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 for infrastructure like this that serves 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

CNU 34 Diary: Northwest Arkansas

Hi from the town with the big friendly ball!
Which smiles as it watches, and floats above all

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

I don't know what it must have felt like for a medieval peasant to visit Rome, but I am in a similar position at the 34th annual Congress for the New Urbanism. Wal-Mart, the enormous conglomerate where many Americans shop, is headquartered here, the longtime home of founder Sam Walton. The Waltons and their fellow townspeople have used all the money we've sent here over the years to build a place that--surprise!--looks nothing like a Wal-Mart.

Jane and I arrived about 6:00 this evening after an all-day drive from Iowa. I psyched myself up on the way listening to John Simmerman's Active Towns interview with Michael Bruntlett about bike infrastructure development in China.

The conference had already kicked off yesterday, and today featured a day of panels and activities in Fayetteville, about 25 miles south of here. That included the keynote address by economist Raj Chetty. However, I am used to traveling to the conference on Wednesday, and did not make the necessary adjustments. Coe College has just finished its spring semester, and I only got my grades in Monday; I'm not sure I could have gotten here sooner, but next year I'll try to adjust myself to the conference schedule.

We're staying at the 21C Museum Hotel on A Street, which is closed to traffic. We spent the evening walking around downtown, which is exactly as advertised, if maybe more pricey than a simple Arkansas country town. 

Main Street, downtown Bentonville

There are a ton of bicyclists of all ages, maybe particularly on a night like tonight, which was incredibly lovely.

People even ride up the Ledger building!

 The streets are narrow, and cars drive slowly, and yield to pedestrians. The public library is spacious and well-stocked, including a copy of Paved Paradise by Henry Grabar. 

Children's section, Bentonville Public Library

The chess club was hosting a large number of matches in the park by the county courthouse. We found, for the second year in a row, some outdoor dining to start our visit to the host city.

Al fresco dining at Tavola Trattoria

Tomorrow, I will start the serious business of this conference. First, I need to find where, among numerous sites scattered across several Northwest Arkansas towns, I check in and get my name badge.

Bentonville, like all towns, suffers from vehicle gigantism

Thursday, May 14, 2026

Urbanists wait for the venue to be opened

The strain of a multi-venue conference showed early today. Fayetteville got breakfast at the Graduate Hotel and information on where to get badges; Bentonville got neither of these. We waited outside the locked First Baptist Church, pelted by canned Christian pop, until 9:15. (The first round of panels began at 9:30.) Once in, I was directed to another building a block away to get my badge. All in a day's adventure, though. The highlight of the morning was meeting Lydia Fletcher, whose firm is in charge of public relations for the conference. She needed to get in to get set up, and told me how she would accomplish that by talking to people, what they would say and how she would respond. And lo, it came to pass exactly as she had foretold. She apologized for not getting me in as well, but I was okay just to watch a truly badass woman at work. She also recommended Ozark Mountain Bagels for breakfast, which proved to be very good.

This afternoon I went on a bike tour of the city. I knew it was a serious bike tour because John Simmerman was making a video for Active Towns, my first CNU bike tour to receive this imprimatur since Charlotte in 2023.

John Simmerman recording David Wright of
the City of Bentonville

Our tour took us on the Razorback Greenway, which runs through the Walmart campus.

Walmart campus, Bentonville

It is truly a beautifully landscaped campus. The trail runs through rather than around it, because corporate hoped to encourage 10 percent of their employees to ride to work. I had a real medieval-punk-at-St.-Peter's-Basilica moment. It's hard to connect all this beauty and philanthropy to the footprint of Walmart stores around the country.

Marion IA Walmart, Black Friday 2024

Other highlights from the tour:

These speech bubbles on the A Street Promenade (which opened in
October 2025) are among 322 works of art in the public
realm of Bentonville

Town Branch, mixed use trail oriented development:
oriented to the trail not the street

Under construction: Future AI-focused university at
the former Walmart campus site

Coffeeshop in the woods;
Airship Coffee at Coler

I also attended a panel on transect-based zoning featuring the planning directors of Bentonville and Rogers, and a main stage talk, "Building Places People Love," featuring veteran urbanists Matthew Lister (Gehl-Americas) and Carol Coletta (Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation). At the book sale run by Underbrush Books, I bought Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg (Broadway, 2018), who's speaking tomorrow, and Building the Cycling City by Melissa and Chris Bruntlett (Island, 2018). And Jane and I briefly stopped by the reception honoring the imminent publication of Art of the New Urbanism volume 2 (Wiley, 2026). 

