Even a pretty MedQuarter isn't right

 

Entering the MedQuarter on 4th Ave at 6th St SE

Public art, gathering spaces, and coffee carts were among features proposed to the general public by staff of the MedQuarter District at a series of open houses last week. A series of story boards offered a wide range of possibilities, and hence of visions, for the roughly 1.5 square mile district on the east edge of downtown.

The district stretches from St. Luke's Hospital (1026 A Avenue NE)...

 ... to the environs of Mercy Hospital (701 10th Street SE), whose campus now stretches across 8th Avenue.

While some features might be more or less attractive to staff, patients, and city residents...

...overall the MedQuarter concept is a suboptimal use of this space.

Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church (512 6th St SE)

Long ago, the land between 5th and 12th Streets East was full of city residents. An old picture I've seen of Bethel AME Church shows it surrounded by small houses. Today, the church remains, but sits by itself on the otherwise empty block. In thinking about the future of Cedar Rapids, and the need for affordable housing in walkable proximity to work and school and play, we need to restore historic neighborhoods like Oak Hill instead of emptying them out.

Some current MedQuarter restaurants

The vibrancy of downtown depends on connection to surrounding areas. Too much of the core, in spite of a couple thousand apartments coming online this year, remains oriented to attracting shoppers and diners from elsewhere (so, lots of bars and hair salons, no groceries or hardware). The Wellington Heights neighborhood on the southeast side is the densest in Cedar Rapids, but has no commerce of its own. The restaurants and bars and music venues of the core are fairly close by, but the walk there is bleak and barren.

You want parking? We got parking

There are ways of making that walk less unpleasant, with streetscapes and pocket parks and better lighting. A radical revision of the district could even cut back on its surface parking habit and go in for a dense mix of housing and small shops. Any of this would improve on what's there now, but I feel like I'm voting among false choices.

The fundamental purpose of the MedQuarter is to serve folks like Sophia and Jason here (and me) with hospitals and clinics that of necessity rely on outside clientele like them, and so need a great deal of territory where we can put our cars. Nothing that requires as much parking as the MedQuarter does belongs where the MedQuarter is.

Expansion?

SEE ALSO: "Filling in an Empty Quarter (II)," 25 October 2013