Quad Cities: A rebirth?

[DMRyan]

Excerpts from a long article from the Chicago Sun-Times that shines some light on the turnaround going on in the Quad Cities. Good to hear the Quad Cities finally getting some press because it's been down and out for so long. If it's been a while since you've been to the Quad Cities, you should make an effort to check out what's going on there. It's defintely a more blue collar, soulful and historic feel than what you'll find in Des Moines.


All signs point to Quad City rebirth
August 1, 2004


DAVENPORT, Iowa --The warmth of blues slide-guitarist Missis-sippi Fred McDowell reverberates in the new River Music Experience. The museum is in a cozy red sandstone building in downtown Davenport, a block west of the Mississippi River. McDowell's black-and-white picture was made by noted blues producer and manager Dick Waterman and it is part of his traveling show "Between Midnight and Day: The Last Unpublished Blues Archive."

McDowell stares straight a-head and says:

"Well, now, look a here."

You can say the same thing about the Quad Cities.

The comeback of the Quad Cities (Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Ill.) is sparked by downtown developments under the $113.5 million River Renaissance program. Well, now, look a here:

**The River Music Experience (RME) traces the movement of roots music along the Mississippi River from the 1800s through today and tomorrow. The $9.1 million museum is a small-town version of the Experience Music Project in Seattle. (They are not formally related.] The two-floor RME is in the former Von Maur department store in the Redstone building, erected in 1872 at Second and Main streets. The museum's floors are connected by a Southern-style grand staircase (and new elevators).

**The newly renovated John O'Donnell Stadium, along the river and east of The Centennial Toll Bridge that couples Davenport with Rock Island. O'Donnell Stadium is where the Swing of the Quad Cities plays Midwest League baseball. The $13.8 million renovation has turned O'Donnell Stadium (named after a local sportswriter) into one of the crown jewels of minor league baseball. The Mississippi rolls beyond the outfield wall. The long summer Iowa sun sets behind home plate. The Centennial Bridge overlooks right field and when the bridge is illuminated with twinkling lights at dusk, it truly takes you to another place.

The newly named Swing of the Quad Cities (formerly Quad City River Bandits) honors Davenport's jazz heritage, notably cornetist-pianist Leon "Bix" Beiderbecke. Bix was born in 1903 in Davenport and lived here until he was 18 when he attended Lake Forest Academy. I made the 170 mile drive to Davenport last Saturday because it was "Bix Beiderbecke Bobble Head Night" at John O'Donnell Stadium.

* The Figge Art Museum (formerly the Davenport Museum of Art) is Iowa's oldest regional art museum. A new $34.4 million museum is going up a block south of the River Music Experience and is slated to open next July. The Figge Art Museum (FAM) is designed by British architect David Chipperfield. The FAM's Mexican Colonial painting collection is one of the largest and most important of its kind outside of Mexico City. The museum is named after the V.O. and Elizabeth Figge Foundation, a Davenport family that earmarked $12 million to the new project.

Downtown Davenport offers the opportunity to park your car in one spot and walk along the Mississippi River, walk to the ballpark and walk to the music museum. Centro is a privately leased full-service Italian bistro with indoor and outdoor dining adjacent to the main level of the RME. Centro is also anchored in the Temple for Performing Arts building in downtown Des Moines. Although last weekend was unseasonably cool, there was a downtown vibe -- it was also the weekend of the 33rd Annual Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival.

The museum centerpiece is an 81-foot-wide interactive multimedia "River Wall," divided into six video segments covering the 2,552 miles of the Mississippi River. [New Orleans, Delta, Memphis, Upriver, Blues in Chicago, Beyond the River]. The River Wall narration is provided by Chicago bluesman Billy Branch.

I stood on a mat in a dark theater behind a riverboat helm at the New Orleans section of the wall. I pointed a wand to a screen and discovered old musical friends like Lee Dorsey, Irma Thomas and the Neville Brothers. I continued to click the wand to find Dorsey singing his 1966 hit "Workin' In a Coal Mine" from what appears to be a teen television show.

