10th anniversary post: Turn red for what?

(Source: X. Used without permission.)

Don’t make me waste a whole damn half a day here, OK? Look, I came here. We can be nice to each other, or we can talk turkey. I’m here for one simple reason: I like you very much, and it’s good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community. You know, on the East Coast, they like being called Hispanics, you know this? On the West Coast, they like being called Latinos. They said, ‘Sir, please use the term Latino when you’re in New Mexico,’ and I said ‘I’ve always heard Hispanic.’ … I take a poll, and it’s 97 percent. I was right. A free poll. As I was saying, I love the Hispanics.--DONALD TRUMP, 10/31/2024

Ten years ago, in the mid-term elections of 2014, the Republicans gained a majority in the Senate and thereby unified control of Congress. Along the way they flipped the Iowa U.S. Senate seat that had been held for 30 years by Democrat Tom Harkin, and has been held ever since by Republican Joni Ernst. Ernst came to prominence with a hog-filled primary commercial in which she promised to "Make 'em squeal" in Washington. That vividly captured the Republicans' victorious message, which was directed at voter dissatisfaction while being vague about how they would make it go away.

My 2014 post-election post was full of mystification about the Republicans' content-free success, as well as Ernst's easy victory in Iowa. Rereading it seems like finding a letter from a previous civilization, as 2014 proved to be a turning point in Iowa politics. Beginning that year, the Hawkeye State has swung sharply towards the Republicans. Democratic presidential candidates had won Iowa every election but one from 1988-2012, but Donald Trump won by 10 percentage points in 2016 and eight in 2020 (uselectionatlas.org), and he is expected to win easily again this year. Iowa is a good example of politics fueled by grievances that never get solved, while politicians that play to them become more popular. Turning red, indeed.

As different as 2014 seemed to be from 2012, it's easily recognizable in the political environment of 2024. Economic data indicate we have mostly recovered from a recent blow, but many people are not feeling it. The right track/wrong track average was 28-66 then, 27-65 now (Real Clear Politics). Economic inequality in America continues to rise, which surely contributes to that apparent discrepancy: the GINI Index was 41.5 in 2014, highest on record and highest in the developed world, and was 41.3 in 2022, the last year for which there are data (FRED). That definitely affects people's worldview, including political trust, efficacy, and engagement, though of course not all in the same way (Garon and Stacy 2024). It's a dry statistic that reflects the reality that a lot of people are feeling and expressing in all sorts of ways, viz. an apparent rise in road rage.

Another dry statistic is the number of degrees (1.9 F) the climate has warmed since the pre-industrial era, which is reflected in an increasing incidence and severity of natural disasters, including (this year) major hurricanes in the southeast, severe flooding in North Carolina and Spain, and weeks without rain in the Midwest as well as an admittedly gorgeous but abnormally warm fall. (On how climate politics contributes to lack of emergency preparedness, see University of Michigan 2024.) Natural disasters too impact people's lives in ways that aren't easily coped with, starting with increasing insurance rates.

So, it may seem strange for our national reaction to frightening change to be support for a party that plans to repeal the federal health insurance program, and a presidential candidate who has called global warming a hoax. (For projected impacts of Trump's climate policies after 2025, see "Analysis" 2024.) This same candidate, Donald Trump, held a grotesque rally in New York last weekend with warm up speakers spewing hate to a cheering crowd, followed by Trump's own rambling narcissistic rage. This is how Trump has rolled since he began his political career nine years ago, so comes as no surprise, and outside of some especially inflammatory comments barely qualifies as news (Koul 2024). There may be solid arguments for Republican policies, but instead we get name calling, and lies about Ohioans eating cats and dogs, gangs taking over cities, FEMA hurricane aid being diverted to undocumented immigrants, and the 2020 election. Always the election.

As President, Trump benefited from coming to office at a time of peace and prosperity. For four years, he was an agent of chaos and cruelty, managing to break a great deal of china in the shop even before the pandemic. His campaign is full of more of this (see links at Bruni 2024), salted with self-praise and the vaguest promises of good outcomes. So how is this guy standing at the brink of returning to the Oval Office? Why is he even above 20 percent in the polls, much less the 46.8 percent in today's 538 average? 