Bonus content: Norm Van Eeden Petersman interviews homebuilder and missing middle enthusiast Alkarim Devani on The Bottom-Up Revolution podcast.

Friday, May 15, 2026

Closing party at the Momentary

There are still some things going on tomorrow, but the curtain rang down on CNU 34 this evening in the form of the closing party at the Momentary, a contemporary art museum that also boasts an event space, the RODE House.

This morning, we had the closing keynote, presented by Eric Klinenberg of New York University, author of Palaces for the People, which I'd just bought yesterday.

Eric Klinenberg

He talked about the value of playgrounds as a lead-in to advocating consideration of social aspects of infrastructure projects. He's not the only one to notice that America (and much of the West) is in a very dark place right now. As much as we need to modernize water management in an era of routine torrential rains, we also need places that bring people together in order to build community life. Otherwise, we are more likely to "hunker down" in private spaces, which exacerbates social tensions. For example, in addition to pipes that can be overwhelmed by even a couple of inches of rain if they come too quickly, we can benefit from "softscape" like parks and community gardens to "hold" the water until the pipes are ready for it, as well as revitalizing the civic culture while they do it.

He concluded by urging practitioners to "make every project you do work as social infrastructure."

Crossing SE D Street on our walk:
Note the grassy median on 8th Street,
not unlike Mount Vernon Road in Cedar Rapids

From there I went on a walking tour of SW-SE 8th Street led by people from Toole Engineering, the City of Bentonville, and Walmart. 8th Street has in a very short time become a ferocious stroad, which despite separated bike lanes and sidewalks is not a very comfortable or pleasant place to be. They discussed further infrastructure initiatives, like a new Gateway Park west of I Street with "iconic" bridges across 8th; various ways of reducing conflicts at the intersection with Walton Boulevard; and a "greenway hub" of arts spaces, small shops and cafes across from the Momentary along SE G Street. The tour ended at the Walmart campus, where I was yesterday.

The Razorback Greenway runs through the Walmart campus

I also attended the Chapters Networking Breakfast this morning, where I sat with members of the Minnesota and Wisconsin chapters. Minneapolis will be next year's host city!

Saturday, May 16, 2026

Fayetteville Farmers Market

At the end of this year's CNU, a number of speakers presented ideas and fielded questions at the Fayetteville Town Center, just off the square where the Saturday farmers' market was going on. The urbanism dial was set on MAX.

Joe Minocozzi at Fayetteville Town Center

I happened by just as Joe Minocozzi was beginning his presentation. Minocozzi is the founder of Urban3, an Asheville-based consulting firm that helps cities understand and take control of their finances. He's best known for promoting the measurement of taxable-value-per-acre, which puts efficient productivity ahead of sheer size in terms of value to the city. I've used the concept to analyze local issues, such as here and here and here. Today's was an excellent, accessible introduction to the idea, with detailed application to Northwest Arkansas. After the talk, I ran into some friends who love Minocozzi's work, and we commiserated about how difficult it is to get people in and out of local government to accept it. Is it mathphobia? Entitlement? Exceptionalism? I'm going back to a city that is over the moon about our new data centers and the casino.

This conference was a novel approach to CNU. It will be interesting to read and hear people's reflections on regional urbanism, and how it will affect our meeting in Minnesota next year. Since I spent most of my time in Bentonville, I can say that I love a lot of what they've done, but will have trouble drawing many lessons for Cedar Rapids. Bentonville reminds me more of Naperville, Illinois, where I went to college and spent some time after that. Naperville is an upper-middle class exurb, very wealthy, very clean, without a lot of the problems that bedevil cities. Everyone faces limitations at some level, but Bentonville, like Naperville, can do a lot before they get there. And they can afford to be bolder because mistakes will be less catastrophic.

At the same time, Bentonville had to seek new ways of doing things because of growth pressures, and because Walmart demanded action because it was having trouble recruiting in competition with places like Seattle and the San Francisco Bay area. Cedar Rapids, whose 2024 Census estimate is exactly 194 souls larger than its 2020 population, faces neither growth pressures nor a sense of urgency to change our way of doing things. 