Later on down the museum hall, I had the opportunity to amuse the young volunteer dudes by spending so much time looking at the S.S. Capitol, a 12-inch scale model wood and plastic replica of the Streckfus Steamboat Line excursion boat that played a big role in the movement of music along the Mississippi.

During the summer months between 1920 and 1945 the Capitol operated out of all ports between St. Louis and St. Paul. The steamboat would play different towns during the day and roll to the next city at night. (During the winter, the steamboat ran out of New Orleans). The steamboat could hold 2,000 people and they all could fit on the dance floor. I asked one of the young men if I could take a picture of the boat. He snickered and asked "Are you a model boat fan?" and he and his pal chuckled.

Maybe I should stop wearing black socks with summer shorts.

Ragtime pianist Fate Marable began his riverboat career in 1907 playing on the Steamboat J.S. part of the Streckfus line. A taskmaster for perfect performances, Marable's musicians referred to a position in his band as "Going to the Conservatory." Louis Armstrong and Warren "Baby" Dodds launched their careers as members of Marable's band. They used the the excursion boats as training grounds. The musician's set lists included waltzes and rags. It is believed Bix first heard Armstrong on board the Capitol in Davenport.

Cruises diminished as a result of the Depression and by 1940 excursion trade winds were stilled. During World War II, the Coast Guard commandeered the excursion steamboats for government and military service. The Capitol was dismantled in 1945.

*******
Due to the field's proximity to the river, games occasionally got flooded out at O'Donnell Stadium. Davenport never built a concrete flood wall along the Mississippi in its attempt to develop a parklike waterfront.

Wulf was born in Davenport and never left. Wulf and her husband, Frank, celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in September. Wulf's father, Alfred Kohn, worked for the Rock Island Railroad for years and then became a bookkeeper at a Davenport hardware store.
Wulf has seen her city change.

"They talk about bringing people to downtown Davenport, but there's nothing to do when they get here," she said. "No shops. Ladies, you know, we love to go into a nice shop and pick up a dress. You can't find one. They had two downtown and they both quit." The stores might have gone under, but Davenport is getting dressed up again. You can feel it in the air and hear it along the river.

[NOG]

Good read. I am glad to see the QC doing better. I was born there and lived there til 94. I apologize for the long winded reply.

The QC was known as the farm implement capitol of the world. If you owned farm equipment more than likely parts of it, if not all of it were made there. John Deere is headquartered there and compainies like International Harvester, Case, and Cat had a large presence there. Once the farm crisis hit in the 80's, factories began closing left and right. Tens of thousand of high paying jobs were lost in matter of a few years.

I recall Case/International Harvester or another company built a huge factory, construction costs were well over a $100 million, just north of Davenport. Due to the farm crisis they never opened it. It sat vacant for nearly a decade before the county came in and turned it into an all under one roof industrial park.

Obviously this devasted the area. Crime became quite a problem. The downtowns became vacant and run down. Population growth all but became non-existent. Surpisingly before the collapse the QC was a larger metro area than Des Moines, now Des Moines has nearly 150,000 more people.

Things started to turn around in the late 80's early 90's when they brought in the casinos and when the farm economy stabilized. Soon the downtowns began to see new life with the District in downtown Rock Island, The Mark of the QC in Moline, and River Center and IA-IL Gas and Electric Building in Davenport. Its good to see this momentum has continued as they have tried to move there economy away from its dependence on manufacturing.

Today they have really grabbed a hold of tourism as a viable part of their economy. Everytime I go back I am just blown away at how there is just so much more to do down there than here in Des Moines. The bar scene is amazing with what they have done with the District and the renovations of the old buildings in downtown Davenport (Carriage Haus is just such a beautiful bar). The 3:00 A.M. closing time on the IL side is a nice bonus. I am always jealous of the concerts they get, that pass us over in Central Iowa. Of course the casinos are always a blast. The recreation activities on the Mississippi are endless. They even have a water taxi that runs between the downtowns. They have a strong pro sports scene with Hockey and BaseBall. They even comppleted an IMAX Theater a few years ago. OK this list could go on forever so I will stop.

