Can Cedar Rapids be a "receiver city?"

What we're going to need more of
(Swiped from Optikos Design Inc. via cnu.org)

2021 U.S. Census estimates show continued slow growth for the State of Iowa. Cedar Rapids may be one of the best cities in America for millennials to get rich, but neither this designation by Money magazine nor our super-competitive housing prices have led to a stampede of Californians. In fact, the latest Census data show few stampedes anywhere away from cities, despite the potential for additional volatility during the pandemic, and despite prominent memes to the contrary (Frey 2021, Fry and Cohn 2021).

Cedar Rapids 2020 population was 137,710, up 9 percent from 2010, a touch higher than the 7.4 percent rise for the country as a whole. (2021 estimates are not available at this time.) Another 9 percent gain in the 2020s would get us to the neighborhood of 150,000, which is where a housing needs survey commissioned by the city has us; adding Marion and Hiawatha gets it over 200,000 (Maxfield Research 2020: 13). That assumes the same routine growth in the near-future as in the recent past, without any surge of in-migration (or sudden out-migration).

In the longer run, however, climate change may provide a greater impetus for people to move here than  has our low cost of living. Iowa is not a Great Lakes state, but we can almost see them from our houses, and we share enough attributes with our neighbors that this statement by the Council of the Great Lakes Region might well apply to us: The bi-national Great Lakes mega-region, claims Council CEO Mark Fisher, which surrounds the largest freshwater in the world and is home to 107 million American and Canadians as well as a significant regional economy in North America, will be the destination of choice for many around the world who are seeking refuge from a rapidly changing climate and new economic opportunities.

"Receiver cities" are those places likely to receive climate-induced migration from regions plagued by increased incidence of floods, droughts, dangerous heat, and violent competition for resources. A panel at last spring's Congress for the New Urbanism conference focused on Buffalo and Cleveland, which are post-industrial cities that have lost a lot of population in the last half-century, and thus have an ideal combination of inexpensively available space in a traditionally-developed core. (Cleveland hit its peak city population of 914,808 in 1950, when most of the city would still have been traditionally-developed. The 2020 population is 59.2 percent below that, suggesting there's plenty of room for new arrivals.) Cedar Rapids has a history different from those of Buffalo, Cleveland, Flint, and Youngstown, but the city center is still building back from the 2008 flood, not to mention the out-migration of residents and businesses in the decades before that. So why not us?

Why not us? How I answer that question can vary from day to day, but that need not detain us here. It was a rhetorical question, anyway! According to Robert Steuteville, editor of CNU's journal Public Square, there are ways cities can prepare for a potential influx of climate refugees (Steuteville 2021). Fortunately, since we can't predict whether or when or how large this influx will be, the CNU approach is designed not to develop acres and acres of empty space, but will improve service to current residents as well. It's like Strong Towns says...

Here are Steuteville's eight recommendations:

