The authoritarians' war on cities is a war on all of us

Capitol Hill neighborhood, Washington, January 2018

Strongman rule is a fantasy.  Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman.  He won't.  In a democracy, elected representatives listen to constituents.  We take this for granted, and imagine that a dictator would owe us something. But the vote you cast for him affirms your irrelevance.  The whole point is that the strongman owes us nothing.  We get abused and we get used to it.--TIMOTHY SNYDER (2025), quoted in Richardson (2025) Emphasis in original.

I'm taking the Trump administration's military occupation of Washington, D.C., a lot more personally than I took the occupation of Los Angeles earlier this year, or of Portland, Oregon in his first term. This is only because I lived there for a few months in 2018, not because it's more important. If James Madison (1785) was correct to write "It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties," we should be fully alarmed by now at any of these displays of hostile force. It's certainly gone beyond the "experiment" stage.

Trump and his coadjutors like U.S. Attorney Jeannine Pirro have presented a false picture of violent crime in Washington (Qiu 2025). Like most of America, really, Washington has seen dramatic declines in violent crime since a spike in the latter half of the pandemic years (Lopez and Boxerman 2025, Altheimer Douglas and Contreras 2025). The U.S. as a whole is mostly back to the long-term nationwide decline in violent crime that began about 1990. 

The capital city is far from pacific, though, as Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle (2025) notes: "The problem isn’t as big as it was a few years ago, but with crime, as with cancer, 'somewhat less of a problem than it was' is not really very good news." Shadi Hamid (2025) adds:

Homelessness is worse today than before the pandemic. We don’t need data to tell us that. The encampments are impossible not to notice. And though they might not be the end of the world, they make D.C. feel more dystopian than it actually is, creating the sense of a governance vacuum. No one wants to feel that way about their city, least of all when their city happens to be the capital of the richest, most powerful nation in the world.

Still, the homicide rate in June 2025 was lower than that of St. Louis, Missouri; Richmond, Virginia; Memphis, Tennessee; Little Rock, Arkansas; and Atlanta, Georgia, some of whose governors have opportunistically sent National Guard troops to assist the occupation. In 2024 Washington was less violent than Cleveland, Ohio, or New Orleans, Louisiana, two more states with governors who are sending guardsmen to Washington while not deigning to attempt similar tactics at home. I'm calling bullshit. 

Entering downtown Providence:
Mayor Brett Smiley says "I know my colleagues around the country
are very concerned [occupation] could happen to our cities" (Bendavid 2025)

So, what's the emergency? If crime in Washington is an improving though ongoing serious problem, what's left to justify the occupation? Is the real emergency that Trump's public approval is flagging (Pew Center 2025)? Or that people won't stop talking about Trump's association with sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein?

People like my Senator Joni Ernst, who say they want to reign in "out of control" spending, will want to know this occupation is costing us taxpayers upwards of $1 million per day. And today they're picking up trash and spreading mulch--some awfully expensive landscapers!

And now he's got Chicago in his sights (Saunders 2025b, Lamothe 2025). (Saunders links to this Wikipedia page showing Chicago ranking 92nd among U.S. cities in violent crime though as high as 22nd in homicides.)

Two Shades Cafe in Chicago's Little Italy:
Cities have coffeeshops. We like cities.

If the occupation of D.C. were a serious crime reduction effort, we would have seen some planning that included city officials; a mix of enforcement and prevention methods (Hohmann, McArdle and Mangual 2025); and attention to areas like the Southeast where crime is concentrated. Instead we see prominent appearances in tourist areas like the National Mall, and assaults on food delivery workers (Schulze 2025). Everyday life for residents has been complicated if not outright scary (cf. Lerner 2025, Silverman Benn and Lumpkin 2025). Fox News has some dramatic video for its followers to devour (Wiggins 2025), while normal people doing normal things get pushed around by masked secret police who make no pretense of their political mission (Kabas 2025), and homeless people just get pushed around to different streets (Wild 2025).

