Book review: The Space Between

 

swiped from bakeracademic.com

Eric O. Jacobsen, The Space Between: A Christian Engagement with the Built Environment (Baker Academic, 2012), 297 pp.

If Jesus's "dwelling among us" means that he lives as we typically do, he would most likely be living in a subdivision at least a few miles from where he might interact with people in a quasi public setting--like a shopping mall or a grocery store. In this case, Jesus would need to own and operate some kind of automobile simply to have the kind of diverse interaction with people that we see him having in the Gospels... Rather than asking, "What would Jesus drive?" I want to ask, "Why must Jesus drive?" (Jacobsen 2012, pp. 207-208)

(6/18/2026) I first read Eric O. Jacobsen's The Space Between in 2015, after hearing him interviewed by Chuck Marohn on the Strong Towns podcast. (That interview is here, and a subsequent appearance is here.) Dr. Jacobsen, who has been senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church (ECO) in Tacoma, Washington, since 2007, offers a good introduction to urbanist ideas from a communitarian perspective that is accessible to any reader. It is even more pertinent for his fellow Christians, for whom urbanism is presented as how we live our earthly lives as God intends.

While I've employed his ideas frequently since then, particularly when I would write about the religious architecture awards that used to appear annually in Faith and Form, I have never done a systematic review of this outstanding book. I am rectifying that now.

Dr. Eric O. Jacobsen (from fpctacoma.org)

Jacobsen begins by asserting the core importance of the built environment, which he defines as "the physical location and features of the places where you live, work, worship, and play and the way that the various places in your day relate to one another" (pp. 11-12). We should notice these features, he argues, not just move mindlessly through them on our way to some place from some other place. We should ask ourselves: "Who thought this space through, and what can you discern about their values as you interact with it?" (11). How people and stuff interact in a particular place over time--what he calls enacted space (17)--matters for our experience of community. It matters to a unified kingdom approach to Christian life, in which every human activity, not just the churchy stuff, "can be done in a way that is God-honoring" (21).

Before we get to the urbanism in Parts II and III, Jacobsen presents a sort of theology of the individual in Part I, "Orientation," albeit includes some good pictures of streets by way of example. We are human bodies (ch. 1) in specific places (ch. 2), and are meant to be in loving community with others, not autonomous individuals (ch. 3). Community means "the actual human community in which she has found herself" (89), including both voluntary (church, club, friend group) and geographic (anyone in your immediate proximity) communities, but it's the latter community is too easy to neglect.

The boundedness of place has been an important element in relational development. We know one another more deeply when proximity forces us to interact on a regular basis. The contemporary ease by which we can move from one place to another has tended to pull us further apart from one another, rather than bring us closer. (57-58)

People are bound to fall short of our ideal vision of community because of human sinfulness, so community requires grace. It also requires time, because "we cannot buy community" and "we cannot even build community" (100), because community only happens after sustained engagement. And it requires wisdom, the embedded sort of wisdom that evolved institutions contain, not sudden bursts of seemingly rational efforts to remake those institutions. Hence, urbanism good, modernism not so much (ch. 4, esp. pp. 109-118). Missoula, Montana, was saved from modernist overhauling because it was unable to afford it, and now it's glad it stayed the way it was (pp. 90-92).

This traditional block of downtown Bentonville, Arkansas, is chock full
of "thresholds" connecting buildings with the outdoors

Part II, "Participation," gets into how the built environment affects our lives and life choices. Families become more isolated, both from relatives and from neighbors (ch. 5). Churches (ch. 7) used to be embedded in their surrounding neighborhoods, with doors open to the street, and sometimes served as community monuments; today's insular churches are set away from the street, accessible by large parking lots.

Chapter 6, "Politics," talks about how all this matters for the public realm, beginning with the ongoing skirmishes between Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses in 1960s New York City. Jacobs stood for civic virtue as opposed to top-down power for power's sake. "Civic virtue can be thought of as a measure of a person's care for the public realm combined with the local knowledge, organizational skills, and courage necessary to effect positive change in that realm" (159). Any of those four aspects is difficult to muster when the built environment is as dependent on automotive transportation as much of America is today. In this context, he discusses the problems of functional zoning, urban renewal, and visionaries like Le Corbusier. He approvingly quotes from the theoretical final chapter of Jane Jacobs's Death and Life of Great American Cities, in which she argues that cities are problems of "organized complexity," much like human bodies. 

