Urban Thinking

Cedar Rapids Transit will move it’s temporary transfer site Monday back to downtown at park-and-ride lots along the riverfront at 12th Avenue and 2nd Street SE. The current transfer site, set up at the corner of 4th Avenue and 12th Street SE when service resumed after the flood, is about ten blocks east of the downtown Ground Transportation Center, consequently causing on-time issues for west side routes. Routes serving the east side have been arriving at the endpoint about five minutes ahead of time while west side routes have been running behind schedule in the afternoons when ridership appears to be the heaviest. The return to downtown should allow buses to more easily maintain the regular schedule. This new temporary site is within a few blocks of the future intermodal transportation facility that is planned to house a new bus transfer station. Transit service continues fare free for now with hourly headways on all routes.

Cedar Rapids’ planned new courthouse has been bumped up on the priority list for construction by the Judicial Conference of the U.S. Courts Executive Committee, in lieu of severe flood damage to the existing 77 year-old courthouse. Senators Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley have been working the past few weeks to get the courthouse moved up, which has been delayed for fifteen years while other courthouse projects have been expedited. This is certainly good news for Cedar Rapids and downtown. The 8-story building that will be elevated above the 500 year flood plane will enhance the city’s skyline and be a very visible sign of the city’s triumph over the flood. According to the Gazette, construction could begin as early as next year.

The 18th annual Iowa City Jazz Festival was held this past Independence Day weekend in downtown Iowa City on the Pentacrest, the heart of the University of Iowa campus. This is one event I look forward to each summer - great music, great food, a great community of people. Cedar Rapids jazz radio station KCCK did a live broadcast of performances from the three day festival, simulcasted on Iowa Public Radio and Omaha Public Radio.

My father George works at KCCK so I have been attending the festival on and off for many years.  Also in recent years my brother Daniel (of The Soundhole recording studio) has been doing production work for the broadcast.  So between both of them I’ve gotten an interesting back stage look into the festival.  But, honestly what I look forward to most is not the music or the vendors, but the gathering of people and the collective delight of community.  I’ll write another post soon exploring what makes true “community” and the shining example that exists in Iowa City.

Check out all my photos on Flickr from the Iowa City Jazz Festival.

I recently watched Gary Burns and Jim Brown’s “Radiant City” documentary on suburban sprawl. Chronicling the Moss family’s move to suburbia from inner-city Calgary, it is a critical look at the social and cultural aspects that have come with the growth of suburban “communities” in North America since the end of World War II.

Aside from periodic commentary from the filmmakers themselves and a host of guest experts, most of the film was members of the Moss family describing their daily routines and problems in suburbia and occasional scenes of the family interacting as normal. Evan Moss and his son are cynical about their new community, while Ann, the mom, tenaciously hopes that the community feel will come, focusing on the good and clearly resentful of her husband and son’s complaining.

The film is less about the environmental and ecological impacts of sprawl, but about the social implications of the suburban lifestyle. It details how suburban “communities” are monoculture and by that alone, unsustainable. Suburbia is developed by the masses so people of roughly the same age move in at the same time, have children around the same time - creating a temporary demand for schools, then grow old at the same time, becoming trapped or forced to leave because they either can no longer driver or required special services.

“Radiant City” is not a data-intensive documentary, nor is it an absolute doomsday lecture. It is, however, an intriguing new look into life in the suburbs and the shortcomings of the American dream, or in this case, the Canadian dream. It is certain to give viewers a new perspective and invoke a thoughtful dialogue on the burbs. Visit their website at www.radiantcitymovie.com.

Transit service resumed today after being suspended since Thursday due to the historic flooding that has occurred in Cedar Rapids and the midwest. Since the GTC, about a block from the river, was right in the middle of the flood zone, a temporary on-street transfer site was set up at 4th Avenue and 12th Street SE. No revised maps or schedules have been made available yet, but additional transit staff were available at the transfer point to assist passengers. Only one bus was running on each route so service was hourly all day.

