Rockford backs $19 5M Water Power Lofts project with city funding rrstar.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rrstar.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
ROCKFORD Demonstrators will conduct their weekly protests of racial injustice at Rockford City Market again this year even as an expanded market footprint will make it more difficult to deliver their message to visitors.
Gone this year are dedicated protest zones that officials say demonstrators ignored last year. And the streets where protesters marched a year ago will now be inside an expanded City Market area filled with vendors, displays and activities.
Market and city officials say the demonstrators aggressive tactics are meant to agitate, disturb and disrupt a market where about 55 vendors many of them women and minorities plan to work in an effort to establish or expand businesses. In addition to the pandemic, officials blame the demonstrators and their clashes with police last summer for low market attendance in 2020.
ROCKFORD Members of the River District Association said recent wind damage to the roof of the vacant former Elks Club, 210 W. Jefferson St., has created a public safety hazard.
The River District also believes that the owners of the building and the adjacent vacant law office at 221 N. Main St. continue to game a system that condones disinvestment and encourages blight.
“These (buildings) are detrimental to our city,” Rockford architect and River District board member Gary Anderson said Wednesday during a news conference outside the Elks Club building. “The progress that we are seeing downtown in the renaissance, these are the kinds of buildings that hold us back and they allow building owners to be speculative. This building was bought for $15,000 10 years ago and he hasn’t done anything with the building. Now, he’s asking for over a half million dollars for the sale of this building.”
New Rockford apartment building could be first in downtown in 25 years rrstar.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rrstar.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.