03 Jan 2006

Demolition by Neglect

By Jeff Ignatius
The six houses on Fifth and Ripley streets - just north of the county jail and elevated railroad tracks - aren't much to look at. A glance suggests they should be torn down. Among other things, peeled paint, broken and boarded-up windows, graffiti, and missing gutters tell a story of long-term neglect.
20 Dec 2005

Taking Control of Downtown

By Jeff Ignatius
Karl "Joe" Nissen certainly sounds frustrated. "It's really an uphill battle," he said of making improvements in East Moline's downtown area, with "20 percent of the people doing 80 percent of the work. ... It's like trying to push a rope up a hill.
06 Dec 2005

Land-Use Deadlock

By Kathleen McCarthy
Municipalities enjoying growth tend toward comprehensive, pro-active land-use planning that prioritizes sustainability, capitalizing on geographic strengths and uniqueness, and employing land-use policies and ordinances that advocate harmony of use for a strong sense of place.
29 Nov 2005

Visual Espresso: Inspired Exhibit Full of Energy and Dialogue

By Steve Banks
Quad City Arts in Rock Island currently has the most inspired artistic pairing I've witnessed in quite some time. Thaddeus Erdahl's and Susan Mart's work forms an exhilarating one-two punch. Their uses of subtle colors and their shaping of forms within their chosen media generate an energetic call-and-response between their works and throughout the gallery.
22 Nov 2005

Fear and Flu

By A.J. Wacaser
My mother stopped feeding the birds in her backyard. She was afraid of contracting the bird flu. I told her that was nonsense, but we live in a culture of fear right now. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has fielded concerned calls both about Thanksgiving turkeys and feeding birds.
08 Nov 2005

Making Killing Kinder - or Not

By Administrator
Bill Wiseman leans back in his battered desk chair, contemplating the killing scheduled for tomorrow. His cluttered home office is dim and quiet on this late spring afternoon, the venetian blinds pulled shut against the dense Oklahoma heat.
01 Nov 2005

City Elections 2005: The Trouble with Davenport

By Jeff Ignatius
Conventional wisdom says that incumbents are in trouble in Davenport's November 8 election. In primary competitions for nine seats on October 11, incumbent office-holders fared poorly. Steve Ahrens, an at-large alderman running for mayor, finished second, trailing Ed Winborn by more than 900 votes.
25 Oct 2005

Quad Cities Dining Guide

By No Author
Welcome to the inaugural Quad Cities Dining Guide, published by the River Cities' Reader. These 20 pages are meant to answer one deceptively simple question: What's for dinner? The fact is that there are many issues tied up in those three words.
11 Oct 2005

The Lay of the Land

By Jeff Ignatius
To the average museum-goer, the exhibit 41˚/90˚: Contemporary Landscape at the Figge is an art show and little more. But its importance is far greater. It's a show that recognizes the Midwest as a fertile ground for artists and art, and proof that the Figge Art Museum understands that.
04 Oct 2005

War Without End: A Conversation with Award-Winning Author Tim O'Brien

By Nicholas Depew
In The Things They Carried, the prize-winning novelist Tim O'Brien offers this nugget in a chapter titled "How to Tell a True War Story": "In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical.

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