Anniversary post: Taylor Area Neighborhood

 

Humble cartography of the Taylor Area, August 2013

Ten years ago, I crossed the Cedar River to examine the Taylor Area neighborhood on the southwest side. Complaints about crime had drawn attention to the neighborhood; ten years later, I can't say what was going on, much less whether it's gotten better or worse. (Crimegrade.org gives the Taylor Area an F grade, but I can't speak to its reliability or how old the data are.)

This much remains true:

The Taylor Area is one of Cedar Rapids's oldest neighborhoods. It is named for Taylor Elementary School, 720 7th Av SW; its official definition is coterminous with the school attendance area, which runs from the Cedar River to 15th Street, and from 1st to 16th Avenues. It has suffered a number of insults over the years: loss of [employers], the routing of Interstate 380 through the neighborhood, and most recently the 2008 flood which affected nearly the entire neighborhood and destroyed the school. (It has since been rebuilt and reopened.)

Eight blocks from the river!
2008 flood marker at school

The most notable changes in the Taylor Area since 2013 have occurred between the river and I-380, where in the wake of the flood has emerged Kingston Village, named for the town of Kingston which existed there before it merged with Cedar Rapids back in the day. 

450 1st Street SW, November 2008
(Google Earth screen capture)

450 1st Street SW today
(Swiped from hobarthistoricrestoration.com)

A lot of condos and bars have been built, and it plays host to the exceptional social service agency Matthew 25, as well as one of the core's most popular coffeehouses.

120 3rd Ave SW, June 2012
(Google Earth screen capture)

120 3rd Ave SW today
(swiped from dashcoffeeroasters.com)

The casino planned for a key block on 1st Avenue has been replaced by a multi-use building featuring apartments, a hotel, a brewery, and pickleball courts (Pratt 2022). This is way, way better. I've heard the casino may be attempted again a few blocks north of 1st Avenue, though.

The transformation of Kingston is reflected in American Community Survey data for census tract 22, to which it imperfectly corresponds (see map below): from 2010 to 2020, the percentage of college graduates increased from 8.1 to 12.9 percent, and the percentage of those aged 20-24 jumped from 7.1 to 16.2 percent. Median household income has increased from $30423 to $51500.  The percentage of elderly residents dropped from 9.0 to 6.0 percent. At the same time, Blacks increased from 9.6 to 21.2 percent.

Census tract 22 (from the sadly defunct density.website)
1st Avenue is blue, I-380 is yellow

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, change has been less perceptible. Census tract 24, which covers most of the rest of the Taylor Area, has also become more racially diverse; here, however, median household income has marginally declined, from $47031 to $44897. Taylor School has been reinvented as a magnet school, Cedar River Academy, which specializes in sustainability. According to their website they have 241 students, which would be down quite a bit from earlier years. 

Sustainability in action: Garden at Cedar River Academy

Sustainability in question: Bike rack at Cedar River Academy

The Taylor Area has the ventral location and good bones you'd expect in a core neighborhood, though connections could be improved. 3rd Avenue has been restored to two-way traffic, as has 2nd Avenue below 6th Street, but 15th and 16th Avenues remain one-way thoroughfares. Bus route 10 now runs every 45 minutes throughout the day, both ways along 1st Avenue and Williams Boulevard to Edgewood Road--not optimal frequency, but an improvement in convenience for this area. 

Even within the neighborhood, getting around is not always as easy as it could be. A lot of the side streets are broken up by the railroad and the interstate, pushing pedestrians and bikers as well as cars onto the thoroughfares. It's clear transit service could be improved by greater frequency through the day, and I still think there would be benefit from a direct bus connection across the river from, say, 8th Avenue SW to Mt. Vernon Road SE. 

Walkability would be improved by more options for basic services like grocery and drug stores, but mostly by calming traffic on the major thoroughfares (1st Avenue, 15th/16th Avenues, and 6th Street). For example, 526 7th Avenue SW is a duplex, built in 2020 on a vacant lot by my friend Eric Gutschmidt, across 6th Street from Reed Park and Taylor School. 

526 7th Avenue SW (Google Earth screenshot)

The WalkScore for that address is an impressive 77, compared to 34 for the city as a whole. Yet sending small children from Eric's duplex across the four lanes on 6th street to play at the park by the school would make me anxious, given the speed of auto traffic.

That playground in the picture above is
on the school campus, so access is limited

Looking forward to 2033, will the prosperity of Kingston Village spread to the rest of the Taylor Area? Can Taylor School serve as a base for neighborhood persistence? If prosperity does spread from Kingston Village to the rest of the Taylor Area, will it spread it a way that includes current residents, or will they be displaced? Will the 20-24 year olds in those new condos still be around when they're 30-34? Can we find children a place to play before 6 p.m.?

SEE ALSO: Matthew 25 video "Transform Week 2023" (2:55) filmed in Taylor Area and Time-Check neighborhoods

Also 10 years ago: the new downtown library opened