I don't get back there to often anymore. Most of my friends and all of my family left years ago for better places to live, myself included . I do need to get back and get a look at all the changes.

[DMRyan]

Well said. I always love traveling to the Quad Cities for conferences and training sessions. My view on the place is two fold: It's a dirty, relatively piss poor river down that's been in the dumps for years and is a good 10 years behind the times. However, this is also the beauty of that place. The history, the architecture, the soul and the lure of the Mississippi River make the Quad Cities what it is and I love it for that. It's so obscure and in the shadows for a city of almost 400,000 people and a contrast from the clean, progressive white collar image of Des Moines.

I think having the disjointed downtown might aid in some people viewing the Quad Cities as being smaller than they really are. It's nice to have 3.5 (Bettendorf sucks) urban cores to explore, but could you imagine what downtown Davenport would look like if all the attractions found in other cores were built in one location? If the Quad Cities were a bi-polar core instead, I think the downtowns of Davenport and Rock Island would be much more improved.

The Quad Cities is a down to earth, unpretentious beer and jukebox kind of town. There's a pub on every corner and it's easy to fit in with the slightly rougher crowds. As far as entertainment options, "the District" in Rock Island is very alive and well and I've noticed the community has its fair share of marquee events throughout the year. I wish Des Moines had one urban district with nightlife that compared to this and DSM would almost be a little slice of perfection. It's hard to image that the Quads were bigger than Des Moines just a short 20-some years ago.

[DMRyan]

This has made me want to pull out some pictures from the Quad Cities.

[NOG]

I would say your assessment of the Quad Cities is dead on.

Great pics by the way. I guess if you want to put a spin on the bad economy down there. They never had enough money to do urban renewal so they have a great stock of very old buildings to renovate.

I think having the disjointed downtown might aid in some people viewing the Quad Cities as being smaller than they really are. It's nice to have 3.5 (Bettendorf sucks) urban cores to explore, but could you imagine what downtown Davenport would look like if all the attractions found in other cores were built in one location?

This always bothered me. There is no central city, no wow factor like you get when you see downtown Des Moines. It also can cause friction between the cities. Davenport and Moline had quite a little spat about where the new arena should be built. Moline won with the help of John Deere. Downtown Davenport would be so amazing if the Distict in Rock Island and The emerging Arena district in Moline were built there instead.

Bettendorf is the only true suburb of the Q-C. It really never was a city until the 1960's. The rest of the cities started on there own, and slowly grew together. Actaully up until the 1960's when Bettendorf's population exploded the area was known as the Tri-Cities and for awhile in the 1980's they called it the Quint-Cities, including East Moline. That never really stuck though.

Here is bit of trivia I use to impress my friends when I talk about being from the QC:

The Quad Cities has had both an NFL and NBA team.

The Rock Island Independents were a founding member of the NFL and played in the league from 1920-1925. They had quite a colorful owner. Here is a link about the team.

http://www.footballresearch.com/articles/frpage.cfm?topic=rockisla

The Tri-Cities Blackhawks played in the NBA from 1949-1951. They were coached by Red Auerbach who went on to create the greatest dynasty in NBA history with the Boston Celtics. This franchise is now the Atlanta Hawks. Here is a link discussing this team's history.

http://www.sportsecyclopedia.com/nba/tri/tricities.html

[ICGuy]

Great pics Ryan - and thanks for some of the history of the QC area NOG - I never realized they had the history of professional sports.

I've always felt like the QC area is a hidden metro - located between bigger cities, divided between 2 states, and without an easily recognizable, landmark downtown - so it doesn't seem to get nearly the political attention, resources, etc. that other comperable metros might.

Anyway, here's a pic I've been meaning to post of a part of downtown Davenport - shot when I went to JOD for the game.

[Ingersoll1978]

Nice pics Ryan & ICRob. We've driven through there a couple of times, but haven't really looked around. Looks pretty cool, especially the older buildings. We will have to do that on our way back to Chicago next week.

[DMRyan]

^
Don your best mullet wig and dive into what the Quad Cities has to offer. It'll be worth it, I promise!