It should be noted that National Guard troops are in D.C. to make a show of force, not to actually reduce crime. It’s not an effort to help residents of Southeast D.C., for example, who live with higher rates of violent crime than I, or most readers of this, do. It’s an effort to let people who are fearful of the crime over there that someone’s doing something about it. (Saunders 2025a)

Poster, National Public Housing Museum:
Hating on cities is a way to ignore the legitimate demands of their residents

If we've learned nothing else ten years into Donald Trump's political career, we've learned that:

1. He has no policy commitments whatsoever, making him unique among American presidents in my lifetime. This lack of interest extends to criminal justice (Green 2025).
2. He has no vision for America, or if he does it's rooted in gauzy nostalgia for the post-World War II years. He does make exceptions for stuff like meme coins, the sales of which have gotten him richer through an appalling pay-for-access scheme (Sigalos and Collier 2025)
3. His principal objectives seem to be attention and praise, material wealth, and sexual gratification (though maybe the latter has declined in importance over the years)
4. Losing face is to be avoided at all costs. This leads to false statements on a regular basis, sometimes on the most trivial matters, retribution against anyone who questions him, and the appalling injustices being visited on the accidentally-deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
5. His hatred for anyone who obstructs his access to any of those objectives is deep and enduring (cf. Stein Jacobs Goba and Roebuck 2025, Jacobs Rizzo Roebuck and Stein 2025, Siegel 2025)
6. He relies on drama and display as means of gaining attention, and is adept at using the power of his office for the purpose of creating spectacle.

Nevertheless, Trump has retained considerable political support, and the Republicans who control Congress and the Supreme Court find it prudent to support his actions and personal aspirations regardless of merit or practical consequences. As I suggested when he was reelected, his sizable public support is likely a mix of opportunism (how else do we get to conservative policy outcomes?), fantasy (he is a great leader making America strong), and hatred (he wants to hurt X Group and so do I). It's disturbing that there's so much of these attitudes out there, but it's hard to account for the Trump phenomenon otherwise. As of today he's still at 44 percent in the New York Times polling average.

Not blood-soaked: Community garden, South Ada Street, Chicago

So am I just complaining? My candidate didn't win the last election, boo hoo. My Cubs haven't won a single measly postseason game since 2017. And I have a nagging feeling I personally could be more popular.

Am I just whinging? Does any of this matter?

The Cubs and my popularity, no. But Trump's fondness for what blogger Jennifer Schulze calls "made for TV authoritarianism," and indeed his whole approach to the Presidency, matter deeply and dangerously.

1. Authoritarian approaches represent the failure of the American project. The U.S. Constitution was written over 200 years ago, by imperfect people in a very different world. Its tenuous balancing act between governmental capacity and individual liberties was rooted in a system of checks and balances, which was mostly rooted in a Biblical conception of universal human sinfulness. Unchecked power is antithetical to the whole fabric, and will only end in tears.
2. He appeals strongly to hatred of cities. At issue is not about where you personally would rather live; it's about defending access to vibrant urbanism for all. Urban areas generate the vast portion of American gross domestic product, and are where people go for economic and social opportunity. When Trump claims "the cities are rotting, and they are indeed cesspools of blood," full of "roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people," the truth is not in him. He is speaking to a decades-old stereotype, that to be frank was largely fueled by federal and corporate policies. In the words of Kansas City mayor Quinton Lucas, "They are looking to exploit issues for political gain, not to solve them" (all quotes from Bendavid 2025). You can't find common humanity in people you never see, which is why...
3. Cities are fundamentally about association with others. Pete Saunders recently pointed to an interview with anthropologist Anand Pandian, who has a new book about American society that looks interesting. In his travels Pandian noted the walls Americans keep building around themselves: The US is a vast country, and things look very different in various parts. Yet there are certain patterns in how everyday life is changing that I document in the book: the rise of fortress-like homes, patterns of neighbourhood isolation and segregation, new developments in American automotive and roadway culture that reflect a more defensive orientation concerning others, body cultures that lead people to think of their bodies as needing armouring and protection, and what I call walls of the mind, separating people into different information ecosystems, into completely different realities (Radhakrishna 2025). The more we bury ourselves in fortresses, whether physical or social, the scarier cities seem.
4. We need cities in order to solve our most serious problems. In a world full of seemingly intractable problems--climate change, housing, immigration and refugee flows, the costs of health care and education, and the future of employment, to name a few--we need cities. It's precisely the rollicking diversity of cities that make them places where problems get solved. Freedom, and conversation across differences, lead to innovation. Encounters across social differences make progress possible. Urban living arrangements are more environmentally and financially sustainable, not to mention better for public health. 

Whether you live on a noisy downtown street or by yourself in the woods, the quality of life you enjoy depends on cities. Trump's attack on them is an attack on all of us.

