The Arc of Justice bends towards 2nd Street SE

Schematic drawing shows car lanes and new wider
pedestrian areas

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice--THEODORE PARKER, 1853 (later made famous by Martin Luther King, Jr.)

(8/27/2026) The 8th Avenue bridge is going to be completely replaced, because it's nearing the end of its useful life--it was built in 1937--and because we need some river crossing to be high enough to allow traffic to cross during a major flood. The other crossings--A, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 12th, and 16th--have gates that will close during a flood, keeping the traffic dry but the bridges wet.

Rob Davis, Flood Control Systems Manager for the city, presented the plans to a fairly large public crowd at the City Services Center on 15th Avenue SW.

Crowd awaiting presentation on 8th Avenue bridge project

The new bridge will be 15 feet higher than the current one, and will have one pier in the river instead of seven. This should result in lower water level--because less displacement--but requires a center tower supported by cables above ground that look bougey and thus have drawn some ire. 

Other resident ire has been directed at the cost of the project, the time it will take and the complexity of detours, and the removal of the bridge's original name, which was to have been the Arc of Justice. (Shouldn't we should all call it that anyway? I'm calling it that anyway.)

The audience questions, though, were mostly technical in nature, and there was no sign of ire at the 4:45 presentation. Maybe the 5:45 presentation was more fraught.

Rob Davis, CR's Flood Control Manager

The total cost will run about $123 million, about half from the federal government--presumably the reason for the disappearance of the Arc of Justice name, in this age of Trump--and half from the city. The entire project will take more than three years to accomplish, with the bridge not open to traffic until spring 2030 and all work not expected to be complete until that fall. The current skinny sidewalks, added in the early 1960s, will be replaced by 14-foot-wide multiuse paths (see above picture).

It does not appear that the path along the west side of the river that extends more or less southwest out of the McGrath Amphitheater behind the Chelsea and Mott buildings will be extended under the bridge. Currently it ends abruptly at a wall of weeds.

Wide sidewalk ends under the current 8th Avenue bridge

The schematic perspective that shows this area doesn't show the sidewalk in question at all.

Schematic view of new bridge, with the west side on the right

However, we are promised a trail through Riverside Park and then parallel to 1st Street SW, to which the current sidewalk will easily connect. So, besides flood preparedness, the Arc of Justice will bring connectivity for cyclists and pedestrians, and aesthetic pleasure for all.

And if this bridge, with the police station at one end and the federal courthouse at the other, causes people to reflect on justice, and heroes of justice like Dr. King who made it their life's cause, so much the better. And when the money's been spent, and Trump is no longer President, maybe the City will make it official.

SEE ALSO: Abigail Homrock, "Cedar Rapids to Replace Nearly 90-Year-Old Bridge Starting Next Year," kgan.com, 26 August 2026

Book review: Escaping the Housing Trap

$185,000 bought this house five blocks from me

Charles L. Marohn Jr. and Daniel Herriges, Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis. Hoboken NJ: Wiley, 2024. 

(8/25/2026) This fall I'm part of a local group that has decided to take on the housing crisis in our town. There's one in every town, of course, and the precise nature of the crisis varies all over the place, with Cedar Rapids somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. Our group will benefit greatly from people like the authors of this book who have thought seriously about problems in housing, can explain their origins and nature in everyday language, and are optimistic about our ability to improve the situation in our communities. At least it has motivated me to read this third in a series of Strong Towns books! (See links to previous reviews below.)

