DAVENPORT, Iowa — The City of Davenport and the Downtown Davenport Partnership are seeking public input to help them formulate plans for the development of the central business district.
The groups are conducting a survey with questions about demographics, attractions and events, the streetscape, and public safety, with the specific goal of answering these three questions:
- Who comes to the downtown?
- What, or why, do they come to downtown Davenport?
- How do they get there?
“Public engagement is a crucial part of this process, and this survey is a vital tool in learning what Quad Citizens envision for the future of downtown Davenport,” said Kyle Carter, Executive Director of the DDP. “This project will help us create a bold vision for how we want to see our downtown grow over the next ten years, specifically focused on economic development, placemaking, how to drive more investment and ultimately win over the next generation.”
"I'd like to see the time increase for the parking," says Davenport resident, Sandy Lagrange. "Instead of a two hour limit maybe a four hour limit."
Other residents tell New 8 they want to see more buildings occupied.
"We want people to check it (survey) out if they frequent downtown, but if you don't, we want to know why that might be," says Carter. "This is the thing that will differentiate the cities that succeed in 15 years and those that won't."
The last plan was made in 2012. Since 2005, Carter says the downtown has seen five times more apartments in the area, which has also seen new businesses like Armored Gardens.
"This is the best iteration of downtown in my lifetime," says owner Dan Bush who started three downtown businesses over the past five years. "Understanding what keeps people from coming downtown or what keeps people coming downtown I think would be good for us to understand for us at a business level."
Bush says downtown has changed a lot in recent years, but he wants to see more.
"There's only four blocks downtown and two of them are susceptible to flooding. Whatever we can do to protect those first two blocks I think is really important."
Carter says the DDP plans to do a diversity, equity, and inclusion study to make sure the downtown is welcoming to everybody.
You can take the survey at https://www.downtowndavenport.com/downtown-davenport-master-plan.