Opening a restaurant can be risky business, but it seems to be extra tough in downtown Davenport. The Ripley Street Grille is the latest business to announce it's no longer serving lunch or dinner.

Co-owner Jeff Johnson says they are now only available for personal or corporate parties and special events. The Starting Line restaurant is also up for sale or lease. It operated in downtown Davenport for several years. What went wrong? Johnson blames their demise on offering upscale dinning.

"We probably came in just a little high. We had the white table clothes. Higher ticket average than what we should have," Johnson said.

Johnson also thinks that downtown needs to become more of a destination point for people.

"You need more people living downtown, more shopping to support that, grocery stores and things that people are going to want to stay in this area to do," Johnson added.

Some businesses and customers say the two hour free parking downtown has not been all it was cracked up to be. From the storefront window of a downtown coffee shop called Urban Grind, you can see the parking spaces. Employee Shela Lassen hoped the hooded meters and two hour free parking would attract more customers. But she says it hasn't worked out that way.

"Most of the people that park down here are people that work downtown. They will leave their car there or move it within two hours. it's not necessarily customers," Lassen said. The coffee shop has also reduced its hours.

Customer Bob Carlson thinks downtowns are hard pressed to make it, not only in Davenport but also on the Illinois side of the river.

"Look at the Brown Bottle closed over in Moline. Another restaurant went in there. Now, will somebody else go into the Starting Line? That's hard to say," said Carlson.

There are 28 restaurants in downtown Davenport. Many are doing quite well. About seven thousand people work downtown.