Integrating Water

 Here in the QCA we have rather a lot of water, most of it contained within the Mississippi River. Most human settlements have water, of course. That's kind of a necessity for survival after all. But today I wanted to talk about how we integrate that water into the life of a city--and how we don't.

1. People On The Water

One of the most obvious ways a city can integrate the water into its life is to actually put life on the water.

Hello kayakers! Hello architecture cruise! Chicago's river is both central and small enough that you can have significant people on the river and not interrupt the rest of day to day life. There's stuff to do and see from the water, but also the water isn't taking up too much of the city--it's on a human scale in the way that the Mississippi isn't always. 

If you can make the water part of the life of the city by putting people on it, it becomes more of an amenity than a barrier. 

2. Cross It

Another very obvious technique is to cross it. That picture above is from a bridge, so these can clearly co-exist.

We do this in the QCA, obviously, and we're talking about other ways to do it. But we don't do it a lot.

And we don't do it in people-friendly ways. Now, a pedestrian/bike-only new construction over the Mississippi is indubitably a pipe dream--but it would be nice to have crossings that were pleasant for pedestrians. Even if you count the new I-74 bridge (which I don't, since it's a very windy, long experience) the other bridges in the area treat pedestrian or bike traffic as at best an afterthought.

Something like the Millennium Bridge above is unlikely. But conversion of a current bridge when replaced, or making sure that the new Centennial Bridge is actually decent to walk or bike across, would make a big difference.

3. Admire from the Edge

Of course, the other main way we integrate water into cities is the waterfront. 

This is perhaps easier where there's a beach.

But there doesn't have to be a beach. We do have some nice biking trails on the river here (see above). And there's a big push in Davenport to make the waterfront more attractive. This is probably the one we both do best and have the best potential for--though I'm still skeptical that "Main Street Landing" will survive the first big flood.

Letting people exist near the mightiest river in the USA (deal with it Missouri) is a good start. But maybe we can, in the future, work on getting more people onto and over the river as well.