SEE ALSO: "Portland: Authoritarianism, or Nothing to See Here?" 24 July 2020

Theodore R. Johnson, "Trump's National Guard Deployment Echoes Hurricane Katrina Mistakes," Washington Post, 27 August 2025

VIDEO: Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker responded to Trump's threats to occupy Chicago in a magnificent speech August 25 (14:59):

10th anniversary post: Cedar Rapids' protected bike lanes experiment

 

Protected bike lane demonstration project,
3rd Avenue SE, 2 August 2015

A protected bike lane is one that is separated from moving car traffic by some barrier, such as parked cars, bollards, or curbing. This provides more physical protection for riders than a single stripe of paint or a painted zone (buffered lane). (See discussion with illustrations in the Urban Bikeway Design Guide, prepared by the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO).)

I've been thinking that, when it comes to protected bike lanes, nothing serves as proof-of-concept quite as well as all the riders you see riding on sidewalks instead of streets. But proof of which concept? Sidewalks, despite the occasional presence of pedestrians as well as numerous driveways, are physically separated from the motor vehicle traffic, just like a protected lane; but, unlike a bike lane and more like a trail, they are located off the street.

He wants protection! 300 block of 10th St SE, 2021
(Google Earth screenshot)

Cedar Rapids built its first protected bicycle lane on 3rd Avenue SE less than ten years ago, thanks to advocacy and funding by the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization and its crack transportation planner, Brandon K. Whyte. Whyte led a "pop up" demonstration in August 2015, in which parking was moved off the curb to provide protection for the cycle lane. 

Beginning of the protected lane at 8th St SE

By 2019 Cedar Rapids had built protected lanes along 3rd Avenue from 8th Street SE to 6th Street SW. They remain, to my knowledge, the only such lanes in the city. Most bike lanes in the city are unseparated, while construction of cycling infrastructure has focused on trails and shared-use paths.

Shared-use path on K Avenue NE accommodates both
bikes and pedestrians

NACTO considers protected lanes to be an essential part of an "all ages and abilities" (AA&A) cycle network: Protected bike lanes are the only tool for All Ages & Abilities biking on streets with high curbside demand, speeds of more than 25 mph (40 km/h), multiple adjacent travel lanes, or motor vehicle volumes over 6,000 vehicles per day. They do what trails can't; while off-street trails like the CeMar Trail provide cyclists with superior protection over a sustained distance, they don't provide access to destinations (homes, schools, shops, offices) which are inevitably located on streets. Attempting a comprehensive trails network entirely apart from existing streets network could easily become "prohibitively expensive" [David Sucher, City Comforts (Seattle: City Comforts Inc, 2nd ed, 2016), 90].

Riding downtown on 3rd Avenue SW

Protected bike lanes are credited with improving traffic safety as well as encouraging cycling among the interested-but-reluctant. Within a year of introducing bike lanes, New York City found sharp decreases in injuries to all travelers, particularly (and perhaps counter-intuitively) pedestrians [Jeff Speck, Walkable City (New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2012), 190]. Nationally, analysis of data at both the block and network levels published in Nature found protected lanes had 1.8 times more riders than blocks with standard bike lanes, and even more when compared to shared streets (Ferenchak and Marshall 2025). 

Janette Sadik-Khan, who as transportation commissioner of New York City built miles of protected bike lanes among other pedestrian-friendly infrastructure, told Gilbert Penalosa at a Cities for Everyone webinar this summer:

When we put down protected bike lanes like... on 8th Avenue, which was the first one in the United States, we heard lots of people say that they were scared that people wouldn't be able to reach shops, that it was going to be bad for business... but sales data showed that where we put down protected bike lanes, injuries were cut in half, for all people, and shops showed a nearly 50 percent increase in retail sales. [The accompanying slide showed "-58% injuries, -67% pedestrian crashes, -29% speeding, +49% retail sales." She showed additional data from Toronto ("+100% cyclists") and London.] So whether it's making a street safer, better for business, or making it easier to get around, mile for mile, meter for meter, euro for euro, nothing beats a bike lane. [Quotation starts at 24:30 of the video]

Despite all these high-powered arguments, there is opposition. Some of it is the inevitable opposition of self-centered motor vehicle operators who wish everyone would just get out of their personal way, and perceive--correctly--that they are expected to slow down and share road space. Some especially confident cyclists object to what they see as relegation, when as vehicles their bicycles are fully entitled to space on the streets. 

But even ordinary cyclists have concerns about protected lanes. The main concern seems to be intersections, when cyclists are forced into traffic, particularly turning traffic than may not have seen their fellow road user. In particular, parked cars, which often form part of the protective barrier, can obstruct the motorists' view of the protected cyclists. I have myself, because the protected lane forces you into a more-or-less straight path, experienced unavoidable interactions with people standing in the lane, riders coming the wrong way at me, and one e-cyclist urging me out of their way.

