Greetings from New Carlisle!

 

Michigan Street (US 20), main street of New Carlisle

My recent conference experience in Chicago included a side trip to New Carlisle, Indiana, where a longtime friend has returned to the place she grew up. I don't know what I expected, but I found a pleasant burg with many of the admirable qualities of traditional small towns. 

"I live in a 15-minute city," my friend said, and she does. She lives a block from the center of town, which contains restaurants and coffee and ice cream, but also--and this is a key quality of walkable areas--groceries and hardware as well as a Walgreen's. Ben Kaplan wants vegetables with his urbanism--New Carlisle has vegetables, within a short though not particularly friendly walk from anywhere in town. 

Groceries By Joe is at the edge of town, where there are no sidewalks,
but they do have vegetables (Google Earth screenshot)

New Carlisle's population in 2020 was 1891, up exactly thirty over 2010: 91 percent are white, 2 percent black, and the rest other or multiple races. 39 percent are between ages 25 and 54, 14 percent are over age 65, on the young side of average for the State of Indiana. Median income and educational attainment are lower than Indiana as a whole, but so is poverty (data.census.gov). The town is bisected by U.S. 20 a.k.a. Michigan Street, but it is only two lanes wide through town, which at least by my brief observations seemed to slow the traffic whether local or passing through. So people on either side of the highway can walk to a terrific park:

Memorial Park, 300 W Michigan St
(Google Earth screenshot)

The middle and high schools are outside of town, but the elementary school is close to the center of town at the south end of the park...

Olive School, 300 W Ben St
(Google Earth screenshot)

...and the library is across the street from the school.

Olive Township Library, 408 Bray St
(Google Earth screenshot)

The most distant house I could find that qualified as in town was only 15 minutes' walk away from the library, according to Google, with sidewalks all the way.

A glossy brochure I scored in town offers a self-guided tour of New Carlisle's history and architecture, with 31 properties listed (23 residential, eight commercial) along with some good basic information on architectural styles. Anyone interested in functional historic preservation would not be out of place here.

building facades, 100 block of East Michigan Street,
showing Queen Anne (1892) and Italianate (1874) styles

New Carlisle is about halfway between Michigan City (pop. 32,075) and South Bend (pop. 103,453). Transportation out of town is probably going to be by car. Chicago is 2+ hours away by train, though; the South Shore Line train to Chicago stops at Hudson Lake, a 5-minute drive, and there's talk of moving the station to New Carlisle.

Would I like it here? I can't say for sure, as I've never lived in a town under 10,000 population, and I've spent my entire adult life in towns with at least one college. There is coffee to be had on Michigan Street, at both Carlisle Coffee and New Age Baking Company. And the accessibility of most things can't be beat.

Carlisle Coffee and Sweets, 203 E Michigan St
(Google Earth screenshot)

Discover New Carlisle webpage

SEE ALSO:

"Downtown Decorah," 25 September 2013

"Fairfield: Iowa's Minor Miracle," 22 August 2019

"More Like This (Galena, Illinois)," 27 March 2021

"Greetings from Washington (Iowa)," 22 July 2015

Local Policies for Inclusion

 

Palmer House Hilton, site of the Midwest Political Science
Association conference

Policies adopted by local governments directly impact the inclusion of immigrants into political life, according to a paper by Samantha Chapa, a Ph.D. student in political science at the University of Houston, presented at the 2023 meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. Ms. Chapa analyzed 31 policy choices of various cities, and found mixed but positive impacts on first and second generation immigrant participation in the 2020 general elections. She argued that pro-inclusion policies can provide both resource effects (e.g. jobs/employment) and interpretive effects (e.g. communicating a sense of welcome), both of which increase community ties for newcomers. 

Samantha Chapa (from uh.edu)

Her work is pertinent in this era of increased diversity and attention to immigration, and the expectation that these will only increase with future economic and environmental developments (See Steuteville 2021). Most places in America today reflect a historically white majority in their political and economic power structure. Some of our most diverse cities are also the most stratified--Washington, D.C., for example, where the median wealth of white families is something like 50 times that of black families. These cities can choose to try to maintain or broaden the voices in their community. (They can also try to be an enclave or a fortress, but let's not go there.)