1. Build more sustainably, including enabling car-free living. Nicole Dieker (2019), who moved here from Seattle, managed car-free at least for awhile, but it was more work than most people are able to do, particularly when you can get anywhere in town by car in 15 minutes. Bike infrastructure is improving, but public transportation has circuitous routes and limited hours of operation. The Urban Transitions website argues even more greenhouse gas emissions can be averted through changes in building.
2. Focus on the "missing middle" to grow population in existing neighborhoods. The Cedar Rapids City Council just authorized accessory dwelling units by right in all areas of the city (Payne 2021). This is an important step, but most important in the center of the city, which has the greatest potential for sustainability, walkability, urban living, or whatever you care to call it. 
3. Bring downtown back, with mixed-used buildings to add residents and businesses. The new construction in the "Banjo Block" on 4th Avenue SE, which will add 224 new apartments on a former brownfield area (Green 2020), is a huge addition. So are the 110 units planned for New Bo Lofts south of Geonetric. We need to figure out a way to liberate valuable land that's not being used, such as in the 1200 block of 2nd Avenue SE, and the 1000 block of 3rd Street SE. I would look strongly at a land value tax. I'd also like to talk the MedQuarter out of the vast wasteland they're creating between downtown and Wellington Heights.
4. Convert single-use commercial corridors to mixed use. Are we talking about Collins Road? Or Wiley Boulevard? I don't think so... they're too far gone to do cost-efficient sprawl repair, and too far away from the center to be much help. There are some interesting developments on the west side, on 1st Avenue and Ellis Boulevard, for example. I'd like to see more of this on 6th Street West, 1st Avenue East, and maybe other strips close to the core.
5. Be competitive rather than waiting for the seekers of cheap dry land to find you. A month ago I wrote the calls for change by mayoral candidates Amara Andrews and eventual winner Tiffany O'Donnell were "refreshing in a town where the political culture can be maddeningly complacent." Changes should consider future residents, who will be different from current residents, and why they should move here and not Duluth.
6. Tear down unnecessary freeways as Rochester NY and Milwaukee already have done. Shall we talk about this? The Gazette had a brilliant long article Sunday on the destruction of the Little Mexico neighborhood in the 1960s to make room for I-380 (Jordan 2021a), and in the 1990s my student Darcie Carsner did an honors thesis on how the route was plowed through the western end of Czech Village (Carsner 1996). There were neighborhoods then... they could be neighborhoods again! Counterpoint: Iowa Department of Transportation planner Cathy Cutler justified widening  the highway on the grounds that "People are uncomfortable on 380 at four lanes. That's why we're expanding to six lanes" (Jordan 2021b). So we're going to be limited by what makes drivers "uncomfortable?!"
7. Reform zoning to allow #1-6. Cedar Rapids has taken some important first steps; besides allowing accessory dwelling units, we have adopted a form-based code and revised or eliminated parking minima.
8. Implement a walkability plan, correcting decades of auto-centric engineering. Cedar Rapids adopted a pedestrian master plan in December 2019, which you can find here. It contains 18 policy strategies aimed at developing [1] "a connected pedestrian network that links popular destinations year-round" and [2] "a culture of walking." There are some interesting proposals for more sidewalks and better promotion of the benefits of walking, but in terms of what Steuteville identifies as needing undoing--"one-way streets, excessively wide lanes, turn lanes, too little pedestrian space, and other design factors"--we've made a good start. The vast majority of our one-way pairs have been restored to two-way traffic.

Before (Google Maps screenshot from 2008)

After (2021): How my neighbors feel about this change
says a lot about how they feel about anyone walking

To hear some tell it, the city could accommodate growth to 200,000, and the metro to 250,000 or 300,000, simply by sprawling ever outward, and widening I-380 to six or maybe eight lanes. This strategy is ultimately self-defeating from both financial and environmental perspectives. (See Davis 2021.) To accommodate future growth, we should do what we should be doing anyway (and some of which we are already doing): urbanism.

SEE ALSO

Lavea Brachman and Eli Byerly-Duke, "Legacy Cities Can Think Big for Transformative Impact with ARP Funds," The Avenue (Brookings), 12 October 2021

Darcie Carsner, Ethnicity in American Political Participation: The Case of the Czech Village (Coe College, 1996)

Maxfield Research and Consulting, "Comprehensive Housing Needs Update: City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa," February 2020

Robert Steuteville, "Eight Ways for 'Receiver Cities' to Prepare," Public Square: A CNU Journal, 9 December 2021

Age-Friendly Community

Bike to Work Week celebration crowds the bike lane on 3rd St SE

In 2019 my town of Cedar Rapids joined AARP's network of Age Friendly States and Communities, which that organization defines as "a framework for state and and local leaders that make communities more livable for people of all ages."

Age-friendly communities make it easy for people to live their best lives at every age. They offer diverse housing and transportation choices, safe and accessible public spaces, and ways for people of all ages and abilities to participate in their community. 

They urge localities to think in terms of eight domains of livability: (1) outdoor spaces and buildings, (2) transportation, (3) housing, (4) social participation, (5) respect and social inclusion, (6) work and civic engagement, (7) communication and information, and (8) community and health services. A recent citywide survey, part of the Age-Friendly Community process, asked us to rank these in order of urgency. I chose housing, in part because everything else is way more difficult if housing is uncertain. I also prioritized places to go (#1 and #6), ways to get there (#2), and the ability to participate (#5).

