Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Coffeeneuring Challenge 2024

bicycle at bike rack, helmet dangling from handlebar
My ride, snug in the bike shed at Geonetric

Week One

1. Wednesday, October 9 (sunny 80F)

Coffee at: Converge Cafe in the Geonetric Building, 415 12th Ave SE [round trip 4.6 miles]

1 Million Cups sign on sidewalk, steps into brick building
One Million Cups day at Geonetric!

I was Two-Days-Ago Years Old when I found out about the Coffeeneuring Challenge, an annual celebration of autumn, bicycles and coffee, on a Mastodon post. Coffeeneuring was begun by twelve individuals in the Washington, D.C. area in 2011; in 2021, the last year for which there are data, there were 329 riders from 41 states and the District of Columbia, as well as thirteen other countries. Decorah, Des Moines and Waverly, Iowa were represented, but... not Cedar Rapids! I'm fixing to change that this year.

Coffeeneuring season begins this week. My first ride was to 1 Million Cups, the Cedar Rapids locus of the Kaufmann Foundation's national gatherings of entrepreneurs. I rode over about 8 a.m., which is when Cedar Rapids traffic is as busy as it gets, but managed to elude most of it. I take my coffee black, today opting for the Colombian blend. Today's featured speaker was Shafira Rizki, whose organization Lead With Her promotes leadership by women in southeast Asia.

Lead With Her slide on screen, Shafira Rizki at right
Shafira Rizki (right) presents at 1 MC Cedar Rapids

2. Friday, October 11 (sunny, 87F)

Spiced cider at: Roaster's in the New Bo City Market, 1100 3rd Street SE [round trip 4.4 miles]

New Bo City Market, from the front bike rack
Bike parking at the Market

New Bo Open Coffee on the second and fourth Fridays of each month was an institution by the time I started frequenting the district eight years ago. In its heyday it drew 15-25 people from nearby businesses. Alas, time, relocations, and the infamous pandemic has reduced the crowd to three very persistent men, of whom I am one. Today it was just Sam and me, though Bill checked in by video call from Wisconsin. Celebrities spotted included Anna Dombkowski, the Market's new development director; former Cedar Rapids mayor Brad Hart; and Corridor MPO transportation planner Roman Kiefer.

Another 8 a.m. call meant riding through traffic, but I was lucky in finding gaps in it so I could make the necessary left turns on my . Too many cars means I'm fighting a losing battle for space, but I like having someone around to protect me from turning traffic, and to trigger the traffic lights. Today was close to the ideal bike commute. The weather's been ideal for biking, but of course our unseasonable warmth is inextricably connected to the horrible hurricanes that have been ravaging the southeast, and here it hasn't rained in six weeks.
coffee counter inside the Market
Roaster's New Bo

Week Two

3. Tuesday, October 15 (Sunny, windy 55F)

Coffee at: Craft'd Coffee Shop, 333 1st St SE [round trip 3.6 miles]

outdoor thermometer reading 39

We had a frost last night, and it was still in the 30s when I set out this morning. This is more seasonable weather, but not my favorite for biking. It was not too windy riding in; with a light coat and leather gloves, though, I was fine, except for my ears.
bike at rack and sign in front of Craft'd coffeehouse

Today's destination was meeting a friend at Craft'd, barely a block from City Hall, in the space formerly occupied by Early Bird. It was hopping when I arrived just before 9; I counted 16 customers, including some gathered to celebrate a co-worker's 40th birthday. (I took a picture... not sure what happened to it. I did not have a reusable cup recommended in the Coffeeneuring Challenge rules, but I brought by crocheted sleeve, which I'd bought at New Bo City Market BP (before-the-pandemic). 
dessert bar with nuts, craisins and white chocolate
I like my dessert bars like I like my ciites: dense and diverse

The ride home was breezier, but by mid-morning traffic was sparse, so no complications except for these garbage cans which are apparently stored in the bike line. (Garbage pickup was four days ago.)
garbage receptacles in the bike lane
1600 block of 3rd Avenue SE

Week Three

4. Tuesday, October 22

SOURCE: Mary G., "Coffeeneuring Challenge 2024: The Year of Small Wins," Chasing Mailboxes, 30 September 2024 [includes description and ground rules]

Psyche-up/informational video from Minnesota-Based Beth Bikes (16:51):

Friday, October 11, 2024

Iowa Ideas conference 2024

 

 

A vigorous exchange of ideas about public issues characterized the panels I virtually attended at this year's Iowa Ideas conference organized by the Cedar Rapids Gazette. It's the ninth edition of the conference, but my first. Previously classes or professional travel kept me away; our obscenely summer-like weather almost kept me away this year, but after a day trip to Backbone State Park I eventually showed up to three panels. All were in the Economic and Community Development track.