I am working with the Veterans Memorial Commission this summer, which takes care of the Veterans Memorial Building on Mays Island, which houses city hall offices. The basement and mezzanine levels were completely submerged by flood water pushed in from the attached underground parking garage. The first floor also had about two feet of standing water, completely ruining the auditorium floor and numerous artifacts in the Spanish American War Memorial Room that houses the VMC office.

I was back to work Tuesday, mostly picking up sandbags and debris at the police station, library, and public works as we aren’t able to do much work in City Hall until the water goes down. Today the downtown bridges were reopened to traffic and downtown was alive, getting right to work on cleaning up. I’ve heard it could take weeks to get power back to downtown so it will certainly be along time until it is back to normal. My hope is that downtown can comeback bigger and better than it was before. While the flood will inevitable hurt small shops and businesses the most, it appears the extensive damage could expedite some large projects planned for downtown.

According to a June 18, Gazette article, Senators Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley want the federal government to move ahead with construction of the planned new federal courthouse, which has been continuously delayed for the past fifteen years, instead of spending time and money on repairs to the current facility which would be inadequate anyway. This seems like a sensible idea and then the current courthouse could be renovated right away into mixed-use as is planned by the City of Cedar Rapids when it is transferred ownership in exchanged for the land slated for the new courthouse at 8th Ave SE between the river and 2nd Street. The site will of course be elevated so the new courthouse will be above the 500 year flood plane.

Another project that could become even more of a priority is the planned intermodal transportation facility which has been changed a number of times over the past five to ten years of initial planning. Now slated for 3rd Street SE around 9th Ave SE, the facility would include a parking garage to replace the First Street Parkade along the riverfront that has reached the end of its useful lifetime. Small repairs and patches have kept it open in recent years but according to some parking guys I was working with on Tuesday, the flood waters more than likely put it in disrepair. Personally I don’t think downtown needs another parking garage and that there is plenty of parking already, but it’d be good to see this and other projects move forward.

Click above for Youtube video of bus evacuation.

As all regular transit service was suspended in Cedar Rapids, city buses were used to transport evacuated inmates from the Linn County Jail to other facilities Thursday morning. According to the Gazette, more than a dozen buses were lined up along 3rd Ave SE between 6th and 8th streets, while at least two buses plowed through the water, 4-5 feet deep in some locations from Mays Island to the transfer site to other buses on 3rd Ave.

Some side panels were removed from the bus to prevent the water pressure from rolling the bus. Some that were not removed were literally falling off afterwords. According to a KCRG.com younewstv report, the buses began to float toward the curb by Smulekoff’s at 3rd Ave and 1st Street, so the doors were opened to let in water and get the buses back down.

Todd from the Gazette has some great images on Flickr (eibbtoddb) and a Youtube video you can link to above. Below are a few of Todd’s photos:

Cedar Rapids bus driving through deep water on 3rd Ave SE transporting inmates from evacuated Linn County Jail.

Staging area on 3rd Ave and 8th Street SE for inmates to transfer to other buses.

Side panels falling off bus after driving through window-deep water.

This flooding is unprecedented for Cedar Rapids, devastated thousands of homes and businesses. Over 400 blocks of the city including nearly every major building in downtown Cedar Rapids is currently under water. The outpouring of support by volunteers and neighbors lending a helping hand is a testament to the great community of Cedar Rapids and all of Iowa. It will be a long summer cleaning up and getting back to normal.

The Cedar River has reached record levels in the city. I am working with the Cedar Rapids Veterans Memorial / City Hall maintenance department for the summer and got some photos of the flooding today downtown. Several streets around the river and near downtown were under water today with more expected by tomorrow. As of this evening all downtown bridges were closed, leaving Interstate 380 as the only river crossing in the city.

A number of bus routes had to be rerouted in response to street and bridge closures today. From what I heard there were no official detour routes and drivers were simply going where ever to try to maintain service. Towards the afternoon, west side routes had to use I-380 to cross the Cedar River to the GTC as 1st Avenue West was underwater due to the storm sewer backing up. It has been announced that transit service will be suspended through at least Saturday. Some buses will be used to assist transporting volunteers and evacuees.

