll try the other company in town." The end.

The Republican candidate needs to be defeated in this election to show the formerly-honorable GOP that they've strayed far from their roots. When Bush won 4 years ago, I was saddened by the results but also by what I saw coming in 2008. I have been a fan of John McCain, and I correctly assumed he would be the Republican nominee to succeed Bush. Unfortunately, I knew I would have to vote against someone who I respected because I believe that the current administration has done so much damage that the pendulum needs to swing back the other way. Unfortunately, John McCain has made it all too easy to vote against him this time around. He's not the man he was in 2000. Actually I believe that he is that man somewhere deep inside, but he's sacrificed his character to win the election.

I am an Independent, but the Republican Party keeps trying to make me a Democrat. When I opposed the Iraq war, they called me a traitor and said I didn't support the troops. Apparently they don't remember opposing nearly every military action taken by Clinton. When I was outraged by the United States of America using torture, I was told that I was sympathizing with terrorists. I hear Republicans accuse Barack Obama of being a terrorist, a Muslim, a socialist. Since when do others decide what religion we are? Now we have to prove what religions we aren't? I'd like to see John McCain prove he's not a Dark Lord of the Sith. As Colin Powell said, even if Obama was a Muslim, so what? Has religious freedom been eliminated as well? I hear Republicans shout "off with his head," "traitor," and "kill him," at rallies, yet there is no national outrage. During this election, several McCain folks have called Obama supporters "un-American", "unpatriotic", and said they're not part of the "real America." I am not some raving Democrat activist, but I am still deeply bothered by these things. I don't see Barack Obama questioning people's patriotism or love for this country.

To me, all of these things are deeper than politics. On a purely political level, I agree and disagree with some of both Obama and McCain's policies. I lean towards Obama's economic and diplomatic solutions, but I also value McCain's experience as a veteran, war hero, and long-time Senator. I would have loved to see a clean election about the real issues facing America. A real discussion about taxes, health care, diplomacy, etc. Instead we've had a race to the bottom of garbage campaigning, led by former Bush campaign strategists. Barack Obama could be a great President. The John McCain of 2000 could have been as well. However, since he seems to be once again Missing In Action, I'll be voting for Obama today.

Whoever you vote for, I'd urge you to remember that both sides are trying to do what they believe is best for this country. Neither side has a monopoly on patriotism or love of this country.

Fall Drive Images

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 11:42:00 GMT

Here are some images from a Sunday drive we took to check out the fall colors.

We drove up the Iowa side, taking Highway 67 all the way up through Clinton to Iowa-64, which we took through Sabula and over to Savanna, Illinois, where we took IL State Route 84 to Mississippi Palisades State Park.

I really like the 3 previous ones, because of both the scenery and my love of trains. They were taken from the Lookout Point overlook.

This is the bridge between the island town of Sabula and Savanna, Illinois.

This one, looking down the walkway towards one of the overlooks at Palisades, was taken by my girlfriend. We both liked it so much that I had to include it.

We came all the way back down Highway 84 on the Illinois side, which I hadn't been down in years. I was impressed with downtown Savanna, which I think was one of the neatest of the river towns we went through. The image above was taken of the Dutch Windmill in Fulton, Illinois. We were about half an hour too late to get inside, if its even still open for the season. As we got back to the QC, we stopped at Sneaky Pete's in LeClaire for supper. It was actually the first time I'd been there, and I was impressed with the place, the view, and the food. I'm also very impressed with what LeClaire has done with the downtown, but I may post more about that later.

Overall it was well worth the drive, especially now that gas prices are approaching $2 again. The crazy wind isn't helping keep the leaves on the trees, but I'd say that the fall colors should last at least another week up there.

