Entrance, 803 3rd Avenue SE (approaching intersection with 8th Street)
Nearly a year after the closing of the 1st Avenue Hy-Vee, Waterloo-based S International Market opened a second location near downtown this spring. They specialize in South Asian cuisine, while also having a variety of basic offerings for any taste. The building was previously a Jeff Jones furniture outlet, and before that Hawkeye Seed Company; back in 1953 it housed the Kadlec Brothers Studebaker dealership on what used to be Auto Row. S International Market is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. It is not in a residential area, but is conveniently walkable to a lot of people east of downtown. The entrance is off the sidewalk on 3rd Avenue; its modest parking lot is east of the building.
The first section past the entrance has a wide variety of snack food. The health and beauty aids section is a sharp left turn once inside the door. Along the windows facing 3rd Avenue are gigantic bags of rice and other staples, enough to feed any size crowd or supply any prepper.
Looking through windows at great big sacks
I'd brought a short list for a pickup shopping the first time I visited, not really knowing what lay beyond the rice. They have a large selection of meat and eggs, but their milk collection was one gallon of whole milk. I didn't find yogurt in the cooler, which surprised me. When I asked the woman at the checkout, she found me their last bottle of yogurt drink, which didn't serve.
far aisle: cooking pots and more rice, produce cooler
meat selection
For Pooh: Honey and condensed milk (I couldn't find the "international preserves," though; I could have asked)
Coffee aisle; they also have an outstanding selection of teas
The coffee aisle included a variety of "white" coffee, which I hadn't previously encountered. According to Johny Morrison's highly informative Coffee About site, white coffee is a coffee bean that hasn't been roasted long enough to make it brown. (S International Market also sells "brown" coffee, another new term on me, but that's merely what before today I would have just called "coffee" [Color With Leo 2025.]) White coffee has a "nutty and earthy flavor profile," but are so dense and hard they can ruin home grinders (Morrison 2024).
They do not sell wine, beer or liquor.
I'm glad S International Market is in the area. For many people in Cedar Rapids it is their closest grocery store. If I were to do a serious shopping there, though, I would have either (a) to prepare by accompanying another shopper who knows what they're doing, or (b) just to plan my meals around whatever I can find, which could be fun but risky if you are cooking for someone else.
Today's haul at home: drinks and candy
S International Market joins Saigon Market, 803 2nd Avenue SE, one block away. Hornbill Asian Market, 1445 1st Avenue SE, will open Saturday, December 20. The nearest grocery with an African focus is Mula African Food Market, across the river at 425 3rd Avenue SW; several more are located farther out on the west side.
Wide sidewalk on Emmons Street approaching downtown Hiawatha
Of my three posts in December 2015, two were on the subject of sidewalks. We must not have had a white Christmas that year, because none of my pictures showed snow, nor did I mention the difficulty of walking in snow and ice. (I've done that elsewhere, though!)
Dan Burden at CSPS Hall, December 2015
Early in December, Dan Burden, author and Blue Zones director of innovation and inspiration, spoke at CSPS Hall, who praised Cedar Rapids' just-begun sidewalk construction program. Not only do "complete streets" perform better economically, he proclaimed, but sidewalks provide the opportunity for individuals to get exercise and encounter other individuals, which auto travel does not. The key, he stressed, is "completing the system," providing a network of sidewalks that get people to "places to go." In the years since, Cedar Rapids has effectively linked people to parks, stores and schools, albeit some neighborhoods were able to reject new sidewalks, and all the new sidewalks haven't stemmed the outward movement of people and places.
10 foot sidewalk on 3rd Avenue SE by Greene Square, December 2015
The city had also begun installing wider sidewalks in high-traffic areas, usually about 10 feet wide, as opposed to the old standard of 4-6 feet. I surveyed a number of sidewalks in the core, as well as a number of urbanists commending the use of wider sidewalks. The Change Lab Solutions guidebook Move This Way: Making Neighborhoods More Walkable and Bikeable(n.d.: 48) noted Generally, two couples or two wheelchairs should be able to pass each other comfortably on a sidewalk, which requires about 10 to 12 feet across....Ideally, sidewalks should also be wide enough to allow benches for older adults and families to stop and rest or relax.