Backbone Lake seen through tree branches festooned with fall colored leaves
Backbone Lake during the Iowa Ideas conference

1. The Future of Public Transit

Participants:
Nate Asplund, Railroad Development Corporation
Mike Barnhart, Horizons Family Services
Darian Nagle Grimm AICP, Iowa City Transit
Cindy Gerlach and David Lee for the Gazette

Iowa City is trying a more ridership-oriented approach to their bus service. Nagle Grimm said they have tried to make service faster, more frequent, and more reliable; coordinated operations with the neighboring city of Coralville; begun a two-year fare-free experiment; and improved comfort and lighting at bus stops. She said ridership has increased 43 percent, or about 500,000 rides, since August 2023. which has required more buses as well as making up the (only) ten percent of system revenue that came from fares.
building housing Iowa City transit
Iowa City's Court Street Transportation Center connects
several bus lines (Google Earth screenshot)

Asked "what you want Iowans to know" about transit, Nagle Grimm said we can no longer depend entirely on personal vehicles due to "unintended consequences" (readers of this blog will not require elaboration), so we need to "invest in a true multimodal system." Barnhart noted ongoing unmet needs of rural residents and suburban seniors. Asplund, hoping for a return to commuter train service, said bicycles and trains go together "like Reese's Peanut Butter Cup," which I think means that trains can extend the reach of cycle commuting while bicycles solve the last mile problem.

2. New Life in Old Buildings

Participants:
Pete Franks, The Franks Design, Glenwood IA
Jordan Sellergren, Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission
Heather Wagner, Eastern Iowa Arts Academy
Megan Woolard and Brian Shewry for the Gazette

This panel was made up of an architect, a preservation advocate, and someone planning a move into a century-old school, so nice things were said about historic preservation. Wagner cited the benefits of allowing compact development, less consumption of new materials, and lower upfront costs. Franks added that maintaining familiar buildings increases people's connection to and pride in their communities, helping to counteract the widely-touted epidemic of loneliness. Of course, as Franks pointed out, buildings can be degraded to the point that it not economically feasible to salvage them, and not all building uses can be quickly exchanged. (He notes firehouses make great restaurants, though.)
parking lot with Arthur School building in background
Arthur School (1914), seen from the parking lot of
Trailside School (2024)

The panelists discussed the public in largely supportive contexts. They understand the value of older buildings, and sometimes have a personal association. Wagner mentioned one man who wanted to be reassured that the cafeteria mural he'd helped paint would still be there. (Yes.) On the other hand, public support for Wagner's Eastern Iowa Arts Academy to renovate and move into the former Arthur Elementary School was predicated on it not being housing or retail. Good luck solving the housing crisis, or reintroducing walkability, with those attitudes.

3. Collaborative Economic Development

Participants: 
Nancy Bird, Greater Iowa City Inc
Stephen J. Van Steenhuyse AICP, City of Mason City
Jill WIlkins, NewBoCo
Megan Woolard and Eric Caldwell for the Gazette

The three panelists from different worlds had remarkably similar views on the subject of collaboration in economic development. Van Steenhuyse from city government said government couldn't "do it all," so relied on partnership with business and other organizations; Wilkins from the nonprofit world said their operation relied on partnerships with city governments, chambers of commerce, businesses, and school districts; and Bird from a business group said "economic development is naturally collaborative." The unstated assumptions were that there is some activity called economic development which is separate from the growth of specific businesses, and that this activity was done collectively and cooperatively.
Historic Park Inn, Mason City, Iowa
Mason City's Historic Park Inn dates from 1910,
and was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
(from their website)

Moderator Woolard asked in several ways about what made collaboration successful, which brought out another characteristic, which is that the activity is done intentionally. Bird started by stressing clear goals and identification of stakeholders. Wilkins talked about inclusiveness and openness in defining the set of stakeholders. Van Steenhuyse talked about commitment to the action or goal, while regretting that Mason City lacks a clearly-defined coordinating leader like Greater Iowa City.

Bruce Nesmith's "badge of attendance" at Iowa Ideas


Monday, September 30, 2024

Week Without Driving diary

line of cars awaiting the change of light
Cedar Rapids traffic is rarely congested, but there's a steady supply of it,
even during Week Without Driving

Week Without Driving is being observed for the first time this year in Cedar Rapids. Begun in 2021 in Vancouver, Washington, it has gotten bigger each year since. Founder Anna Zivarts of Disability Rights Washington has also published a book in 2024, When Driving Isn't an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency (Island, 2024).