Ashleigh Walton, incoming CNU president

LAST YEAR'S POST: "CNU Diary 2025: Weekend in New England," 11 June 2025

SEE ALSO: 

"How to Fight Back Against Anti-Urbanism Lies (w/ The Urban Truth Collective)," The Urbanist Agenda Podcast, 24 April 2026

Robert Steuteville, "Urbanists in the Land of Walmart," Public Square: A CNU Journal, 15 May 2026

Bike to Work Week is underway, sort of

 

I biked to work!

(5/11/2026) It was 41F (5C) degrees this morning, for a chilly start to Bike to Work Week in Cedar Rapids. The forecast high was 68, and the wind was light, so though it was not as warm as last year, it was a good day for biking. Because I'll be leaving shortly for Arkansas to attend the Congress for the New Urbanism--watch this space for exhaustive updates!--this was my one chance to Bike to Work.

Sad to say, today was a disappointment, Bike to Work Weekwise. Programmers have doubled--tripled?--down on the commuter rides which were a small draw last year. This year, in addition to the two rides to Downtown, there were six rides from various parts of town to Collins Aerospace, a longtime partner in things Bike to Work Week.

2018: Pit stop on the Collins campus

Collins Route 4 riders were scheduled to leave from Bever Park on the southeast side near my house at (gulp!) 6:45. I gamely got up, donned the Sag Wagon shirt I scored at last year's afterparty...

All dressed up and ready to go

...with rubber bands to keep my pant legs away from the bike chain...

...and got to Bever Park with time to spare, only to find...

Bever Park in the morning light

...no bikers at 6:45. As I rode around the park looking for some, I found five people walking dogs, and one guy in a truck opening gates, but no one on a bicycle other than me. After ten minutes of quiet contemplation, I returned home. Had the Grinch stolen Bike to Work Week?

1st Avenue entering Downtown by the
Cedar Valley Nature Trail crossing

I decided to go Downtown to meet the incoming riders, as I had done last year. The first person I met was Ben Dattilo, who works at Collins Aerospace as well as being a member of the city's Active Transportation Advisory Commission. He was the entire Collins Ride 1 group, having no takers on the 12 mile ride in from Hoover Park on the far southern edge of the city.

A little while after Ben went on his way to work, Downtown Ride 2 came down the Cedar Valley Nature Trail from the northeast side.

Haley Sevening bikes to work

Haley Sevening from the city's Community Development Department was also riding alone. "Hopefully the weather ticks a couple degrees warmer the rest of the week," she told me later, "and we get some more folks joining!" There is warmer weather ahead, but there are also such things as gloves. A Silver-Level Bike Friendly Community ought to be turning out more cyclists than this on a day like today!

Do I have suggestions? Well, if I were smart, I'd be rich, or at least have more than two people at my New Bo Open Coffee meetups. I think Bike to Work Week in the 2020s could work on visibility, funding, and a sense of occasion. 

1. Organizers need to start fires under their friends, for if they can't sell it to their friends, how will they sell it to the rest of the city? Half a dozen cyclists on a group ride on a weekday morning is many times better than one, and is a start towards more and larger rides.
2. Are there organizations who could lend members and maybe some funds? The Downtown SSMID, for example, or Main Street, Physicians Clinic of Iowa, the Cedar Rapids Kernels, ...
3. We could use some celebrity presence. Ten years ago, Mayor Ron Corbett was a regular part of these events. I gather our current mayor isn't into this, but what about musicians, athletes, CEOs, and other Cedar Rapids-famous people?

Tuesday, May 12: Not working, still biking!

Thursday, May 14: Bentonville (Arkansas) bike tour with CNU

Friday, May 15: Bike to Work Day pit stop
at Toole Design, Bentonville

The rest of the week in Cedar Rapids went like this:

Tues-Chain Reaction Bike Hub volunteer night

Wed-Bike to Lunch, Bike Camping Basics workshop

Thu-Meet Me at the Market bike ride

Fri-Handlebar Happy Hour at Kickstand 

The Ride of Silence will occur the following Wednesday, May 20.