This tells us much about how Jacobs understands transformation to take place among people and practices in the city. She sees in ordinary cities a form that is basically good and assumes the ability of residents to enact a kind of self-repair. The city and its neighborhoods occasionally need outsider intervention to fulfill this potential, but for the most part what they need is less rather than more government intervention. (173)

Modernist architect Rem Koolhaas is introduced as a foil to Jacobs, though I have to admit I like the Seattle Public Library. 

Hudson Street, New York City,
where Jane Jacobs lived between 1947 and 1968

In Part III, "Engagement," Jacobsen uses a theological model called critical correlation to analyze our relationship with the built environment. I'm not a theologian, but I feel I was able to follow the argument. He reframes discussions of sustainability away from voluntary abstinence to seeking to achieve good goals for all (ch. 9): human thriving, environmental stewardship, and social justice. These goals can and do conflict in application (see the graphic from Scott Campbell on p. 236), but they are all served by joint efforts by urban communities rather than individual withdrawal. A sense of place (ch. 10) where one belongs is inextricable from one where strangers can become known--in this context he gives a good capsulation of Ray Oldenburg's third place paradigm (pp. 245-246)--which too turns out to be an obligation for Christians and Jews (cf. Deuteronomy 10:17-19, Exodus 23:9ff.). The chapter concludes with a discussion, from several points of view, of the role of beauty in our places.

Jacobsen's book provides an introduction to urbanist ideas for Christians and Jews, rooted in the familiar language of the Bible. For non-religious urbanists, he points to the possibility of cooperation, giving a view of religion that is different from that propounded by the loudest Christian voices out there. For everyone, he provides a second look at our surroundings that we may have taken for granted all our lives, and to consider why auto-dependency may not be serving us well.

Jackson Boulevard, Chicago

What is the future of Iowa's small towns? (II)

The lives we should all be living:
"Texas Two-Step," a movie on the Hallmark Channel,
offers romance and country music in a small town third place
(swiped from hallmarkchannel.com)

(6/16/2026) In my last post, I noted the reputation of the 1990s TV series Friends has as a contributor to the "back to the city" trend earlier in this century, and wondered not only whether that trend has ebbed, but where today's friends are leading. Hannah Nuss, an entrepreneur and speaker at the recent EntreFest put on by NewBoCo, suggested we might spend some quality time pondering an infamous theme of made-for-TV romance movies: the young woman in the big city returning to her small town roots and finding true love and entrepreneurial happiness.

Hannah Nuss presents at EntreFest
(Outrageous laptop borrowed from Robbie Nesmith)

Nuss, of Denver, Iowa, is founder of a shop and a publishing company, both of which are called Local. She cited small town/rural advantages such as low startup costs, low rents, "super-low" cost of living, neighborly culture, and a small enough population that word of mouth spreads faster. She argues that the death of rural Iowa is a "false narrative people accept," and that "entrepreneurship is here" along with the happy endings of all those romance movies where the heroine chooses love over the big city.

Delaney Howell-Goth on stage at the Englert Theater

Also at EntreFest last week, two other female entrepreneurs from small towns touted advantages for business and economic development. Marketer Delaney Howell-Groth (AgCulture Marketing), who farms with her husband near Rhodes, Iowa, said women entrepreneurs are already active enough to create more than half of all jobs created in small towns. Even more people could be shown the way--or the way back, if they've already left--if there were a supportive entrepreneurial ecosystem providing access to resources, training, and knowledge, which is what the conference she started, She Creates Rural, aims to be.

Stephanie Grutz presents at EntreFest

A third business owner, Stephanie Grutz, mostly talked about her personal journey, but has just moved the headquarters of her healthcare businesses from Dubuque to Peosta, in part because she lives there, but also because she wants rural residents to have access to the types of therapies more commonly found in larger cities.