Week Without Driving is primarily about raising awareness of issues surrounding accessibility. The webpage starts with 

If you can drive or afford a car, you may not understand what it's like to rely on walking, rolling, transit and asking for rides. But for nearly a third of people living in the United States--people with disabilities, young people, seniors and people who can't afford cars or gas--this is our every day.
The four simple rules for the observance are a little farther down the same page.

So this is not about environmental conservation, or personal fitness, and not really about personal ethical choices either. People who choose to walk or bike to work are considered, along with motor vehicle drivers, as "those who have the option to drive."

I am an older, white male, as yet able-bodied, who lives about two miles from the center of our city. I am married, with two grown children; collectively we own four cars and a cargo van. I am retired, but I still have an office at the college, which is barely a mile from our house. This situation creates options for me that a lot of people don't have. Part of my week will be spent looking for those people, who are often invisible or at least indistinguishable from everyone else, and perceiving how others may not have the ability to navigate the week the same way I do.

Monday, September 30 (sunny, 82F)


Walked to: St. Paul's United Methodist Church

St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Cedar Rapids

I had things to do and people to meet at church this morning. It's less than a mile away, so not a difficult walk. Another member of our group lives near me, and rode his bicycle. Everyone else came from farther away. In this case walkability is partly a matter of choice of where to live and where to attend church; my last church was four miles away with some tough street crossings, and I never once walked there.

Tree with branches overhanging sidewalk, scooter in background
3rd Avenue SE: I can walk around this tree... can you?

But what's "not a difficult walk" for me isn't easy for everybody, nor do I expect it's going to stay easy for me as the years roll on. As I walked, I noticed fast-moving traffic on the thoroughfares (19th Street and 3rd Avenue) I had to cross; walnuts in various states of repair on the sidewalk; a car parked across the handicapped-accessible curb cut; and trees encroaching on the sidewalk. None was a barrier to me, but I wasn't using a cane or a wheelchair, pushing a stroller, walking with a small child, or being a small child. It was an unseasonably lovely day, not raining or icy. Even having a destination within a mile's walk can be an unwelcome adventure depending on the circumstances.

NOTE: Today, Greater Greater Washington and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association are co-sponsoring a walk audit in DC. I wonder if Cedar Rapids would ever be willing to try that? I'm sure there are disability advocates around here who could be hired to lead it.

Tuesday, October 1 (sunny, 68F)


Walked to: Hoover Guitar Studio
Biked to: Uptown Coffee, Marion

trail bridge marked with vintage Milwaukee Road rr sign
Grant Wood Trail approaching Marion

The Cedar Rapids metro is a few suspenseful connections from having a highly serviceable trails network. There have been some delays, so we're still about at the point I described here a year ago. We have a very strong trails advocacy group, the Linn County Trails Association, which deserves a lot of credit for what's happened. 

LCTA now lists 2025 completion dates for both the Grant Wood Trail which will connect Marion to the main north-south trail, and the (closer to my house) Cemar Trail which would arguably be the fastest route between the two downtowns.

To connect to the trails, or to get anywhere by bicycle until the network is ready for serious commuting, you're best advised to go by side streets, but like most metro areas in America our grid system is patchy. Today I tried going right up C Street NE (25800 cars per day); I made it, but I wouldn't recommend it for a child or an inexperienced rider. 

Uptown Coffee, 760 11th St
Uptown Coffee is in the historic (1901) Memorial Hall building

Uptown Coffee is not only delightful, they give double punches for bike riders! 

Uptown punch card
My card runneth over, because I cycled here

I brought my laptop to Uptown so I could check in with the excellent 880 Cities webinar series, this week featuring Bridget Marquis of Reimagining the Civic Commons--pertinent to this Week Without Driving, because public space is meaningless without accessibility, and accessibility is meaningless without places to access. I saw quite a few people walking on the Grant Wood Trail as I approached Uptown, generally my age or older.

In other news, the City of Waterloo (50 miles north of Cedar Rapids) is going to paint their bike lanes green, emulating Cedar Rapids (Winterer 2024). And The War on Cars podcast featured Sarah Bronin, author of Key to the City: How Zoning Shapes Our World (W.W. Norton, 2024), which includes cases of urban zoning reform that have improved accessibility, which Cedar Rapids should emulate. 

