Eight things that make me proud in Cedar Rapids

 

Cedar Rapids sign, taken from the 3rd Avenue Bridge

Our big orange photo op is not one of them. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. Many other towns have already done it, so it's not exactly original, and writing your name on everything seems more like a sign of insecurity rather than pride. ("Gulf of America," anyone?) 

Do these photo ops age well? There's this one in New Bohemia from the ill-fated NewBo Evolve festival. It's still there, seven years later...

NewBo sign, 1300 block of 3rd Avenue SE

...and I took this picture of it in a snowstorm in January 2024, so maybe they do?

But I'm not here to complain about the sign. Really, I don't hate it. I'm here because my inability to appreciate its wonderfulness has led me to contemplate the things about Cedar Rapids that do make me proud. These are the things I show visitors and new students. I was going to list five, but I'm up to eight, and might have gone further, but I should get this written, and anyway what I missed might inspire you to make your own list!

Blake Shaw performs in CSPS courtyard,
October 2020

1. Arts and theater scene. Whether your art of choice is visual, musical, or theatrical, there's just a lot going on here. CSPS Hall, where I volunteer, has been showcasing eclectic music and art since 1993, and has been an anchor for growth in New Bohemia. The Cherry Building has regular exhibits of art by residents of its studios. There are several theater groups, and our local colleges feature all manner of fine arts productions. This is all on top of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, the Eastern Iowa Symphony, and Theater Cedar Rapids. There's a lot to appreciate here, most of it accessibly priced and presented. City of Cedar Rapids arts and culture page 

Group ride on the Cedar River Trail, May 2023

2. Bike/trails network. What Cedar Rapids has in common with the host cities for the last three Congresses for the New Urbanism is our bicycle network is progressing, and is just a few connections away from being fully functional. On my side of town, the CeMar Trail will create a direct, paved route from the core of Cedar Rapids to the center of Marion. The Cherokee Trail, when completed, will go from downtown all across the west side. Our separated bike lanes downtown were the first or second in the state, depending on who you're asking. Linn County Trails Association page 

Gazette offices, downtown Cedar Rapids
(two blocks from their old offices)

3. Cedar Rapids Gazette. With limited resources, the Gazette is a solid local daily (at least online) paper that is locally owned, a rarity in a town this size. They do not shy away from exploring, in both news and opinion sections, aspects of issues that don't fit the lines coming from the Statehouse or Chamber of Commerce. And their offices remain downtown, which goes far with me.

Clifford the Big Red Dog helped open the new
main library in August 2013

4. Cedar Rapids Public Library. I got my library card as soon as I moved to town, and have been a satisfied patron ever since. I always find something worth reading in their vast collection. The main library has endured the 2008 flood, at the time the most costly disaster ever suffered by a U.S. library; the expectation they will be a refuge for the increasing unhoused population; and a state government that is suspicious of its efforts to serve a diverse population. A new facility under construction will provide expanded services to the west side.

Interior, Craftd Coffee, downtown CR

5. Coffee. For whatever reason back in the 1990s, the big chains were late in colonizing our town, allowing a rich variety of local shops to emerge. The big boys are here now, but the locals are holding on, mostly in the core of Cedar Rapids as well as Marion and Hiawatha. They are places to sit a spell, enjoy free or cheap refills, and see friends old and new. I have my favorites, but the whole of the coffee scene is even more than its parts.

The Round Barn, longtime home of the 
Indian Creek Nature Center

6. Indian Creek Nature Center and city parks. More than fifty years ago, someone had the vision to establish a place on the outskirts of town where adults and children could learn about nature while in nature, the community could celebrate the joys of homemade maple syrup, and the staff could model sustainable land conservation. To this add Bever and Ellis Parks, the oldest and best of our mixed-use parks, which include natural areas as well as playgrounds and swimming pools.