In my capacity as political scientist, I have struggled for nine years to explain Trump's support. I feel less and less confident in my ability to assess national politics the longer this goes on. Just asking people about their political stances is often fruitless; often you get an echo of what campaigns are saying. (Why, for example, is immigration the "most important problem" facing Montana voters, and I think #2 in Iowa, two red states that are experiencing very little population influx of any kind?) So what follows is admittedly tentative. 

I think there are three broad reasons why many people find Trump continually appealing. These are unscientific impressions, based on conversations with Trump supporters I know. They aren't mutually exclusive; in other words, some Trump supporters may share more than one of these perspectives.

1. Preference for Republican policy options (Trump is awful/embarrassing, but he's our only chance to get what we need/want). Trump's own policy expressions have been characteristically erratic, but if you strongly prefer, say, lower taxes or an end to health insurance subsidies, or a ban on abortion, you're not going to get those from the Democratic Party. You'd have to discount Trump promising to jack up tariffs or deport millions of undocumented workers or bring the Federal Reserve Board under his thumb, not to mention sic the army on protestors, and all the other undemocratic things, but he says so many weird things that probably you can hope it's all just talk and you'll get some measure of traditional Republican policies under a Trump administration. "I don't like Donald Trump," billionaire Nelson Peltz reportedly told a fundraising dinner. "He's a terrible human being, but our country's in a bad place and we can't afford Joe Biden" (Glasser 2024: 46). Nikki Haley made a similar argument in The Wall Street Journal right before Election Day (Haley 2024). I'd hope there could be a better conservative messenger; as I said about abortion a few years ago, the more these ideas are tied to Trump, the more vulnerable they are to rejection when he is finally repudiated.

2. Low information (Trump is cool. And strong.) 

Source: amazon.com

If you've read this far, you probably pay more attention to politics than most people, and it's hard to remember that a lot of people are going off vague impressions. They may not know all the wacky things Trump says or does, or how many of his former staff are begging us please not to reelect this guy, because they're not paying close attention. A lot of them remember the pre-pandemic years as relatively placid, and assume Trump must have had something to do with that. Or they may hear something that Biden or Harris said and assume the hate is flowing both ways. Their support is less about a package of policies than an idea of Trump as folk hero standing against the elites--a latter day Jesse James, if you will. Hence all those exaggerated images (see above) of a man who in real life is 78 years old, very overweight, and has difficulty climbing into the cab of a truck. But, as Glasser's long article in the New Yorker (cited below) documents, there are plenty of elites putting their fortunes behind Trump's return to office, and they're fine with you buying whatever it is he's selling. 

3. Frustrated entitlement (Trump is fighting for me. He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. He's coming for you, and I'm glad!) 

On Day 1, I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out. We will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of our school. Kamala Harris is a train wreck who has destroyed everything in her path. To make her president would be a gamble with the lives of millions and millions of people.--DONALD TRUMP, 10/27/2024

As many people out there are understandably anxious about their futures, so for some reason is Donald Trump, based on his constant bragging, insults, and lying. He also has a very comprehensive sense of grievance, with which he's managed through considerable rhetorical skill to inspire millions of people to identify. If he, and we, aren't getting what we deserve, it must be someone's fault (cf. Nussbaum 2018)! Anything that goes wrong--the pandemic, inflation, Trump himself getting shot at a rally--must be the fault of some nefarious actors who must be crushed. Trump and his allies have effectively directed the blame for economic and social anxiety towards immigrants (always from Latin America), gays and lesbians and transgendered people, feminists, protestors, city residents, political opponents, reporters, poll workers, and anyone else they find inconvenient. This is the logic of replacement theory, the idea that difference is intrinsically threatening. Those seeds have certainly found fertile ground. Thousands cheered Tony Hinchcliffe's hateful comments at Madison Square Garden last weekend, while hundreds more were outside chanting "Kamala is a whore!"

Here politics is being used as revenge fantasy (Remember "Lock her up!") rather than as a means of deciding solutions to common problems. But none of the pro-Trump rationales, frankly, is good for our common life. No policy victory is worth what Trump is putting the country through. In the real-world communities in which we variously live, we have a lot to work through, and we have to make room for a lot of people who aren't us. These were challenging even before Trump galumphed onto the scene, and will continue to be so when he finally goes away. I only wish more people could join us in building community, and be better at critical thinking instead of joining Trump in punching down.

