Connecting the dots, and the city, at 1900 1st Av NE

1900 1st Ave NE from across the intersection (Google Maps screen capture)

This week the Cedar Rapids City Council is expected to adopt the Community Climate Action Plan produced by its appointed advisory committee after much public discussion (Payne 2021a). Among its provisions is improving neighborhood walkability. "In a 15-minute walk, you should be able to meet most of your basic needs, whether it be a grocery store, whether it be healthy food, whether it'd be a park, whether it be a retail store, perhaps," city sustainability coordinator Eric Holthaus told the Gazette. "This will be challenging to do certainly in some areas, but it's the vision that we have and is important."

Jeff Speck in Cedar Rapids, 2015

In their urbanist primer Suburban Nation (North Point Press, 2000, chapter 4), Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck list four prerequisites for street life: meaningful destinations accessible on foot; safe streets for bicyclists and pedestrians; street trees and buildings that provide a comfortable feeling of enclosure; and signs of human activity.

A principal challenge to both walkability and climate action is our city's streets network, which was developed with the primary goal of moving cars. Exhibit A is 1st Avenue, a five-lane megastroad that carries X cars per day through many of our core neighborhoods and downtown. It is, I can tell you from personal experience, quite a challenge to cross safely on foot or on a bike.

Crossing 1st Avenue: My current tactic is to lurk here and wait for a break in traffic

So, the current debate over the former Western Fraternal Life Association building at 1900 1st Avenue NE is about more than preserving a midcentury modern office building, or a brewing conflict between the property owner and residents of the surrounding neighborhood. It is about what kind of city we will be, and how well we can connect, in this case, the Mound View and Wellington Heights neighborhoods.

Until recently this was the headquarters of the Western Fraternal Life Association insurance company. Kwik Trip recently bought the property and wants to build a campus on the site with a Kwik Star convenience store, gas station, and carwash. Their business record is impressive; other Kwik Stars in Cedar Rapids have significantly higher taxable values per acre than comparable businesses. The taxable value per acre for a convenience store (BP?) at 4141 Center Point Road NE was $614,000 in 2017; the new Kwik Star at that location, minus car wash, scores over four times as much ($2,851,707). Their plan may or may not represent the "highest, best" use of the property, but their financial case is good. That's not the problem (although its likely impact on surrounding property values is beyond my power to estimate).

The main problem is that, with the stated intent of improving neighborhood walkability, the city by approving this plan would be making it worse. It would facilitate driving at a time when we need to encourage alternatives, and would make crossing any part of that intersection more difficult by adding more traffic from more directions. It would be harder for students from the southeast side to walk to Franklin Middle School, and harder for anyone to walk from one side of 1st Avenue to the other. The store portion Kwik Star might be a destination, but would require crossing an active parking lot, and the proposal clearly fails on Duany et al's second and third dimensions. The climate crisis requires better.

A better use of the property, for walkability and climate friendliness, would be a commercial operation that would serve the needs of people above 19th Street, possibly including additional residences. More people walking would be good for the climate and good for their health, and the right use of that property might stimulate development along A Avenue as well.

Which leads me to the other problem: Why are corporations the ones who so often are driving the development discussions in the city? What can we do to help local businesses be the ones meeting basic needs? This year's mayoral election is not encouraging. A recent candidate forum at the Olympic South Side Theater produced the following ideas (Payne 2021b): more conversations as well as support for NewBoCo and the Metro Economic Alliance (Tiffany O'Donnell); partnership with Kirkwood to provide technical assistance (Brad Hart); more conversations, better career education, and removing barriers like child care (Amara Andrews); and "jobs jobs and jobs" (the artist formerly known as Greg Hughes).

Technical assistance and child care are a start, but we can and must do better. Stacy Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance offers eight policy strategies cities can use to support local businesses in her article appropriately entitled "8 Policy Strategies Cities Can Use to Support Local Businesses." These include zoning for multi-story pedestrian-oriented districts, set-asides for local businesses, a business diversity ordinance, an adaptive reuse program for vacant buildings, redirecting economic resources, and finding ways to expand access to capital which is not a problem for corporations like Kwik Trip. Any combination of these would facilitate better ideas for 1900 1st Avenue NE.

A car-dependent city full of convenience store-car washes is going to achieve peak car shininess, but will not achieve environmental or financial resiliency. For that we need infrastructure and local businesses that encourage less energy use and keeping our dollars in town.

SEE ALSO: Ben Kaplan, "Would It Make Cedar Rapids Better If This Was Torn Down for a Gas Station?" Corridor Urbanism, 9 September 2021

While we're at it, could we lose this terrifying slip lane? Slip lanes encourage faster driving, and make walking neither safe nor comfortable. Save them for the Interstate Highway System.

(19th & 1st again; Google Maps screen capture)