Cultivate Hope Corner Store grand opening, 2022

7. Matthew 25. There are a lot of social service organizations around town, but this one, begun in 2006 by pastor brothers Clint Twedt-Ball and Courtney Ball, is distinctive. From the start they had the goal of working with the neighbors rather than merely working in the neighborhood (in their case, the Taylor and Time-Check neighborhoods on the near west side). They were forced to pivot by the 2008 flood, and have continued to change over the years in response to new challenges. They opened the Cultivate Hope Corner Store in 2022. With Clint's departure this year, leadership is passing to a new generation.

Ready for Food Truck Tuesday
at New Bo City Market, May 2024

8. New Bo City Market. Since its inception in 2012 it's been more of a food court than a market, but it's a food court unlike any other around, with a variety of ethnic offerings not found elsewhere in town. Some shopkeepers have been able to make the jump from a market stall to their own shop, proving the market's worth as an incubator as well. Their Friday night concert series is a summer tradition now. A capital campaign is underway to expand the size of the facility, including a grocery store, dental clinic, and meeting space.

Subsidiarity, congestion pricing. and books with sex in them

Shelf of probably-not-obscene children's books at
Trailside School library

David T. Koyzis (Political Visions and Illusions: A Survey and Christian Critique of Contemporary Ideologies [InterVarsity, 2003]) defines subsidiarity as the belief that "wherever possible, tasks are to be fulfilled by the lowest conceivable element in the social hierarchy" (2003: 218). He quotes Pope Pius XI, whose 1931 encyclical Quadragesimo Anno Koyzis credits with first articulating the concept:

Just as it is gravely wrong to take from individuals what they can accomplish by their own initiative and industry and give it to the community, so also it is an injustice... to assign to a greater and higher association what lesser and subordinate organizations can do. For every social activity ought of its very nature to furnish help to the members of the body [politic] and never destroy and absorb them.

Here at Holy Mountain, we are all about furnishing help to the members of the body politic, not to mention the knowledge that comes when diverse people are doing diverse things, so of course we are down with subsidiarity. Assuming voices are equal and individual rights respected--these are big assumptions, I realize--and that the capacity exists, citizens of local places should be charting their own courses, drawing in higher levels of government only when absolutely necessary. 

In our fondness for subsidiarity, we are joined by such urbanist icons as Jane Jacobs and Chuck Marohn. Jacobs, whose book Dark Age Ahead (Random House, 2004) I reviewed here, argued in chapter five that governmental powers that are exercised and taxes collected by distant, national governments instead of those directly in touch with people's needs and possibilities were eroding a core pillar of our culture.

The social and economic needs of urban residents and businesses are extremely varied and complex compared with those of simpler settlements. They require wide ranges of awareness and knowledge that are humanly beyond the comprehension of functionaries in distant institutions, who try to overcome that handicap by devising programs that disregard particulars on the assumption that one size can fit all, which is untrue. Even when sovereignties and provinces or states give special grants to this or that locality, the special grants almost always reflect the priorities of the disbursing institutions, not those of the recipient settlements. (2004: 105)

The Roman Empire's extracting wealth from cities "for schemes and needs according to its own, frequently crazed, priorities" (2004: 103) led to the medieval Dark Age; city-level innovations and economic activity began the long process of digging out. (Maybe such innovation can produce similarly happy results in America, too? I just hope it doesn't take 500 years.)

In 2020 I spent several posts chatting about Marohn's book Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (Wiley 2020). In chapter nine, he argued that local governments with restored decision-making power could make more rational decisions, and wouldn't have to rely for needed revenue on sprawl (or business subsidies, or game-changing projects, ...).

