New Way: Davenport’s Smart Transportation Plan and Its Roadblocks

By Jeff Ignatius - 8/5/2010
In an interview promoting his 2007 lecture at the Figge Art Museum, urban planner Jeff Speck promised that his ideas would be "controversial." He explained to me that "most cities, for better or for worse, are being designed by their public-works departments, who state as the highest objective the free flow of automobiles."
Three years later, the City of Davenport is on the cusp of approving a 10-year comprehensive transportation plan called "Davenport in Motion" that drawsfrom the philosophy Speck promotes. The shock is that it's barely controversial at all.
Highlights include returning Third, Fourth, Brady, and Harrison streets to two-way automobile traffic, adding bike lanes and other pavement markings to create a citywide network of cyclist-friendly routes, altering roadways "to ensure safe vehicle travel speeds and mobility for all travel modes" (including foot traffic), and optimizing the downtown-parking situation.  Click here to read more.

GovCorps Profit from Not Modifying Mortgages

By Kathleen McCarthy - 8/21/2010
It has been discovered by real-estate professionals at Think Big Work Small Daily (ThinkBigWorkSmall.com) that banks are refusing to modify mortgage loans because it is far more profitable to let mortgages default so that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), using taxpayer money, can reimburse the banks and financial institutions for their losses under special agreements struck during the "financial crisis."
A recent analysis of IndyMac's new owner, One West Bank, exposed the financial benefit to One West in letting mortgages go all the way to foreclosure rather than modifying the loans or allowing short sales of the properties -- selling the property for less than the amount owed on the loan. Click here to read more.

Guess-Who’s Coming to Dinner: "The Kids Are All Right" and "Dinner for Schmucks"

By Mike Schulz - 8/1/10
In general terms, explaining what director Lisa Cho lodenko's The Kids Are All Right is "about" is a pretty easy task: 18-year-old Joni (Mia Wasikowska) and 15-year-old Laser (Josh Hutcherson) - the children of a contented and devoted lesbian couple (Annette Bening's Nic and Julianne Moore's Jules) - arrange a first meeting with their shared sperm-donor father (Mark Ruffalo's Paul), and through several more meetings, watch as his casually disruptive presence gradually, irrevocably alters their family dynamic. Yet while this is an accurate, if simplified, plot synopsis, it doesn't come remotely close to explaining what this buoyant, original, altogether extraordinary dramatic comedy is actually about.   Click here to read more.

The Confidence to Explore: The Watson Twins, August 18 at The Speakeasy

By Jeff Ignatius - 8/4/2010
When Jenny Lewis, the singer of the indie-pop outfit Rilo Kiley, released her 2006 solo debut Rabbit Fur Coat, she credited the album to Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins.
That small act of generosity is the primary reason that the Watson Twins -- who will perform a Daytrotter.com show at The Speakeasy on August 18 -- have their current visibility.
This isn't to say th e Kentucky-raised identical twins based in Los Angeles didn't play an important role on the record, but the Watson sisters (to put it bluntly) provide backing vocals for Lewis' songs. Yet there they are behind Lewis on the cover, in setting and dress suggesting the creepy dead girls from The Shining all grown up. And a little less creepy, and a lot less dead.  Click here to read more.



The Soul of "Wit": Lora Adams on the Curtainbox Theatre Company’s Cancer Drama, and Her Own Struggles with the Disease

By Mike Schulz - 8/4/2010
"When you hear that word - cancer - it's very surreal," says WQPT-TV Director of Marketing Lora Adams, regarding her 2008 diagnosis with the disease. "There's a moment when the reality of it not being a television show, or not happening to somebody else's family, has to sort of settle in. You have that moment of 'Holy crap.' And then once that happens, you move forward." Click here to read more.

Jokers! Wild!: "Ecclesiazusae," at Lincoln Park through August 8

By Thom White - 8/3/2010
Genesius Guild's Ecclesiazusae is perhaps the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen on a local stage, and that's what I found so charming about it.
Inspired by Aristophanes' Greek comedy about women taking over Athens, Genesius Guild's production is a hodgepodge of pokes and jabs at local icons, including Genesius Guild itself. Director and writer Don Wooten's show lampoons Mary from Good's Furniture, Circa '21's Bootleggers, Quad City Music Guild, Bill Wundram, and many more familiar faces and groups.  Click here to read more.





What's Happenin': August 3 - August 18, 2010

By Mike Schulz - 8/3/10
Yup, you read that correctly: Davenport's Harrison Hilltop Theatre and Mt. Carroll's Timber Lake Playhouse will both open productions of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee on August 12. And this is one of those times when stepping down from my theatre-reviewer tenure seems like the stupidest decision on Earth, because I can't think of many other musicals I'd be quite so excited to see in two separate venues over the same weekend. Click here to read more.


Quinn’s Negativity Backfires on Him

By Rich Miller - 8/1/10
Governor Pat Quinn was in rare form last week as he attacked state Senator Bill Brady before his Republican opponent had a chance to get his own licks in.
Quinn was put in an extremely awkward position by his budget director, who indicated to an out-of-state reporter that the state's income-tax rate would be increased to 5 percent from its current 3 percent come January. Democrats were predictably stunned by the political stupidity of such a thing, and Republicans were predictably foaming at the mouth with outrage. The virulently anti-tax Brady quickly scheduled a press conference and we all knew what was coming: unadulterated vitriol. Click here to read more.