Wednesday, October 2 (sunny, windy 78F)


Bus to: Vault Co-Working Space/Helen G. Nassif YMCA/Dairy Queen [replaced car trip]
Walked to: St. Paul's United Methodist Church [replaced car trip]
interior, 1st Avenue Dairy Queen
The sign said "OPEN" but it wasn't

This was the first day that I would have driven, were it not Week Without Driving. For people who own them, cars are more than just means of rapidly getting around that live at your house, and whose costs are already sunk. They're places to lock your laptop while you work out, and to stow your wet swim clothes afterwards. The co-working space where I work has a picnic deck in front that no one was using today, so I hung them there until I began to worry they would blow off onto someone's windshield and get driven to Clinton or some place. They got pretty dry while they were out in the wind anyhow.
swimsuit and towel hung over a railing
Drying in the breeze

I also prefer to use the car when I'm getting ice-cream-for-later. We don't have an ice cream shop in our neighborhood. We don't have any shops in our neighborhood. The closest Dairy Queen is a mile away, across 1st Avenue; there is no direct transit between us and them, and I didn't trust the soft-serve not to degrade if I walked or biked. There's another one in the opposite direction, 1.4 miles away, with the same problems but moreso. There's a third Dairy Queen on 1st Avenue, 1.8 miles away, propitiously located along a bus route that, quite uncharacteristically for Cedar Rapids, runs every 15 minutes. We are well served by this franchise, but with all those choices, I guessed wrong.
Dairy Queen, 3304 1st Avenue NE:
Oldest (I think) DQ in CR

I studied the bus schedule, and estimated I had 12 minutes from getting off the outbound bus to getting on the inbound bus with my frozen treats. It was actually 13 minutes this afternoon. However, after all that planning, I found the store empty. In a car, I might have driven to another DQ, but today I just caught the inbound bus and headed home.

The third trip on my day's agenda that I would usually take by car was church, where we have choir rehearsal from 7:30 til 9 p.m. It's not a long walk, and I don't even have to cross 1st Avenue, but in the dark it's not particularly pleasant. I walked after all, and it was fine. I'd only gotten a couple blocks when I realized I was wearing a dark gray t-shirt and black pants... not exactly hi-viz! I had just never thought about it. I guess one of the unexplored luxuries of driving is you don't have to think about things like what yoiu're wearing. Or where to stow your wet swimsuit.

All this over-thinking shows how accustomed I am to having a car at my disposal, even if I usually get around town other ways. Not having a car would shape my choices, and maybe I'd make different ones, like eating my ice cream at Dairy Queen rather than taking it home. Or maybe never doing anything in the evening. But we should also recognize that the design of our sprawled city, with daytime-only bus service and residence-only neighborhoods, also constrains our choices.

In other news today, the State of Iowa rejected the vast proportion of Cedar Rapids's traffic cameras (Sostaric 2024). I have mixed feelings about traffic cameras, but I think this is an indication of our stodgy state government's solicitude for drivers that devalues walkers, wheelers, and cyclists.

Tbursday, October 3 (sunny, 80F)

Bus to: Lightworks Cafe, Ground Transportation Center/Cedar Rapids Public Library/Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
Three people standing around a table laden with popcorn packages
Stephanie and Emily of Community Development celebrate Week Without Driving;
I scored a package of Almost Famous Popcorn and a chip clip

I've previously written about our city bus system. Thinking in terms of accessibility, Cedar Rapids Transit is a good example of Jarrett Walker's ridership/coverage tradeoff (see Human Transit: How Clearer Thinking About Public Transit Can Improve Our Communities and Our Lives [Island, revised ed, 2024]). Cedar Rapids definitely has a coverage system, which means many people around the city who might need a bus will have one reasonably close by. The system offers free rides to seniors, the disabled, and students at Cedar Rapids public schools. During Week Without Driving, all rides are free!

author's Senior free transit pass with photo
Round, round, I get around

The disadvantages are 
  • even a coverage system can't get to everyone in a town as sprawled as ours, so not everyone is near a route; 
  • covering as much of the city as the system does means routes are quite circuitous; and 
  • buses run only during the daytime. Except for the #5 bus, which runs along 1st Avenue East every 15 minutes, buses run twice an hour during school commute times, and only once an hour the rest of the day. The system has limited service on Saturdays, and none on Sundays or holidays. For anyone who doesn't need a bus, these are inevitable deal-breakers.
Getting to Lightworks in Oak Hill Jackson this morning for coffee with arts impresario F. John Herbert was easy; living within two miles of downtown means I don't have to deal with as much of the circuitousness as someone who lives or is travelling farther out. The #2 bus stops about a block from my house, and it's a fairly direct route to Lightworks, which is two blocks from the stop by the Post Office. Returning by the #2 is less practical, so I walked four blocks to the stop by Greene Square, took the #5 to 18th Street, and walked five more blocks home. 