The AARP's effort is similarly-themed to 8 80 Cities, a Toronto-based organization founded in 2007 by Guillermo "Gil" Penalosa. The numbers in their name refer to age: We believe if everything we do in our public spaces is great for an 8 year old and an 80 year old, then it will be great for all people. Their main foci of their mission are "mobility and public space." The range of the projects covered on their website is fascinating:

• My City Too, advocating "a more child friendly Toronto" by enabling "outdoor free play and independent mobility"
• Creating Parks and Public Spaces for People of All Ages, a step-by-step guide to inclusiveness on a budget, in which they partnered with AARP
• Addressing Homelessness in Parks, another collaboration with AARP, a guide to making parks inclusive of all, even the unhoused (see also Owens 2021)
• Wintermission, a toolkit to get communities through the winter together, including these flashcards to facilitate public discussion

And that's just a sampling. And when the city's Age Friendly City survey asked for where our city had done well and where it needed to do more, it was the 8-80 concept that guided me as I answered off the top of my head. I am 62, but have aspirations to be 80, as well as strong hopes that our young people can explore their world independently and safely.   

Where has the community done well?

We have an impressive array of parks, from neighborhood pocket parks like Tomahawk...

to multi-acre multi-use parks like Bever where you can swing on a swing, pet the farm animals and quack at the ducks, smell the flowers, have a picnic, hear the municipal band, and/or hike in the woods.

We have bike lanes on key streets, having managed a transition from do-the-best-you-can to painted lanes to separated lanes in congested areas. 

Protected bike lane on 3rd Avenue SE (from city website)

We have more sidewalks and trails than ever. This sidewalk on K Avenue NE serves as both an extension of the CeMar trail and a safe route to walk to Garfield Elementary School and Franklin Middle School.

Sidewalks are critical for walking in neighborhoods, whatever shape you're in and whatever speed you go, and it's sad that so many people still resist them.

How can the community become more "age-friendly?"

We could make it easier to get around by slowing car traffic so that it's safer to walk and cycle.

Why is it so hard to walk to the 1st Avenue Hy-Vee?

We need more affordable housing options for families and seniors in walkable neighborhoods. 

Missing middle housing on Grande Avenue SE

Snow removal needs to include pedestrian access to the streets. This is difficult, because we have so large a street network that it's all they can do for workers to keep those clear, but not everybody drives.

Wall between sidewalk and street along 2nd Avenue SE

Transit that is affordable and convenient helps people who aren't or shouldn't be driving. We made some modest moves towards more emphasis on human ridership (as opposed to geographic coverage) when we started running buses up 1st Avenue East every 15 minutes. We can't do this for the entire city, but we should explore more opportunities to provide frequent service along direct routes.

Route #2 covers the southeast side

Entrepreneurship isn't the answer to everything, but I'd say policy preference for local businesses would lead to more options (entertainment, dining, employment, shopping) for people of all ages and incomes.

Our city, like all places, will face many challenges and opportunities in the future, and it's understandable to focus on each in isolation from the others. But having signed on to Age-Friendly Communities in addition to Blue Zones, and having produced a climate action plan, we are ready with principles to guide our policy decisions.

 SEE ALSO: "Out of the Mouths of Babes," 23 April 2019

Book Review: Confessions of a Recovering Engineer

 

16th Avenue SW, Cedar Rapids

Charles L. Marohn Jr., Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town. Hoboken NJ: Wiley, 2021.

What is the purpose of transportation? Charles Marohn's seminal contribution to this topic has been to note that it depends on where the transportation is occurring. Sometimes it is to get from one place to another quickly and safely; sometimes it is to get around within a productive place. In the first case, you want a road, with the best American examples being the interstate highways between metropolitan areas. Within places, you want a street that accommodates a variety of uses including but not limited to or even favoring automobiles.

