Jerry Jones unveils the West End Revitalization strategic plan to a room full of West End stakeholders on Friday, March 22 at Rock Island's King Center. CREDIT MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. CENTER
West End Revitalization planners are celebrating the release of a detailed plan to revitalize that once-vibrant and historic Rock Island neighborhood that lays the foundation for the effort and outlines action steps critical to making their vision a reality. On Friday, March 22, members of the WER Steering Committee and other West End community leaders […]
West End Revitalization planners are celebrating the release of a detailed plan to revitalize that once-vibrant and historic Rock Island neighborhood that lays the foundation for the effort and outlines action steps critical to making their vision a reality.Tee LeShoure talks about the Rock Island West End Revitalization plan, right, as fellow steering committee member Avery Brooks looks on. CREDIT MARTIN LUTHER KING CENTEROn Friday, March 22, members of the WER Steering Committee and other West End community leaders gathered at the neighborhood’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Center to help its Executive Director Jerry Jones unveil the committee’s multi-year roadmap. Mr. Jones' organization serves as the backbone of the effort. He said well more than 50 West End community members have been engaged in the revitalization effort that has been in the works for some five years. “In the last year, though, the work has become more and more intense,” he said, as steering committee members worked to create a vision of the West End of Rock Island as “a preferred place to live and to thrive.”As a result, Mr. Jones said, “This plan came from this community and it will fit our community. It is long term; it is holistic; it addresses not just the symptoms, the challenge you're having now, but the reasons and root causes.”Importantly, too, it is an action plan that creates a solid foundation for success, he said.For example, the document sets multi-year targets that will help the WER leaders sustain the effort and continue to get results for the area from 21st Street to Sunset Park and 18th Avenue to the Centennial Bridge, the leaders say.
Plan is focused on results
Essential elements required for the success of the plan’s three-year strategy include:
Creating a West End Community Development Corporation, a nonprofit organization incorporated to provide programs, offer services and engage in such activities as acquiring properties in the West End for redevelopment.
Developing a Special Services Area similar to the SSA created recently to fund the Downtown Rock Island Alliance. The West End’s SSA will ensure the community will invest in itself and its future. The hope is that within five years the SSA will generate $500,000 a year.
Exploring and supporting partnerships to help acquire and redevelop Franklin Field, home of the former junior high that was once a center of activity in the community.
The plan also is organized around five critical areas: Community Economic Vitality, Personal Assets & Income, Infrastructure & Visual Appeal, Community Engagement and Housing & Land.Friday’s session also included a Q&A with key steering committee members led by Rock Island Alderman Dylan Parker. The Fifth Ward representative celebrated the “necessary” and “exciting” work of the committee. “We are laying the foundation for transformation in Rock Island. I am so extremely excited about the future years coming to our community and I am just proud to be a small part of this project here today,” he said.Steering committee member Avery Pearl not only sees big things for Rock Island but for the Quad Cities via a plan he said is organized around the values of inclusion, equity, justice, communication, collaboration, empowerment, respect and trust.
Success breeds success
“Through these values our goal is to increase the wealth, livability and power of the West End of Rock Island, Rock Island as a whole, and ultimately the Quad Cities because we believe that this work will have a trickle effect throughout the Quad Cities benefiting every single person that lives in these communities.”The area’s young people also are a key part of the effort, Mr. Pearl added.Rock Island West End Revitalization steering committee members, from left, Marisa Cantu, Lynda Sargent and Avery Pearl address the crowd at the March 22 plan unveiling. CREDIT MARTIN LUTHER KING CENTER“Financially we want to set up West End youth for long-term financial success,” he said. That includes financial literacy programs, youth banking systems, career support programs, such as workforce development, aptitude testing, and more. The goal is to get youth ready to enter the workforce and allow them to “chase their dreams,” he said. The focus also will be on developing the next generation of West End leaders. “We want them to go on to become teachers, the next elected officials, the next doctors, the next entrepreneurs,” Mr. Pearl added.Lynda Sargent told the crowd she is proud to be the oldest steering committee member and her West End roots run deep. She was born and raised just a few short blocks from the King Center.“I remember this community having businesses that I could walk to, four or five grocery stores right within this community,” she said. “We had a movie theater, businesses of every kind.”
Not just another plan
She also is well aware that there have been countless plans that have been created and never implemented. How many? Ms. Sargent recalled a meeting where Rock Island Community and Economic Development Director Miles Brainard laid out old West End plans. The thick binders dated back to 1957, she said, and reached from one end of the tabletop to the other. “It was so sad to see all the work and all the hours of planning that had gone into forming those plans,” she said. This time, she added, it will be different. “We are here today and we are getting momentum and we’re getting to do what’s needed to take it off of this piece of paper and make it happen.”Once the WER sustaining foundation is in place, Ms. Sargent said, “it will be like a snowball and it will just keep going.”She added: “I believe that we’re going to see that momentum come here, and we’re going to see some of those millions of dollars in grants and so we will be able to build this community and see that momentum and turn this into a flourishing community and a vibrant community and we need all of your support to make it happen.”Both she and Mr. Jones also lauded the generous donors whose contributions laid the initial groundwork for the effort. It was led by the significant investment of the John Deere Foundation, a $140,000 investment from City of Rock Island and, most recently, a $300,000 three-year transformation grant announced in January from the Quad Cities Community Foundation.