State and federal officials frequently express their reluctance to turn over decison-making to local officials they view as incompetent, ignorant, or worse. They fail to recognize how turning city councils into glorified dog catchers, by simplifying their authority and degree of action, Congress and state legislatures have created the conditions where the most competent, innovative, and dynamic local leaders tend to stay away from city hall. (2020: 197)

Local communities won't always make great decisions, even when they're in the best position to decide. But, Marohn concluded, local responsibility for local conditions will improve the quality of policy decisions. "By remaking local government to focus on the broad creation of wealth, local leaders will develop the capacity to assert their own competence. America needs this to happen" (2020: 198). (See also Marohn 2017 on how cities' dependence on national government funding got them into this predicament.) 

Earlier version of proposed Cedar Rapids casino:
City officials' relentless advocacy is not the best advertisement
for subsidiarity

Subsidiarity, like balanced budgets or checks and balances, is easier to get behind when someone other than you is trying to do something. But this year the news is full of local places trying to solve their own problems and getting shot down by higher levels of government. In Cedar Rapids, our mayor is fond of saying "Welcome is our language," but threatened with the loss of $306 million in federal money we shut down our diversity efforts faster than you can say "King Trump" (Hanson 2025).

Trump's Department of Transportation acted February 19 to revoke approval for New York City's first-in-the-nation congestion pricing program (Duggan 2025). Based on successful implementation in several European cities, the city was attempting to collect some of the social costs of traffic congestion by charging a fee on cars entering the core of Manhattan. Two months into the program, congestion and traffic deaths had both noticeably declined, while the city's transit system got an infusion of much-needed revenue. Trump argued that it threatened to draw visitors and business away from the city, which seems like a problem for the city itself to sort out. (It was this action that led him to post "LONG LIVE THE KING!" in characteristic self-praise.)

The Iowa state legislature has for years had a similar penchant for micromanaging local governments. A recent hobbyhorse has been books in community libraries that someone might consider "obscene." A 2023 law already prohibits "sexual descriptions" in school library books (Cheng and Gerlock 2025); a new bill aims to eliminate exemptions for "appropriate educational materials" in school and public libraries from state obscenity laws (Luu 2025). Neither the standards of obscenity nor who will decide on books is made clear in the legislation, possibly in hopes that libraries will censor themselves. Libraries are run by professionals, and are overseen by city councils and school districts. Who does Rep. Helena Hayes (R-Mahaska), sponsor of this latest salvo, think she is protecting us from?

The through lines that connect these two initiatives (and too many others) are rejection of community initiatives uncontrolled from above. Commenting on U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy's efforts to reorient federal transportation spending around marriage, birth rates, and motor vehicles, Lyz Lenz argues

It’s about isolating people into nuclear family units that have little connection to how people actually derive joy and happiness; cutting them off with the work of family and home. This isolation means the inability to act, to organize, to change. It makes it harder to create any communities, social ties or mutual aid — any meaningful connection outside heterosexual marriage. (Lenz 2025)

What traditionalists see as weird and threatening can prove adaptive to the many challenges we face as a country and as a species. But America in 2025 seems to be responding to these challenges with a gigantic act of self-mutilation, led nationally by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and cheered on by their many fans. Cities, those scruffy diverse and exciting places, might save us yet, but only if the judgy haters in Des Moines and Washington go soak their heads and leave them to it. 

SEE ALSO:

The War on Cars podcast episode on congestion pricing, 27 February 2025 (1:04)

American Library Association page on banned and challenged books 

How to get to the Public Library from the Skywalk

Cedar Rapids Public Library (from crlibrary.org)

The Cedar Rapids Public Library is connected to our Downtown Skywalk System, but for over a decade I've struggled to figure out how. The old 1st Street library, now the headquarters of TrueNorth Wealth Management, was simple to find from the skywalks, because the skywalks literally terminated on the second floor of the library. All roads led to..., back then. Now, the connection is through the 4th Avenue Parking Garage. Many have been the hours I've walked up and down the ramps of that garage, looking for the magic portal, before giving up and walking out to the street.