100 block of 3rd Avenue SW:
Without a protective barrier, parked cars can and do
encroach on the bicycle lanes (Google Earth screenshot)

These problems appear to be in large part fixable. A cement curb between the cars pictured above and the bike lane they're sharing would provide a lot more "protection" for cyclists.

Given the value of bike lanes in encouraging ridership and improving street safety, we certainly shouldn't fall back onto the status quo. We should respond to problems as they arise, as Memphis has done with bike lanes on Broad Street. After residents experienced frequent issues at the intersection of Broad and Collins Streets, a transportation consultant involved with the original installation "suggested that the city could create a truck apron at the corner using speed bumps. This would tighten the turn radius for cars, forcing them to slow down, while still allowing larger trucks to make the turn. It’s also a quick and easy change to make" (Strong Towns 2025).

NACTO has a number of recommendations for intersections, based on four principles: 

1. change underlying assumptions about how intersections must operate
2. give people biking and walking clear priority over turning vehicles
3. reduce the approach speed and turn speed of motor vehicles
4. make people walking, biking and driving mutually visible

The specific remedy will depend on the intersection, of course, but a bike setback like this...

Source: NACTO

...gives both cyclist and driver more time to see each other. (Note the distance between the crosswalk and where the cars turn.) 

• "Right turn on red" could be barred where there are frequent conflicts between cars and bicycles (and pedestrians). A leading green only works when cars aren't expecting to roll regardless of the color of the light.
• Clearly-marked and maintained crosswalks and "cross-bikes" provide paths across the intersection that are visible to drivers. 
• Removing one parking space from each intersection will provide more visibility, not just of bicycles but also of motorized cross-traffic. 
• Finally, more and more visible traffic enforcement would discourage rogue behavior by everyone--as long as it's focused on genuine dangers (cars blowing stop signs, wrong-way bike riding, aggressive or erratic movement by anybody) and not on easy prey like pedestrians crossing empty streets.

That all said, I think there's room to expand the presence of protected bike lanes. Jeff Speck prefers--at least he did when the first edition of Walkable City was published--shared streets for downtown areas, to allow everyone access to shops, assuming "an environment of such slow driving that bikes and cars can mix comfortably at biking speeds" [2012: 203-204]--which is not always the case in Downtown Cedar Rapids. Speck wants to look at streets "where car speeds get into the thirties." I'd start with those of our stroads that don't have quieter streets that parallel them: 16th Avenue SW, Center Point Road NE, and Mount Vernon Road SE, to name a few.

So, bottom line: protected bike lanes are a boon--not a cure-all, and not appropriate everywhere, but done right they are a boon nonetheless.

ORIGINAL POST: "Cedar Rapids' Protected Bike Lanes Experiment," 3 August 2015

The bottom line is private cars don't scale

Czech Village parking lot, November 2020

My latest brush with fame came last weekend, when the Cedar Rapids Gazette published a long article by reporter Steve Gravelle on the Czech Village-New Bohemia district, suggesting that development in the area has reached a sort of inflection point: 

A wave of new residential and mixed-use building construction over the past decade nearly tripled property values in the neighborhood, from $12.9 million in 2015 to $37 million last year, according to Jennifer Vavra Borcherding, director of The District: Czech Village and New Bohemia.... The recent projects were built on property the city acquired through post-flood buyouts, replacing dozens of single-family homes that were swept away. The shift to high-density apartments and town houses has altered NewBo's historic aesthetic.

The article included a number of quotes from "Bruce Nesmith, who studies urban design and is a founder of the Corridor Urbanists group," including:

Ten years ago, when I started hanging out down here, I hoped it would evolve in the direction of urban village--places for people to work, places for people to shop, places for people to live. It's probably not done that. The direction now is economic development as a tourist destination, which is OK.

I'll own those statements, though I hope my original comments followed "OK" with "but..." or "if...." In any case, despite much new residential construction, commercial development has been specialized rather than fulfilling "normal daily needs;" and that prospects for hotel construction seem optimistic given the city has been unable to find a private buyer for the big downtown hotel it pushed in 2013. I wrote more about all that last fall.

My participation in the article got a fair amount of attention. Several people expressed to me concern about proposed additional development discussed in the article. They told me about the difficulty of parking for events in the district, and worries that additional residential and commercial development would bring more people competing for fewer parking spaces. Not everyone can walk to every place, I was told, which while true, can get psychically translated into "Not anyone should be expected to walk to any place." 