Friday, October 4 (sunny, 74F)

Biked to: Coe College/Helen G. Nassif YMCA, Coe College [replaced car trip]
Bus to: The Map Room
 
Coe's chapel as seen between buildings
Approaching Coe College, 2014

I spent most of today on campus at Coe College, my employer for 35 years and where I still have an office. My short commute from home can be done any number of ways (except bus, where I wind up walking half the distance anyway). Moreover, most of the commute can be done on side streets, so the only real trick is crossing 1st Avenue when I get to campus. On a bike, I prefer using crossing mid-block to avoid turning traffic. 

The lights at Coe Road and College Drive are timed such that there's always a long enough gap in the traffic. This is not true for pedestrians, however, even me with my relatively fast clip.

I went downtown to swim before lunch. There is some cycling infrastructure, but it's complicated by crossing 8th and 7th Streets, which are the entrance and exit to Interstate 380, which was foolishly plowed through the center of town back in the day. One chooses between:
  • 2nd Avenue: NO, blocked by Physicians Clinic of Iowa
  • 3rd Avenue: BEST INFRASTRUCTURE, but you can be overlooked in drivers' enthusiasm to get onto the highway
  • 4th Avenue: LESS CROSS TRAFFIC, with four way stops at both 7th and 8th, but narrow and the light at 10th Street is very very long
  • 5th Avenue: NO, same as 4th except 7th and 8th don't stop, pavement is really degraded
intersection with cars stopped at a red light
The infamous light, 4th Avenue and 10th Street

I opted for 4th Avenue, and ran the light when I heard a car coming up behind me.

Slager's Appliance delivery truck parked in alley
No Week Without Driving for Slager: appliance delivery requires a truck

 Saturday, October 5 (sunny 89F [tied record high temp])

Biked to: Bruegger's Bagels
Car to: Holley's Shop for Men/Target, China Inn/Paramount Theatre
orchestra on stage, Paramount Theatre
Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, Paramount Theatre, 123 3rd Av SE

I knew from the start that eventually I would have to drive somewhere this week, because we had tickets to the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra tonight. Conductor Timothy Hankewich's baton was scheduled to start waving at 7:30 p.m., long after the bus stops running. On my own I might have walked the two miles, but it's not a great walk. So we, and the other concertgoers, and those attending "Carrie" at Theater Cedar Rapids, and other downtown food and entertainment seekers all coated the streets with our cars. I would have loved to have had an option like a bus, but that is not to be. Nothing takes the romance out of a symphony concert like driving in traffic and searching for a parking space. (No, the answer is not more parking spaces. Parking is the enemy of everything for which a city exists.)

The alternative to driving to the symphony is not going. 

Holley's Shop for Men by the entrance to Lindale Mall
Holley's Shop for Men, Lindale Mall

So it was not a big deal this afternoon when we drove to Lindale Mall to get me a suit for our niece's wedding on the 18th. Bus service to the mall is pretty good, but then we ran an errand to Target afterwards, which would have required a more complicated plan. We left Holley's at 2:30. To get to Target, we would take the #30 bus that stops west of the mall by Jo Ann Fabrics, with the next one due at 3:20. This northeast circulator would get us to Target about 3:45, with the next one coming an hour later. We'd take this one to Wal-Mart, arriving at 4:55 (2.5 hours after we left the mall) where we could transfer to the #6 headed downtown, except it would have stopped running by this time. Meanwhile, the real life Nesmiths were about to start dressing for the symphony.

Sunday, October 6 (sunny 72F)

Walked to: St. Paul's United Methodist Church
Biked to: Lightworks Cafe

I didn't drive on this last day of Week Without Driving, only because my wife does the grocery shopping. Hy-Vee Food and Drug Store, the leading grocery chain in Cedar Rapids, has moved its operations to large lot stores at the edges of town. There are buses that serve those stores, and others serve Fareway and New Pioneer Co-op, but of course those don't run on Sundays.


Week Without Driving wants to focus on accessibility, not on the environment, fitness, community or personal choice. Okay. My experiences this week have identified a number of obstacles to access: condition of walkways, bus schedules, location of destinations, and street design. I didn't mention loose dogs, larger and heavier trucks, or aggressive fellow travelers, though those are frequently barriers as well. Prioritizing remedies will depend on whether the obstacle to access is a physical limitation, age (young or old), or poverty. But whatever we do, it will also facilitate anyone's lighter tread on the environment, personal fitness, city financial sustainability, and building stronger communities. And whatever we do will inevitably be limited by the extent to which we have sprawled and continue to sprawl.

