3rd Avenue is two-way!

parking, bike lane, auto lane all headed downtown

The City of Cedar Rapids completed an important step towards improved walkability when the last stretch of 3rd Avenue SE was opened to two-way traffic this week. The one-way-to-two-way conversion had been achieved in increments, but this final segment, from 13th to 19th Streets, is arguably the most important. It goes through Wellington Heights, a historic neighborhood whose decline was hastened by the transformation of its major streets into multi-lane one-way high-speed "auto sewers" (to use James Howard Kunstler's phrase) in the late 1950s.

Now that mistake has been undone. The streets are still wider than they probably used to be, but that width accommodates bike and parking lanes. Expect auto speeds to slow, which will improve the lives of cyclists and pedestrians, and will make the neighborhood feel like a neighborhood again instead of houses crouched on the edge of an expressway. (The one-way development occurred before the building of Interstate 380, which is an actual expressway.) Walking to school, or church, or Redmond Park, now is thinkable for 8-year-olds and 80-year-olds.

I really enjoyed watching the project unfold:

Aug 5: 18th St closed for redo of the intersection with 3rd

Aug 6: 3rd Av approaching 18th St

intersection of 3rd Av & 17th St

Aug 25: Squaring the intersection at Park Av

Squaring the intersection at Grande Av,
but with loss of access to 16th Street

View from 16th Street: You can turn east onto Grande,
and if feeling bold get over to 3rd

17th Street, Blake Boulevard, and a big pile of gravel

Sept 1: 17th Street which now ends in a cul-de-sac south of 3rd/Blake

3rd Av & 17th St

Longer view

Building bulbout at Park Avenue

3rd Av, 16th St and Grande Av with new improved sidewalk route

Sept 5: Ridgewood Terrace cul-de-sac

Sept 10: 19th Street approaching 3rd Av,
where four-way stop replaced traffic light

3rd Av & 19th St

Sept 20: Blocking off the left two lanes on 3rd Avenue

Sept 22: 3rd Av and Blake Blvd; 17th St cul-de-sac at right

Sept 29: finishing approach of Blake Blvd,
newly squared intersection

New crossing at Park Court

Oct 14: capping 17th St cul-de-sac

Blake Boulevard facing east from 3rd Av

Oct 16: 3rd Av & 19th St

3rd Av bike lanes striped

new sidewalk crossings at 3rd Av & 18th St

I'm blitheringly happy about this achievement, albeit with inevitable qualifications. Care will need to be taken that current residents don't suffer from their neighborhood's new attractiveness, and get gentrified out of it. I don't like it that it is impossible to access Redmond Park from 3rd Avenue, either by 16th Street (access closed) or Park Avenue (one way for one block, because residents protested city plans to change that). I'm ambivalent about closing parts of the intersections at 16th, 17th and 18th to through traffic, although for pedestrians the sidewalks still go through. [I'd thought there would be access for cyclists as well, but there isn't.] I would like to have more traffic controls. And the electronic crossing light by Redmond Park makes a constant "tink" noise that can be heard a block away. That would drive me crazy if I lived on that block.

Oct 23: Auto heading downtown on 3rd Av!

17th St cul-de-sac, with Blake Blvd not quite finished [It is, now]

crossing at Park Ct by Redmond Park (It's rather loud!)

All in all, a positive step. We are more than ever a community of people, rather than a network of car paths.

EARLIER POST: "3rd Avenue Conversion Coming Soon," 30 March 2019

A corner of urbanism

Visiting our son in Minneapolis last weekend, we found a delightful (and very popular) coffee/brunch place in a residential neighborhood in the southeast part of the city, near Lake Nokomis. I was struck by the activity and range of businesses at the corner of 52nd Street and Bloomington Avenue. From the surrounding neighborhood, a person could walk to the cafe as well as an insurance office, dentist, bookstore, plus-size closing store, and a Masonic temple.

That won't fill all your daily needs, of course, but it's a pocket of semi-walkability that is rare in my town. The residents have ready access to a small variety of things, but have to tolerate customers parking on their streets...

 ...maybe especially on Sundays at 10, when half the city seemed ready to pack itself into the Hot Plate--and the rest took refuge in the Irreverent Bookworm across the street. I mention this because traffic and parking are automatic objections whenever someone tries to make a neighborhood more walkable. Those are not irrelevant, but can't become absolute values in a walkable, inclusive community. For a little inconvenience, look what you get!


