Eight things that make me proud in Cedar Rapids

 

Cedar Rapids sign, taken from the 3rd Avenue Bridge

Our big orange photo op is not one of them. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. Many other towns have already done it, so it's not exactly original, and writing your name on everything seems more like a sign of insecurity rather than pride. (See the "Gulf of America.") Do these photo ops age well? There's this one in New Bohemia from the ill-fated NewBo Evolve festival. It's still there, seven years later...

NewBo sign, 1300 block of 3rd Avenue SE

...and I took this picture of it in a snowstorm in January 2024, so maybe they do?

But I'm not here to complain about the sign. Really, I don't hate it. I'm here because my inability to appreciate its wonderfulness has led me to contemplate the things about Cedar Rapids that do make me proud. These are the things I show visitors and new students. I was going to list five, but I'm up to eight, and might have gone further, but I should get this written, and anyway what I missed might inspire you to make your own list!

Blake Shaw performs in CSPS courtyard,
October 2020

1. Arts and theater scene. Whether your art of choice is visual, musical, or theatrical, there's just a lot going on here. CSPS Hall, where I volunteer, has been showcasing eclectic music and art since 1993, and has been an anchor for growth in New Bohemia. The Cherry Building has regular exhibits of art by residents of its studios. There are several theater groups, and our local colleges feature all manner of fine arts productions. This is all on top of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, the Eastern Iowa Symphony, and Theater Cedar Rapids. There's a lot to appreciate here, most of it accessibly priced and presented. City of Cedar Rapids arts and culture page 

Group ride on the Cedar River Trail, May 2023

2. Bike/trails network. What Cedar Rapids has in common with the host cities for the last three Congresses for the New Urbanism is our bicycle network is progressing, and is just a few connections away from being fully functional. On my side of town, the CeMar Trail will create a direct, paved route from the core of Cedar Rapids to the center of Marion. The Cherokee Trail, when completed, will go from downtown all across the west side. Our separated bike lanes downtown were the first or second in the state, depending on who you're asking. Linn County Trails Association page 

Gazette offices, downtown Cedar Rapids
(two blocks from their old offices)

3. Cedar Rapids Gazette. With limited resources, the Gazette is a solid local daily (at least online) paper that is locally owned, a rarity in a town this size. They do not shy away from exploring, in both news and opinion sections, aspects of issues that don't fit the lines coming from the Statehouse or Chamber of Commerce. And their offices remain downtown, which goes far with me.

Clifford the Big Red Dog helped open the new
main library in August 2013

4. Cedar Rapids Public Library. I got my library card as soon as I moved to town, and have been a satisfied patron ever since. I always find something worth reading in their vast collection. The main library has endured the 2008 flood, at the time the most costly disaster ever suffered by a U.S. library; the expectation they will be a refuge for the increasing unhoused population; and a state government that is suspicious of its efforts to serve a diverse population. A new facility under construction will provide expanded services to the west side.

Interior, Craftd Coffee, downtown CR

5. Coffee. For whatever reason back in the 1990s, the big chains were late in colonizing our town, allowing a rich variety of local shops to emerge. The big boys are here now, but the locals are holding on, mostly in the core of Cedar Rapids as well as Marion and Hiawatha. They are places to sit a spell, enjoy free or cheap refills, and see friends old and new. I have my favorites, but the whole of the coffee scene is even more than its parts.

The Round Barn, longtime home of the 
Indian Creek Nature Center

6. Indian Creek Nature Center and city parks. More than fifty years ago, someone had the vision to establish a place on the outskirts of town where adults and children could learn about nature while in nature, the community could celebrate the joys of homemade maple syrup, and the staff could model sustainable land conservation. To this add Bever and Ellis Parks, the oldest and best of our mixed-use parks, which include natural areas as well as playgrounds and swimming pools.

Cultivate Hope Corner Store grand opening, 2022

7. Matthew 25. There are a lot of social service organizations around town, but this one, begun in 2006 by pastor brothers Clint Twedt-Ball and Courtney Ball, is distinctive. From the start they had the goal of working with the neighbors rather than merely working in the neighborhood (in their case, the Taylor and Time-Check neighborhoods on the near west side). They were forced to pivot by the 2008 flood, and have continued to change over the years in response to new challenges. They opened the Cultivate Hope Corner Store in 2022. With Clint's departure this year, leadership is passing to a new generation.

Ready for Food Truck Tuesday
at New Bo City Market, May 2024

8. New Bo City Market. Since its inception in 2012 it's been more of a food court than a market, but it's a food court unlike any other around, with a variety of ethnic offerings not found elsewhere in town. Some shopkeepers have been able to make the jump from a market stall to their own shop, proving the market's worth as an incubator as well. Their Friday night concert series is a summer tradition now. A capital campaign is underway to expand the size of the facility, including a grocery store, dental clinic, and meeting space.