Regardless, we should do something. I hope for some specific policy initiatives from the city in response to this week's experiences.

Appendix

  1. Are you able to participate in the Week Without Driving challenge by swapping one or more car trips with walking, biking, or taking public transportation?
    1. If yes or unsure, what type of transportation would you plan to take instead?
    2. If you're unable to participate at all, or to the degree that you would like, what are the barriers in your community that make it more difficult to reduce driving or avoid it altogether?
  2. What's the one or more thing in your community that would make it easier to get around without a car?
  3. How are you involved with the Sierra Club?

OTHER LINKS

Dan Allison, "A Trip to Fair Oaks," Getting Around Sacramento, 2 October 2024
Courtney Cole, "Week Without Driving Has Arrived--Here's Why It Matters," Smart Growth America, 30 September 2024
Nicole Dieker, "Living in Cedar Rapids Without a Car," The Billfold, 22 February 2018
"Week Without Driving is Rocking," America Walks, 3 October 2024
Anna Zivarts, "No One Left Behind: Nondrivers Are Facing Crisis Too," Strong Towns, 16 August 2024
Anna Zivarts, "When Prioritizing All Modes is a Lie," Planetizen, 16 September 2024

10th anniversary post: Is a baseball complex a (merit) good?

 

Source: Google Maps

In the summer of 2014, I wrote a reaction to news of state and local government contributions to a new baseball complex outside of Marion. At the time, the state had provided a $1.266 million grant, the City of Marion $750,000, and Linn County had donated the land. Ultimately, according to the operation's webpage, Prospect Meadows secured $5.5 million in public funding, about half the startup cost of the project ("Our Story" n.d.).

At the time I was less impressed by the audacious scope of the project than by the very ordinariness of the public-private transaction. There hadn't seemed to be a lot of controversy or even discussion about the governments donating to the creation of a private business. Yet, in a world (Earth) where government budgets at all levels are stressed, and in which market efficiency is praised as an alternative to governmental inefficiency, this was a lot of money to spend without examining the very basis of the expenditure. I quoted Adam Smith on public works, which are necessary but properly...

can be made only where that commerce requires them, and consequently where it is proper to make them (Wealth of Nations, V.i.iii, Art.1)

and Strong Towns on providing existing businesses with technical assistance rather than handouts to selected ventures, which would include baseball complexes and our current obsession, data centers:

[B]y the way, we'll still be bringing jobs and new businesses in from outside the community. The only difference will be that we won't be paying them to come--they will want to be here. If we are successful--and we will be--they will be paying us to come here. (Marohn 2012: pt.2)

Prospect Meadows began operation in 2019, right before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic--certainly not the most auspicious year for any business, though it did receive over $2.6 million in American Rescue Plan Act money (King 2024: 7A).

Prospect Meadows logo

Now comes word that the firm is asking governments for additional money to pay off debts. Projections of future revenue remain optimistic, but they have not been hitting their targets, and the well-connected, well-funded management of Prospect Meadows have reached out again. In September, the Linn County Board of Supervisors approved a $250,000 grant contingent on additional funding being raised by the firm. The City of Cedar Rapids, whose city limits are about 10 miles from this complex on the other side of the City of Marion, will consider advancing $300,000 that would eventually go to Prospect Meadows from the city's hotel-motel tax fund (King 2024: 1A). 

Local governments are stuck in an unenviable position, because the risk in this venture has already been socialized. As Linn County Supervisor Louis Zumbach points out, "If it isn't a ball field, what does it become? Any other use is going to cost more money" (King 2024: 7A).

The Lingering Question: Is Government Support for Prospect Meadows Responding to a Market Failure?

In a mostly-market system such as America's, government's role is to act when the private market is not meeting some need. This contingency is known as market failure, which admittedly [a] has a certain pejorative sound to it, unintended, but there it is; and [b] is a vague and plastic concept. You will see market failure where I don't, and vice versa. Not wrong, just different. 

Market failures come in a variety of forms but fall into two broad types. Sometimes the conditions for a market don't exist for a good, like clean air (not excludable) or food safety (buyers have insufficient information) or some monopoly (insufficient competition). Other times all of those conditions exist, but the outcomes are politically unacceptable, like recessions (very unpleasant and scary) or access to parks (everyone deserves this regardless of ability to pay). Market transactions can have externalities, effects that fall on people other than the buyer or seller; these can be negative (pollution) or positive (better educated people in your community). There's much more to this, of course, but we are busy people; if you want to know more, take a course in economics.