If you are from Cedar Rapids, you probably don't have this problem. Even if you're from out of town, you probably have figured it out long ago. But perhaps you are as easily confused as your humble blogger, or you are planning to visit our town later this summer for the Iowa Downtown Conference and are worried about some sort of Iowa Downtown Association hazing process that would involve finding your way from the skywalk to the library. It is for you, though mostly for me, that I humbly write.

Main route

Follow the Skywalks until you're just above 4th Avenue. Look for this sign by the entrance to the Parking Ramp: 

You are here, on your way there

Enter the parking ramp by the elevator, but don't get on the elevator!

Find the sign, and walk up the ramp to the door

Almost there! Approaching the library entrance

Open this door...

Go down this hallway, and enter the library

Alternate route [might be preferable if you're okay with going up and down stairs]

find these stairs at the point where the skywalks make a 90-degree turn towards the river

Go down the stairs into the parking ramp

You're on level 2! Go up the steps...

...to level 3

Walk up the ramp until you get to the library entrance

See the "main route" for the rest.

Now I can do it, and so can you! It's still not super-intuitive, and involves more walking through the parking garage than you might expect, but the signage helps.

High hopes for new Westside library

 

Proposed Westside Library (from crlibrary.org)

The Cedar Rapids Public Library plans to open a new west side location in late 2026, on 27 acres of land purchased with a recent estate gift. The new building will replace the Ladd Library, which is located in a former Target store on Williams Boulevard SW. At a reason information session, Executive Director Charity Roberts Tyler explained the library is committed to serving the growing low-income neighborhood around the Ladd location. The project will go out for bid shortly, with groundbreaking expected in the fall, even as fundraising from public and private sources continues. The accelerated timeline is necessitated by the impending end of the Ladd Library lease.

Westside Library site now, from across 20th Ave SW

The library cites the immediate area's population growth as one factor in favor of the new facility. The new facility, like the Ladd Library, will be located in Census Tract 10.05 (which was part of tract 10.03 before 2020). Despite being about 3.5 miles from downtown, 10.05 and its next-door neighbor 10.04 are among the metro's tracts with the highest population density. They are among the lowest rates of owner-occupied housing and single-family homeownership, and among the highest in percent black and percent Hispanic. They arguably suffered the most damage from the 2010 derecho.

Apartments across 20th Avenue

According to the library, the new building will measure about 40,000 square feet, nearly half-again as large as the Ladd space. The increased space will accommodate "larger collection spaces, added community meeting rooms, a larger children's area with dedicated program room, and a new young adult-teen area ("Inspiring Big Dreams" information sheet). They anticipate substantially increasing the current rate of 100,000 visits per year as well.

proposed floor plan (from crlibrary.org)

The library will be located towards the southeast corner of the property, near 20th Avenue almost to Edgewood Road. Most of the rest of the land will be developed into a new city park, at least tentatively called Westside Library Park. The park will include a multi-use court, two picnic shelters, a water feature, multiple gardens, and a lot of green space. The western portion, closest to Wiley Boulevard, will be sold. That leaves by my guesstimate about 15 acres for the park, which will be a wonderful resource for the area and environs for the library. Of course, there will be parking, too--one lot off 18th Avenue, and one off a new north-south street at the west end of the park--but not so much as to overwhelm the property.

Westside Library Park site along 18th Avenue SW

There will be quite a few apartment buildings within easy walking distance of the new library. (To find 27 available acres in such a densely populated area is miraculous.) The plans show sidewalks on the developed property on both the 18th Avenue and 20th Avenue sides. To facilitate children independently accessing the library or park, there should be a sidewalk on the north side of 18th Avenue, as well as mid-block crossing lights on both 18th and 20th.

West Park Village, across 18th Avenue from the library site

Once away from the immediate vicinity, though, walkability goes quickly to pot. This is an area where the suburban development pattern was aggressively pursued: Edgewood Road, 16th Avenue, Wiley Boulevard, and Williams Boulevard are all wide, high-traffic, high-speed "stroads" that form a ring of danger around the library site. 

