When the City of Rock Island created its "Green Team" last year, one thing it did was initiate an in-house recycling program.

Yes, the City of Rock Island - which likes to consider itself progressive - had no recycling program within city buildings.

Some recycling was done, said Tim Ridder, assistant to the public works director, the city's environmental-services coordinator, and the staff person who leads Green Team efforts. "It just wasn't uniform throughout the city," he said, and it wasn't being collected as a function of city government.

This isn't offered as proof that Rock Island is out-of-step. Rather, it shows how far the Quad Cities have come in the past year. Environmental initiatives range from obvious little things to multi-million-dollar projects, and it's evident that municipal government has gone green.

Stacy A. Cordery didn't want to rescue Alice Roosevelt Longworth from her reputation.

There are eight dressing areas in the Capitol Theatre in downtown Davenport, on eight different levels, accessible from the stage by an elevator. One of them has a toilet at the end of a long room too narrow for anything except walking to said toilet. It's evident that they were an afterthought, put wherever there was room when the facility, opened in 1920 as a movie house, began hosting vaudeville.

Renaissance Rock Island, a consortium of not-for-profit organizations dedicated to revitalizing Rock Island, last week announced that it will reorganize staff. Under the new plan, all staff will work for all three organizations: the Development Association of Rock Island (focusing on commercial and industrial development, especially downtown), Rock Island Economic Growth Corporation (responsible for housing, neighborhood, and community marketing programs), and the Downtown Rock Island Arts & Entertainment District (which markets and organizes events downtown). Under this reorganization, Mike Thoms will resign as president of Renaissance Rock Island, a position he held since 2005. When fully staffed, Renaissance Rock Island will have 12 employees. A national search for a new president has begun.