Very wide sidewalk in New Bohemia, November 2025
The Cedar Rapids zoning code requires sidewalks in all new developments, but without respect to width except the usable part of the sidewalk must be not "less than five feet wide" (2024: 154). Wide sidewalks are becoming more common, in some cases accommodating bicycle traffic as well. My perception is that the metro's initial forays into bike lanes in the 2010s has been mostly replaced by wide sidewalks. This can create confusion about whether bicycles are supposed to go, as on the Grant Wood Trail where it runs along 6th Avenue in downtown Marion:
bicycles will please divert: 1300 block of 6th Avenue, Marion
Having been surprised by a cyclist on the trail as I stepped out of the Marion Public Library, I applaud the intent anyhow.
When a planned shared path connecting to Washington High School raised concerns among elderly residents of Cottage Grove Place, the bike and pedestrian parts were separated in 2021.
sidewalk divides across from Washington High School (Google Earth screenshot)
Sometimes there is signage that indicates... an aspiration to being a shared use path?
This is not a bikeway, and it doesn't narrow
(The cognoscenti will recognize this as Emmons Street west of I-380, about a quarter mile west along the same sidewalk as the picture at the top of this post. They will also know that the Linn County Trails Association, as per the latest Trail Connections, is raising $100,000 towards an improved bridge to get Hiawathans to the Cedar Valley Nature Trail.)
Even this sidewalk is better than no sidewalk, however, which is the problem with Boyson Road in Hiawatha near the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, and more curiously, the north side of Twixt Town Road in Mairon where riders board the Marion Circulator (the far side of the street in this picture).
bus transfer station, Twixt Town Road
And, since we've had more than 15 inches of snow since Thanksgiving, it's worth adding that any sidewalk is only as wide as it's plowed.
In this picture: it appears the sidewalk was cleared before the street was plowed.
Part of the problem is the proximity of the sidewalk to the street (which puts pedestrians right next to traffic even in fair weather). In any case, don't attempt this stretch in a wheelchair or with a stroller!
My ignorance of the Chicago Pedway was inexcusable but real. Despite being born in the city, living most of my young life nearby, and continuing to make several trips per year from nearby Iowa, I had never been in the Pedway until last week. I found out about the Pedway from my son Eli, who joins me in my love for the Windy City, and who found out about them from a video made by University of Illinois-Chicago architecture professor Stewart Hicks:
"The Bewildering Architecture of Indoor Cities" (13:11; discussion of the Pedway begins about 3:15 in)
So, on a bitterly cold December day, Eli and I sought out the Pedway. In the course of the morning, we covered maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of its five miles. The Chicago Pedway is neither as well-marked nor as well-equipped as the Minneapolis Skyway, though it has more commercial spaces than Cedar Rapids' Skywalks.
The first trick is finding your way in. Entry points aren't well-marked at all. Even when you locate an access point, that's no guarantee of access; the Pedway is not maintained by the city, but by individual property owners, which means availability is not easy to predict.
This skywalk across Clark Street is an unusual part of the Pedway, most of which is underground.
Clark Street: another no go
Alas, it too was closed.
Eventually, we found a way in through the basement of Macys department store, formerly Marshall Field's, at 111 North State Street. In this part of the Pedway, there are wayfinding maps...
Barbara's is a Chicago-based bookseller with mutliple locations
Once through a rudimentary passage across Randolph Street...
...the action really begins. There are quite a few fast-food restaurants in a fancier section across Michigan Avenue.
Pedway getting bougey
fast food collection near train station
(Note that the space on the left is for rent.)
There was even an Amazon Go store, which surprised me. I didn't realize they were atill around, much less underground!
130 East Randolph Street
The restrooms were a little scary, but sometimes in a storm any port will do.
restrooms, Chicago Pedway
The Pedway also connects to two train lines, the Metra Electric which serves the south side of Chicago, and the South Shore Line which serves commuter stops between Chicago and South Bend, Indiana. Both the waiting areas...
festive waiting area
...and the tracks themselves...
South Shore Line
...were very seasonally festive. Kind of a Polar Express vibe, which I don't get at the larger stations at the west end of downtown.
If you come in on a train that stops at Millennium Station, finding the Pedway is easy. It's also easy to find from some parking garages as well as Lower Randoph Street, where there are more entrances/exits.