LAST YEAR'S POST: "Bike to Work Week 2025," May 12-16, 2025

SEE ALSO: Kevin Duggan, "City's In-House Program Proves Speed Governors Work," Streetsblog NYC, 12 May 2026

Iowa's Legislative Session Ends, To Everyone's Relief

 

Some of us have to live with the consequences of
another legislative session

(5/7/2026) Iowa's public approval of President Donald Trump has dipped to 42 percent in 2026, according to the World Population Review; that puts us only slightly above the national average, and in the middle of the pack of states. That's pretty remarkable, given that our politics have flowed bright red since the 2014 cycle. We can't even gerrymander our congressional districts to help Republicans, because they already hold all four U.S. House seats. Yet early polling--which should be read tentatively, as the election of 2026 is six long months away--shows Democrats with a legitimate shot at the governorship, as well as one or more U.S. House seats, and if that's the case, they might capture a house of the state legislature for the first time in over a decade.

That might account for the particular intensity of the legislative session just concluded. Members of the Democratic minority reported a chaotic closing weekend. My senator, Liz Bennett, reported on the final Saturday morning:

In 12 years, this is the worst and most disorganized I've seen the Iowa legislature. Over 24 hours in this building, here overnight, HOURS between votes, and some of the mot important bills haven't even been agreed upon yet. The majority party (who is in control of the entire government) should've adjourned last night, allowed people to rest while their leadership got things together, and called legislators back when they were ready.

Another senator, Art Staed, a member of Corridor Urbanism back in the day, told KCRG-TV:

This Session was under Republican leadership only, Republicans fighting amongst themselves while the rest of the Capitol suffered. Iowans also suffered with very little public input into these final bills.... Drafters were making mistakes which caused delays. I am absolutely certain we will need to correct some of these poorly thought-out bills next Session (which doesn't begin until January 2027). Why on earth were we working on all of those policy bills that late in Session? Should have been focused on the budget and key areas only.

Once legislators were back on the floor, one Republican bill sponsor cited the source of his information as "AI."

Republicans seemed especially eager to consolidate their policy gains and remind their supporters that their hatred for other people remains as unbridled as ever. A more constructive approach might have been to show that they recognize and care about economic, health, and environmental problems affecting the state, especially the parts of the state where their support is strongest. But maybe it's too late for that.

This is what they did this year at the Capitol (more coverage and longer lists at Barton 2026, Opsahl and Draisey 2026):

• Clear public good 
• water quality initiatives [definitely a problem, though questions about adequacy and whether a restart is better than pursuing previous policy cf. Dorman 2026]
• funds for pediatric cancer research, requiring radon mitigation systems in new homes
• better access to subacute mental health care
• Helping their friends
• tax exemption for nuclear power companies
• shifts money from school districts to charter schools
• omnibus agriculture bill including tax relief and increased support
• bans Chinese, Russian, or North Korean ownership of health care facilities
• looser training requirements for foster parents, regulations on homeschooling
• allows health care practitioners and organizations to opt out of procedures for reasons of conscience
• state officials can carry firearms anywhere on Capitol grounds
• Sticking it to people they don't like
• "three strikes" minimum sentences for prior criminal offenders
• forbids local governments from enacting civil rights protections beyond what's in Iowa code, or issuing identification cards, or having revenue growth above 2 percent
• limits access to abortion drug mifepristone
• restrictions on WIC and SNAP benefits
• requiring universities invest in state innovation programs
• English proficiency required for truck drivers
• Limits lawsuits against farmers for greenhouse gas emissions
• removes availability of HPV vaccine to minors without parental approval
• restricts access to bail

At the end of this session, we're at the same place when I wrote this last year, or when I wrote this in 2019. Iowa faces persistently low economic growth, despite cutting taxes every year. Incidence of cancer is increasing. Population is growing slowly, but in most of the state it's shrinking. Educated young people are leaving the state. Add on global issues like climate change, economic inequality, and control of new technology. Yet year after year, session after session, our Republican-dominated legislature pulls this grandstanding.

Maybe electing some Democrats will focus everyone's minds. Maybe it won't. It could be that, as Jonathan V. Last argues on a national level in The Bulwark this week, American politics has become so "enshittified" that any policy action to improve the "user experience" has become politically impossible.  It could be argued that any party with a 33-17 edge in the state Senate and a 67-33 edge in the state House, 16 years in control of the governorship, along with control of almost every executive position, is doing something right. And yet things don't get better.

