On Tuesday, December 5, the Quad Cities lost its only progressive talk-radio station, WKBF 1270 AM. Considering results from the recent elections, there should be a market for progressive-talk programming in the Quad Cities. Is anyone else upset by this loss? Will another radio station pick up the Air America network programs and other progressive-talk shows?
Patti Franklin
Riverdale, Iowa
Small Business Development Centers an "Underutilized Resource"
Excellent article on an overlooked and underutilized resource for the Quad Cities. (See "The Little Program that Can," River Cities' Reader Issue 610, December 6-12, 2006.) Anyone who despairs of "government waste" can look to this program and see their tax dollars working efficiently to grow the economy from the roots up. It is a great example of using human capital to create more human capital. We are proud to be affiliated with the program.
Scott Tunnicliff
Bettendorf Chamber of Commerce
Iowa SBDC Advisory Board Member
(Via the River Cities' Reader Web site.)
What Are We Waiting for?
Having lived in Davenport all of my life, I am still appalled at the mass exodus of our younger people. However, after speaking with a very good number of them, I now understand why they are leaving the area. Answer: Very few jobs pay over six to eight dollars an hour, most jobs are part-time, and most jobs have no health-care benefits. These are people who have a college degree and are very discouraged that this area is not aggressively trying to bring better jobs to this area.
Where does the problem exist and why is nothing being done to help these young people so they will stay in this area? Answer: DavenportOne, the Davenport City Council, and the Quad City Development Group are more concerned with talking about fixing this problem, but talk is just that - talk. Until they start taking some action and doing the real job, I would like to make two suggestions. First, the Davenport City Council should cut all funding with taxpayer dollars to DavenportOne for the dismal job that they are doing. Second, area businesses and corporations should not continue to keep throwing money down the drain to the Quad City Development Group for the horrendous marketing effort that they are currently doing in trying to bring nothing but poverty-level jobs to this area.
Can we do better? I know we can. Do we need new leadership in certain areas? Yes, because if we do not do something very soon, this exodus will only continue to get worse. They deserve better-paying jobs, and it will help the local economy thrive. It's a win-win solution for all of us, but we must take action now; let's quit talking about it and do something.
Dave Fuller
Davenport