Given the amount of space this blog has given to tracking the vast waste of space that parking lots represent--even on Black Friday--I was resistant to their concerns. Everyone should understand, if they don't already, that car storage takes up enormous amounts of land at low taxable value, increasing the distance between destinations, squashing vibe, and making any other way of getting around inconvenient if not outright impossible. (See Grabar 2023.)

And yet! I'm not here to preach about personal choices, to residents or shoppers. This blog is first and foremost about public policy, which should make personal choices possible. But Cedar Rapids has developed in a way that Czech Village and New Bohemia are heavily dependent on recreational consumers coming from elsewhere, and the vast proportion of those consumers are simply not in a position to get there except by private motor vehicle. That's not the fault of individuals, it's the fault of the community.

The Czech Village-New Bohemia district is basically Edgewood Road, except for being a whole lot cuter. Maybe this all was inevitable, and the urban village was always going to be a pipedream. Or a sales pitch.

Drive-to urbanism is a thing, but without the valuable attributes of real urbanism. (For an egregious nearby example, see Kaplan 2016.) You can't drive your way to real urbanism. Driving requires parking; you've seen the aerial photos of a 75,000-seat sports stadium surrounded by untold acres of parking. Or how many bicycles fit into a single car-parking space. People don't take up much room, but their cars do.

Parking lot, Tropicana Field, St. Petersburg FL

If getting someplace, whether it's New Bohemia or Lindale Mall, requires driving, it's going to require parking. Parking requires way more space per person than practically any other use of urban land. Way more space requires way more city infrastructure without the revenue to pay for it (Mieleszko 2025). Land used for parking can't be used for housing or shops or parks or schools or anything else that contributes to quality of life. Without the ability of people to walk or bike or take public transit to places, locations become placeless. Roads then need to become wider in an (ultimately fruitless) effort to keep up with the demand to drive. This too is a financial loser for the city.

The bottom line is private cars don't scale. I don't know how New Bohemia ultimately solves that problem, but you can't parking lot your way to long-term prosperity.

ORIGINAL SOURCE: Steve Gravelle, "New Bo Comes of Age," Cedar Rapids Gazette, 3 August 2025, 1A, 4-5A

Can special events help activate parks?

Welcome booth, Art in the Park 2024
(My brain overheated in 2025 so I took no pictures)

Sunday's exuberant Art in the Park at Redmond Park had possibly the biggest turnout yet, with the park full of people thumbing their nose at the steamy weather (while respecting it by staying hydrated). Big events like Art in the Park, Marion's Thursday night Uptown Getdown, Lisbon's Sauerkraut Days, and downtown farmers' markets can bring big crowds to parks or wherever in town they're held. For those who take the lead in planning, they are a lot of work, with the hope of a lot of reward in seeing your event pop in real time. Sophia Joseph of the Wellington Heights Neighborhood Association, who had a big hand in planning the event, posted on Facebook:

It's a lot of work, a lot of heart, a lot of community, and a lot of joy. I'm tired. After we rest up, we are excited for our 5th annual event next year, which is sure to be our biggest and best yet.

2024 Sidewalk chalk competition on 3rd Avenue

For one day last weekend, Art in the Park brought the crowds and the fun and the sidewalk chalk to Redmond Park in the Wellington Heights neighborhood. Marion's Uptown Getdown and Cedar Rapids's Summer on the Square do it for several summer evenings. What about the many other days in the year? A successful park is a place for neighbors to gather and play all year around. The presence of a natural gathering place, whether a park or a town square, is one element of the Strong Towns Strength Test, asked provocatively: If there were a revolution in your town, would people instinctively know where to gather to participate? More to the point: If you can't envision your neighbors gathering together in a central location, it's hard to envision coming together to solve day to day problems and build strong towns--much less demonstrating publicly for a common goal. (Strong Towns 2017)

But first, play time: Packing the Redmond Park playground
after the 2024 Easter Egg hunt

As space that includes some natural elements, parks in particular provide other benefits. Nadina Galle, in her book The Nature of Our Cities--not to mention all the other aspects of her public work--commends natural spaces for providing individuals with awareness of "the extraordinary richness of life that surrounds us" (2024: 133) as well as "restoring the ability to concentrate and triggering a physiological response that lowers stress levels" (2024: 185). 