I went downtown Saturday morning for the first downtown farmers market of the summer. It was my first time attending the downtown market, or any local farmers market for that matter. Appearing busier than during the week, it was great to see so many people and downtown so vibrant, no matter how temporary. According to the Gazette attendance was over 10,000. I imagined the crowd and activity was not too unlike the hustle and bustle of a Saturday morning 40 or so years ago when downtown was still the prime retail center of town with all the major department stores.

Since 2006, the farmers market has been held on downtown streets on select Saturdays throughout the summer season. Before that the market was held at the Riverside Roundhouse by Czech Village, about ten blocks away from the downtown core and across the river. In 2006 the Downtown District group proposed moving the market to the streets of downtown for the benefit of businesses and to get more people downtown. Not surprisingly the majority of Czech Village business owners strongly objected to this idea. A handful of vocal market-goers made shortsighted arguments that the move to downtown would fail and prevent some elderly regulars from shopping because they couldn’t park as close and would, God forbid, have to walk a couple of blocks. Nevertheless the downtown market was given a try the first Saturday of each month in summer ‘06. Though I did not attend any, they were reported successes and drew many first time shoppers. This downtown market was clearly something to consider.

In 2007, the regular Riverside Roundhouse market officially ended its 40+ year run as the market was permanently moved to a parking lot at 8th Avenue and 2nd Street on the southern edge of downtown, about midway between Czech Village and the core of downtown. Business owners in Czech Village were understandably displeased as many depended on the Roundhouse market to bring in customers during the summer months. I don’t remember hearing a whole lot about this move but I imagine it was done to increase visibility at the busy street corner and capacity, after the previous summer’s trial market downtown had generated greater public interest. At least at this location the naysayers could not complain about a lack of convenient parking. However a market in a big parking lot with few trees in the hot summer sun can get pretty uncomfortable. In that regard both the downtown location, partially or entirely shaded by buildings and street trees, and the indoors Roundhouse location would be better.

This summer the farmers market will be held downtown twice in June and August, and again on the first Saturday of July, September and October. This year it has expanded on to the otherwise underutilized May’s Island in addition to two blocks of 2nd Avenue SE, two blocks of 2nd Street SE and two blocks of 1st Street SE. Clearly the partial move to downtown has done wonders for the farmers market, yielding increased popularity, attracting many new vendors and customers. My hope is that the farmers market will be permanently moved to the streets of downtown in the coming seasons. It is truly a delightful experience in downtown and fosters community interaction while growing into one of the midwest’s largest open air markets.

For more information visit the CR Recreation Department’s Farmers Market website.

According to the city’s Status & Information Report for the week of May 19, Cedar Rapids Transit plans to add bike racks to the front of 21 buses. They will be installed on all 16 of the Thomas SLF low floor buses and five of the 1990 RTS buses. The racks that hold two bikes each are to be standard on all new bus purchases in the future.

After contemplating doing so for a long time, I finally jumped into the blog world back in January 2007, when I debuted “Urban Thinking” with a simple Blogger template and anticipation of one day having an active, credible blog that somebody besides myself might actually find interesting to read.  Since then I’ve had the opportunity to document many of my ideas and thoughts into words, which is perhaps the most rewarding.  As an undergraduate student in architecture and potential future grad student in urban planning, I believe it is important to think critically about the built environment and society around me and be able to analyze and draw conclusions on such things.  I’ve found blogging to be the perfect medium for me to do this.

The focus of my blog from the beginning has always been on my interests in architecture, cities, transit and all related things.  Since I can remember I have always been interested in cities and the characteristics that make them what they are.  I’ve known since before high school what I wanted to go to school for and become - an architect.  I hold a very urbanist point of view and am quite critical of suburban design, sprawl, and the relentless catering to the personal automobile.  However, I have not always held these views.  Many things have changed and shaped my views on what a good city is and how we should grow and develop our communities.  A big influence, I believe, has been blogging, more specific the blogs of others who spoke out on these issues and went against the grain.  They revealed to me how blindly accepting I was to bad design in my environment and helped me become the better-informed urbanist I am today.