The river that ran through these three presentations was the contrast between an overwhelming big city full of action and people and wealth and the perception (illusion?) of economic opportunity, against a small arena with less wealth and fewer people, but a less frantic pace, and a chance for stable and "deep relationships" with the people you do encounter. A smaller, less crowded stage allows a person to be impactful and known. 

Both the movie plot and the death-of-rural paradigm rely on stereotypes, of course, which however exaggerated also reflect some important truths. Lyz Lenz (2026) sees the same phenomenon at work in the popularity of Ballerina Farm, a Utah farm, store, and social media phenomenon created by Hannah Neeleman, a self-styled "trad wife." Lyz notes that the women interviewed by The New York Times "don't want to be Hannah Neeleman, exactly. What they want is a glimpse at an easier life." She continues:

They all seem very aware of what must go on behind the scenes to raise and school all those children while building a business empire and staying thin and breaking bread. But it's that idea of something simple and easier.... A nice husband, a bit of land, some chickens, and some kids? Isn't that so much easier than this modern world, where you sit at a computer and create value for a company that is actively plotting to sell your flesh to AI?

Yes, they're cute, but my laptop smells better
© Copyright Evelyn Simak and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons License.

Of course the trad wives and romance movies are selling fantasy, just like Friends, whose characters had an unbelievable Upper East Side lifestyle considering they worked at a coffeeshop.

If the rural young are hearing messages that they must leave to thrive, as our speakers suggested, those messages are landing for a reason. I'm not from a small town, but I'm from a state where small town representatives have run the government for years. And the messages they are bringing from their towns to the state in legislation and executive action pulsate with resentment. They snarl at immigrants, they snarl at transgendered people, they snarl at people who are concerned about the environment. If you are a young person who is different, or seeks a different truth, or whose mind is not slammed shut, these sorts of messages are not encouraging you to do anything but flee.

Back to reality: In a world with only two alternatives, corporate big city overstimulation or quiet old white small town, choosing either is going to be painful, because you'll be required to give up something you value. But are there really only two alternatives? More Americans live in suburbs than any other type of place. I grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago, with great schools and a big public library. Does no one dream of living in a suburb? When I go back, everything's different and no one knows me. Maybe not.

Prince Street, 2018: Boston's North End neighborhood
is urban without being noisy and frantic

It may be that in the contrast of extremes can be found there's a combination of attributes many Americans desire in their places but have difficulty finding: walkable neighborhoods, deep relationships, a variety of economic opportunities, and a variety of people with interesting perspectives. A few small towns seem to have achieved this, as have a few urban neighborhoods. But the more we as a country rely on cars to get us anywhere, and low prices at big-box stores to get us by, those places will continue to be hard to find, or to build. 

Water Street, 2013: Decorah is small but has 
a great commercial street an easy walk from residential areas

Small towns that can apply urbanism, and celebrate diversity and inclusion, may find themselves the objects of a lot of people's desires. And that, along with the positive examples and mentoring offered by people like our three speakers, would do wonders for their entrepreneurial ecosystems. And "big" cities that create some real neighborhoods will find they too can ride out whatever fantasies the media are selling us, even if their residents aren't handsome cowboys running Christmas tree farms.

SEE ALSO: 

Kiva website for small capital loans

Produce Iowa web site for small town Iowa film makers

ORIGINAL POST: "What is the Future of Iowa's Small Towns?" 3 July 2018

Prairie Patch Farms Llama Experience: 
If you've read this far, you deserve a picture of a llama

10th Anniversary Post: Can Cities Change Their Luck?

 

The hit 90s TV series Friends was a harbinger of the "back to the city" years:
Where are today's "friends" living?