Chilly Saturday Assortment

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 12:27:00 GMT

Just a few things from around the QC

The Leader, not the Reader

A few posts down, one of the commenters was wondering about a rumor that the River Cities' Reader was going away. It turns out, at least according to this blog post by Dispatch-Argus columnist and blogger Shane Brown, that its the QC Leader that is going away. This was formerly just known as the Leader, and recently underwent a makeover that turned its exterior appearance into a blatant ripoff of the RCReader. Quite a few years ago, I delivered the Leader on Wednesdays in a few Davenport neighborhoods. It was amazing to me the lengths people went to to avoid getting this free newspaper. People would yell at me not to deliver it to them anymore, I'd tell them they had to call the cancellation number, they'd refuse, etc, etc. Its not a good sign of a newspaper's quality when people are willing to get in an argument to avoid getting it for free.

Convicted felon runs campaign against Scott Co. attorney -QCTimes

Prior to this article I was leaning towards voting for Pries, because I believe there needs to be some serious change down at the courthouse. However, the fact that the Steen smear-factory is against Walton makes me wonder if I've underestimated him. The important thing is that we all vote out Judge Christine Dalton Ploof, so she won't be handing out light sentences and giving 65th chances for the Quad Cities' worst criminal. Every time Pachino Hill goes to trial it should be looked at along the lines of using tax evasion against Capone. Find something to get him in prison. Now I sound like some of the attack brochures... I'm still undecided on the County Attorney thing.

DavenportOne awards grants for façade projects -QCTimes

This seems like a great use of the extra tax that downtown businesses pay. If this kind of gradual upgrade of the downtown appearance continues throughout the years, it will make a huge difference in the perception of downtown Davenport by both visitors and citizens. I think the conversion of the Salvation Army building into lofts and the hopefully-soon Freight House streetscaping will make a big difference in that end of downtown as well. In other Downtown Partnership news, the sidewalks in front of the 4th Street Lofts are being redone to match the rest of the downtown streetscaping. This was done in front of the Crescent Macaroni building a few years ago.

More Steam Train Images

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:15:00 GMT

This weekend was the "Rail Ride for Flood Relief" event in the Quad Cities. Two steam engines took passengers on 90 minute trips towards either Walcott or Silvis, and there were also a few dinner excursions between the Quad Cities and Iowa City.

This QJ steam engine was built in China during the 1980's. They were purchased by the Iowa Interstate Railroad in 2006. Here's a PDF file showing them being unloaded from flat cars in Rock Island. Back when they visited during RiverWay 2006, it was said that they were bought to resell. One of the more recent articles said they were bought for spare parts and "to operate and display on occasion." Personally I think that the owner of IAIS just thinks they're cool, and this is his hobby.

The Iowa Interstate Railroad has also been buying up some old passenger cars, including a couple that have been repainted in IAIS colors, which I didn't get a good picture of.

On the left is one of the IAIS's 12 new GE Evolution locomotives (bit over $2 mil each), which you may have seen in some of GE's television commercials. They are much more fuel efficient than previous locomotives. These are the first brand new engines ever purchased by the railroad. On the right is IAIS's chairman and owner, Henry Posner. He donated all of the coal, fuel, equipment, and man-hours that were involved in this charity event, which allowed all the money that came in from ticket sales to go straight to the Salvation Army and their flood relief efforts. He was the hero of the weekend, and it was interesting to see that he didn't dress like the stereotypical railroad baron.

Here are a couple of views of the Davenport skyline, as seen from the train crossing Arsenal Island and the Arsenal Bridge. If the QC ever finally gets Amtrak service to Chicago, the state of Iowa is interested in extending service over to Iowa City, Des Moines, and eventually Omaha. If this happens, these will be the tracks that Amtrak would use, and this is the view of Davenport that the passengers would get. Its a little better than the view from I-80.

There would also be plenty of views like this between Davenport and Iowa City, although its a pretty nice view in its own way. This was taken near Walcott.

Finally, here's a video I took through the unfortunately dirty windows during the return crossing the Arsenal Bridge.

Steam Trains (More Later)

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 12:37:00 GMT

I was fortunately able to take the 3PM steam locomotive-powered trip to Walcott yesterday, and it was great. I'll have more images, a movie, and such later.

For now here are the QCTimes and QCOnline articles.