Prospect Meadows has been making two market failure arguments for public support. One is based on services they can provide to people who would otherwise lack those opportunities. The Kiwanis Miracle League provides baseball games, equipment and uniforms to physically or mentally disabled young people. The Optimist League of Dreams serves 2nd-5th graders whose families were displaced by the 2008 flood.

The second argument is that players and their families traveling to baseball showcases bring an infusion of money into the local economy through hotel stays and restaurant meals. This is the rationale for financial contributions to Prospect Meadows from distant Cedar Rapids. Board chair Tim Strellner claims Prospect Meadows created over $11 million in local economic impact in 2022, resulting in $1 million in tax payments to local governments (King 2024: 7A). That's out of a gross domestic product for Linn County of nearly $20 billion (FRED).

Allowing for some exaggeration, would that economic activity not have occurred but for the showcases offered by Prospect Meadows? Would the several dozen children been inactive but for the opportunities of their programming? Probably no to both questions, but that's the justification for massive government support for this venture.

Conclusions

Government support for Prospect Meadows over the last decade, and continuing into the next one, likely owes more to personal connections, and the tendency of policy makers to be impressed by big splashy plans. I wish we could be more principled: no government money unless a market failure is conclusively demonstrated. I wish the public would be more allergic to situations where profits are private but risk is socialized. 

$300,000 is admittedly a small part of the city's FY25 budget of nearly $900 million. It's only worth mentioning as one probably common case of expenditure that socializes what should be private risk. Collectively these expenditures have opportunity costs, because money spent thusly can't go to street repair or housing assistance or park equipment. None of those will gin up business for our hotels, but that shouldn't be the business of government. They would enable the daily lives of residents, and that should be the business of government.

NEW SOURCE: Grace King, "Prospect Meadows Complex Seeks Public Aid," Cedar Rapids Gazette, 18 September 2024, 1A, 7A

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

The Suburbanization of New Bohemia

900 3rd St SE: Loftus Lofts (186 units) under construction

The New Bohemia neighborhood, located on the east side of the Cedar River south of downtown, was largely decimated by the 2008 flood. What had once been an industrial area with some working class housing and artists' studios suddenly became a tabula rasa. When I started spending serious time here in 2016, several historic buildings had been functionally rehabbed, joined by the New Bo City Market in a former factory-warehouse, and the newly constructed Geonetric building. There was also a great deal of open space. 
1014 2nd St SE, 2012: Where the Row Houses are now
(Google Earth screenshot)

That space, so close to the city center, was going to be filled with something, though for years what that something would be was up to the viewer's imagination. So it was possible for to look out over an area dominated by bars and hair salons and touristy shops, and imagine an emerging urban village, where a diversity of residents would find all the necessities of life as well as food and entertainment within convenient walking distance. There was a time when it seemed a highly likely outcome. It wasn't there yet, but that was okay, because New Bohemia was very much a work in progress.

Big plans for New Bohemia: 2019 Action Plan, p. 40

It's still a work in progress, and ten years from now it will still be a work in progress, so we are far from pronouncing a final verdict, even as some of that open space gets filled up. Quite a few residential units, mostly apartments and condominiums, have responded to the gap in housing, with more in process or proposed. 
Adaptive reuse:
Water Tower Place Condominiums, 900 2nd St SE
 
 
Compatible construction:
Row Houses on Second, 1008-1018 2nd St SE

The Cedar Rapids Gazette, in one of the last stories by ace reporter Marissa Payne (cited below), listed a number of ideas in circulation for some of the remaining lots in New Bohemia:

900 3rd St SE: Loftus Lumber site under construction by Conlon Construction, to be five-story mixed-used property including 186 market-rate apartments ranging from studio to (two) two-story lofts. [In the Action Plan, the 10th Avenue side is projected to be a "shared space street."]

building under construction
Loftus Building, taken from the Cherry Building

1000 block of 2nd St SE: Conlon Construction proposed a 150-room hotel plus 10 townhomes between 2nd Street and the river, across the street from the Row Houses, on what is now part of a long parking lot. [In the Action Plan, this land is projected for apartments.]

Future hotel site? The federal courthouse is in the background

116 16th Av SE: Darryl High wants to build Vesnice, consisting of one six-story residential building (63 units) facing the river and one four-story mixed use building facing 2nd St with 22 residential units above 1443 sq ft of commercial space. [In the Action Plan, this land is projected for apartments.]