You could argue that the neighborhood is unusual. The Hot Plate is in Census tract 117.03, which is well-off (med income of $47423/yr puts in the top 10 percent of census tracts nationally), but is densely-populated (4252 people in 0.67 sq mi=6338/sq mi) with people who have chosen an older neighborhood (median home construction is 1939). Nevertheless, people have chosen to live in a place like this, and if such choices were available elsewhere they would be chosen there as well.

SEE ALSO:
"Letter from Washington (III)," 3 March 2018
"Envision CR IV: Neighborhood Stores," 28 May 2015
"Indulging in Urban Fantasy," 6 September 2014

Open Streets DC

I was fortuitously in Washington, DC, last weekend, when the city hosted its first Open Streets event. About three miles of Georgia Avenue was closed to cars. The meetings I was in town for meant I caught only the last hour of it, but it was amazing.

Open Streets began in Bogota, Colombia all the way back in 1976. A political science colleague mentioned he'd been to one in Mexico City, and that they do that one every year. Seattle was the first American city to hold such an event. The Minneapolis metro area hosted seven such events this past summer. [For more on Open Streets, and Washington's preparation, see Gardner 2019.)

The street chosen for the event was Georgia Avenue NW, which runs north-south between U Street and the DC-Maryland border. It is also US Highway 29, so is a main drag, although not a tourist magnet like Pennsylvania Avenue or Independence Avenue. The street is used mostly by locals, and traverses a number of ethnic-working class neighborhoods. Good tactical choice, then.

I took the Metro from Capitol Hill to the Georgia Avenue-Petworth station, which put me about halfway along the route. From there I walked north to Missouri Avenue. The turnout was impressive: people walking, running, cycling, and scootering, all along the way. It was also impressive for its diversity. A lot of urbanist events I've attended have a definite white, middle-class presence, but Saturday on Georgia Avenue there were large numbers of every racial group. It was a party.

There were few vendors present for the occasion, but the street offered plenty of refreshment and browsing opportunities.

Al fresco lunch with a great view of the action

 There was entertainment...

Music stage near the Metro station

Skateboard demos by the Petworth library

Drum circle

... and chalk art...

...as well as information booths representing the city...

...social service agencies...

...and cycling advocates.

Washington Area Bicyclists Association booth with demonstration protected bike lane

I didn't see any news media, which I mention only because Fox5, the local TV station which played constantly in the lobby of the place I stayed, was preparing its viewers for something like the apocalypse. The apocalypse did not happen. I walked past the barbershop whose worried owner they'd interviewed, and there were customers waiting inside, so he must have come through all right. The next day's newscast had no report on the event anyhow. [Radio station WTOP must have been there; they had this, non-alarmed report.]

Making way for an emergency vehicle

Which is not to say there weren't costs. In order to close the street to cars, every intersection had to be blocked off, which in that part of town meant not just streets but alleys. That added up to a lot of police cars, and police officers, which can't have come cheap. Buses had to be rerouted...

...and of course auto drivers had to find alternate routes.

Southbound Georgia Avenue traffic diverted at Missouri Av

Most service stations along Georgia appeared closed

So an Open Streets event is not an unalloyed good time, but a good time this one was. The energy on the street was incredible, and I imagine I wasn't the only one introduced to the attractions of Georgia Avenue. I got to the end of the route about the time things were closing down, and I caught a bus back to the Metro.

End of the Open: Emery Heights Park, Georgia and Missouri

Taking things down

Barely a block away from Georgia, we ran into gridlocked traffic at 9th Street. (Metro drivers are normally unflappable, but this was worth an "Oh my God!" from ours.) The negative energy of the stuck cars contrasted mightily with the Open Street I'd just left. I suppose one could conclude that messed-up traffic on other streets is another cost of the Open Streets event. What struck me most, though, was how the Open Street catered to people, while Missouri and 9th were catering to cars (albeit not very well). One block separated soul and soullessness. The costs of the suburban development pattern we've pursued for 75 years could not be clearer. (Cue this excerpt from Charles Marohn's new book, Strong Towns: A Bottom Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity [Wiley, 2019].)

SEE ALSO:
Open Streets DC page
Jennell Alexander, "Open Streets DC Brings Fun, Curiosity, Disruption to Georgia Avenue," DC North Star, 5 October 2019
"Security versus Urbanity?" 17 May 2013 [New York City plan to close a section of street to auto traffic]
"Woonerful Woonerful," 7 May 2018 [private DC development experiments with shared space]

Teatro de la Luna took advantage of the crowd going by

Lime e-scooter demonstration