Pioneering group boosts revitilization of RI neighborhood

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By Alma Gaul | Saturday, May 10, 2008 |

Twenty years ago, the neighborhood now known as the Broadway Historic District was not quite as attractive as it is today.

In fact, it wasn’t even Broadway.

The 30-square-block area between 17th and 23rd streets and 7th and 13th avenues was a no-name swath of Rock Island “below the hill” with about 500 nice old Victorian-era homes and some problems. More than half of the homes had become rentals, some of them owned by absentee landlords who did not always keep them up and some with tenants who were known to deal drugs. Visitors sometimes felt unsafe.

But also living in the area were some strong-willed homeowners who wanted to preserve the area’s fine architecture and build their community.

A core group organized a neighborhood association and called both the group and the area “Broadway,” the original name of 23rd Street before the city’s adoption of a uniform street-numbering system.

“It created an identity,” said Diane Oestreich, who has lived in the area since 1964, of the name.

Since 1988, the association has helped revitalize the neighborhood and served as a model for other such associations in the Quad-Cities. It is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

In Broadway itself, there has been increased investment by homebuyers who have converted multi-family homes back to single-family use. In 1990, about 39 percent of the Broadway dwellings were owner-occupied; by 2000, that number had increased to about 50 percent, according to U.S. Census figures.

With increased owner-occupancy came exterior improvements: Porches that had been closed or eliminated were restored, and synthetic siding that obscured architectural features was removed and replaced with bright, multi-colored paint schemes.

Crime also decreased because, with fewer rentals, there were fewer problem tenants, although there are those who insist crime was never that bad in the first place.

“Broadway really turned a corner,” said Paul Fessler, a longtime resident who served on the association board in its early years. “Property values really did come up and stabilize. A lot of people put money into fixing up homes that otherwise would have gone downhill.”

Broadway today is much like it was in 1964 when Evie White and her husband, Charlie, first moved there — “only better,” she said.

“When we moved in, many of the homes were still owned by the daughters of the original owners,” said White, a former alderman. Then, investors began buying the homes, because they were inexpensive in relation to their size, and turning them into apartment buildings.

Another stress was the construction in the early 1970s of Valley Homes, a high-density, low-income housing project just outside Broadway’s borders at 25th Street and 10th Avenue, she said.

“People kind of started running away and times got hard,” White added. (Valley Homes was demolished in 2005.)

The reason White thinks Broadway is better today than when she moved in is because there are more young families now.

“It takes families to make a neighborhood alive,” she said.

The turnaround might not have happened without the association.

“You speak larger in numbers, you get more done,” said Debi Kintzi, current vice president of the Broadway board, who moved to the neighborhood with her husband, Paul Magnuson, in 1998. “The city looks at you more seriously.”

And, indeed, city investment has been significant, both in terms of projects specifically targeted at Broadway and in the adoption of citywide policies that have been enforced to good effect in the neighborhood, such as mandatory rental inspections, Kintzi said. “The ordinance has teeth,” she added.

Investments specific to the Broadway area include the street resurfacing and period lighting project on 7th Avenue as well as the decision to build the Whitewater Junction aquatic center in Longview Park, Fessler said.

While Longview is geographically just outside Broadway’s boundaries, it is close enough that abandoning the pool would have been like the city turning its back on the area. The aquatic center “was a huge investment,” Fessler said. “We saw it as a real victory.”

The city also gave financial backing to the Rock Island Economic Growth Corp., which bought and fixed up houses in Broadway.

“And not just up to code, but past code,” White said. “They made them showplaces.”

The future

Challenges remain, of course.

One of the original goals from 20 years ago — to find a new use for the circa-1893 brick-and-limestone Lincoln School on 7th Avenue — is still on the table. But prospects look better there than they have in a long time.

The city purchased the landmark school at auction in June 2007, and a Minneapolis-based company called Artspace is considering it for a live/work redevelopment project targeted toward artists.

“We are continuing to work with Artspace to see if they would like to proceed to the level of a market study,” city planner Jill Doak said. “We are really encouraged.”

And although White sees more young families in Broadway now than when she moved there, attracting still more remains a goal.

“I would like to see us increase the number of young families because that spurs so much else,” said Daryl Empen, the association’s Webmaster, who has a young family himself. “It’s really all about how to attract families in Broadway.”

Good schools and playgrounds are important in attracting the demographic, he added. In that regard, the new elementary school that will be built on the former Villa de Chantal grounds at 20th Street and 16th Avenue should be a plus, he said.

Another goal is to install throughout the neighborhood the type of historic lighting the city built on 17th Street. Not only would it look more attractive than standard city lights on straight wood poles, but it also would provide more street- and sidewalk-level lighting in an area where a lot of shady trees prevent that from happening, said Sue Carothers, who has lived in Broadway since 1993.

The estimated cost — more than $1 million — is a deterrent, but the association is not giving up trying to develop ways by which it might be accomplished, she said.

Another suggestion that surfaced at the association’s annual vision meeting was to hold an annual Martini Porch Party. Not all goals are difficult to achieve.

Alma Gaul can be contacted at (563) 383-2324 or agaul@qctimes.com.

National Register listing was a big accomplishment

The Broadway Historic District Association spearheaded many projects over the years. Among them are:

-- Getting the area listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which gives a kind of validation to the area, resident Diane Oestreich said. “If outside people say it’s good, then it’s good. It’s not just us saying it.”

-- Marketing through the annual tour of homes and a Web site, broadwaydistrict.org.

-- Purchasing and installing “sign toppers,” blue metal markers placed above street signs that identify the area as Broadway.

-- Neighborhood “unveilings,” in which volunteers get together to help remove synthetic siding from homes.

-- A sidewalk repair program in which the city pays half and the association pays half of the homeowner’s share, or one-fourth of the total.

-- A tree-planting program in which the city pays half and the association pays half.

-- A regular newsletter.

-- Distribution of welcome bags to all new residents. One item in the basket is a refrigerator magnet produced by the city with telephone numbers to call about problems such as barking dogs or overgrown weeds.

The magnet is a sign of empowerment, said Sue Carothers, who has lived in Broadway since 1993. “Nowadays, everyone is so proactive. If we suspect something (such as drug dealing), it is shut down in weeks.”

Broadway serves as a model

The Broadway Historic District Association has been a model for neighborhood organizations throughout the Quad-Cities.

Today, many people take for granted that neighborhoods have names such as Bridge-to-Ridge in Davenport or Overlook in Moline and that there are resident organizations to support those areas.

That was not the case in 1988.

Broadway and Friends of the Gold Coast in Davenport were the first historic neighborhood associations in the Quad-Cities, both organizing in 1988, and Broadway “absolutely” was a model for those that followed, said Paul Fessler, a former Broadway resident and longtime assistant director for United Neighbors in Davenport.