Plans for Davenport hotel raise controversy

A big gambling corporation is requesting 13-million dollars from the city of Davenport to build a new hotel and parking ramp near the existing Rhythm City Casino on the Mississippi riverfront downtown. Davenport alderman Bill Lynn says he has big reservations about the proposal from the Isle of Capri. Lynn says their projections say they’ll generate more hotel/motel tax, but he says they won’t generate more, they’ll just steal it from a different facility. Lynn says Davenport doesn’t need another downtown hotel as one, the Clarion, closed its doors in mid-November and another is already vacant. Lynn, who’s also a business professor at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, says adding another hotel is just a bad idea.Lynn says Davenport can’t afford to provide aid to the casino in the project, which, he says, just isn’t needed. Lynn says the casino is a private, for-profit business and is not entitled to taxpayer dollars. He believes most other aldermen will agree with him.