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