But they can't do that if we're not there. And that means that park spaces large and small must be interesting and feel safe (Jacobs 1961 ch 5, Kaplan, Kaplan and Ryan 1998), as well as providing for our toileting needs, and maybe so comfortable that one could grab a nap (Sucher 2016: 144, 219). Jacobs (1961: 135-145) talks about connection to a vibrant neighborhood outside the park, internal intricacy (appropriate for multiple uses), centering (one clear climactic point), sunshine (and shade), enclosure, and demand goods. 

Redmond Park splashpad in operation, 2014

Jane Jacobs is focused on large city parks, but the Reimagining the Civic Commons folk argue in their latest post (Reimagining the Civic Commons 2025) that the same considerations apply to small neighborhood parks as well, like River Garden in Memphis and Akron's Summit Lake Beachhead. River Garden, they note, "layers different uses within close proximity to each other to promote connection and casual conversation." Some of the places they profile offer ongoing programming; others rely on a diverse set of demand goods. 

Do big events like Art in the Park help with any of this?

I think they can, under certain circumstances.

1. The park is connected to a successful (or potentially successful neighborhood). There should be, in short, a ready set of nearby people who could populate the park. There should be sidewalks connecting the park to its surroundings, and infrastructure (street lighting, street trees, narrow driving area) conducive to getting to the park. Ben Kaplan's 2019 photo essay on Viola Gibson Park in Cedar Rapids shows what happens when these elements are neglected.

   

   Chicago's Walsh Park is accessible by street or the 606 Trail

   
   
2. The park has a reasonable set of demand goods. Walsh Park on Chicago's north side (pictured above) has a dog park as well as a big play area. Redmond Park in CR has playground equipment, a splash pad, and picnic benches for public use, although they could use some more trees. Our city's biggest parks have a greater variety of features, including swimming pools, ball diamonds, and wooded trails.

   

   walking trail at Bever Park

3. The special events serve the purpose of bringing people into contact with the park's everyday uses. Come for the chalk art, stay for the swingset. If people come to the park for a municipal band concert, and are inspired to return on their own some day soon, that's good. That's why I'm cool even with closing streets for Art in the Park and the downtown farmers market, but think having a NASCAR race in downtown Chicago is grotesque. Auto racing, whatever its attractions, prevents rather than promotes everyday public use.
4. Commitment to regular programming. San Francisco's Noe Valley Town Square, cited by Reimagining the Civic Commons, "serves as the neighborhood's 'living room,' hosting weekly farmers' markets, concerts, yoga and dance classes, family events and more" That's great, if there are the staff and resources for it, but not necessary for successful public space.

What you need is a reason, preferably multiple reasons, for people to be there, and easy access so they can get there without great effort. Urbanism is mostly about daily life, about creating spaces that can be enjoyed in community every day. As such big special events are more of a distraction than a feature. But they too have their place, when the uniquely special contributes to the routinely special.

On the other hand...
Redmond Park on an ordinary Sunday afternoon

MORE ON THIS SUBJECT:

Gilbert Penalosa's terrific Cities for Everyone webinar series will feature Shannon Baker of Waterfront Toronto on Tuesday 8/19 at 10:00 a.m. CT. Her topic is "Connecting Nature and the City." Register here. Recording is available a few days after the presentation at gpenalosa.ca.

PRINT SOURCES

Nadina Galle, The Nature of Our Cities: Harnessing the Power of the Natural World to Survive a Changing Planet (Mariner, 2024)

Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library, 1961)

Rachel Kaplan, Steven Kaplan, and Robert L. Ryan, With People in Mind: Design and Management of Everyday Nature (Island Press, 1998)

David Sucher, City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village (City Comfort Inc, rev ed, 2016)

National Public Housing Museum

 

National Public Housing Museum, 919 S. Ada St., Chicago

Of all the wicked problems facing western countries these days, housing may be the wickedest. The latest report from the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies shows (1) rental and owner-occupied housing prices at record highs, (2) unprecedented levels of homelessness, and (3) record amounts of claims from natural disasters (McCue 2025). Even in places where housing prices are in retreat, writes Strong Towns' Charles Marohn (2025), the result has not been great joy, but widespread pulling back by builders and financial institutions. 

In other words, the new National Public Housing Museum could not have opened at a better time. Located in Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood, near the University of Illinois Chicago campus, it exists on land once occupied by the Jane Addams Houses, the first public housing constructed in the United States (in 1938). Four residences from various decades of the Jane Addams Houses are recreated in part of the museum.

Admission to the museum is free.

Public housing brochures from around the country

Some possessions of public housing residents

There are a number of exhibits still under construction...

...but you can see the activism room, highlighting organized efforts of residents to improve conditions and/or prevent eviction...

