Bridging the bridge

In Czech Village, historic Sykora Bakery features pedestrian level windows and benches

[NOTE: Most of this essay was written before I saw a short item in today's Gazette reporting Sykora Bakery faces financial distress due to flood insurance premiums that are slated to double over the next three years. Substantial increases in premiums would be a game-changer for the district, and not in a good way. They would also render moot much of what follows.]

Czech Village and New Bohemia are two historic neighborhoods south of downtown Cedar Rapids. Since the 19th century, they were home to working people and their families--many of them recruited from central Europe to work in local factories like Sinclair Packing and Douglas Starch Works. The factories closed, and a lot of those homes were destroyed in the massive 2008 flood. Since then, government and private investment, along with an increased preference for urban living among young professionals and empty-nesters, have renewed the neighborhoods as walkable places with some interesting local businesses. (More on the history of the district here.)

The new condos notwithstanding, Czech Village and New Bohemia are mostly "drive-to urbanism," with businesses catering to people who live outside the district with bars, restaurants and specialty shops. The National Czech and Slovak Museum (current facility opened in 1995, moved to higher ground and reopened 2012) as well as the African-American Museum of Iowa (current facility opened in 2003 and reopened 2009) are nationally known institutions. For day-to-day needs, like groceries, pharmacies, hardware, and schools, residents of these districts must go elsewhere in the city. Auto traffic from elsewhere is accommodated with huge parking areas.

Source: Google Earth

Czech Village and New Bohemia share a common ethnic heritage, a contemporary identity as tourist destinations, and a Main Street organization: the Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street District was created in 2009 to promote business development and historic preservation. Main Street also hosts events and sponsors building improvement grants. Abby Huff, a historic preservationist with previous Main Street experience, became the director of CVNB Main Street this year, following the long tenure of Jennifer Pruden, whose energetic leadership helped put the districts on a stable footing.

These synergies are limited by the semi-permeable barrier between them that is the Cedar River. The river is scenic, and is becoming less a potential menace as construction of flood protection proceeds. However, it is as wide as a large parking lot, which can create a disincentive to walk from one neighborhood to the other--at least enough to figure in most discussions of the district I've attended. To be exact, the 16th Avenue bridge is 228 steps across. (These are my steps. Your actual steppage may vary.)

Even from the outdoor tables at Kickstand Bike Bar, Czech Village seems a long way away

CityLab reported in 2015 on studies by Reid Ewing at University of Utah of factors affecting the choice to walk in New York City and Salt Lake City. The key factors in Salt Lake City were transparency, the ability of walkers to perceive human activity beyond the sidewalk (including busy buildings and parks, and a high proportion of windows), and imageability, something about the place that is distinctive and memorable (Bliss 2015, Jaffe 2015).

Cedar Rapids is close in size to Salt Lake City--population of the city proper is about 2/3 the size, though the metropolitan area is much smaller--so we'd expect the factors to be similar. New Bohemia (68) and Czech Village (71) have high Walk Scores, and score high on both of Ewing's dimensions.

So do newer stores like Soko Outfitters

On the New Bo side, the CSPS building houses Next Page Books and Frond Shop & Studio

Human activity in the outdoor seating area at Lion Bridge (Source: lionbridgebrewing.com)

Imageability: Clock tower by the bridge; behind it is the National Czech and Slovak Museum

Crowds gather for events at New Bo City Market

The bridge between them, the Bridge of Lions, constructed in 1910, is not uninteresting, either: it has periodic cutouts with benches and overlooks of the river. There's even human activity at times when people fish off the bridge.

Still, the river appears to be a barrier to pedestrian flow between Czech Village and New Bohemia. I expect it's mostly subconscious for most people. As City Lab writer Eric Jaffe points out, people don't choose whether and where to walk by "[s]tanding at a street corner calculating first-floor window ratios [which] would qualify as weird even by the outlier standards of New York City sidewalk behavior." Most people walk when and where they feel like walking--otherwise they walk somewhere else, or drive--and mostly those blocks turn out to be the ones with characteristics like the ones Ewing and his students identified.

The vast majority of people in Cedar Rapids, even those who frequent these trendy areas, get most places by driving cars. So it's easy to walk across 3rd Street from the New Bo City Market to get a beer at Parlor City, but walking over the river to Lion Bridge would never enter the mind as a conscious choice.

There are ways to make the barrier less superable. Attractions that are unique, or which somehow otherwise stand out as particular destinations, could prove impelling.

At 2nd St & 12th Av, Eduskate and 965 are one of a kind

The most obvious aspect of the barrier, though, is that neither side has built to the bridge. Recall that the Bridge of Lions is 228 Humble Blogger Steps (HBS) across. It is a mere 83 HBS from the bridge to Soko Outfitters on the Czech Village side, but 287 HBS on the New Bo side from the bridge to Little House Artifacts. Mad Modern might be marginally closer, but note well that it's farther from the bridge to the first non-bar attraction in New Bo than it is to get across the bridge. [Update: Mad Modern is closer to the bridge (233 HBS) than Little House Artifacts, but the distance to the bridge is still greater than the distance over the bridge.]

This is partly understandable, given the experience with flooding since 2008.

Sandbagging in New Bohemia, 2013

But the New Bohemia side carries buffering to an unnecessary extreme. The first thing you see coming over the bridge into New Bo is a vacant lot where there used to be a bar.

200 block of 16th Av SE: missing teeth? Punched in the mouth!

The next block in is also mostly vacant.

1300 block of 3rd St SE

Kickstand has opened across 16th Avenue since the South Side Tavern was taken down, and Little Bohemia and Tornado's are a little farther down, so maybe we don't need yet another bar on these blocks, but whoever owns this property needs to unclench their grip and let it happen. A small grocery would go far to making this area truly supportive of residences, and in turn the 24-hour life that would make real the vision of live-work neighborhoods on both sides of the river.

An alternative approach is to look at improving mobility across the river. Main Street Director Abby Huff likes to get across the bridge with the e-assist bikes newly available from Veoride.

Checking out the new bikes at the Market

Or, thinking way out of the box, a Sky Glider like they have at the Iowa State Fair!

Sky Glider Lift at the 2014 Fair (Source: flickr.com)

Put one end in Lot 44 and the other at the Kosek Bandstand. Why should Des Moines have all the fun?

Music to accompany this post:

SEE ALSO: Ben Kaplan, "A New Bohemian's Guide to New Bohemia," Corridor Urbanism, 3 August 2018