Post No. 600: Blogging in a World Gone Backwards

 

No Kings Day crowd at the Rhode Island State House

After the heady experience of the nationwide No Kings Day protests last Saturday, a high school friend posted on Facebook: Did all of the No Kings protesting initiate a change process?

Spectacular, yes, but did it initiate change?
March for Our Lives, Washington, D.C., March 2018

A few days later, the prophet Pete Saunders wondered if America's "anti-city sentiment" is so inherent as to be intractable. If anti-city sentiment just means people don't want to live in Chicago or New York or Providence, that's probably okay; but it seems to mean that efforts to create sustainable, inclusive communities are so threatening that people are quickly and easily frightened off them:

I'm tired of this cycle: Protests occur after some event. Police and protestors spar as police try to contain the protestors and limit damage, and the protestors defiantly try to make their point. Each engagement like this has every opportunity to become violent, and sometimes does. When violence does occur, the general public's attention often moves away from the act that initiated the protests and shifts towards the damage done by the protesters. Then it goes even deeper. Cities get attacked for being crime-plagued and ungovernable.

I understand the frustration that people have with damage from protests. I've witnessed property damage from protests personally and I've had the exact same frustration. But every time this happens, two questions come to mind: (1) Why does the focus shift so quickly from the initial act to the protests? (2) Why do cities bear the brunt of the negativity?... Unfortunately, this will always be the case in America, because cities are social entities in an individualized society (Sanders 2025).

President Trump, love him or hate him, is a master at changing the subject. Less than a week after No Kings Day and his own miserable parade, Trump had moved on to maybe bombing Iran, maybe sic'ing the military on New York and Chicago--there's that anti-city sentiment again, and he plays it so well--and maybe canceling the Juneteenth federal holiday.

Mural, Providence's Downcity Arts District

It was so nice to get away for a few days to CNU33 last week, to hear of hope and see signs of progress. Even so, as Addison Del Maestro--who chose the Strong Towns national gathering instead of CNU--reminds us:

As someone who enjoys debating and thinking about ideas--which is true of many people working in urbanism, broadly--I think I sometimes make the mistake of thinking that urbanism is only about ideas. Urbanism isn't a Philosophy 101 puzzle or math problem that can be solved and which is then, you know, solved. The problem in real life is still there.... For a lot of people, the hump to get over isn't intellectual but political or practical. Do I trust the actual people who would be implementing this stuff? And do I think it will come out successfully and not corrupt/over budget/screwed up? (Del Maestro 2025).

If urbanist ideas are nothing without ensuing action, it's also true that the ideas themselves remain necessary to counter anti-city sentiment, and the cynicism and the oligarchy that it has produced in our day. So, it is time for us to gather for a minute around our screens and celebrate 600 posts over the 13+ years of this blog. Is Holy Mountain leading to meaningful social change?

Westside Library under construction, May 2025

Essays are small things, half teaspoons of sand on the beach, and the results are going to be attenuated, but by golly, four different people or groups have contacted me this year to discuss development in our city. So maybe in time, whatever half-teaspoons and quarter-teaspoons we're able to add to the mix will add up to meaningful change? In the meantime, there's nothing we can do but keep trying.

Besides, I'm writing all the time anyway... I might as well try to do some good with it.

Top posts of the 2020s

Pandemic hearts, April 2020

1. "The Hearts of Cedar Rapids," 11 April 2020
2. "Black Friday Parking 2021," 26 November 2021
3. "The Kind of President Joe Biden Could Be," 3 July 2020
4. "Hy-Vee is a Symptom of a Deeper Problem," 23 May 2024
5. "Move More Week Diary," 10 October 2022
6. "Even a Pretty MedQuarter Isn't Right," 12 September 2023
7. "What Should Go into Brewed Awakenings?" 31 July 2020
8. "More New Less Bo?" 4 July 2022
9. "Project 2025 and Our Common Life," 19 August 2024
10. "The Suburbanization of New Bohemia," 17 September 2024

As yet undiscovered posts of the 2020s

Doing Justice book cover

1. "Book Review: Doing Justice," 4 March 2025
2. "MPO Ride 2024," 11 May 2024
3. "Downtown Dreams and Reality," 31 May 2025
4. "Riding the Districts 2024," 10 June 2024
5. "Book Review: City Limits," 5 June 2024
6. "Don't Blame Trans People for Dems' Loss," 11 November 2024
7. "Film Review: 1946: The Mistranslation That Changed Culture," 8 June 2025
8. "FY25 Budget," 13 March 2024
9. "10th Anniversary Post: Is a Baseball Complex a Merit Good?" 30 September 2024
10. "Iowa's Legislature May Never Run Out of Symbolism," 23 May 2025

SEE ALSO: "Post No. 550: Now What?" 28 June 2024

CNU Diary 2025: Weekend in New England

This way to the party!

