Urban planner to talk about tapping Davenport’s potential

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By Tory Brecht | Wednesday, August 13, 2008 11:26 PM CDT | () comments

When celebrated urban planner Jeff Speck visited Davenport last summer, he laid out general ideas for turning an average city into an outstanding one.

Tonight, he plans to get specific, and tell Davenport leaders and residents exactly how they can improve a city he says has “buzz-worthy” potential.

Speck — a Harvard-educated urbanist who recently retired from the post of director of design at the National Endowment for the Arts — has special interest in Davenport and the Quad-Cities because his wife is a Pleasant Valley High School graduate with lots of family in the area.

He will speak at the Figge Art Museum, 225 W. Second St., beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Speck said he and his wife get back to the Quad-Cities each summer and in those trips, he’s come away impressed with the effort undertaken to improve livability.

“The city planners here are enthusiastic, intelligent and progressive,” he said. “I see a lot of cities, and most cities of your size have downtowns that have been hurt worse by sprawl and highways. Your downtown is not rammed through with a highway like so many downtowns. The grid is extremely healthy.”

Speck spends a lot of time talking about downtowns and making them pedestrian-friendly. His mantra is that if a downtown can be made healthy, a city’s reputation improves, the economy improves and everyone benefits.

His recommendations will center on three main areas.

The first is improving “walkability.”

“It will focus on overcoming the fact that (Davenport) has been designed around the fast flow of automobiles at the expense of pedestrians,” he said. “It’s become a great place to pass through. Half my recommendations will be specific, detailed proposals for how to give pedestrians a fighting chance in Davenport, on a street-by-street analysis.”

The second area discussed will be decision-making regarding where development projects should be located in relation to each other. Two main principles to creating livable cities, Speck said, are focusing public and private investment in one core area to kick start a renaissance.

“Most cities, by trying to be universally excellent, are universally mediocre,” he said. “You need to concentrate success.”

Finally, Speck said, his walking tours around the city have sparked some ideas for specific, “big opportunity” projects that he feels have been overlooked.

Mayor Bill Gluba said he is looking forward to hearing from Speck.

“We’re open to new ideas and suggestions,” Gluba said. “He’s obviously a scholar, a thinker and a cutting edge guy on this sort of stuff.”

The city has made strides, including supporting new loft apartments downtown, participating in the renovation of the Freight House and the rehabilitation of the old Salvation Army Building, Gluba pointed out.

And while every project has had its naysayers, he still believes success is achievable.

“We’re not going to slow or impede the growth of Davenport due to some naysayers,” Gluba said. “You would be nowhere if you listened to naysayers. People want to live where there are recreational opportunities, where they can walk to work and where they can ride bikes.”

Tory Brecht can be contacted at (563) 383-2329 or tbrecht@qctimes.com.