Samantha Chapa commended the work of Welcoming America, a Georgia-based organization that advocates "inclusive communities becoming more prosperous by ensuring everyone belongs." They go on:

Whether it's due to the economy, immigration policies, or climate disasters, communities experiencing an influx of newcomers may not be prepared, causing misunderstanding and tension, and in some cases, outright violence and hostility. But when communities recognize the value [in] being truly welcoming and intentionally work toward the inclusion of newcomers, they can create a culture and policy environment where all residents feel empowered to work with each other in strengthening the social, civic, and economic fabric. When we find strength in our diversity--and actively resist fear and division--we can build a resilient community that fully harnesses the talents, skills, and contributions of every resident so that all can thrive.

Source: welcomingamerica.org

In other words, you can spend scarce resources keeping newcomers down and out, or you can work with them to build strong resilient places--a point I've made here, more than once. Welcoming America's Welcoming Standard includes seven goals, including attention to "leadership and democratic spaces," full use of the education system, leveraging all talents in the local economy, and diversity training of public safety staff.

That genuine inclusion requires more than merely ending policies of exclusion was shown the following night at the Gene Siskel Film Center, mere blocks from the site of the MPSA conference. The Australian documentary film "You Can Go Now" highlighted the struggles of aboriginal peoples after generations of usurpation and exclusion. 

Artist and activist Richard Bell, portrayed in "You Can Go Now,"
speaks to the audience after the film

One longtime activist stated towards the end of the film that there had been genuine legislative progress, particularly during the administration of Prime Minister Paul Keating (1991-1996), but that now many conditions were worse than ever for aboriginals. It's one thing to change laws, and by no means a small thing; but it's quite another matter to address socially ingrained alienation, suspicion, fear, and concentrated poverty. 

Other papers on the MPSA's Race and Local Politics panel--held Friday morning at 8, but well worth getting up for!--explored areas of local government policy where cities could opt (or not) for inclusion. Aliyah Jenille Mcilwain of Michigan State University found that support among long-time black residents of Detroit was not as high as one might expect for a state project to replace I-375 with a more urban-style development. I-375 when constructed displaced 130,000 mostly minority residents; maybe current residents see the new project as another chapter in policies being imposed upon them from outside? This is a widespread problem with planning and land use policy making, documented in a new study by the Urban Institute (Lo, Noble and Freemark 2023).

Gustavo Francisco Novoa of Columbia University and E. Grant Baldwin of UCLA (with three co-authors) looked at districting for city council elections. Most local government use at-large elections, with 8 percent (including Chicago) using districts and 9 percent (including Cedar Rapids and Washington, D.C.) using a mix of at-large and district seats. Nonwhite representation on city councils increases with the use of districts, but as Novoa showed with a Monte Carlo simulation, a lot depends on how local governments choose to draw the districts.

Which is pretty much where those of us with some power and privilege stand now: a choice of how we're going to face the future. Competitively or cooperatively? Inclusively or exclusively? Sustainably or exploitatively? For the time being at least, the choice is ours.

PAPERS CITED

E. Grant Baldwin, Dan Butler, Adam Michael Dynes, and Michelle Torres, "At-Large Elections and Descriptive Representation in U.S. Municipalities"

Samantha Chapa, "Inclusion and Participation: How Local Policy Affects Political Participation"

Aliyah Jenille McIlwain, "Reconstructive Reparations? A Survey of Government Performance and Perceptions in Southeastern Michigan"

Gustavo Francisco Novoa, "Coloring in the Lines: The Determinants of Majority Minority Districts and Descriptive Representation in U.S. City Councils"

Other panel participants were Athena M. King and Paru Shah.