NEWS COVERAGE:

Tom Barton, "Five Issues That Defined Iowa's 2026 Legislative Session," Cedar Rapids Gazette, 4 May 2026

Robin Opsahl and Brooklyn Draisey, "The 2026 Legislative Session is Over. Here's What Passed, Failed, and What is Already Iowa Law," News from the States, 4 May 2026

Strategic Parking Plan

Free on-street parking (free with two-hour limit),
New Bohemia, October 2025

(4/29/2026) The City of Cedar Rapids is taking a realistic approach to parking issues in the "Core Four" neighborhoods (Downtown, Czech Village, New Bohemia, and Kingston). Business owners and customers have complained about the difficulty in finding parking; parking finances are not self-sustaining but have required annual subsidies from general funds; and new residential and hotel construction promise to put new pressure on available parking spaces.

Convenience survey results: Parking is hard

Those spaces, for the record, number 7230 in this area: 2010 on streets and 5220 off street (surface parking lots and parking garages), not including privately owned parking lots. 

Public attends a Strategic Plan Open House,
Cedar Rapids Public Library, 28 April 2026

The city and its consultants are to be commended for not trying to solve problems by increasing parking capacity in this area. Space devoted to cars--180 square feet per car, unless you want to go bigger for today's gigantic vehicles--is space that can't be devoted to places to live or visit. They create additional distance between those places, making walking more burdensome, and by not being of themselves financially productive, waste valuable space in the city. These costs and tradeoffs are not widely appreciated by the public, in my experience: "I don't like paying for parking" was overheard at Tuesday's open house.

Parking capacity and vibe are mortal enemies

The Strategic Parking Plan's Presentation of recommendations states four main goals:

• Enhance Economic Development: By optimizing parking and mobility, we aim to support local businesses and attract new investments. 

• Improve Customer Experience: We are committed to making parking and mobility more convenient and user-friendly for everyone.

• Provide Cost-Effective Solutions: Providing public parking in a manner that is both financially sustainable and efficient.

• Expand Mobility Options: Leveraging existing assets to offer diverse and accessible mobility choices.

Open house poster on using data to inform policy

Connected to these are numerous recommendations and timetables, which I've distilled to five, because you are a busy person and any list longer than five makes my head hurt.

1. improve customer experience (ease of payment, finding parking lots) (pp. 11-13, 29-30)
2. ParkCR management of Czech Village parking lots (p. 15)
3. create open parking spaces through two hour limits, more enforcement and raising rates at high-demand places (pp. 19-22, 25-27, 31-33)--straight out of the Donald Shoup playbook!
4. Create Resident Parking Permit program (p. 23), so people who live in the district won't have to compete for space with visitors
5. financing and maintenance e.g. parking fees are not self-sustaining, the Five Seasons Ramp (400 1st Ave NE) needs maintenance stat (pp. 36-40)

Cyclists roll by Five Seasons Parking Ramp,
Downtown, May 2025

The plan also recommends further exploration of (1) a Core Four Shuttle for "park once" environment (p. 16); and (2) building a 2. parking ramp in New Bohemia (p. 17)

If the plan works, there will always be spaces available for anyone who arrives in the area to shop or make deliveries, though shoppers may have to pay for the privilege. This may make shopping in the core a more pleasant experience, though that might not overcome the resentment about paying. Shoup recommends devoting the revenue from parking fees to district improvements, which may tend to reduce the intensity of opposition, but that can only happen if there's revenue left over after we pay staff and perform regular maintenance of the facilities.

Increasing enforcement, raising fines
(which were $3 when I first moved to Cedar Rapids)

This difficulty remains, however: People are in the core of the city either because they already live there, or because they have chosen to travel by car, bicycle, walking, or bus.

Bicycle parking at the downtown farmers' market,
Greene Square, June 2025

More construction of apartments and condos may produce more in the first class, but because of the large doughnut of emptiness that surrounds the core, there aren't enough people close enough to rely on cyclists or pedestrians. The bus is not frequent or convenient enough to bring many people, either. Core district businesses rely on people arriving by car. Until and unless the city addresses this--maybe by using parking revenue to improve bus service and cycle paths?--parking in the core will be unsolvable, even by the greatest minds. 

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post said that ParkCR manages the large parking lot on 17th Avenue in Czech Village. Thanks to an alert reader who pointed out that is only a recommendation at this stage.

SEE ALSO:

"Book Review: Paved Paradise," 20 June 2023

"I Wish This Parking Was...," 27 November 2020

Donald Shoup, The High Cost of Free Parking (Planners Press, 2005)

Brian Tabick, "Cedar Rapids Considers Changes to Parking in Four Core Neighborhoods," KCRG-TV, 28 April 2026