September 18, 2009 by ggackle

A recent article on wired.com about craigslist, the hugely popular online classified advertising site, prompted a revisit to craigslist quadcities to see how it's faring versus the two local online newspaper sites.

Craigslist quadcities has attracted a significant number of classified ad listings, but both qctimes.com and qconline.com have rolled out competing "free" online ad listings to try to stem the flow of listings to craigslist.

September 11, 2009 by bgierke

From the early days of the republic through the antebellum years, the American zeitgeist had been ebullient, dynamic, and filled with ambition and wanderlust. Lewis and Clark, The Oregon Trail, Santa Fe, etc. The War Between the States, however, catalyzed a wrenching change in its trajectory.

Six hundred thousand lives were lost during the horrible conflict that followed our nation’s youthful exuberance – over 1 percent of the population. That’d translate into an incomprehensible 3 million today. Impossible for that not to be transformational, but the nature of the impact was not reserved to society’s human fabric. As Lewis Menand wrote in his 'The Metaphysical Club': “… the United States became a different country. The war alone did not make America modern, but the war marks the birth of modern America.”

A year ago, Bi-State Metropolitan Planning Commission officials and a group of local politicians - including Moline Mayor Don Welvaert - flew to Washington to urge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency not to designate the two-state area as "non-attainment" for fine particulate pollution.

Today, as the issue of leaf-burning - a major generator of such pollution - rages in Moline, Bi-State and its air quality task force have yet to find their way to the Moline City Council chambers to urge an end to the practice.

Bi-State chief Denise Bulat says the commission provided the city with information on the issue last year and is "hopeful" Moline aldermen will vote to end open burning of leaves this year.

September 4, 2009 by ggackle

The Google-mobile must have cruised through the Quad Cities last fall judging from the street-view images of Bettendorf/Davenport now appearing on Google Maps.

The Google camera-car imaged most of the main streets in town including Devils Glen, 53rd Ave., Middle, Crow Creek, State/Grant, Valley Drive, Kimberly Road and parts of 18th Street. CLICK HERE for the image of I-74 and downtown Bettendorf.

September 3, 2009 by ggackle

The Iowa Finance Authority (IFA) is re-evaluating its tax credit allocation for the Hometown Harbor housing project after learning the developer had not included a 10-year, $650,000 Tax Increment Financing (TIF) incentive from the city of Bettendorf in its financial projections.

The IFA first learned of the project receiving the city TIF from an inquiry by bettendorf.com.

Carla Pope, director of Affordable Rental Production for the IFA, said the authority "expressed our displeasure that we hadn't been made aware of the TIF" during a recent conference call with Hometown developer Jim Bergman and his consultant, Tom Monico, of Thomas & Thomas Associates, Inc., Glenview, Illinois.

The city approved the 10-year TIF incentive for the project June 2.

The Channel Cat Water Taxi navigates under the Interstate 74 Bridge as it carries passengers from Bettendorf to Davenport.

August 24, 2009 by ggackle

The Quad City Times newspaper recently announced a newsroom shake-up naming a new "executive editor," but deigned not to explain what happened to its current, now former, editor.

It isn't unusual for businesses to talk up promotions and try to avoid difficult questions when top management re-schufflings occur. Used to be common for editors to assign reporters to call companies that left out important information, particularly the "why" of it all.

Readers aren't looking for an exposé on the inner workings of the newsroom, but ignoring the obvious in its own company coverage only fuels suspicions about what other information the paper ignores at other businesses and public institutions.

Five key reasons why newspapers are dying

Ducks and geese enjoy the weather and grass along the Mississippi Riverfront at Leach Park, Bettendorf.

July 2, 2009

The owner of the old El Rancho Motel property in Bettendorf has been fined $6,500 for failing to inspect the vacant buildings for asbestos prior to demolition, failing to notify the Iowa Department of Natural Resources prior to the demolition work and improper handling and disposal of the motel demolition debris containing asbestos.

K.J. Excavating of rural LeClaire was ordered to pay the Iowa DNR $1,300 and the Scott County Conservation Board $5,200 as part of the consent agreement issued June 23. Robert Holst is the owner of K.J. Excavating L.C., which purchased the dilapidated motel and property at 2205 E. Kimberly Road in 2008.

The city of Bettendorf recently approved a 10-year Tax Increment Financing agreement with Hometown Harbor L.C., which plans to build a 116-unit low- and moderate-income senior housing complex on the old motel site. Hometown Harbor investors include David Smith, president of Equity Growth Group, LLC and Ryan Companies.

Google recently announced to developers the source code is now available for its Wave project/platform. The Wave is essentially a web-based platform which will allow developers to create applications incorporating email, maps, blogs, documents, photographs and project management functions. Users are able to share with anyone else using a Wave browser platform. It also can be embedded in any web page for sharing information.

The Wave could enable Google to gain more corporate users who currently rely on Microsoft applications, and it could have a significant impact on Adobe sharing software such as Acrobat.

One feature of Wave is the "email" application with a playback loop that allows a replay of any "conversation" so a third party doesn't have to read through a long list of copied email replies.