Wednesday, June 11

The 33rd Congress for the New Urbanism is underway, this year in Providence, Rhode Island, which makes three new cities for me in three years! Jane and I flew in this afternoon, took transit downtown to our hotel, and joined the assembled Urbanists briefly at the Opening Party at 195 District Park before retreating for a quiet dinner.

The bus was express between the airport and downtown, or as express as could be during rush hour. I had dutifully downloaded the RIPTA Wave app and put money on it, but found it very difficult to use on the bus. The QR code for my "virtual card" kept disappearing! Eventually the driver waved me on. As someone who has used transit in a variety of cities, I think it should be a lot more intuitive to use.

Not an auspicious start to the conference, but fortunately I don't believe in omens.

Oodles of urbanists!

The Congress Tavern (est 1933): Dinner al fresco on a quiet street

Pre-conference psych-up watching John Simmerman and guest ride through Copenhagen! 

Thursday, June 12

CNU President Mallory Baches rang in the conference 
by recalling its first principles

Today's walking tour celebrated the extensive work in downtown (a.k.a. Downcity) Providence done by Cornish Associates. Since 1999 they have rehabilitated 17 buildings, creating 438 apartments, while retaining about 275,000 square feet of commercial space.

Inside #312, the only vacant unit out of 97
at 239 Westminster Street (built 1873, rehabbed 2005)

Lobby display honors its past as a department store

Green roof at 239 Westminster Street,
"the centerpiece of our downtown portfolio"

186 Union Street, another in the Cornish portfolio

80 Washington Street, with historic sign

The Nightingale, 100 Mathewson Street, occupies most of a city block
 and includes 143 apartments and a Japanese deli on the first floor

As a result, downtown Providence has some great streets.

200 block of Westminster Street

To think this could all have been bulldozed 60 years for "urban renewal." Happily for us, Providence in the 1960s lacked the money needed to execute their plan!

One of Downcity's many fans!

At the end of the tour, Cornish founder Buff Chace wondered if there really could ever be a playbook for new/small developers such as they used to be. He described their developments proceeding with a lot of "Band-Aids and glue," and while outside financial capital and historic tax credits certainly easier to get, city politics may be no easier to navigate. They are currently being sued by the City of Providence over a deal with a previous mayor to tax their apartments at a lower rate than the standard commercial property tax charged to all downtown properties.

The day began with the keynote address, shared by architect Carl Elefante of Quinn Evans and Shin-pei Tsay, who heads the City of Boston's Office of New Urban Mechanics. They struck the optimistic notes the Congress needed, while reminding us of the continued challenges before us. Elefante proclaimed a "relevance revolution" in the 21st century, where "every problem and solution is related to urban form.... We have to accomplish it, or we're going to have problems." Tsay noted the recent creation of her position was in response to the complexity of city policy making in the face of climate, economic, public trust, and justice challenges. 

slide from Tsay's presentation

Moderator Matt Lambert, chair of the CNU Board of Directors, tried to steer the conversation towards the chosen theme of metropolitan coherence, while quoting "a guy in a blue blazer" at last night's cocktail party: CNU has never been about grand slams; it's about bunts and singles.

I also attended a panel on walkable redesign presented by Celeste Frye and Melissa Lee of Public Works Partners. They discussed projects from three different towns in New York. I found myself in a small group with urbanists from New Mexico and Texas, who marveled that they were able to work so productively with the state Department of Transportation. I wonder if they were able to sell their projects to the public because the public already felt pressed by an influx of population. Neither Cedar Rapids nor Santa Fe is so pressed, and San Antonio accommodates theirs through sprawl.

In the evening we attended a reception honoring the publication of The Art of the New Urbanism...

Victor Dover speaks before a picture from the book

...before heading to another quiet dinner in lieu of the CNU pub crawl.

Friday, June 13

This is my third in-person CNU, and at each one I've done a bike ride. This year's ride was unusual because it was less about infratstructure than about development, specifically development in Olneyville, a historically poor neighborhood of Providence that long ago hosted a vibrant milling industry.

Olneyville is the darker part of Ward 15;
the conference is in the lighter part of Ward 1

The tour was hosted by Kurt Teichert...

...senior lecturer at Brown University's Institute for Environment and Society. Maybe two dozen of us rode along.

