The urbanest places in Cedar Rapids?

Marion, Iowa has some charming aspects but is predominantly suburban

"Don't you dare call Marion a suburb," warns Lyz Lenz in last Sunday's Gazette, with the cautionary air of someone who may have at some time in the recent past committed this very faux pas. We at Holy Mountain are not afraid of such indiscretions (neither is Lyz, actually) because we're driven by data, at least such data as we can summon up the energy to compile.

In a post from last summer, I explored three classifications of urban and suburban places as identified by researchers at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies: 

1. census-convenient: the boundaries of the central city of a metropolitan area; 
2. suburbanisms: proportion of behavioral aspects including owner-occupied housing, single-family housing, and car commuting; and 
3. aspects of housing typology including density and median age. 

Other posts have referred to a City Observatory report defining the urban core as a three mile radius around the city center, and looked at parts of Cedar Rapids that have been designated Opportunity Zones. 

Now City Lab reports on a new paper by Shawn Bucholtz, Emily Molfino, and Jed Kolko that presents a multivariate model for predicting resident perceptions of whether their neighborhood is urban, suburban, or rural. The authors correlate survey results with characteristics of the places, producing the Urbanization Perceptions Small Areas Index (UPSAI). The model includes each of the three classifications above, as well as population density, household income, racial makeup (!), age distribution, and density of businesses and jobs. People's perception of whether their neighborhood is urban is affected by higher population and housing density, more black and Hispanic residents and fewer whites, lower incomes, more young and fewer older people, older housing, less car commuting, and greater density of businesses and jobs. Generally, rural areas feature the opposite profile, with suburban in between--except for household income, where rural is in between, but including housing age where the median age of housing is lowest in rural areas (Bucholtz, Molfino, and Kolko 2020: Table 8.5). They classify 19 census tracts in Linn County as urban, all in the City of Cedar Rapids itself, and (gulp!) none in Marion.

Now we have five definitions of urban vs. suburban in play, using a wide variety of factors, plus the 2018 nomination by local officials of seven tracts to be federal Opportunity Zones. Here are a few census tracts that stand out on a number of urban factors:

New bars/restaurants in the College District

Tract 18: Including much of the core Mound View neighborhood, this extends from 16th Street to 29th Street NE, from 1st Avenue as far as the railroad right-of-way. It includes Arthur School, built in 1914 and the oldest elementary school in Cedar Rapids, as well as Franklin Middle School, built in 1923. It played host to the Imagine Mound View event in 2017. The Mound View portion is also known as the College District, lying as it does between Coe College and Mt. Mercy University. It leads all tracts in the metro by far on population density (6,967/sq mi) and housing density (3,931/sq mi), and is one of five tracts whose average date of housing construction is 1939. It qualifies on all five definitions of urban. 

Coventry Lofts on 1st Avenue

Tract 19: Running from 16th St NE through downtown to the Cedar River, it includes portions of the core neighborhoods of Mound View and Wellington Heights. The downtown area has seen a resurgence of investment since the 2008 flood, including a Doubletree Hotel in the rebuilt U.S. Cellular Center (which the city still owns). It includes Coe College, which pays for my food and shelter; the northern half of the MedQuarter; and a number of historic Third Avenue churches. It is the most urban on all three of the suburbanisms categories, with 17.6 percent of housing being owner-occupied, 22.6 percent of housing single-family detached, and 44.2 percent of workers driving to work by themselves. It is one of five tracts whose average date of housing construction is 1939. It qualifies on all five definitions of urban, and was designated an Opportunity Zone in 2018. The UPSAI study rates this the most-likely tract to be considered urban by its residents (100% likely).

Condos on 1st St SW

Tract 22: Across the river from #19 is #22, which is bounded on the north by E Avenue NW and on the west and south by railroad rights-of-way. It too has seen a lot of new construction since the flood, and includes the area known as Kingston Village, so named because back in the day this was the separate town of Kingston. It includes McGrath Amphitheater, part of what will be a long greenway along the river; Mays Island which used to host the city government and still has the jail; and the intended site of our casino which will soon be developed into a destination called First and First. It has the highest percentage (29.9) of black non-Hispanic residents of any census tract, the lowest percentage (8.8) of those aged 62 and up, and the second-lowest percentage (62.0) of whites. It is one of five tracts whose average date of housing construction is 1939. It qualifies on all five definitions of urban, and was designated an Opportunity Zone in 2018. The UPSAI study rates this the third-most-likely tract to be considered urban by its residents (99.18% likely).