Lower Randolph Street near Michigan Avenue
Urbanists like Jeff Speck criticize skyways, and by extension pedways, for taking foot traffic off the streets. While that's a fair criticism in Minneapolis, I didn't observe that here. At least around Randolph and Michigan, there were many more people at the surface level than in the Pedway.
Overall, the Pedway was a novelty but a bit chaotic for the first-time visitor. Along the way, I spotted a Dollop Coffee, but when I tried to return I could not find it. Here maps apps are no help, because the addresses don't distinguish between surface and underground levels. One Dollop Coffee location (150 North Michigan Avenue) led us to a very corporate building, with security guards who looked like they wanted me to buy coffee there only so they could shove it up my... I settled for a surface level Stan's Donuts at 181 North Michigan, which was very satisfactory.
We couldn't find how to get beyond where we ended. Referring to the map above, we could get to #25 but not to #37 or #50. After surfacing, we made a couple halfhearted attempts to rejoin the Pedway north of Millennium Park, but eventually saved that for another visit. I'd call it a fun prowl, worth doing if you know Chicago well, but hard to navigate and dubiously functional.
"T3": 200 block of Johnson Av NW (Google Earth screenshot)
Work continues apace on Cedar Rapids' casino, due to open at the end of this month. In time, when it is a fabulous success and we are all rolling in prosperity, you can tell me how dumb I was back in 2025 for my negative outlook.
There are three reasons to oppose casinos. The first two relate to the morality of gambling and the class distribution of gambling losses (which fall much more on the poor). There are also doubts, given the rise of Internet gambling, whether brick and mortar gambling still has a future. I'll take all those as read, but my specific complaint about this casino has to do with its use of land. We are taking several blocks close to the center of the city, which should be used for more intense development, and using it for what is ultra-suburban development.
Casino, under construction, F Avenue view
Andres Duany, one of the earliest new urbanists, described traditional development patterns as a transect that gradually tapered from the most intensive development at the urban core ("T6") to agricultural ("T2") and natural ("T1") areas at the edge of town. (See the discussion at Steuteville 2017, as well as Andres Duany, Jeff Speck and Mike Lydon. The Smart Growth Manual [McGraw Hill, 2010], 1.4)
This ordering is "useful" (Steuteville's word), because it preserves space in urbanist design for nature and agriculture, enables people not to be completely dependent on cars, provides a unified concept of development, and allows that development to proceed in harmony with surrounding areas.
Future casino parking. I-380 in background
Development according to the transect is more inclusive by centering economic opportunity on the urban core. Kevin Klinkenberg (2015) wrote about why urbanism matters most in urban cores: If we truly care about the less fortunate in society, we would want them in places of maximum opportunity for access to jobs at low cost--not scattered about in suburbia. Less need to drive, and more green space at the edge of town, is also better for the natural environment on which we all depend. And making intense use of the most valuable land is better for city finances.
Casino construction, from 1st Street NW
Cedar Rapids, like most towns, was built according to the transect long before Duany coined the term. Downtown looks like "T6" and the core neighborhoods look like "T3." The problem is that, in the decades since the town was built, the area around town that was once "T4" and "T5" was gutted and remains a doughnut of emptiness. Instead of small but intense development that could provide customers and clients for downtown businesses as well as property tax revenue for the city, we have what we have, making for a car-dependent city and lots of complaints about parking.
Future casino parking
City officials are enthused about the advent of the casino--scheduled to open 12/31/2026--because they know the political value of a flashy project that gets a lot of attention and promises fun for all. But I wish the casino campus, parking lots and all, would look more like the stretch of Johnson Avenue pictured above, which I called in 2022 one of my favorite streets in the city. The nine blocks of this project could be a neighborhood with workers and shoppers for downtown as well as neighborhood businesses, and students for nearby schools if we ever decide to build schools near the center of town again (another sore subject, for another day). The tax value of an individual property would be small, but collectively they would likely provide more city revenue than the casino will.
If one of the residents meets with misfortune, the neighborhood will survive, and the house will survive under new ownership. If the casino fails, I think we're looking at a big box with a long term vacancy.
If we must have a casino, put it out on Route 100.
One last look, from the trail along the Cedar River