1600 and 1700 blocks of 2nd St SE: Chad Pelley has bought land (from Brett "Bo Mac" McCormick), and intends to purchase additional city-owned parcels on both sides of 2nd Street.

a whole lot of grass, street and buildings in distance
View from the riverside trail of the property under construction, 
New Bo Lofts in the distance

Pelley hopes to build a mixed-use development that's heavy on owner-occupied units. Before he acts, he told the Gazette, "I definitely want buy-in from this neighborhood. What are we missing?" [In the Action Plan, this land is projected for townhouses. 2nd Street will be extended beyond the current cul-de-sac to an unnamed cross street, which will run to 4th Street, past a planned Sinclair Plaza.]
cul-de-sac and grass-covered vacant property
Looking towards the river from the cul-de-sac at the end of 2nd St,
National Czech and Slovak Museum in the distance

Besides these, the Matyk Building, which until recently housed the delightful but financially unsustainable Bohemian (1029 3rd Street SE), is up for sale. Asking price is over $700,000, about double the assessed value. Maybe the hope is someone sees the future value of that land surging? And uses it to build... what? (The only reason I can think of that someone would pay double the assessed value for a property is because they believe it would bring more value with a more intensive use.) 

Matyk Building, 1329 3rd St SE
For sale: Matyk Building

While 1st Avenue East empties out, building and occupying are going gangbusters in New Bohemia. Demand is clearly here, not there. Marissa Payne in the Gazette attributes that to "[t]he NewBo District's arts and cultural scene, entertainment options and a mix of restaurants." Community Development Director Jennifer Pratt told the Gazette: "It is a continuation of what we've seen since the reinvestment after the 2008 flood.... We definitely saw in the market that people were interested in walkable neighborhoods. That has just continued to grow" (Payne 2024).

Friends of New Bohemia are beginning to express anxiety about all the development. A lot of the newest construction has been of the cookie-cutter variety, and some of the proposals are relatively huge. Given that a lot of New Bo's allure relates to its historical character, it should be a no-brainer to insist on compatible form. In the words of the city's Assistant Community Development Director Adam Lindenlaub, "There's an aspect of character that is unique here that you don't see in other parts of the city" (Payne 2024). Beyond that, though, you don't own your view, and when all is working well, the core neighborhoods will be the densest and most valuable in the city.

Inevitably, a lot of the concerns about development in New Bohemia center on parking, particularly for major events. If parking is used by residents, where are the rest of supposed to park? they ask. Sigh. It should no longer be debatable that parking is the enemy of vibe, not to mention wasteful of city finances and land) and no place with plenty of parking is worth visiting (see, for example, Grabar 2023). In this car-dependent city, though, we always imagine ourselves one surface parking lot away from paradise.

Is this heaven? No, but it has a lot of parking!
(New Bohemia on Google Earth, 2019)

And yet, the parking-concerned are not wrong to sense an issue, because New Bohemia has developed in a way that is heavily dependent on traffic from outside, which in the vast majority of cases is going to arrive by personal car. (So has Downtown. Don't even start me on the casino, which the Gazette reports is now Miss America-approved.)

This, then is the real issue: New Bohemia, though still a work in progress, has become a suburb. It is "walkable," to recall Pratt's description, but only for entertainment, and even then walkers must contend with many moving vehicles in search of the same entertainment. Other than that it is a bedroom community. The Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street District claimed 250 businesses in 2022, but few are significant employers. Schools, groceries, hardware, and pharmacies are far away, and bus service is spotty. There isn't a park (though the west side Greenway will be close by once it's built).

houses under a gray sky
Stoney Point, August 2013: More houses, fewer apartments and bars

The only difference between New Bohemia and, say, the world of Leave It to Beaver, is most of New Bo's housing is multifamily and there are a lot of bars. Maybe too many? The closures of Chrome Horse and Bo Mac's are possibly signs that such an economic monoculture is not sustainable, particularly when bigger newer bars (like Big Grove in Kingston) inevitably come along.

With apologies to Andres Duany, the transect in Cedar Rapids starts with commercial playgrounds in the center, surrounded by a moat of emptiness (MedQuarter, I-380, parking lots for the impending casino); beyond these are residential areas, where getting almost anywhere requires a car. Beyond those are greenfields, waiting to be subdivisions, or part of a wider I-380. Maybe all this was inevitable, but it is indeed regrettable. At least the city should stop subsidizing more of this sort of development.

SOURCE: Marissa Payne, "New Development Coming to NewBo," Cedar Rapids Gazette, 7 September 2024, 1A, 10A

SEE ALSO: "More New, Less Bo?" 4 July 2022

"Where are the Metro's Destinations Heading?" 28 July 2021

"Bridging the Bridge," 26 June 2019

"Envisioning CR I: A 24-Hour Downtown," 1 March 2015

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post named the former owner of the Matyk Building. It has been updated, with passive voice being used.

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