Hey all,

i'm thinking about taking a job and moving to Davenport. I would be coming from just outside Dallas. I don't love texas it turns out. Between the heat, traffic, noise, and commotion there's just too much crap going on. I have been to Davenport but it was only for a few days, so didn't get to explore much.

I'm wondering what there is to do, see, shoot, enjoy, etc. I want to get more out into nature since there isn't any here in Dallas. Cost of living is higher here, too. And while that may be good for my home price skyrocketing, it makes life expensive. If we moved to Iowa, houses are less than half priced and my wife could stay at home, something she wants to do.

So just looking for input on what there is to see and do, and how it is to live in and around Davenport. I heard you need to live on the Iowa side of the river to save on taxes, but otherwise open to suggestions.

Born and raised there, mom still lives there.

D'port is a blue collar industrial river town.  River towns are different.  It's hard to describe precisely how they are different, but they just are.  It's an older city, one of the oldest in Iowa.  Like all cities it has it's good spots and bad spots.  Generally the farther away from the river the better.  Downtown has rejuvenated a bit in recent years.  Has the usual shopping malls, East Village is the artsy craftsy location.  North and west is better than south and east, but there are exceptions of course

Things to do.  There's a decent gun club on the Iowa side, an even better one on the Illinois side.  Gunshops are around, nothing really outstanding.  The gun show circuit is still strong in Iowa, there's at least one decent show a year.  Fishing and boating in the river.  The boating crowd can be a lot of fun.  Hunting has it's ups and downs.  Very little public ground in Iowa and what ground there is gets pounded.  You need to find private ground and that can take some doing.  Deer numbers are strong, pheasants are making a comeback but have a long ways to go.  

The politics of D'port are unique.  All city and county elections in Iowa are non-partisan.  Except D'port and Scott County, where they run as Democrats and Republicans.  It gives the place a certain edge.

Iowa is shall issue on permits, suppressors were legalized last year, SBRs got approved this year.  No machine guns and I don't see that changing any time soon.  No mag limits or any of that nonsense.  

A fair number of suburbs surround the town. Bettendorf is the largest and generally nice.  Le Claire is a pretty little river town.  If you want to live in the country acreages are hard to find and priced accordingly.  As far as I can tell all of the school districts are fine.

We live just outside DPORT to the North. As previous poster pointed out, it has good and bad to it. Davenport Guns has an indoor gun range (pistols or .22 rifles) Also a decent outdoor gun range called Oak Hills Gun Club.

Nice stadium downtown for minor league baseball, lots of good restaurants in town.

It has a run down hoodish area near downtown, that while not huge, they do like to bang a bit, but you will find the people generally nice.

Gun laws are really good in Iowa - especially after July 1st.  (read the legislative thread here to learn all about it)

Umm that's all I can think of off the top of my head.

Jim Fisher on 1420 WOC Radio is great to listen too as well .

seems pretty gun friendly from what I've been reading. But I do have a can and SBR, not sure that's worth bringing if I have to move before July. I guess I'll play that by ear.

Mostly interested in if it's good schools and good outdoor shit to do. There's nothing here in Dallas but pavement and sweat

Cans are ok already. Outdoor activities will not be a problem. Tons of parks and sports and places to shoot. Davenport Schools are known as "ok". Neighbouring Bettendorf, Pleasant Valley and North Scott are better schools though. You pay more taxes and home prices in each of those areas though.

I grew up in Bettendorf, which is, in my biased opinion, the nicest of the Quad Cities, so my response is automatically skewed. As has been said, Davenport has some nice areas, and a lot of really bad spots. It does have a number of fun street parties downtown every year. When you're going up Brady Street hill, you'll have to put up with hordes of moronic chiropractic students trying to cross the busy street like ducklings, seemingly oblivious to the world around them. All in all, it's just another city in America, filled with good and bad, like every other one. If the money's right and you think you'll enjoy the job, I see nothing wrong with Davenport.

You might not mind the heat, but your body will have a very moist reaction to 70% humidity in July!

I love the area. I travel for work during the summer and usually can't wait to get home to corn country. 

I'll second this. I live in Davenport currently, but will be moving to Bettendorf before my son starts school. I'm a North Scott grad and love that area as well.

Feel free to PM me and I can address any specific questions you might have (to the best of my ability).