Edgewood Road approaching 16th Avenue SW

Residents of the Cedar Terrace Apartments on 12th Avenue, for example, will be only one-third of a mile from the new library, but must make their way across 16th Avenue with its 10,000-15,000 cars per day and 40 mph speed limit. Residents of Cedar Point Townhomes on Westdale Parkway will be 2000 feet away, but must cross both Williams Boulevard and Edgewood Road to get there. Van Buren Elementary School is a mile away, and... you get the idea.

There is talk of connecting the property to the trails system via the Edgewood Trail which will run along Wiley. Bus lines 8, 10 and 12 run close to the site, though none is running more frequently than once every 30 minutes (route 8) this summer, and all are rather circuitous. All of these efforts at accessibility would be made more effective by measures aimed at slowing motor vehicle traffic.

The Westside Library proposal is one of the best ideas around for improving the city. The library provides a vital service, and the new facility will deliver it even better. The proposal is made with careful attention to residents of the immediate neighborhood. The city needs to support the library by doing what it can to make that part of town less dangerous for non-car mobility.

SEE ALSO: Big Dreams | Cedar Rapids Public Library (crlibrary.org)

The public library as base for belonging

Sophia Rodriguez at the Center for Urban Research and Learning

Until schools reinvent themselves, which I don't see happening anytime soon, after-school programs are going to be the micro-spaces where students gain a sense of positive identity.--SOPHIA RODRIGUEZ

After a lull after the 2008 recession, immigration to America is at historically high levels--maybe not as much in percentage terms as in the 1850s or 1880s, but about 1.5 million newcomers arrived in 2016, which is a lot. Their impacts are felt strongly in some places, less so in others, as these newcomers are not randomly distributed.

One such place is Hartford, Connecticut, where 130 students from Puerto Rico moved into the school district following Hurricane Sandy, adding to an influx of immigrants from a variety of Latin American and African countries, as well as Myanmar (Burma). With 20,000 students in the public school system, this would have been a major event, even without the challenges of language, academic background, and housing uncertainty.

Dr. Sophia Rodriguez, assistant professor of Educational Foundations at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, spoke at Loyola University's Center for Urban Research and Learning about an unusual pilot program based at the Hartford Public Library. Library and school district officials saw an opportunity because many immigrant students lack permanent homes and so hang out at the library. Dr. Rodriguez's report on the first year of the program was cautiously positive: Students reported greater feelings, not only of belonging, but also civic competence.

Newcomers refers to people who have been in the United States less than 30 months. Some are seeking refugee status, some are going through naturalization, and some are undocumented. Some are fleeing violence, some seek economic opportunity, some have lost everything they had in a hurricane or other natural disaster. Rodriguez, who has worked in a variety of school systems throughout the country including Chicago's, notes that even in culturally diverse urban areas, school-aged newcomers face hostility, lack of staff awareness, lack of support staff for languages other than Spanish, and a powerful norm for conducting classes in English, all in schools that are often under-resourced.

The Hartford program sought effective integration of newcomer youth into the community. Dr. Rodriguez used the word belonging, and I gather the program does, too, but as she pointed out that traditionally refers to improving the individual's comfort level with his or her surroundings. Hartford worked up a "civically-minded social justice curriculum... including policy awareness, accessing resources, and how to engage in activism." She describes three levels of belonging: (1) personal-individual day-to-day feelings; (2) relational i.e. networks of peers; (3) civic awareness i.e. feelings of belonging to the city.

The good news is, observation and surveys from 2017-18 showed improvements on all three dimensions, and responses from participants and staff were broadly positive. The program's small size (never more than 35 participants) and national-linguistic diversity improved students' levels of belonging by creating an instant peer network. Using the public library as a base showed that institution's potential in any city to be a "springboard to other resources and opportunities." All this was achieved despite numerous "logistical, methodological and staffing challenges."