Activism room

...and the music room, a library of recordings by former public housing residents. These include Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, Kenny Rogers, and Barbra Streisand.

Music room

The heart and soul of the museum, however, is found on the tours of recreated public housing residences. These cost $25 (lower for seniors and students), and require reservations on the museum's website. There seem to be three tours, and I can't remember whether mine was "A," "B," or "C;" anyhow, your tour may have different content. (That's also the case at the Tenement Museum in New York.)

1940s: entrance to the Turovitz apartment

Turovitz family living room

Turovitz family kitchen

Displays are enhanced with oral histories; members of two of the families were present for the museum's grand opening earlier this year.

In the 1950s recreations, we saw a shadow play that included a crisp explanation of how housing policy, both public and private. through much of this period worked for whites and against blacks.

1950s: anti-integration protests

1960s: record player and 45s

living room TV console showing test pattern
(both the Sears Tower and the station's call letters are from the 1970s)

The biggest message of the Public Housing Museum experience was to humanize public housing residents. We meet real people, who have to deal with school and work and love and child-rearing just like everyone else, except more precariously. This is something worth remembering as government programs are mauled by the Trump administration gang, and as we collectively struggle with housing policy.

As seen above, the museum doesn't ignore public policy, but as a policy guy, I could have used a lot more. Public housing has gone through historical phases, from the early mid-rises to the infamous high rises to Section 8 vouchers, but the museum says very little about this history. It begs rather than addresses the question: Could public housing be the answer to some of the housing problems we face today?

It is bad form to critique any work based on what you wish it did, rather than what it does. Yet here I am, doing just that. I hope I've communicated that what the museum does, it does exceptionally well. It may be that future exhibits address policy more; that's an important part of the story, too.

MUSEUM WEBSITE: Welcome to the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago

RELATED POSTS:

"Everything is Connected, Including Housing Issues," 14 November 2024

"Metro Housing Update," 7 February 2024

SEE ALSO:

Charles Marohn, "What Happens When Housing Prices Go Down? (Because They Are)," Strong Towns, 21 July 2025

Daniel McCue, "A Year for the Record Books: The State of the Nation's Housing in Perspective," Joint Center for Housing Studies, 9 July 2025

"Supportive Housing Offers High-Impact, Cost-Effective Response to Homelessness and Opioid Use," Stanford Report, 27 June 2025

10th anniversary post: CR churches

 

Apartments across from Greene Square,
part of a surge of building in the core of Cedar Rapids

Ten years ago this month, I hosted two events featuring Charles Marohn, founder and CEO of Strong Towns: an evening public event at the Iowa City Public Library, and a meeting of the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization the next morning in Ely. Remarkably, I wrote nothing about those events and took no pictures; all I did was post a link to the video on Iowa City's website, which link has, alas, now expired. (A subsequent Iowa City appearance by Chuck, in 2019, can be found here:)

I did take pictures in July 2015, lots of them, of churches in the Oak Hill Jackson neighborhood. The idea was that there were a number of houses of worship remaining from the era when the core of Cedar Rapids was bustling and dense, and that when--as I anticipated--urbanism returned bustle and density to the city center, these religious institutions would be ready to support the new arrivals and be the basis for renewed community.

Since that post, three more churches have been started in Oak Hill Jackson, and I have acquired editions of Polk's Directory for 1953 and 1998 that show changes in the property uses as well as in the surrounding areas.

New Churches

Veritas is a non-denominational church that
hosts a coffeehouse on weekdays

Veritas Church, 509 3rd St SE

In 1953 this building was Nash Finch wholesale grocers (the folks who operated the Econo Foods and Sun Mart chains). There was a Sinclair station on the other side of 3rd. In 1998 there was no listing for the church's current address, while Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity occupied the building across the street that is now their ReStore. The oldest Google Earth photo, from 2012, shows the Intermec company occupying this building.

Trinity Presbyterian Church, 1103 3rd St SE

This congregation was started in 2020, and is affiliated with the conservative Presbyterian Church of America. They hold services in the theater at CSPS Hall, a historic Czech and Slovak community center dating from the 1890s. In 1953, this block of 3rd Street had, besides CSPS, six single-family households, one duplex, and 11 businesses, as well as the Salvation Army at 1119-1123 (now Parlor City). In 1998, there were two households and five businesses sharing the block with CSPS.