I think the answer, for now, is not to let our national political disease run our lives. I take heart in the people in my life and my town who continue to work for better community. "Where there's life, there's hope," as Tolkien's character Sam Gamgee says, and while we're hoping, we can hope for a more loving and more practical world.

"How did you know the world was waiting just for you?"

SEE ALSO:

"The Election and Our Common Life," 8 November 2016

Susan B. Glasser, "Purchasing Power," New Yorker, 28 October 2024, 46-55

Nicholas Kristof, "I've Covered Authoritarians Abroad. Now I Fear One at Home," New York Times, 2 November 2024

Martha C. Nussbaum, The Monarchy of Fear: A Philosopher Looks at Our Political Crisis (Simon & Schuster, 2018)

Catherine Rampell, "Only Care About Your Pocketbook? Trump is Still the Wrong Choice," Washington Post, 29 October 2024, Opinion | Only care about your pocketbook? Trump is still the wrong choice. - The Washington Post

Is it too late to build an urban village(s) in the core?

Mixed use building on 1st Avenue SW in Kingston Village

SOURCE: David Sucher, City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village (Seattle: City Comforts Inc., revised edition, 2016)

It is one thing to note the unbalanced, car-dependent way in which Cedar Rapids's showpiece New Bohemia neighborhood--and to some extent, other post-flood areas like Downtown, Czech Village and Kingston--are developing. It is quite a different matter to suggest steps that ought to be taken to remedy matters. It is likely, for one thing, that the present situation has resulted from rational (if short-term-focused) assessment of what is achievable. We have the residential and commercial mix we have because those projects seemed most likely to succeed.

Development surely is constrained by external factors beyond the control of anyone in the core: increasing economic inequality, siting practices of grocery chains, local transportation that particularly favors private motor vehicles, and physical isolation of the core from older residential neighborhoods, to name a few. To name another, the hyper-convenience of the Internet is changing shopping and work habits.

ped crossing island and bike lane, 3rd Avenue and 2nd Street SW in Kingston

I am not in business, and never have been, nor do I have professional training as a city planner. "I know what I like," to borrow a timeworn cliche, but so do a lot of other people, so this needs to be about more than my personal taste and preferences.

A good starting point for a conversation with stakeholders would be to know why they are in the core instead of some other place. I imagine they've specifically chosen to be there, but the owner of the (Downtown) CR Chophouse restaurant blamed its recent closure on the presence of homeless people and the lack of convenient parking (El Hajj 2024). If these truly were problematic, why on earth was the restaurant located where it was? This metropolitan area is replete with commercial opportunities with fields of parking and no homeless for miles. 

3rd Avenue SW: The core has bike infrastructure and bus options,
not great but often serviceable 

Right now the core is heavy on apartments and bars, and light on pretty much everything else (except hair salons--why are there so many hair salons?). It is now the case, and likely to continue to be so for some time, that the economy of the core is heavily dependent on people from elsewhere in the region driving there to shop or dine or drink.

Waste of prime space: Surface parking, Kingston Village

You can be, I would think, the new hot spot only for so long. When I first arrived in Cedar Rapids, the area hot spots were the Amana Colonies and maybe the malls. Today those serve as object lessons: hot spots show their age pretty quickly. If the opening of the admittedly fantastic Big Grove location on 1st Street West has been a body blow to the other bars in the core, wait til you see what happens when the casino opens! Marion has invested a lot of money in restarting its downtown area, but counting on the government may not be your most reliable or timely option. Political decisions are unpredictable, and government finances are ever-shakier.

It seems the best long-term strategy for core areas is to become self-sustaining. That is, if the residential population in the center of Cedar Rapids can become large and stable and diverse enough, there will be a steady source of demand for goods and services throughout the day and week, as well as a steady source of people on the street to provide liveliness and atmosphere attractive to visitors. This will require a different mix of housing and businesses than can currently be found anywhere in or adjacent to the core. Some of this will happen of its own accord once the ball starts rolling, but it may need some advocacy to get started.

David Sucher called his development handbook City Comforts because:

Human comfort is the measure of a city.... The main task [of city building] is making people comfortable, the same task faced by the host at a party. (2016: 20)

The means to this end is mixed-use development, in order to facilitate "mixing" of people, or as he titles an early chapter, "Bumping Into People."