The most recent measure of the Case-Shiller Index of U.S. home prices was 331.020 in May 2026, which means that, taking into account overall inflation as well as typical seasonal variation, the average home price this year is more than 3.3 times what it was in January 2000. Housing prices been rising steadily since early 2012. Rising home prices are good, say Charles Marohn and Daniel Herriges, for three types of people: individual homeowners, for whom the value of their house is a major investment; governments at all levels, which can tax the increasing value and/or economic activity that it produces; and investors in funds that have great piles of money tied up in housing. As a result, though they say "they want housing to become more affordable," they want/need it to happen "without prices going down" (p. 6). Part I of Escaping the Housing Trap describes how housing has become a major investment--perhaps the major investment for most Americans: a perfect storm of zoning and construction standards, suburban development, and innovative financial instruments, with government backstopping when it all goes blooey. "In the 2020s, national too-big-to-fail banks seek long-term mortgages from fragile homeowners" so "there will always be a coordinated effort to reinflate the housing market. There must be; if the housing market fails, the financial system fails" (p. 70).

They also do a good job of explaining why all the new buildings have empty retail space: cutting rent so businesses can afford to move in would negatively impact the value of the building. It's more financially advantageous to keep the space vacant than to rent it at what the market will bear (p. 68).

Commercial space in New Bohemia and Czech Village has been filling up,
even first floor retail in this "three-over-one"...

...but time will tell how long it takes this newcomer
to fill its retail space

Part II looks at how the housing system affects those outside of it: renters, including those who would like to own their own homes, those in unstable housing situations, and those who are stuck in houses that are too much for them. Zoning and the financial system work together to prevent construction of missing middle housing that could be more widely affordable and a good investment (ch. 5, on zoning lockdown), and opposition to new construction is political powerful in towns across the country (ch. 6, on the NIMBY phenomenon). But even well-intentioned policies to expand access to housing fail to make a dent. They run up against the same obstacles that individuals in the housing marketplace have met: "The very same problems that bedevil the effort to get abundant, affordable market-rate housing to exist are going to make it hard to deliver affordable social housing at any sort of scale" (p. 145). 

$100,000 will get you four blocks from me

By now they have our attention, and we're anxious to hear what might be able to break the housing logjam in any sustainable, scalable way. Bring on Part III!!

It does not disappoint, unless you're looking for a slam-dunk solution, which they (and the Strong Towns organization) avoid like the plague. They do propose a new approach to housing, because any existing approach leads to one or more of the following intolerable outcomes: inability to provide much affordable housing, lowering existing property values, vulnerability to capital flows especially outflows, and/or adding to already-high local government liabilities (pp. 153-156). They recommend an approach that (1) focuses on "the people who aren't well-served by today's limited housing offerings," by (2) filling "the demand for low-cost, affordable units" with "the resources that are available locally" (p. 156). That means, while "no neighborhood can be exempt from change" (pp. 156-158), at the same time "no neighborhood should experience radical change" (pp. 158-159). 

There are a lot of supporting ideas in the remaining pages, centering around enabling and relying upon a "swarm" of small developers who don't need economies of scale to succeed (ch. 10), and shifting the financial paradigm by insisting that every development be self-sustaining (ch. 11). That means gradually "thickening" existing neighborhoods: more "starter" homes on smaller lots, and more small multi-family units ("missing middle housing"). They key to the approach is not plug-and-play what worked in, say, South Bend, Indiana (pp. 167ff.), but to take small steps cautiously and flexibly. 

Their argument is hopeful, accessible, reasonable, and done with integrity. There are surely weaknesses in it, but in the final analysis we must and can do better than keeping on with an approach that is spectacularly failing, even in relatively low-cost cities like Cedar Rapids.

(Source: strongtowns.org)

SEE ALSO: 

"Book Review: Confessions of a Recovering Engineer," 8 December 2021

"Strong Towns' Bottom-Up Revolution (V)," 5 April 2020 [with links to earlier essays in the series]

Joe Cortright, "Why America Can't Make Up Its Mind About Housing," City Observatory, 16 May 2017

Shane Phillips, The Affordable City: Strategies for Putting Housing Within Reach (and Keeping it There) (Island, 2020)

Pete Saunders, "It's Not an Affordability Crisis; It's a Misalignment Problem," Corner Side Yard, 19 August 2026

Angie Schmitt, "Without Changing Our Retail Model, We're Never Going to Get Walkable Cities/ Neighborhoods," Love of Place, 24 August 2026

10th Anniversary Post: Linn County's First Bicycle Boulevard

 

Marion portion of Linn County Trails and Bikeways Map
(downloaded from linncountytrails.org)

(8/18/2026) Linn County's first designated bicycle boulevard, announced ten years ago, may be forgotten but it is not gone. Nor is it a bicycle boulevard, but there is no need to chew that cabbage again. 

