Where are the metro's destinations heading?

Concealment: Art Alley in Uptown Marion

The last 15 years have seen dramatic transformation of three parts of the Cedar Rapids metropolitan area that are now destination neighborhoods: Czech Village and New Bohemia in Cedar Rapids, and Uptown Marion. (Cedar Rapids's MedQuarter is arguably a fourth.) These transformations have been driven by people with vision, Main Street districts in each town, increased appeal of urban experiences, and at least in the case of Cedar Rapids, an influx of government money in the wake of the 2008 flood.

To see these neighborhoods now, as at any time in the past fifteen years, is to view a photo that will be quickly outgrown. Each is in the process of becoming something, and what is now is not necessarily what will be. What is now is a combination of bars and restaurants, boutiquey shops, and vacant buildings and even vacant lots. There has been some new residential construction, particularly in the Cedar Rapids areas, tending towards apartments and condominiums. As such, these areas at this time provide both the advantages of delight per acre and the financial and environmental disadvantages of auto orientation. With a local economy primarily driven by non residents, all three areas have enormous amounts of surface parking, with all the attendant opportunity costs.

In Daniel Herriges's Strong Towns essay on delight per acre, he argues for city design "resulting in towns rich in sensory detail, intrigue, and serendipity [which] is an adaptation to the reality of a world in which many people want to occupy the same small area of land. It makes such living arrangements not only tolerable but appealing." He uses the example of Japanese gardens, with their rules of (1) concealment, (2) borrowed scenery, (3) asymmetry, and (4) miniaturization.

Borrowed scenery: the former landfill "Mt. Trashmore" looms over the patio at Kickstand

1. Is design an animating issue for people working on these districts? The neighborhoods are blessed with a number of activists who are conscious of design considerations as well as historic preservation, and they probably understand the value of small business, permanent residents, and not having parking craters or missing teeth. Do they have the political strength to make these visions reality, even in the face of developers who want to bring in a large store or "incompatible" building? 

2. What about connecting surrounding neighborhoods to the prosperity being built? New Bohemia in particular is an Opportunity Zone, because it's part of the poorest census tract in the county. The poverty is not in New Bohemia, of course, but in the adjoining neighborhood of Oakhill Jackson. Can development in New Bohemia improve the lives of people in Oakhill Jackson? Similar questions can be asked of Czech Village and Uptown Marion as well.

Asymmetry: 16th Avenue in Czech Village

3. What can be done to get vacant property owners off the bench? As we can see from the below, finished blocks in New Bohemia far outperform big-box stores when it comes to taxable value per acre, but large vacant properties nearby are barely competitive with sneezing.

AREA	# PROPER-TIES	LAND VALUE ($k)	IMPRVMENT VALUE ($k)	LAND AREA (acres)	VALUE PER ACRE
2645 Blairs Ferry Rd NE	1	1526.1	7514.1	17.970	503,072
3601 29th Av SW	1	4059.8	9496.6	23.890	567,451
1000 block 3rd St SE (even side)	5	119.4	2041.0	0.878	2,460,592
1000 block 3rd St SE (odd side)	7	74.7	194.6 (one finished bldg.)	0.769	350,195
200 block 16th Av SE (odd side)	5	98.8	789.0	0.769	1,154,486
200 block 16th Av SE	3	54.7	82.8 (one finished bldg.)	0.463	296,976

I understand flood protection on both sides of the river will not be completed until 2028 at the earliest. That's a lot of time for the Melsha Family, Acme Electric Company, and all to be sitting on a substantial amount of missing teeth. Can't anything be done to get them moving in the meantime? Is it time for a land tax?

Miniaturization: garden behind Little Bo's

These neighborhoods are, as I said, works in progress, on their ways to becoming something of which we're seeing only a little now. It's worth asking, even with our current limited level of knowledge, whether they are places to capture people's disposable income based on current trends and fashions, or on their way to being stable, diverse, resilient, walkable neighborhoods? Every project in the next few years needs to consider this question as a central concern.

SEE ALSO
"What's Up in Uptown Marion (II)," 15 February 2021
"I Wish This Parking Was...," 27 November 2020
"Bridging the Bridge," 26 June 2019

Alexander Garvin, The Heart of the City: Creating Vibrant Downtowns for a New Century (Island, 2019), chapter 6, includes six "lessons for any downtown." His broad definition of "downtown" includes all the districts discussed here:

1. Establish a distinctive downtown image that is instantly recognizable and admirable

2. Improve access into and circulation within downtown

3. Enlarge and enhance the public realm esp. reconfiguring space used by pedestrians, moving vehicles, and parking

4. Sustain a habitable environment downtown (trees, parkland)

5. Reduce cost of doing business for both governments and private actors

6. Flexible land use, building use and new construction