SEE ALSO:

"The Neighboring Movement Comes to Cedar Rapids," 19 July 2022 

"Can Cedar Rapids Be a 'Receiver City?'" 28 December 2021

Coffee feelings

At 787 Coffee in Greenwich Village, the coffee is pricey but the epiphanies are free

Coffeehouses are more than places to buy coffee. The best ones are places to linger, to encounter both friends and strangers, supports for the local community as well as the local economy. In chapter 10 of his landmark The Great Good Place [DaCapo, 2^nd ed, 1999], which popularized the concept of "third places," Ray Oldenburg describes the origins of democratic coffeehouse culture in London and Vienna:

In the coffeehouse, men from all parties and stations could mingle in innocence of the old traditions. In the absence of an established press, face-to-face discussion in the permissive atmosphere of these second-story halls represented a single and vital mode of democratic participation. In the process of this unprecedented mingling, people became sensitive to one anothers’ situations and found common interests and sympathies. They soon discovered, as well, the strength of their numbers and their mutual stake in individual freedom. (1999: 189)

London coffeehouses were also centers of business entrepreneurship, and headquarters for literary lions like John Dryden, Joseph Addison, and Daniel Defoe. At the same time, those coffeehouses, like pubs and bistros, could be oases for their customers, “correctives” from “whatever mental and emotional states the daily struggle induces” (1999: 184). 

The splendid courtyard at Topolska 18, Belgrade

At their best, coffeehouses are places to be, not just places to buy. Achieving this in America, however, is hindered by our car-centered design, which makes life in public into a series of errands, and/or the cost of real estate in major cities, where proprietors can’t afford the space or the time for customers to hang out. 

I was visiting coffeehouses in New York City last month when I had a flash of clarity about what it feels like to be in a coffeehouse. The first two places I went had very little seating relative to the stream of customers, clearly designed for grabbing and going rather than lingering. We did stay awhile, but I was always conscious of the preciousness of the seat I occupied. The third had plenty of seating but was messy and aesthetically unappealing. Only in the fourth was I able to linger un-self-consciously, to watch and listen to the stream of people coming in, and to write most of the blog post on Greenwich Village. Maybe it was because it was Monday as opposed to Saturday or Sunday? The counterman did describe business as “slow,” though it seemed steady to me.

Sunday morning at Brewhemia, Cedar Rapids
(truth in blogging: 15 minutes later the line was out the door)

I know some people are in a hurry, and I’m certainly not one to tell anyone how to run a business or survive in the city, but the coffeehouse experience requires enough space and the right ambience to relax, enough other customers to provide interest (and income for the proprietor), as well as good things to eat and drink.

Selection of baked goods at Cafe St. Pio

 

 

Ideally the place also should be in a walkable area, with its own footprint adding at most a small parking lot. (Come to think of it, my list resembles Jeff Speck’s criteria for walking that should be purposeful, comfortable, interesting and safe.) 

Friendliness and whimsy are bonuses. 

Men's room at the Early Bird downtown,
which space is now occupied by the equally amusing Craftd 

Although we at Coe College lament the 2020 closing of our beloved Brewed Awakenings Coffeehouse, expanding our horizons just a bit to the core of Cedar Rapids gets us by my count eleven local coffee places. I patronize all eleven, because research, and am here to tell you each has its distinctive features that enhance a guest's experience. The four best of them feature:

·         Enough Space: not so big that you feel like an atom, but not so small that you can’t relax, with a warm ambience. Two of my faves are located on street corners; all have large front windows none of which face east, so there’s the right amount of natural light in the morning.

Facing northwest and southwest, Cafe St. Pio anchors a key block in Czech Village

·         Customer traffic: I don’t have data, but my hunch is that my two favorites do somewhat less business than the other two. As with the previous category, I’m groping for a sweet spot, enough to be interesting but not so much that the space can’t handle the crowd.

·         Closing time: I like my coffee breaks mid-morning, but sometimes you want to meet someone in the afternoon. 2:00 p.m. seems early to close, but it’s pretty typical of Cedar Rapids. One of my favorite four is open til 4:00, and the other, bless it, til 6:00. Three are open Saturdays, three Sundays, with earlier weekend closing times.

Craftd downtown is closed Saturdays, but open Sundays

·         Moderately priced coffee: Cheap is for c-stores, but by big city standards prices at our coffeehouses are eminently reasonable, about $3-3.50 for a 16-ounce drip coffee. (Your humble blogger likes his coffee humble as well.) Most places offer free or discounted refills as well, which encourages hanging out.

payment jar for refills at Brewhemia

For sociability, refreshment, and support for the local economy, you can't beat a good, accessible, reasonably-priced, ambient coffeehouse!