The purpose of mixing uses, allowing different activities to rub cheek by jowl, is to foster more complex and intertwined human relations and thus more interesting places. The purpose is to help create human connections--not to mix activities per se. There is nothing magic about mixing uses. (2016: 32)

wall, 1st Street SW

What an urban village can offer people, that car-dependent shopping corridors like Edgewood or Collins Roads cannot, is accessible, comfortable liveliness. That can be self-sustaining only if there are connections to a steady stream of people at different times of the day, rooted in local residents doing the stuff of daily life. (See Jacobs (1961) 2011: 65-71.)

In subsequent chapters, Sucher provides detailed recommendations, with plentiful illustrations, about transportation, sense of place, safety, child-friendliness, necessities, compatible building, and entry points. Some of this we can see in the core: most building is done up to the sidewalk, most building fronts are active rather than blank walls. (See his chapter 3.) My own sense is we could do more to welcome children, encourage transportation alternatives, and provide necessities like rest rooms, as well as to make new buildings compatible with the neighborhood's physical history, but maybe conversations will reveal other opportunities.

Ellen Shepherd of Community Allies speaks
at Loyola University, 2016

There are a number of organizations that can support local grass-roots place making efforts. The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ilsr.org) provides research and advocacy on behalf of locally-owned businesses; co-director Stacy Mitchell's 2017 post, "8 Policy Strategies Cities Can Use to Support Local Businesses," is a good starting point and conversation-starter. Community Allies (communityallies.net), based in Chicago, provides speakers and training towards building local economies. The Center for Neighborhood Technology (cnt.org) focuses on Chicago, but provides experience on which others can draw. 

There are a lot of forces, and a lot of sunk costs, pushing the core to be a quaint, beer-soaked version of car-dependent suburbia. That doesn't mean we can't push back, and there are reasons to believe the long-term viability of the core depends on pushing back.

SEE ALSO: 

Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities [Modern Library, (1961) 2011], esp. chs 13 ("The Self-Destruction of Diversity") and 14 ("The Curse of Border Vacuums")

Alexander Garvin, The Heart of the City: Creating Downtowns for a New Century (Island, 2019). His "six lessons for any downtown" (ch. 6) include:

1. Establish a distinctive downtown image that is instantly recognizable and admirable

2. Improve access into and circulation within downtown

3. Enlarge and enhance the public realm esp. reconfiguring space used by pedestrians, moving vehicles, and parking

4. Sustain a habitable environment downtown (trees, parkland)

5. Reduce cost of doing business for both governments and private actors

6. Flexible land use, building use and new construction

Coffeeneuring Challenge 2024

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]

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.

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]

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 have reduced the crowd to three very persistent men, of whom I am one. Today it was just Sam and me, with Bill checking 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.

Today was close to the ideal bike commute. 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 route. 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. 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.

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]

We had a frost last night, and it was still in the 30s when I set out this morning. This is more seasonable weather than we had last week, 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.

Today I 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 my crocheted sleeve, which I'd bought at New Bo City Market in the days BP (before-the-pandemic). 

I like my dessert bars like I like my cities: dense and diverse

The ride home was windier, but by mid-morning traffic was sparse, so no complications except for these garbage cans on 3rd Avenue which are apparently stored in the bike line. (Garbage pickup was four days ago!)

1600 block of 3rd Avenue SE

Week Three

4. Tuesday, October 22 (morning shower, 76F)

Coffee at: Veritas Cafe, 509 3rd St SE [round trip 4.1 miles + 0.5 miles swimming]

The sky was surprisingly dark with clouds when I set out this morning just before 8, and I saw one flash of lightning to the west, but I made it safely and drily to the YMCA. I would have been okay with getting wet, though, as it's been weeks since we had any rain at all. It rained a little while I was in the pool, and I saw more streaks of lightning, but it was over by the time I left. (Back in the day, they used to close the pool when there was lightning. I'm not sure when that practice changed. Maybe there's better indoor pool protection technology.)

With puddles on the ground and on my bicycle seat, I portaged two blocks to Veritas Cafe, a third place of sorts inside the Baptist-affiliated Veritas Church. They're remodeling the interior of the church, so the seating areas are less spread out and more defined. I had black coffee and this voluptuous cranberry muffin:

I read City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village by David Sucher (City Comforts Inc., revised edition, 2016) while I drank my coffee. The cafe was well-attended but not crowded, mostly with younger people. There were slips of paper to write prayer requests, but the cafe is not doctrinal in spite of the setting, and the canned music was mostly by Fleetwood Mac. In 1953 this was a grocery store, according to the Polk's Directory. I could see that; anyhow this is a great example of successfully adaptive reuse.