Because of the tour's focus, we spent a lot of time on streets. Hence it was the most awkward of the three rides, in terms of interactions with motor vehicles. We did sample the lovely Greenway along the Woonasquatucket River.

trail sign by Riverside Park

Recently constructed, one of the trail's objectives was to connect nondriving Olneyville residents to jobs downtown, though (just like Charlotte) that final step is still in process.

on-street bike and bus lanes, downtown

awkwardly twisty ramp by Providence Mall

redevelopment of former steel factories

Woonasquatucket River from trail

Woonasquatucket Greenway by Donigian Park
(formerly dubbed "Needle Park" but has benefited
from infusion of investment in the area)

The Greenway occasionally is linked by regular streets, creating some awkward intersections.

Delaine Street at Manton Avenue

Development in Olneyville has not created large-scale gentrification, but there are nonetheless contested spaces, such as the Atlantic Mills Space, which currently hosts artists and small businesses, as well as meetings of the Olneyville Neighborhood Association...

The Atlantic Mills (built 1863), 120 Manton Ave

..., but maybe not for much longer as we heard from the president of the tenants' union.

dam at Riverside Park has a fish ladder,
sadly rendered inoperable by 2024 storm

affordable housing constructed on Sheridan Street
by the Greenway

interior, Center for Resilience, 249 Menton Avenue,
serves as Olneyville community center

soccer game, Joslin Playground, 60 Kossuth Street

Once back from the bike trip, I checked out Bolt Coffee...

Bolt Coffee is in another Cornish development

...where I met one of my fellow bikers who is from Detroit. I bought The Nature of Our Cities (Mariner, 2024) and The Art of the New Urbanism (Wiley, 2025, mentioned above) at the Symposium Books shop--expect reviews soon!--and attended a panel on entrepreneurship featuring four owners of small consultancies, hosted by Mike Lydon, author of Tactical Urbanism. Then I heard Jonathan F.P. Rose, author of The Well-Tempered City (Harper Wave,2016), give the day's closing keynote.

Rose has something of the futurist about him, and his call for innovations and "big vision" to prepare us for the future had some jargon to it. He called at a couple junctures for systems of mutual aid and mutual support to emerge as insurance and federal assistance are exhausted.

Trinity Brewhouse: We were seated just inside
that window

In the evening we went to a meetup at Trinity Brewhouse cohosted by CNU Midwest, CNU Michigan, and CNU Ontario. We met a bunch of people from Ohio, so it was good I had Jane (who lived her first 22 years in the Buckeye State) with me.

Saturday, June 14

No Kings Day protest at Rhode Island State House,
looking from Smith Street

Today America's narcissistic and very anti-urbanist President hosted a military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C., at a cost of nearly $50 million, not counting streets that will have to be repaired, inconvenience to residents, and the military's embarrassment at being dragged into a political stunt. This, along with the assassination of a Minnesota legislator and her spouse last night, the assault on U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) by a Cabinet member's security detail, and masked marauders preying on Hispanic workers, make it look like the day of "might makes right" has arrived in America.

Happily, hundreds of No Kings Day protests were organized around the country, including one at the Rhode Island State House, a short (though not easy) walk north of the conference site. We milled about among the crowd, which must have numbered in the thousands, and which was cheerful and peaceful throughout. Americans are going to be a long time repairing the damage Trumpism has done to our communities, but I'm encouraged by the spirit I saw today.

View of the crowd from next to the State House

Speaking of restoring communities, I started my day at the morning main stage talk shared by Erin Barnes of Main Street America and Mindy Fullilove, a social psychologist and author of Main Street: How a City's Heart Connects Us All (New Village, 2020). Both acknowledged widespread public pain, while commending creative community-building efforts of all kinds. Then I attended a panel reporting on efforts in New Orleans to reconnect Claiborne Street, part of which was yawmped by I-10 back in the day, resulting in damage to the mostly black community, public health, and history.

Jennifer Hurley, incoming CNU board chair, at the closing session

The conference rang down with a late afternoon closing session looking back on this gathering, and looking forward to next year, when CNU34 will be held at various sites around Northwest Arkansas. That region includes Bentonville, home of Wal-Mart; Fayetteville, home of the University of Arkansas; and I trust Springdale, home of the Northwest Arkansas Naturals baseball team. It should be an unusual CNU: representatives from that local committee noted that it's not a traditional city, and is heavily auto-dependent. (Their promotional video showed three giant parking lots in the first minute!) So despite impressive rates of population growth, they invite some urbanist wisdom. Of course, Holy Mountain will be on the scene with all the news as it happens.

SEE ALSO: 

Addison Del Maestro, "Participating in the City or Consuming It?" The Deleted Scenes, 16 June 2025

Robert Steuteville, "Landmark Plan Guides Downtown Revival," Public Square: A CNU Journal, 5 June 2025

LAST YEAR: "CNU Diary 2024: Restorative Urbanism," 15 May 2024