Revolution Community Church, 1202 10th St SE

This congregation, along with the ROC (Recovering Our City) Center, is using the building that ten years ago was occupied by Oak Hill Jackson Community Church. The sign above the door actually says "Refuge City Church," which testifies to the versatility of the abbreviation "RCC." In 1953 this was St. George Syrian Orthodox Church, which built the church in 1914; they moved to Cottage Grove Avenue SE in 1992. In the 1998 Polk's Directory there was no listing on 10th Street SE between 12th and 15th Avenues.

Older White Denominations

First Presbyterian Church, 310 5th St SE

This venerable church was built in 1869, and occupies the same block as the also-historic YWCA, opposite Greene Square Park. "First Pres" is the first of the oldline Third Avenue Churches; now, with the departure of First Christian Church and People's Church (Unitarian Universalist) in the 2010s, it is also the only mainline church on the southeast side below 10th Street.

St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church, 1224 5th St SE

Built in 1904, this church long served the working class neighborhood around the Sinclair meatpacking plant. In 1953 just that block of 5th Street had 14 households containing 47 residents, as well as two vacant houses and the Sisters of Mercy at 1230 5th. In 1998, the block still had seven occupied residences, but all the older houses in the area were bought up and leveled after the 2008 flood. 

Historically Black Congregations

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, 512 6th St SE 

Built in 1931, Bethel AME Church has, like St. Wenceslaus, has continued its ministry after losing many of its closest neighbors. In 1953, the 500 block of 6th Street had seven single-family homes and two duplexes with a total population of 45. By 1998 it was down to two single-family homes, two vacant apartments at 514 6th, and four residences "not verified." Today there is just a vacant lot between Bethel and 5th Avenue.

New Jerusalem Church of God in Christ, 631 9th Av SE 

This church was built by Hus Presbyterian Church in 1915; Hus moved to Schaeffer Drive SW in 1973, and then closed in 2021. The 9th Avenue block had seven single-family homes and four duplexes in 1953, with a total of 68 residents. By 1998, the New Jerusalem congregation was established in the building, and the block listed five single-family homes and two duplexes.

Historically Black Congregations (possibly shut)

Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church, 1030 7th St SE 

This church was built in 1965, but it's not clear that it's still in operation. Their Facebook page last updated 2022, and they're no longer listed on American Baptist Churches website. The banner still appears on the building, and the lawn is cut, but a sign on the door says "Mask required to enter," which surely is a vestige of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020-21.

In 1953, this address was the home of John D. Malbrue, a factory worker for Collins Radio, and his family of five. The block had 13 homes for 45 people, as well as a grocery store at 1000 7th. In 1998, the block had three homes, the church, and a social service organization called Options; 1000 7th was vacant. (Today 1000 7th is the site of the charming Sacred Cow tavern.)

Southeast Church of Christ, 930 9th St SE 

A handsome "Church of Christ" sign has been added to the exterior since 2015, but the charming garden I noticed is gone. Its web and Facebook links are to churches in Texas. In 1953, the building contained the grocery store of William W. Krejci; the block had 10 single-family homes and five duplexes, with a total population of 68. The 1998 Polk's Directory lists the Church of Christ, nine homes, and two "not verified." It's still a well-settled block.

Here in 1998, but no longer

Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 824 8th St SE

Mt. Zion moved to the edge of town after the 2008 flood, after nearly a century in the neighborhood. Its location is now part of a parking lot for the MedQuarter. Before the move, that block of 8th Street, which once was home to 56 people besides the church and a funeral home, was down to the church and one vacant property. 

Church of Jesus Christ of the Apostolic, 916 10th St SE

In 1953 this address was the house owned by Mrs. Francis Leksa. It is now part of an apartment complex constructed post-flood.

Plenty of churches remain nearby: Harris Oak Hill Apartments

Holy Ghost Missionary Baptist Church, 1003 6th St SE

There is no listing for this address in the 1953 Polk's Directory, but 1001 6th was the home and store of grocer Milo Grubhoffer. What was probably the church building was for some time post-flood used for storage by the nonprofit Feed Iowa First. Something new is being constructed in its place even as we speak.

Construction at former Holy Ghost site

Ten years on, the church scene in Oak Hill Jackson is different, but similar. In the meantime, there's been a lot of building.

New Bo Lofts addition, across from St. Wenceslaus

Loftus Lofts, in the heart of New Bohemia

Will all this new construction be populated? Will the new residents find, or even look for, community in their neighborhood churches? Do the churches even want to play the role of community rebuilder, or are they focused on their present membership? To answer these questions, we would need data, which I famously don't have.

ORIGINAL POST (with more pictures): "CR Churches," 20 July 2015