(6/13/2026) Ten years ago this month, I looked back on what had been the best ten years for American central cities in a long, long time. By 2015, the "back to the city" movement that had been growing for decades had burst into full flower. From 2005-2015, the U.S. population grew by 8.4 percent; the combined population of the central cities of the 51 metropolitan areas with more than one million population grew almost exactly the same (8.2 percent); however, this masks a wide variety of individual experiences. Using the crude measure of central city population to measure progress, I classified these 51 cities into four categories: 

• STARS (at least double the US population growth 2005-15): 14 cities
• ABOVE AVERAGE (exceeding US population growth rate): 12 cities
• BARELY KEEPING UP (increasing but at less than the national rate): 11 cities
• FALLING BACK (losing population over the period 2005-15): 14 cities

The three fastest growing cities over this period were (1) Charlotte, North Carolina 35.4%; (2) Austin, Texas 35.0%; (3) Raleigh, North Carolina 32.1%. The cities at the top mostly reflected the knowledge economy that emerged along with the Internet, so they were the ones who were most successful at attracting the technical professionals that starred in the new economy. Most were found on the coasts or in the Sun Belt of southern states. (See the map at Saunders 2026b.)

Public Square, Cleveland in 2017

The three biggest losers of population between 2005 and 2015 were (1) Detroit, Michigan -23.6%; (2) New Orleans, Louisiana -14.3%; (3) Cleveland, Ohio -14.1%. New Orleans's decade began with the horrors of Hurricane Katrina; the other cities in this category tended to be older industrial cities in the North which had been stars of the midcentury economy but now were known as the Rust Belt.

U.S. Census data for the ensuing ten years show continuation of some cities' previous experiences, whether positive or negative, while other cities saw interesting changes. From 2015-2025, the U.S. population grew somewhat more slowly, adding 6.6 percent. There are now 56 metropolitan areas of more than a million population in the United States: We've added Tucson, Arizona; Fresno, California; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Omaha, Nebraska; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Greenville, South Carolina. At the same time, the New Orleans metropolitan area fell under a million, but I left it in the dataset. 

Significantly (I think), the total population of these 57 central cities increased only 3.0 percent between 2015 and 2025, less than half the growth of the U.S. overall, and a very different experience from the previous ten years. There were fewer "stars" and more in the middle categories. Interestingly, the number of cities losing population was very slightly less, though eight cities gained between 0 and 1 percent, which barely put them in the "barely keeping up" group.

STARS (13+): 8 cities	ABOVE AVG (6.5-13): 15 cities	BARELY KPG UP (0-6.5): 21 cities	FALLING BACK (<0): 13 cities
Orlando FL 23.2 Jacksonville FL 17.2 Charlotte NC 16.6 Greenville SC 16.6 Seattle WA 14.7 Atlanta GA 14.1 Okla. City OK 14.0 Salt Lake City UT 13.4	Raleigh NC 12.2 Tampa FL 12.1 Miami FL 11.1 Columbus OH 10.2 Nashville TN 10.2 Omaha NE 10.1 Kansas City MO 9.6 Sacramento CA 9.3 Las Vegas NV 9.0 Providence RI 9.0 Denver CO 8.5 Richmond VA 7.7 Austin TX 7.6 Fresno CA 6.8 Phoenix AZ 6.6	Buffalo NY 6.4 Indianapolis IN 5.6 Cincinnati OH 5.3 San Antonio TX 5.3 Minneapolis MN 4.7 Houston TX 4.4 Louisville KY 4.3 Washington DC 3.2 Grand Rapids MI 3.1 Tucson AZ 3.1 Tulsa OK 3.1 Dallas TX 2.3 Pittsburgh PA 1.1 Boston MA 0.9 San Diego CA 0.8 Chicago IL 0.4 New York NY 0.4 Philadelphia PA 0.4 Portland OR 0.4 Riverside CA 0.2 Virginia Beach VA 0.2	Hartford CN -1.6 Rochester NY -1.8 Los Angeles CA -2.6 San Jose CA -3.6 Detroit MI -4.1 San Francisco CA -4.5 Cleveland OH -6.3 Milwaukee WI -6.3 Memphis TN -7.0 New Orleans LA -7.0 Birmingham AL -7.8 Baltimore MD -8.3 St. Louis MO -11.9

Some factoids from this pile of data:

• Three cities were in the fastest growing group in both periods: Charlotte (+57.9% from 2005-2025), Seattle (+36.7%), and Oklahoma City (+35.5%).
• Nine cities lost population in both periods: Detroit (-26.8% from 2005-2015), New Orleans (-20.4%), Cleveland (-19.6%), St. Louis (-19.2%), Birmingham (-15.4%), Baltimore (-11.4%), Memphis (-9.3%), Rochester (NY) (-2.4%), and Hartford (-1.9%).
• Atlanta, Georgia dropped 1.4 percent in the first period, then leapt up 14.1 percent in the second. Salt Lake City, Utah moved up two categories, from "barely keeping up" to "stars."
• San Francisco, California increased 17 percent in the first period, but dropped 4.5 percent in the last ten years. Five other cities moved down two categories: Boston, Massachusetts; Portland, Oregon; San Antonio, Texas; San Jose, California; and Washington, D.C.

Mural, North Beach, San Francisco, 2014

Each one of those cities has a particular story to tell. And the next ten years promise new stories: Some Midwestern states--not Iowa, alas--have experienced increases in people moving in from elsewhere in the United States ("More People Coming" 2026). The Trump administration's success at strangling international migration to the United States will continue to impact cities even after Trump has left the scene.

All of this leads to the question: Is the urbanist moment over? My post ten years ago optimistically pointed to widespread success among central cities, with potential lessons for the less successful ones. Or do the experiences of the last ten years reflect broad adjustments (limits to growth, sectoral changes in the economy, changes in societal preferences in response to the pandemic, new TV series, or something else)? (Another possibility is that all these findings are altered by changing the unit of analysis to parts of cities, cf. Sanders 2026a).

Betting things will turn around soon?
Cleveland, Ohio has a downtown casino, and soon so will Cedar Rapids!

ORIGINAL POST: "Can Cities Change Their Luck?" 20 June 2016

My Grand Day Out: Iowa River Landing and the Peninsula Neighborhood

The Landing: Apartments with first floor retail, Iowa River Landing

Ten years ago, Ben Kaplan criticized Coralville's Iowa River Landing development as having the design of an urban area but without the connection to or from other places that is essential to urbanism: Iowa River Landing is not well connected to anything outside of Iowa River Landing. While, from certain angles, the place looks urban, it's really just a glorified shopping mall with very expensive condos and apartments perched above.

East 2nd Avenue shops and street parking

Today, Iowa River Landing remains easy to send up. It's a faux urbanist shopping mall of a type I've seen in other places as well. The streets are narrow and relatively quiet even amidst crowds of shoppers, but the handsome brick buildings are full of high-end franchises. LuLuLemon is next to Anthropologie is next to J. Jill. (Do I understand what I have just written? Reader, I do not. Maybe you could try Google Translate?)

View from Midnight Coffee: high end East 2nd Avenue shops

Iowa River Landing is drive-to urbanism with a vengeance. Nevertheless, there are two ways of getting to Iowa River Landing, whether for a shopping spree or for a hockey game...

Xtream Arena is home to the Iowa Heartlanders

...besides driving. The Coralville Transit Facility is located on Quarry Road in Iowa River Landing, which means you're connected by bus both locally and, via the 380 Express, to Cedar Rapids. (That's how I got there.)

The 380 Express stopping at Coralville

Another way is by bike trail. The Iowa River Trail runs from the edge of Iowa River Landing, across a former railroad bridge, to the Peninsula Neighborhood. It took me about 20 minutes to walk from the hyper-bougey stores to the quirky and lovable houses.

entrance to Iowa River Landing Wetland Park

trail bridge across Iowa River

Looking back at Iowa River Landing

Thornberry Dog Park at the edge of Peninsula

Peninsula is a new urbanist-inspired development that was built over a decade ago. It is a residential subdivision, missing many checks on the urbanist checklist. There are very, very few commercial destinations, and no schools, offices or houses of worship. 

And yet, I really liked it. And the connection to Iowa River Landing is not just theoretical: a father and daughter I saw at the coffee shop (Midnight Coffee, part of a regional chain) at Iowa River Landing turned up later walking home down McCleary Lane in Peninsula.