The sun was out, the air was cooler, and my bicycle seat was dry, by the time I emerged for the ride home. I keep reading on Facebook and Mastodon about people riding 60 or 75 km for their coffee. I feel like a bit of a piker by comparison, going barely 7 km today. I'm certainly fortunate to live so close to so much coffee.

5. Thursday, October 24 (sunny, windy, 66F)

Coffee at: Uptown Coffee, 760 11th St Suite A, Marion, IA [round trip 16 miles]

I took my car in for an oil change this morning, which put me close enough to the Cedar River Trail for a mostly-trail ride to Uptown Marion. The trails are slated to be connected at 51st Street NE, and that was supposed to have happened this year, but now has been delayed until spring or early summer. 51st Street is adequate in the meantime, wide and not heavily trafficked. 

Near the movie theater: Washing something off the trail

I didn't have any difficulty this morning until I was almost to the coffeehouse in Marion: The traffic light at 7th Avenue and 10th Street never gave me a green, so after waiting through one cycle and for traffic to clear, I ran the red. I don't feel good doing this, but if only cars can trigger the light I have no choice.

Uptown Artway: Looking towards Uptown from
this whimsical bike rack 

Coffee in the bar, with doughnuts and Da Brim

I wore my shirt from Open Streets DC. 

11th Street, on which Uptown is located, is sort of an open street itself, in that auto traffic is blocked from crossing 7th Avenue.

I would have taken more pictures of the trail, but it was so chilly I was loath to stop!

Week Four

6. Sunday, October 27 (sunny, 63F)

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

The view outside my front door today

This picture was taken later in the day, but it is included to show the profusion of color we are living right now. It made for quite the picturesque ride!

I get credit for my hi-viz Bike to Work Week t-shirt
today, though on the streets no one could see it under my jacket

Coffee was supposed to happen somewhere else this morning, but while that somewhere was open Sundays in March, they no longer are. Thankfully, the coffeeneuring rules allow for one repeat place, which I am claiming today, and Craft'd was just a couple blocks farther on. I caught up with my friends there.

I finally got a picture of the interior, which was not full when I arrived a little ahead of 9:30, but by 10 was fully hopping.

One more ride to go...

7. Tuesday, October 29 (sunny, windy, possible-record 84F)

Coffee at: Dash Coffee Roasters, 120 3rd Avenue SW [round trip 6 miles]

3rd Avenue SW: mural featuring Lucille Ball and the planet Saturn

Weird summerlike weather continues for another day or two--great for biking, not so great for the long-term prospects for life on Earth. I rode from the tire store, which gave me an extra ride through the near northeast side, past the house we rented our first year in Cedar Rapids. 

bike parking at Dash

I met my friend John at Dash in Kingston, across the river from Downtown Cedar Rapids, and near the Linn County Elections Depot where John is helping people vote early. He reports steady high numbers of early voters every day, though what that augurs no one can tell. Iowa is not one of the seven states that will decide this election anyhow.

my coffee and incredible strawberries and cream scone

The building was a dry cleaners in 1953, with a dentist's and doctor's offices above.

I happened to see on Instagram that Dash is celebrating Deviled Eggs Tuesday, so I scored some for us. The chef added "the warming comfort spices of Pho" to create a fascinating flavor.

Happy Deviled Eggs Tuesday!

Now I have completed Coffeeneuring Challenge 2024! All that remains is to fill out the form when it appears on the Chasing Mailboxes site. I'm looking forward to next year, when I anticipate some more trail options for out-of-town coffeeneuring--although it's hard to imagine more ideal biking weather than we've had this October. In the meantime, I can revel in the number of coffee options within a couple miles of my house that are not multinational corporations!

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):

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 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.

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.)

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.

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.

Week Without Driving diary

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

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.

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

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 is in the historic (1901) Memorial Hall building

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

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]

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.

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

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!

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

 

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

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.

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

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, 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

SIERRA CLUB SURVEY Take our Week Without Driving Survey! (sierraclub.org)

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