Davenport's other renaissance

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By The Quad-City Times | Sunday, February 25, 2007 9:28 PM CST | () comments

The Brady/Harrison corridor cuts through the middle of Davenport like another river, except it’s wider and harder to cross. Traffic approaching the corridor from the east and west defers by design to the four-lane, one-way streets where cars zip between downtown and Kimberly and beyond.

Pedestrians? Forget it. Crossing either Harrison or Brady is a perilous mad dash.

Brady and Harrison streets are designed to move traffic quickly cross town. Drivers who glance sideways on the trip might notice the big schools and churches along the corridor from downtown to VanderVeer Park, but little else.

Those schools and churches are responsible for another Davenport renaissance, one that rivals the downtown River Renaissance. Since 2000, $100 million has been invested by those churches and schools along the Brady/Harrison corridor from downtown to VanderVeer. The investment covers renovations and expansion on some of the Quad-Cities oldest and most venerable institutions: Palmer College. St. Ambrose University. Davenport’s Central High, J.B. Young Jr. High and Madison Elementary schools. Trinity Episcopal, St. John’s Methodist, 3rd Missionary Baptist and St. Paul Lutheran churches. Most of these entities anchored the neighborhood since the last century.

The $100 million investment assures they’ll be around into the next century.

That perspective arose from a series of meetings called last week by Davenport’s Commercial Corridor Revitalization Plan steering committee. The meetings generated some new ideas for the city’s oldest corridor and offered participants a different perspective on the inner city. Planning consultant Gary Lozano, of RDG Planning and Design in Des Moines, said the investment among the church and schools is a powerful urban renewal driver, particularly since these institutions bring thousands to Davenport’s central city every day. Combined, the schools and churches assure that some 10,000 students, faculty, church members and others come to the area at least weekly. At least half of them are there every day.

In short, it should be a developer’s dream.

Instead, the corridor and surrounding neighborhoods are considered among the city’s most troubled areas.

Davenport’s corridor study steering committee collected ideas last week about the entire Brady/Harrison corridor. Those ideas will be shaped into concepts to be presented to the community March 27 and 28. That will start the process to develop long-term plans to improve that corridor.

The solutions will vary for different stretches of that Brady/Harrison corridor. But the portion that cuts through the oldest part of Davenport is anchored by $100 million in new investment. The next plan should showcase those venerable Davenport stakeholders that bring thousands into the central city to work, learn or worship every day.