The Peninsula features a mix of detached houses,
row houses and multifamily housing

Apartments on McCleary Lane form the southern edge
of the development

garages face alleys not streets

A bus stop on the neighborhood square is served once an hour by Iowa City Transit, which gets you to downtown Iowa City in 10-20 minutes depending on the destination, and as of current date is free to ride. Four people got on with me just afternoon, which is way more than I've ever experienced at the bus stops near my house.

bus stop where the #6 bus comes once an hour

Across the street from the bus stop is the only commercial building, which contains a ramen restaurant open only in the evenings, a fitness studio open by appointment, and an empty place where a coffee cafe used to be.

Behind the bus stop: Emma J. Harvat Square Park

Hayek Park is named for a former mayor,
but if you want to celebrate the Austrian school,
you go right ahead

Both Iowa River Landing and Peninsula contain urbanist elements, although both are not-quite-urbanist. Both were "built all at once to a finished state," in Chuck Marohn's ominous phrase, so they might be quite a sight in about 2040 when things start wearing out. Still, I find Iowa River Landing unappealing and Peninsula very appealing.

Village green, Foster Road

As not-quite-urbanism, Peninsula succeeds admirably. As I wandered around, I saw more people walking--some with dogs on their way to the dog park, but some without--than I typically would on a warm afternoon in my neighborhood. It was pleasant to be there, and I might find reason to return. I probably won't go back to Iowa River Landing, unless I've been poking around the Peninsula and need a cup of coffee.

SEE ALSO:

Ben Kaplan's Peninsula neighborhood video: New Urbanism In Iowa City: The Peninsula Neighborhood

Seg in Iowa City video: The Iowa City Peninsula Neighborhood | Seg in Iowa City | Neighborhood Tour Series

art on the trail

Book review: Building the Cycling City

 

Melissa Bruntlett and Chris Bruntlett, Building the Cycling City: The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality (Island Press, 2018), xiii + 223pp.

(6/2/2026) When the husband-and-wife team of Melissa and Chris Bruntlett toured bicycling facilities in the Netherlands in 2016 on assignment for Daily Hive, that country had a long-standing reputation for cycle commuting, such that North American cities despair of replicating their success. When they expanded their articles into this book the Bruntletts sought not only to describe Dutch efforts, but to show it was not ever thus, and that Dutch transportation policy was made the same slow, uncertain way in which all policy is made.

Political scientist John Kingdon explained transformative policy change as resulting from the rare confluence of widely recognized problems, availability of acceptable policy solutions, and favorable political alignments (see Hoefer 2022). The Dutch city of Rotterdam, heavily bombed during World War II, experienced two such transformations: first, rebuilding on the car-centric North American model (pp. 7-10), and then, beginning in the early 1970s, repurposing much of the street space to make cycling and walking possible (pp. 10-13). Building the Cycling City tries to answer: How did that happen? Could it happen in the towns where we live?

VIDEO: Active Towns riding interview with Rotterdam city staff (1:11:29)

Most of our cities have for decades been built around the movement of motor vehicles, which has made it increasingly difficult, not to mention dangerous, to get around any other way, even for short trips. This has led to bad outcomes, some of which they list at the beginning of the book: "widespread obesity, traffic congestion, climate change, class inequity, social isolation, and budgetary constraints" (p. 1). But, as Kingdon would tell us, bad outcomes don't become policy problems until they are widely recognized as such. The OPEC oil embargo of 1973 was one such catalyst, and an emptied-out downtown district was another, but at least as important in the Netherlands were grassroots campaigns like Stop de Kindermoord ("Stop Child Murder") begun to combat rising numbers of children killed in traffic (pp. 93-94).