The trusty trails maps show three types of trail infrastructure in Marion. The most distinct are offstreet trails, such as the Grant Wood trail that runs east-west through Uptown Marion and on to the county line, the soon-to-be completed CeMar trail that will connect Marion with Cedar Rapids, and the Indian Creek Trail that runs parallel to 10th Street and connects to the Linn-Mar Community Schools campus.

The north end is at Tower Terrace Road,
next to the football stadium

The landscape is lovely, including creek crossings
(not pictured)

Mowed paths connect to nearby subdivisions

Flashers for crossing 10th Street north of Boyson Road

Several major streets have side paths, which are wide sidewalks that accommodate bicycles as well.

Tower Terrace Road has both a side path and a painted bike lane:
Aesthetically I like the wild growing median, but I think it 
encourages cars to go faster

Prudent riders of all ages choose the side path

The path invites conflict with turning traffic
(here at Dollar Tree, but crossing 10th Street is even dicier)

Some streets--McGowan Boulevard, 29th Avenue, and 31st Street--are designated "bike-friendly streets." This means, in the case of McGowan, the dreaded sharrow.

McGowan Boulevard, looking east from 10th Street

Geode Street, which becomes 3rd Street north of 29th Avenue, does not appear on the trails map since the 2021 edition, but should still qualify as a "bike-friendly street"--not because of its sharrow, but because it's a low-traffic street that is the only north-south street in that neighborhood that goes all the way from Boyson to Tower Terrace. In fact, Geode continues south of Boyson to Lininger Park, where it connects to the Creekside Trail, which eventually connects to the CeMar Trail.

Geode Street, north of Boyson: Sign and sharrow,
with special designation "BLVD"

Some of those sharrows have been repainted

Crossing 29th Avenue by Novak Elementary School,
with its track and excellent playground, remains rough

3rd Street facing south from Tower Terrace Road

So, yeah, calling Geode/3rd Street a "bicycle boulevard" was silly puffery. But it's certainly an important cog in an increasingly connected trails system.

ORIGINAL POST: "Linn County's First Bicycle Boulevard," 29 August 2016

SEE ALSO: "Do Bicycle Boulevards Need a Purpose?" 17 July 2018

yard by Gill Park (2016) is still decorated, but
alas bikes have been replaced by dogs and Charlie Kirk

Justice in the World Today (II)

Rising rents are just one obstacle to opportunity today
(Source: Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University)

(8/11/2026) Some time ago, First Presbyterian Church in Cedar Rapids engaged me to do two talks, on justice and social welfare. Since they were scheduled close together, I've treated them as a two-part series, even though I don't think that's how they were conceived, and I'm not even sure I'm doing them in the intended order!

The first talk, "Justice in the World Today," happened August 2, and is described here. Drawing on Biblical and philosophical sources, I argued justice is a condition, in which people get what they deserve (substantive justice), and government officials play by agreed-upon rules (procedural justice). While even procedural justice is critical for marginalized people, because they are the ones who suffer most when things get irregular, social welfare seems to deal most directly with substantive justice. Leaving aside the question of who deserves more, we can agree at least agree that everyone deserves enough to live, the opportunity to improve their lives, and security from threats. (Note that I'm sliding over definitional issues with each of these ideas.)

If we accept all that, then it follows that public policy in a just society should look to the well-being of the poor, the mentally and physically handicapped, and other socially marginalized people. Do they have access to these things they need in life?