Roosevelt Middle School and Creative Corridor Business Academy.
Barack Obama spoke here in 2007

Tract 23: The UPSAI study rates this the second-most-likely tract to be considered urban by its residents (99.4% likely). It includes a couple blocks of the southwest side, but most of it is northwest, bounded by 1st Avenue, Edgewood Road, E Avenue, and the western border of #22. It includes Haskell Park, a pocket park named for the state senator who was instrumental in promoting construction of the Iowa portion of the Lincoln Highway, which ran down Johnson Avenue NW. It also includes some charming blocks east of the Johnson Avenue Hy-Vee. It's not particularly outstanding on any of the defining factors, but has unusually high population density (4,437/sq mi) and African-American population (13.4%).

House, "Hayes Park"

Tract 26: The UPSAI study rates this the fourth-most-likely tract to be considered urban by its residents (97.6% likely). It includes Riverside Park and the historic Czech Village neighborhood, extending south as far as Wilson Avenue SW, between J Avenue SW and the Cedar River. Much of the residential part of Czech Village was destroyed by the flood, and will now be greenway, but Sykora's Bakery remains, joined by vibrant new shops. Residential areas south of the Czech Village district remain, and were dubbed Hayes Park by Ben Kaplan. It qualifies on all five definitions of urban, as was nominated to be an Opportunity Zone. It has an unusually high percentage (6.1) of Hispanics as well as unusually low percentages of whites (71.8) and those aged 62 and over (11.1); its median household income ($36,548) is unusually low as well.

The ROC Center, formerly Oakhill-Jackson
Community Church

Tract 27: This tract includes the southeast side areas of New Bohemia and Oakhill-Jackson. New Bohemia used to contain a lot of artists' studios, and before that was home to the Sinclair meatpacking plant; since the flood it has gentrified at a breathtaking pace. Oakhill-Jackson historically has been home to the most black residents, and the tract as a whole still has the second-highest percentage (24.1) of black residents as well as the lowest percentage (59.4) of whites. It also has the lowest median household income ($22,738), second-lowest percentage of owner-occupied housing (28.1%), and third-lowest percentage of single-family housing (35.9%). It qualifies on all five definitions of urban, and was designated an Opportunity Zone in 2018.

Appendix: Leading Linn County census tracts on urban-determining factors:

POPULATION DENSITY: 18 (6967), 17 (5519), 4 (4936), 14 (4458), 23 (4437)

HOUSING DENSITY: 18 (3931), 17 (2400), 10.03 (2125), 4 (2089), 14 (2049)

OLDEST HOUSING: 12, 17, 18, 19, 22 (1939)

% OWNER-OCCUPIED (lowest): 19 (17.6), 27 (28.1), 2.07 (42.1), 10.03 (47.7), 7 (51.4)

% CAR COMMUTING (lowest): 19 (44.2), 13 (64.1), 108 (68.3), 27 (70.8), 22 (72)

% SINGLE-FAMILY (lowest): 19 (22.6), 2.07 (31.9), 27 (35.9), 30.02 (38.5), 10.03 (39.7)

% BLACK: 22 (29.9), 27 (24.1), 10.03 (17.1), 17 (16.2), 23 (13.4)

% HISPANIC: 9.01 (7.8), 10.03 (7.7), 29 (6.3), 19 (6.2), 26 (6.1)

% WHITE (lowest): 27 (59.4), 22 (62), 10.03 (69.5), 2.07 (69.8), 26 (71.8)

MED HH INCOME (lowest): 27 (22738), 19 (25887), 10.03 (33833), 22 (35577), 26 (36548)

% 25-34 W/ BACHELOR'S OR MORE: 2.07 (12.42), 8 (8.47), 11.02 (8.18), 18 (7.46), 2.03 (6.96)

% 62+ (lowest): 22 (8.8), 13 (9.6), 30.02 (10.3), 26 (11.1), 24 (11.7)

BUSINESS/JOBS DENSITY: 😞 [no data]

UPSAI LIKELIHOOD URBAN: 19 (1.000), 23 (.994), 22 (.9918), 26 (.9757), 25 (.9724)

urban on five defs, designated OZ: 19, 22, 27

urban on five defs, submitted for OZ: 26

urban on five defs, not submitted: 13, 18, 25