Most importantly, the situations were defined as "too many people driving too many cars too fast," instead of locating their sources in oil markets and/or too many children in public spaces. (Looking at you, United States!) The Dutch framing meant countries like the Netherlands sought policy options to slow traffic speeds, and to enable people to use other ways of getting around. Such options are explored throughout, but particularly in chapters two, four, and eight. Dutch bicycle makers have emphasized (upright) functionality over speed or fashion, so "everyday cycling in regular attire" is "a perfectly practical activity, even when carrying an extra load" (p. 29). When cycling infrastructure appeared, more people were willing to use it to commute to work or school. Dutch engineers produced guidelines for designing bicycle networks that are "continuous, recognizable, safe, and intuitive for all users" (Meredith Glaser of the University of Amsterdam, quoted on p. 69).

Bentonville plans to extend trails system to new
subdivisions on the west side of town

Many people with longer commutes have come to use bicycles to get to the train stations, so a system has evolved (described in chapter eight) with massive secure bike parking at one end and low cost rentals (OV-Fiets, which is nationwide) at the other end. While there are no good North American equivalents of this system, metropolitan Atlanta is looking at attempting some variation of it (pp. 164-170).

In Charlotte, the Rail Trail runs directly by
the light rail line (here, at Bland Station)

The final piece of policy action is political support, sometimes from the mass public, and sometimes from key people in positions of power. Importantly, the Bruntletts discuss two cities' experiences in each chapter, one in the Netherlands and one in North America. In chapter 3, we meet Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson, who in 2009 began a program of street improvements by installing separated bike lanes on the Burrard Street Bridge, which is now heavily used by cyclists--nine million trips in 2017. "A few loud critics can make anything look controversial," he told the authors. "It had zero impact on [car] traffic from day one" (pp. 60-61). In chapter five, we meet Jonathan Fertig, an architect and activist in Boston, whose skilled use of social media led to "tactical urbanism" installations that became actual ways of slowing auto traffic (pp. 103-108). In chapter ten, we see people in the Netherlands socializing new residents (immigrants, children) to the cycling culture, as well as similar efforts in Seattle and Auckland. The Dutch experience is exceptional, to be sure, but it is not sui generis. It could happen here, wherever "here" is for you.

Tri-State Trails advocates for trails and bikeways in and around
Cincinnati, and sponsors Breakfast on the Bridge 

Melissa and Chris Bruntlett manage to portray the exceptional efforts of Dutch cities as well within the reach of any North American city that seeks to address traffic deaths and congestion, pollution, and maybe most importantly child development. Framing issues, finding available solutions, and marshaling public support are none of them easy, but they have been and can be done.

Since Building the Cycling City, Melissa and Chris Bruntlett have published two more books: Curbing Traffic: The Human Case for Fewer Cars in Our Lives (Island, 2021), and Women Changing Cities: Global Stories of Urban Transformation (Riba, 2025).

SEE ALSO:

Modacity Life website

"Picture Post--Vennendaal," As Easy as Riding a Bike, 3 March 2015

Melissa and Chris Bruntlett explain their 2019 move to Delft on The Good Place (48:12);

10th anniversary post: Thinking Big in Cedar Rapids

 

Dale Todd speaks at Cedar Rapids Public Library, 
May 2016

 "Waterfronts are the rock stars of city infrastructure."--

MATTHEW LISTER, MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR GEHL AMERICAS,  AT CNU34

(5/23/2026) When Dale Todd spoke at a special edition of 1 Million Cups Cedar Rapids at the Cedar Rapids Public Library ten years ago, on behalf of the package of projects known as Destination Cedar Rapids, he was between stints on the Cedar Rapids City Council. Ten years later, those projects are well enough along to show they connect the city in important ways, while the jury's still out on the other big idea pitched that week, MedQuarter.

CONNECT CR

Conceptual picture of the Alliant Energy Lightline
bridge over the Cedar River
(swiped from cedar-rapids.org)

Destination Cedar Rapids is now known as Connect CR, and has been supported by $5 million from the City of Cedar Rapids, an equivalent amount from the Hall-Perrine Foundation, and donation of Cedar Lake by Alliant Energy. The hope is to activate the Cedar River and the man-made Cedar Lake, for as  another CNU speaker, Eric Klinenberg argued, infrastructure like this can serve both functional (flood protection) and social purposes.

plans for Cedar Lake

Cedar Lake required a great deal of remediation, and apparently the leveling of numerous trees as well. (I know one avid birder who can't bring herself to return to what had been one of her favorite spots.) A lot of features, like the shelters and challenge course, remain to be built. It is scheduled to be completed in 2027.

