As the name suggests, Floreciente is a community in bloom.
Sandwiched between the Mississippi River and Highway 92, the West End of Moline, Illinois, has long been one of the most culturally rich neighborhoods in the Quad Cities. The area has been welcoming immigrant populations for more than 150 years, and was renamed Floreciente in the 1990s to reflect its deep and diverse cultural roots.
“Some people have this opinion that the neighborhoods along the river are worn down, they don’t have a great reputation,” says Susana Aguilar, co-chair of the Floreciente Neighborhood Association. “But our neighborhood is rebranding. I want to shine a light on the good parts.”
Susana and other members of the association have spent years engaging their neighbors to help Floreciente bloom into its full potential. From planting the colored flowerpots that line 4th Avenue to painting murals and other beautification projects, Susana says “it’s a domino effect of little things” that create a sense of pride in the community.
A self-described “river rat,” Susana and her family grew up playing in and around the river. Today, much of Susana’s – and the neighborhood’s – connection to the river centers around Sylvan Island, 37 acres of trails and parks nestled in an adjacent bend of the Mississippi River. “It’s by far our biggest green space. It’s where our kids go to bike, fish and explore,” she says. “We cherish the island and what it has to offer.”
With support from the Clean River Advisory Council (C-RAC), Susana and other community leaders are accessing new funding for community improvement projects, from Sylvan Island beautification to river safety signage in multiple languages.
Through the C-RAC, they are also finding a community of like-minded advocates across the Quad Cities who are working to redefine how their neighbors connect to the river.
The Quad Cities area consists of Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in Illinois, and Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa. Council members of the C-RAC hail from every corner of the Quad Cities, the largest metropolitan area on the upper Mississippi River between St. Louis and Minneapolis.
They share a goal of prioritizing environmental action, creating cultural connections to the Mississippi River, and centering the perspectives of under-represented residents in environmental decisions.
Mississippi River communities are on the frontlines of climate change, increasingly at risk from more frequent and intense flooding.
The C-RAC was formed in 2023 through a partnership between the Quad Cities Community Foundation, Iman Consulting, and the Walton Family Foundation. It’s part of the foundation’s strategy to uplift local partners and help communities across the Mississippi River Basin have a greater voice in finding nature-based solutions to improve the health of the river and its water resources.
Angelica Villareal is the lead project manager for the C-RAC. She helps its 17 council members, including Susana, connect and implement their vision for a healthier and thriving river community.
In building the C-RAC membership, she says they looked for local leaders entrenched in the priorities of their communities.
“Through this work, we aren’t talking about community members, we are talking with community members directly about what they want to see in nature-based solutions,” she says, “Whether that’s planting more trees and understanding native habitat, or prioritizing water safety and flood mitigation.”
Just down the river from Floreciente lies the West End neighborhood of Rock Island, Illinois. Avery Pearl is the city’s neighborhood revitalization coordinator, and also a member of the C-RAC.
He says the history of the Quad Cities, and the West End, is complicated.
“The families I grew up with moved up from the South to find opportunity. They came here for work in the factories.”
Growing up, we were right next to the river and always found ways to play, but there wasn’t a lot of placemaking involved in connecting our community to this asset.
But he says that as the factory jobs disappeared, it left an economic void in places like the West End.
“In certain parts of the QC, the river is an asset for tourism and attractions. But here? Growing up, we were right next to the river and always found ways to play, but there wasn’t a lot of placemaking involved in connecting our community to this asset.”
He points to a number of ongoing environmental challenges facing the West End of Rock Island. The area suffers from river flooding and sewage back-up because of bad drainage systems and a lack of permeable surfaces.
When invasive Ash Borer beetles damaged thousands of trees in the Midwest in the early 2000s, many came to see the dying trees as a nuisance and a danger to property. Of the environmental crisis, “People were saying, ‘We don’t need trees planted, we need them removed,’ without understanding how helpful they can be to flood mitigation.”
Now, Avery says he is becoming the adult that he needed as a child, addressing environmental disparities and connecting youth to the assets all around them.
Through school clubs and other youth engagement activities, the C-RAC is helping Avery “demystify their relationship with the environment” for young people in the West End.
“We’ve brought in experts to bring kids out to forest preserves and understand the river’s cycle. We do community clean-ups and plant trees. Regardless of what we inherited, we can show our kids that stewardship leads to a better tomorrow.”
Most importantly, Avery says the C-RAC has helped the region’s environmental advocates break out of their existing silos and share resources. “Before C-RAC, we wanted to support community and environmental health, but we didn’t have the data to address these disparities. The C-RAC has been a key asset in helping connect with other organizations and tell a larger, regional story.”
Back in Floreciente, Susana agrees. She says the collaboration the C-RAC provides can only help her neighborhood’s continued growth.
“We are already a community that invests in itself. Now, we can share that wealth, share the ambition and ideas we have with people with different backgrounds, and we can really make something happen.”