Side note: As someone occasionally involved in after-school activities, the apparent willingness of students simply to hold still after a long school day seems miraculous.

With such a small sample--only 22 students participated in the surveys--inferences are made cautiously. Indeed, only on the second dimension  of belonging ("relational") were improvements statistically significant. Participants in the second year of the program are all Spanish-speaking, which presents a different dynamic from the diverse first-year group.

If someone, say library director Bridget Quinn-Carey, were to talk about this program at 1 Million Cups, very soon someone would ask if the program could be scaled up. Aye, there's the rub. One of the favorable circumstances of the program is the relatively small size, smaller than the typical class at Hartford or Bulkley High Schools. Effective integration of newcomers takes investment in staff and other resources, at a time when schools are hardly flush. This program was funded in part by the U.S. Institute for Museum and Library Services, but they're not going to be good for more than piloting and research.

In the richest society in the history of Earth, resources for those investments are here, just historically hard to tap. It might be worth it. Diversity can be a source of strength for this uncertain century--no ecologist in the world speaks favorably of monocultures--but only if newcomers are effectively integrated. Large-scale immigration is a fact, and we can choose how to respond. We can follow the example of our President, and respond with bigotry, political opportunism, and what amounts to a government kidnapping ring. Or we can rise to the challenge of inclusion, and support the work necessary to make it happen.

Seattle public library

Seattle Central Library (Source: Wikipedia)

The Seattle Public Library, built about 10 years ago and designed by starchitect Rem Koolhaas, is a wonderful space notwithstanding its bizarre shape. I was very curious to see the building, which is located on a city block defined by 4th and 5th Avenues, and Spring and Madison Streets, having heard both strongly negative and positive comments over the years. Count me among the positive.

I will grant that, seen from above, it looks silly, and that they probably paid way too much for the design. At street level, it's a different story. It plays well with the street. The sidewalk on 4th Avenue goes by the glass front and an inviting doorway.

4th Avenue entrance

I'm less taken with the ground floor, which has a sterile, industrial-basement feel.

The children's room, to the left, is warmer, but with what I take to be a sad sign of these times.

The rest of the library is a mix of warm and whimsical, but very functional. There are elevators for direct travel, escalators for scenic travel, and steps for strenuous travel.

The non-fiction books, on floors 7-9, are arranged in a spiral. Fans of the Dewey Decimal System will recognize this as the art section.

The upper floors provide comfortable and quiet reading areas...

...as well as views of the city--here, the federal appeals courthouse...

...and here, downtown looking towards Elliott Bay.

I come from a small city, where our very excellent library fits on just two floors, so I don't know how I would feel about scooting up to the 9th floor to retrieve history and biography books, but this is a big library in a big city and I think I'd get used to it.

James Howard Kunstler is a severe critic of the library, and of starchitects in general. His problem is less with the outside appearance than with the disorienting nature of the interior, which he says is contrary to the function of the public building i.e. to help ground people and help them make sense of the noisy world around them. I don't know what if any alterations the library has made in the 9 1/2 years since Kunstler's commentary (cited below), but I found it quite the contrary. The lower floors were well-used, but--like Yosemite National Park--the farther we got from the entrance the less crowded and more quiet it became, and the upper floors definitely were the sort of oases urban life requires. Wayfinding was rather easy.
 
I liked being in every part of the library, and I think if anything I'm unusually sensitive to noise and disorientation--maybe especially so the day I visited, because that day had started at 5:42 a.m. with some guy outside my window yelling about the Book of Revelation. If I lived in Seattle, I'd be here a lot.

The 1906 version looks grander and less absurd, but does it play as well with the street?

SOURCE: James Howard Kunstler, "The Seattle Public Library and Other Award-Winning Disastrous Architecture," Kunstler Cast #05, 13 March 2008

MANY MANY MORE PHOTOS: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-seattle-public-library-central-library-seattle 

What's up, Cleveland?