SEE ALSO:

"Coffee and Community in Belgrade," 29 May 2022

"Early Bird Cafe Closes," 8 March 2020

"Letter from Washington (V): Coffee on Capitol Hill," 2 April 2018

Jacob's Coffeehouse in Washington's Capitol Hill neighborhood:
cozy but not crowded

"Coffee in Cedar Rapids," Facebook note from 2011

Addison Del Maestro, "Coffee Shop Kind of Day," The Deleted Scenes, 24 May 2022

Ben Kaplan, "Downtown Cedar Rapids' Coffee Shops Ranked," Corridor Urbanism, 3 February 2019

10th anniversary post: The Place Where I Live

 

Rebuilding hotel/entertainment complex, 2013

I began Holy Mountain ten years ago this month, in the middle of a sabbatical semester studying the phenomenon of place. I must have had a lot of thoughts stored up... I wrote 14 posts in April 2013, a number I've never since matched. Heck, I'm glad to have done at least one for each of the next 120 months. 

During that first heady month, I wrote about my encounter with New Urbanism--I'm now a CNU member, and will be attending my first in-person conference next month--and my fundamental value of community, both of which became thematic staples of the blog. 

I went to Chicago in April 2013...

Jackson Boulevard, Chicago Loop (2013)

...and got two posts out of it. I yawped out my frustration at the persistence of racial prejudice, despite my efforts to reduce societal conflict to economic class. Little did I know what was coming, though I probably should have had more of an inkling. 

I wrote three posts on religious or sacred place, which I still think about, but haven't written about so much. Now that I've settled into familiar patterns, it's interesting to revisit a time when I could have gone any number of directions. 

McGrath Amphitheater downtown
hosting Jazz Under the Stars in 2014

After my first post introduced the project, I wrote about Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where I have lived for 34 years. I stated its population as 110,000, which was an old figure; the 2010 Census count was 126,326, and it grew to 137,664 in the 2020 Census. I talked about our "plenteous" cultural amenities, Downtown's recovery from the flood five years earlier, and the wonderful parks system, while dinging the city on historic preservation and walkability. 

Because we're a small city in a sparsely-populated state, we've felt rather free to sprawl.... It's very difficult to get anywhere in town without a car. Grocery stores are few and tend to be enormous, surrounded by enormous parking lots. The sidewalks in our neighborhood are nice, and the city has undertaken a sidewalk construction project.... But there's nothing within a five-block walk from our house except more houses and Brucemore [National Historic Site]. A lot of bars, restaurants, and stores are concentrated in hellish strips on Mt. Vernon Road SE, 33rd Avenue and Edgewood Road SW, and Collins Road NE, as well as around the two malls.

Black Friday 2021: Fleet Farm is the newest big-box arrival,
accessible from the Highway 100 extension

In another post later in April, I wrote about CRST's plans to build a large office building on 1st Street SE. And they did!

201 1st Street SE, with Alliant Building in the background

Most of my ten-year-old description of my city still applies. The MedQuarter area northeast of downtown remains "pretty much a dead zone except for the medical complexes." New Bohemia and Czech Village have been aggressively developed, with more core development to be facilitated by the construction of flood walls along the Cedar River. Right now commercial development in those places far outpaces residential, and what residential there is inclines to expensive condominiums, so these walkable core areas currently tilt to drive-to shopping and bars. (See Kaplan 2023, a piece that got a shout in Deleted Scenes, not that anyone here on Holy Mountain is at all jealous.) 

Despite these criticisms, I still spend a lot of time in those neighborhoods. And construction is well along on a number of apartment buildings downtown. More residential population can be the catalyst for a 24-hour downtown with stores and schools within easy walking distance. 

Construction continues at 4th Avenue and 5th Street SE

On the other hand, maybe it won't be... there is a large Hy-Vee Grocery Store with a generous parking lot five or six minutes' drive away. Auto-centric development tends to replicate itself: lots of people with cars need lots of parking, which takes up space that makes fewer places within easy walking distance.

Ten years have also seen substantial additions to the trails network, on-street bike lanes with some protected lanes, and extensive conversions of one-way streets back to two-way. It has been a privilege to watch the town develop, and I will continue to watch future development with interest.

SEE ALSO: "The Place Where I Live," 1 April 2023

Next Page Books, 2020:
A landmark in New Bohemia