My first exposure to blogs was probably about two to three years ago with hardcore urbanist, Steve Patterson’s “Urban Review STL” blog, which I came upon numerous times by Googling “urban.”  At first I mostly looked at the pictures but eventually started reading the commentary as well.  I found Steve’s nit-picky criticism of a seemingly fine looking, suburban Walgreen’s in Springfield, Missouri very compelling.  At the time I hadn’t yet realized the many drawbacks and flaws of suburban design.  Admittedly, I still think the Walgreen’s looks pretty good (exception for the parking lot in front), but I now understand and agree with Steve’s persistence for accessibility and the importance of good urban design in our cities and communities.

After my freshman year of college at North Dakota State University, I decided to transfer to the closer to home Iowa State, although proximity to home had nothing to do with it.  Over spring break I had visited my friend in Washington, D.C., where he was attending his freshman year at George Washington University.  Though I had been to DC twice before when my brother was living in nearby Laurel, Maryland, this visit was much more impressive. The week was awesome - getting to spend so much time right in the city, exploring some great urban neighborhoods, and having to rely entirely on public transportation.  Realizing my dissatisfaction with the urbanity of Fargo, North Dakota, I immediately began looking for other schools.  Since I was already drawn to the DC area, the University of Maryland became of interest, being the only public university with an architecture program.  I returned to NDSU after spring break, pondering my options, ultimately concluding that Iowa State was the most feasible and reasonable choice.  Aside from having a highly-regarded (and ranked) program that I convinced myself was important, Iowa State also offered programs in Community and Regional Planning, a study that increasingly intrigued me. Unlike NDSU, Iowa State was a “big school,” which I figured could make up for some of the lacking “big city” urbanism.

During my first year at Iowa State I began reading and looking for blogs more regularly.  I also officially decided I wanted to go to grad school, likely after discovering there was no way to double major or even minor in CRP at ISU.  Additionally I would now only receive a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Iowa State, whereas NDSU had just transitioned to a 5 year Masters program, an increasing trend among architecture schools nationwide.  After searching the internet for different planning grad schools I inevitably came back to University of Maryland.  I soon became quite adamant about my aspirant future grad school, quite similar to the way I had once felt about NDSU back in high school, and perhaps for a short time about Iowa State.

One day while investigating more about the university and College Park, I came across a fairly new community development blog called “Rethink College Park.” At first I was excited to see all the development and improvements happening in College Park and eventually caught on to certain complexities facing the community. Nonetheless, I was happy to see all the plans and proposals for the University’s East Campus initiative and future Purple Line light rail that will transverse campus.

By way of Rethink College Park, I discovered another great blog, that of RTCP co-founder and UM urban planning grad student Rob Goodspeed, “The Goodspeed Update.” His data-based approach to analyzing urban spaces and services, graphs and charts included, was incisive as another dimension of understanding and evaluating urbanism. In addition to writing about DC, Rob also has informative posts on urban planning and blogging - certainly of interest to a new blogger and aspiring planner myself.

Furthermore I have discovered additional blogs and websites of like topics that have come to serve as precedents for my own blog. They have all been influential to me in some way or another in my continual effort to better understand and examine the great delight that I find in cities and urban spaces.

In January 2007, during my second semester at Iowa State, I was hired as a part-time transit driver for CyRide, the city-university partnership transit agency. I have always been compelled by various forms of transportation, especially passenger rail, but this inevitably sparked an increased interest in transit and particularly buses. The job is great. I have gotten to know the regulars and enjoy interacting with a diverse crowd of passengers. I feel more connected than ever to the Ames community, which is something the average ISU student probably cannot say. The job also affords me invaluable insight and experience into the transit industry that will no doubt be beneficial in my future career. From now on, I am officially a transit fan.

Now it is 2008, and I’ve just completed my third year of college. My views on urban issues have changed for the better over the past three years as I have become more informed and concerned, though my passion for cities has always existed. As said, I owe much to the great blogs discussed above, but also the great cities and urban spaces I’ve had to good fortune to visit. Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Chicago and so on - all fascinating studies. My goals are to further my understanding of cities, develop my design communication skills, and continue thinking urban. A better understanding of urbanism will ultimately allow me to design better studio projects in the three years remaining of my undergraduate education. Through all this, my blog will be key and I hope to produce some exceptional posts that might inspire someone in the way others have inspired me.