What line of work are you in?

that seems to be the consensus, that Bettendorf is a much better school district. I'm looking around at real estate and school rankings, so the wife is pretty insistent on at least Valley something schools, not Dport proper. That's ok, I'm fine with being out of town and the commute is still less than I do now.

I'm in education and my wife is in insurance stuff. Hoping the move texas to corn lowers our cost of living and she can stay home to take care of the kid(s). we'll see if I get the offer or not I guess. Thanks for the offer, I'll PM you when I come up with some specific questions.

Plus there is a nice river for recreation, boating, fishing and etc.

The river is a great family activity.

On the IL side is a 600 yds range and a couple 200 yds ones. Then my fav is the public range, there is RO there some. Normally lot of people there.

Plus lots of public land, also smaller rivers for canoeing

There are build get together but normally more up toward cedar rapids. Plus some get together shoots in that area.

I went to Bettendorf Middle and High School and they are top notch.

The commute from Bettendorf to Davenport is not much at all.

You said outdoor shit so I'll throw this out there. There are quite a few good trail systems for mountain biking in the area with a dedicated group of people that maintain them.

If you're interested they have their own site:  www.qcforc.org

Cant really give much info on D'port or the area (except stay away from the strip club on the corner in old downtown, down from the col ballroom, if its till there. WOW that was a mistake).

My input for this thread is I moved to IA from a concrete jungle, (So. Cal.) While there isn't as much (city life) stuff to do, There is plenty of midwest stuff to do. Its a different culture and lifestyle.

I do miss some of the major city stuff that Iowa lacks, But I wouldn't move back to a major city if you forced me to. The people here are laid back and nice for the most part.
If you are use to big city traffic, you wont find it anywhere in IA. 15 miles in any direction from any downtown city in IA you'll find your self in a corn field.

You'll find all the nature will need, especially living in/near a river town. Look for a good school district and it will top most all major cities best public schools, once again it is a completely different lifestyle.

Within just a couple years of moving to an IA city you'll quickly find out if its for you or not and in most cases you'll soon be looking for an acreage out in the "Country" to make IA your home for good.

And if for some reason you miss the big city life after a couple years, That's what they make vacations for. after a week in the big city you'll be glad to get back to your quite corner in life!!!!

You and XMM?  Me too.

Davenport West.  Go Falcons!  At least I think we were the Falcons; it's been over forty years.

They are still the Falcons. They do not win too much of anything though - at least in sports.

I knew about Rock River, but I forgot springfield and Les Baer were up that way. that's almost even more incentive!

Still waiting to hear back about the job at this point. really just a pipe dream until they call. We're battening down the hatches in DFW for a mega storm today with tornadoes and ham some newcasters have said will be "as big as thanksgiving hams". If my house gets totaled I'll take the insurance and leave right now

Well here in Davenport you dont really have to worry about tornadoes too much, we get them dont get me wrong, however they always seen to lift just out side the city and never really do any major damage to the QC proper, most damage is to the smaller towns close to the QC (Muscatine, DeWitt, Clinton, seem to fair far worse on the tornado side).  I have lived in Iowa most of my life and most has been spent in Davenport.  And to further the comment of someone above, I did 13 months in SLC which is by no means a "huge city" but when that area has more people than the entire state of Iowa you learn to appreciate the atmosphere here, which is why I moved back.  

All you Bettendorf Middle School guys, when did you serve your time?  '83-'85 for me.

They never win much.  We had a decent basketball team but that was about it.  Got out in 74.

Good luck to you, hope you get the job.

Lets not forget about the frequent shootings in Davenport.
There was a huge rash of cars getting stolen, but that seems to have died down.
I heard they caught the main guy doing that in Eldridge.

Davenport is one of five districts in Iowa that can refuse open enrollment due to "white flight".
They used to base it strictly on race, but because that is racist, they base it on family income and intelligence of the kid.
(no, I'm not kidding at all)

We moved out of Davenport to get away from the crime, and to get our daughter into a better district.
That was almost exactly one year ago.

Davenport- a town named after a guy beat to death in a robbery.

Inauspicious start to a community and as the previous poster pointed out, has a relatively high crime rate for a safe state like Iowa. Recently the city got grant money for crime reduction video cameras, but characteristically, they took months to turn on the cameras after being installed.

My biggest complaint is the city is mostly run as if it is in Illinois, aldercreatures for councilmen and such. Bettendorf, LeClaire and such are better, but still dirty river towns. That said, still are likely all nicer and relatively as safe as Texas or other places.