America's greatest development mistake has been decades of urban design that practically makes a motor vehicle a requirement for participating in society, and results in streets that try to be roads at the same time: stroads are high-speed roads that also feature commercial development that draws a lot of auto traffic. They are financially unproductive, as he explored in his previous book, Strong Towns (Wiley, 2020), but they are also dangerous. (See especially chapter 2.) It is the safety (or lack thereof) of the places where people live that is the focus of the current book.

The statistical analysis and critical thinking that inform this work are framed by three powerful stories. In the introduction he recounts a conversation between pre-awakening Chuck and a woman whose property is about to be severely impacted by a road-widening project and who can't understand Chuck's explanation of why it will improve her life. (Spoiler alert: It won't improve her life, because, as he comes to realize, "improvements" like these make people's lives worse not better.) Then in chapter 1, we meet the Gonzalez family of Springfield, Massachusetts, whose daughter was killed by a car as they made their way from the public library to the parking lot; young Destiny is lifted from the bin of statistics to stand for all the people who are killed on stroads as they try to go about their daily lives. Finally, in the final chapter, Marohn recounts his own harrowing experience, as he too narrowly missed becoming a victim of design. These stories give life, meaning and purpose to the analysis.

Mt. Vernon Road SE near where two boys on a scooter were badly injured in June

Marohn's most important early premise is that transportation is not neutral, nor strictly technical as engineers might (and apparently do) conceive it. It is a question of values. If we design streets to move cars faster while putting everyone else at greater risk, that's a choice that reflects the city's values. Marohn's mission is to make explicit the values implicit in transportation design. Who matters? What matters?

His hope with this book is to introduce Americans to what previous generations enjoyed: "great streets" (the title of chapter 5). Great streets exist for the purpose of "wealth creation," which in turn "is really about building the capacity to endure over time" (pp. 66-67), allowing for adaptation over time, especially incremental growth. This only works when the growth occurs in ways that increase the city's assets faster than its liabilities: "A city can build miles of streets [to move a high volume of vehicles], but if there is not enough private sector investment on those streets to offset the ongoing maintenance costs, the community is merely growing poorer" (p. 68). Making a street a better place to live increases land value, and land value per acre is the quickest way to measure community wealth. Incremental growth, rather than frozen zoning or large-scale developments, is the way to do this:

Single-family homes add garage apartments or convert into duplexes. Duplexes are redeveloped to become fourplex units. Commercial buildings are subdivided to allow more tenants. Gaps are filled in. Space is used more productively. (p. 71)

We find ourselves back at the financial analysis of the first book. Marohn argues that transportation choices must serve this basic reality, but also that "a prerequisite for building wealth is that a street be safe" (p. 66). The traditional grid pattern does this; the arterial/collector system not only does not do this, it creates traffic congestion and the temptation to widen streets into stroads (ch. 6). He picks apart the analyses used to justify widening streets and bashing highways through towns (ch. 8). Roundabouts do this, if and only if correctly; traffic lights do not, and they waste time and encourage aggressive driving (ch. 7). Chapter 7 may deserve its own post, given that so many of my fellow Cedar Rapidians are convinced roundabouts are spawns of Satan.

In chapter 9, he uses the same logic to discuss public transit. This "is the only way to overcome the geometric space limitations of the street while still building wealth," because buses don't require huge parking lots, but only if it is run with a service orientation i.e. frequent and reliable runs between places of value: "All the public employees, lawyers, accountants, salespeople, clerks, and everyone else working in the core downtown should find it ridiculously convenient to board... and get to wherever they need to be to conduct business in the core downtown" (p. 157). Cedar Rapids's coverage orientation means buses spend a lot of time and money serving areas with few riders, making transit a drain on resources at the same time it is a non-starter for all but the truly desperate.

These are the highlights of a book that dips into additional transportation-related topics like scooters, rideshare, the impractical ideas of Elon Musk, and why police should discontinue routine traffic stops. All are in service of making transportation work, in a safe, financially-sound way, to build communities for people. I could use fewer long block quotes from the first book, which is consistently referred to with its full title and subtitle, but on the whole Marohn is a fluent and passionate writer with a lot of hard evidence to support his arguments.