Published in the Quad-City Times on Mar. 22, 2024

There was a sense of optimism in the West End neighborhood of Rock Island on Friday.

West End Revitalization, a movement led by the Martin Luther King Center in Rock Island, wants to make the neighborhood a “preferred place to live and thrive.” Towards that end, they unveiled their long-awaited three-year plan to an audience of community leaders.

Over the years, there have been many pushes to prop up the West End neighborhood. Often, they’ve stalled before truly getting off the ground. 

Lynda Sargent, member of the West End Revitalization steering committee, shared a memory Friday of a time when she visited the city’s economic development department and saw a table lined with unfulfilled plans to better the city. 

“They went back to 1957 and went from one end to the other end,” she said. “It was so sad to see all the work, all the hours of planning that have gone into forming those plans, and how sad those things were just paper and never came to fruition.” 

Sargent is hopeful that this three-year plan unveiled on Friday is going to be more than just paper. 

The West End Revitalization initiative was started officially in 2022, with initial seedlings beginning as early as 2019. They’ve focused their goals on five primary areas of impact: community engagement, assets and income, housing and land, economic vitality and infrastructure and visual appeal. 

West End Revitalization’s primary goal this year is to establish a solid foundation, with a focus on implementation in 2025.

As for what will be implemented, MLK Center Executive Director Jerry Jones presented a step-by-step plan, broken down by the five impact areas to those in attendance on Friday. 

Among the ideas for the neighborhood: redeveloping Franklin Field, the former site of Franklin Junior High School. Thurgood Brooks, the West End Revitalization coordinator, said he sees great potential there. 

As part of the evening’s discussion panel portion, he spoke about hearing from West End residents who remember when the junior high was lively. They told Brooks stories of their favorite teachers and the track athletes who made the neighborhood proud. 

“It makes me smile, because I see opportunity,” Brooks said. “Not looking to the past with vengeance in our heart, but with something that will be beautiful.” 

Another idea Jones noted in the three-year plan: a community grocery store, an idea met with nods of approval from community members in the audience.

The neighborhood is without one. Though it wasn’t always like that. 

“I remember this community as vibrant, having businesses, I could walk to four or five grocery stores,” Sargent said, reflecting on her time growing up in the West End.

“We had a movie theater that sat right here where we are right now.” 

Other ideas laid out in the plan include establishing pathways for the community to participate in city decision making, expanding affordable broadband access, enhancing the neighborhood’s streetscapes, supporting and creating tenants associations and expanding housing options. 

The committee’s loftiest goals will, of course, require funding.

During a discussion panel moderated on Friday by Rock Island Alderman Dylan Parker, the committee shared they had received a $300,000 grant from the Quad-Cities Community Foundation.

Steering committee member Tee LeShoure said much of that funding will go toward staffing. 

West End Revitalization also has received support from the city of Rock Island and the John Deere Foundation, LeShoure said. 

As for what will set this plan apart from past initiatives in the West End, Brooks pointed to a quote from the late activist Malcolm X: “We’re not outnumbered, we’re out-organized.” 

“We’ve shown through this process — 50-plus folks in work groups, a steering committee — we have the brain power, the willpower to collectively showcase a plan and when we organize a plan, then it becomes action,” Brooks said.

Avery Pearl, another member of the West End Revitalization steering committee, said he, too, thinks this time will be different.

“As (Lynda) said, since ’57 there’s been documented plans to get something done and for whatever reason it didn’t come to fruition,” Pearl said.

“But now I truly believe that the climate and ecosystem of city government, Quad-Cities community foundations, funders, citizens themselves — there’s a perfect storm being brewed to achieve this now.” 

Grace Kinnicutt of the Dispatch-Argus/Quad-City Times contributed to this report.