If we look upstream from the social problems that surround us, a common element is isolation. Physical isolation is most evident in areas of concentrated poverty, an unfortunate outgrowth of automobile-oriented development that left many areas behind and many people stuck there. Adults have less access to economic opportunities as well as lower life expectancy (Ludwig 2014). Children do less well in life than those raised in more socioeconomically mixed areas (Chetty, Hendren and Katz 2016). In disasters, people suffer most in these areas, as witness studies of the 1995 heat wave in Chicago that found deaths concentrated not just in very poor neighborhoods, but in those very poor neighborhoods where residents lacked access to each other found in places like grocery stores, public libraries, and senior centers (Klinenberg 2003, Helfland 2020). The difficulty of just getting from such neighborhoods to jobs has been dubbed "mobility redlining" by author Steven Higashide (2019: 92).

U.S. transportation policy has exacerbated physical marginalization by severing neighborhoods by building interstate highways through them, as with the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago, I-94 in Minneapolis-St.Paul, and even I-380 in Cedar Rapids.

Not all isolation is physical. Homelessness is isolation of a different sort, driven by housing markets and inequality that make any risky personal choices even more costly. 

So, while direct provision of resources can deal with emergency situations, for most people on the margins, approaches that help to remove obstacles and build connections are more sustainable for everyone involved. 

• Encouraging compact development (as opposed to sprawl): the closer people are to the action the more they are likely to benefit 

• Encouraging local entrepreneurship (as opposed to colonization by out-of-town franchises and in particular big box stores): the more money that stays in the city the more likely it is that everyone benefits 

• Bringing more money into a city can benefit all its residents if and when that money circulates to support public facilities (the library, swimming pools, &c.) and local businesses. 

• Connecting areas of concentrated poverty to the rest of the city: ghettos are the result of design, and can only be overcome by design.

How these play out will vary from unique place to unique place, but wherever we are, there are stories to inspire us:

• Cycling Without Age, Copenhagen Denmark (Peñalosa 2026). Peñalosa's 880 Cities initiative is named for extreme ages, but his biweekly webinar is aimed at improving access across all manner of obstacles. This episode profiles a group of volunteers that provide trishaw outings for older adults. A similar program exists in Iowa City (J.C. Nesmith 2026).
• Redesigned transit network, Des Moines Iowa (Walker 2026). Walker's firm worked with Des Moines Area Regional Transit Authority to improve ridership while cutting costs by 10 percent. Among other things, they got frequency down to every 15 minutes in central Des Moines and Windsor Heights, and the number of jobs available within 45 minutes' ride is up by 15 percent.
• Plant trees (Galle 2026). Not only do trees provide shade during heat waves, Nadina Galle summarizes health research that has found more trees related to heart health, neonatal outcomes, children's mental health, and health care spending.
• Housing (Strong Towns n.d.). Housing supply and cost are increasingly problematic, because many families are invested in the value of their house, zoning barriers price out small developers, and large developments carry risk both in the present and future. So, cities can help by enabling small, incremental development in their town. (See also Strong Towns founder Charles Marohn's latest book, Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis [co-authored with Daniel Herriges, Wiley, 2024]).
• Housing First (McLean 2023, Kristof 2023, Ionescu 2023, Holder 2023). Cities like Houston, Minneapolis, Atlanta and Denver have reduced their unhoused population by providing housing and following up with intensive support services. (Improvement is measurable, but the effort involved is admittedly intense, and the effects may not be noticeable to the casual observer.)

Bringing those at the margins into connection with the rest of us is not easy, and comes with costs. It's worth noting that not doing this comes with costs as well, in the form of security efforts as well as the loss of their talents. When God speaks through Isaiah to command the Israelites to Learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow (Isaiah 1:17), it's not to make us less happy, but all of us happier.

PRINT SOURCES:

Steven Higashide, Better Buses, Better Cities: How to Plan, Run, and Win the Fight for Effective Transit (Island, 2019)

Eric Klinenberg, Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (University of Chicago, 2003)

SEE ALSO:

"The Safety Dividend: The Surprising Impact of Well-Managed Public Spaces," Reimagining the Civic Commons, 11 August 2026