Northern view of Cedar Lake

Yet on a Monday mid-afternoon, people were already using the space, walking and cycling around the lake on the trails, or sitting on benches by the lake.

cyclist on upper trail, taken from lower trail

 It is accessible by trail from the north or from Downtown, though being located across I-380 from neighborhoods it's only walkable for the bold and fit.

You can see Mound View from Cedar Lake, but
the train tracks mean you can't get there from here

Down the trail, the Alliant Energy Lightline bridge will connect the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, as it rolls south of Czech Village, to where development is planned in the New Bohemia expansion. Completion is planned for this fall, when it will be a huge contribution to trail system connectivity. In time it may also and help build a neighborhood south of New Bohemia.

Construction progress as of today: view from the SW side

Cedar Lake and the Alliant Energy Lightline are connected by the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, and highlight our emerging trail system. Together they provide both fun and utility. What is fun and useful for residents also is attractive to visitors (see "The Public Realm" 2026.) City Manager Jeff Pomeranz is quoted on the city webpage: "We need these kinds of special places for our residents, for our businesses, and for our visitors." The page also appropriately notes that entire ConnectCR package is "designed to strengthen connections across our city."

North end of the Lightline Bridge,
from 10th St SE

KCRG-TV report on bridge construction from earlier this month (1:48):

MEDQUARTER

I've said a lot about the MedQuarter in this space, most of it negative, but the fact that very little has changed in its 55 blocks during the last ten years means that good choices are not precluded. Ten years ago I imagined an optimistic scenario in which:

Development creates an important connection between what's happening Downtown and in New Bohemia, and the core neighborhoods of Oak Hill-Jackson and Wellington Heights. This proves a source of sustenance for Downtown and New Bo. Work force housing gets built. Expanded employment opportunities create vibrant, diverse neighborhoods that in turn sustain street life and local businesses. Maybe even: Density gradually replaces the current ridiculous oversupply of parking, while visitors are accommodated by local circulator buses that provide easy transportation between clinics and other local sites.

Looking east from 8th Street and 4th Avenue, 2014

The same view today
(The adorable shrub at the corner was removed after 2021)

Looking at the four parts of the "general theory of walkability" created by Jeff Speck (Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time [Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2012]), the MedQuarter does not perform as well as it should be doing, as close as it is to Downtown.

• safety: Mixed. There are sidewalks throughout the MedQuarter, and converting one-way streets back to two-way has helped with traffic speeds. Design still favors motor vehicles, and 1st Avenue, as well as 7th and 8th Streets near I-380, are not safe for pedestrians or cyclists. The lack of buildings and people, particularly at night, does not help people feel safe, either. 
• comfort: Poor. The streets are wide, with few shady street trees (although 8th Street by Mercy Hospital is a nice exception), and at least during the day a lot of noisy car traffic.
• interesting: Poor. With a tiny residential population and little commerce, there are few signs of life on the street. Most sidewalks are next to parking lots or large buildings.
• useful: Poor. Once you leave the hospital, there are few destinations for walking or cycling: no parks or elementary schools, a couple ethnic grocery stores, a handful of restaurants, the Post Office, an excellent coffeehouse that unfortunately is only open three days a week, a few other places.

The MedQuarter has many parking lots and few places

I think this could be fixed, if anyone wanted to. The three big boys--the two hospitals and Physicians Clinic of Iowa--are there to stay, and their preponderance of out-of-area visitors means parking is always going to be a concern. But it doesn't have to be the only concern. If the MedQuarter develops in a way that facilitates connection between the neighborhoods and Downtown--besides driving through it, I mean--it could strengthen the city socially and fiscally. Besides, car dependence is antithetical to public health. I'm not optimistic that these are considerations for those who wield power over the area, but as of now, it could still happen.

ORIGINAL POST: "Thinking Big in Cedar Rapids," 4 May 2016