Source: Wikimedia commons

Cleveland, Ohio, has had as tough a time as any American city making the transition from the industrial to the post-industrial era. During the decade 2005-2015, when many observers saw a return to urban centers by both residents and businesses, Cleveland's population actually dropped by 14.2 percent, more than any large city except for Detroit and New Orleans. On key indicators of community well-being, Cleveland's percentage of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher (15.8), median household income ($26150), and percentage of adults in the labor force (58.2) score well below the U.S. as a whole, and below even comparable cities like Chicago, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh. This has occurred despite the presence of "eds and meds" led by the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic, the city's largest employer.

The City of Cleveland has maintained a lot of the downtown architecture from its heyday, while trying to open up access to Lake Erie. The Terminal Tower was built in 1930 as transportation hub and commercial space, overlooking Public Square:

Inside views:

Public Square is a pedestrian plaza, managed by the mayorally-appointed Group Plan Commission. Beginning in 2011 and dedicated in 2016, the remade Public Square was the first project for the commission, though the new young trees provided little protection from the Sun on the hot day we visited:

Public Square in 1920. Source: Wikipedia

Public Square also contains the 1894 Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument, which we were surprised to find was open to the public. Our guide says "90% of Clevelanders know this is here, and 10% know it's open to the public." The interior lists all county residents who served in the Civil War, as well as stained glass windows and sculptures with varying degrees of fancifulness.

Across Public Square from the Tower Center is the Old Stone (First Presbyterian) Church, built in 1855 though Presbyterians have been worshiping on this corner since 1819:

The view down Ontario Street towards the courthouse:

On the other end of the visual delight spectrum, the view down Prospect Avenue towards the Tower Center. Casinos are not civic buildings:

Along Rockwell Avenue, a sign of difficult walking. If the design cues are saying "Cross here," a lot of good a sign is going to do.

The Cleveland Public Library is two blocks from Public Square down Superior Street. Its new Louis Stokes Wing sits nicely next to the original facility, and has some quiet spaces inside...

...while the Eastman Reading Garden between them made for a shady parklet, popular on this sunny summer day.

The commercial areas around the city center feature a lot of massive buildings, historic but not enough variety to be inviting. An exception was East 4th Street, a narrow street closed to traffic and featuring a number of popular gathering places:

The Arcade, a proto-mall dating from 1890, by contrast was rather quiet even on a hot day. Its architecture is impressive...

...but shops like this might have been busier with street access.

North of downtown is Lake Erie. There's enough car traffic to make walking tricky; the Group Plan Commission plans a pedestrian bridge which may help. Attractions (besides the lake) include the home field for the NFL's Cleveland Browns (at left)...

...the Great Lakes Science Science Center...

...and the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

We went east via rapid transit to visit the Cleveland Museum of Art. There's some transit-oriented development happening by the new Little Italy stop....

...bringing new people to a charming, walkable neighborhood.

The Cozad-Bates House, build in 1853

Even "star" cities struggle with issues of concentrated poverty, gentrification, infrastructure and so on. Cleveland's struggle to catch up to the post-industrial world exacerbating all those other struggles. A whirlwind tour of the city shows it has good bones in many places, civic attractions that are well-supported, a powerful if mixed heritage, and efforts towards promoting walkability. In theory all a city can do is lay the groundwork for prosperity and then the private sector takes over. What does it do when step one doesn't seem to be working?

(Or maybe it is starting to work? This article in Cleveland Magazine documents a dramatic change in attitude among Cleveland residents towards their home city. Those interviewed for the article seem to put unwarranted faith in attitude and branding as keys to success, but do I have a better answer?)

SEE ALSO:
"Can Cities Change Their Luck," 20 June 2016
"Two Tales of Cities," 7 June 2016
All things Cleveland at cleveland.com
Sheehan Hannan, "Who Are We Now," Cleveland Magazine, 1 July 2017