The annual Freedom Festival Balloon Glow was tonight at Brucemore. Five hot air balloons adorned the expansive lawn along First Avenue, along with a live band stand and several food and beverage vendor stands. There was a great crowd out tonight on a very comfortable summer evening. Events like these are fun for all ages and make Cedar Rapids an attractive place to live.
See my other photos of the Balloon Glow here.
Neighborhood Network News has posted video of last Saturday’s (Jan 23) “Imagine a Vital Neighborhood” urban design conference in Cedar Rapids. Architecture students from Iowa State University’s Bridge Studio presented design proposals and strategies for sustainable redevelopment in Oakhill Jackson and New Bohemia. I haven’t watched the videos entirely yet, but there were a range of ideas from more abstract and statistical to more specific design proposals. One intriguing idea was very ambitious, proposing a residential high rise and retail complex including a Target store – on par with mixed-use urban big box developments found in several larger US cities. A common theme was to reuse building materials (like from Farmstead) for new construction in the neighborhood.
The videos are definitely worth a watch. Special thanks to Robin Kash for posting these and other community meeting videos on Neighborhood Network News.
Neighborhood Network News: Urban Design Conference Videos
> 1 – Intro, Overview and Opening Discussion
> 2 – Student Presentations
> 3 – Discussion of Student Presentations
Cedar Rapids-based, non-profit organization S.E.E.D. (Sustainable Ecological Economic Development) will be hosting a Sustainability Symposium “Imagine a Vital Neighborhood” this Saturday with architecture grad students from Iowa State University. Students will present design proposals to stimulate ideas for building a pedestrian friendly, sustainable neighborhood in the Oakhill Jackson and New Bo areas near downtown Cedar Rapids.
S.E.E.D. founder and Oakhill Jackson Neighborhood Association President Michael Richards has been collaborating with the College of Design’s “Bridge Studio” for two years. The first year students developed prototype designs for post-flood affordable housing that received the grand prize for the 2009 NCARB Prize for Creative Integration of Practice and Education in the Academy. Professors Clare Cardinal-Pett, Peter Goche, and Nadia Anderson, who was my studio instructor this past fall, will be leading the event.
Anyone interested in the revitalization of these neighborhoods and making a more livable, sustainable Cedar Rapids is encouraged to attend. The forum will be held from 10am – 5pm, this Saturday, Jan. 23, at the Community Conference Hall in the Horizons Building, 819 5th St. SE. More information about the event can be found on BJ Smith’s Puncture Proof blog.
> Bridge Studio
> S.E.E.D.
> Puncture Proof: Forum promotes pedstrian-friendly neighborhoods
The 19th annual Iowa City Jazz Festival continues today and Sunday on the Pentacrest in downtown Iowa City. Multiple food vendors are set up along Iowa Avenue and Clinton Street in front of the Old Capitol, along with the dozens of great restaurants and cafes in the downtown area. This event is one of my favorite weekends each summer – good music, good food, and great atmosphere. Fourth of July Fireworks will be take place after the last of today’s performances, usually around 9:30. I’ll be glad to be in Iowa City again this year for the 4th, as the Cedar Rapids Freedom Festival fireworks display this year is only at Kirkwood instead of downtown.
88.3 KCCK-FM is broadcasting the festival live. Check out kcck.org to listen online.
The Cedar Rapids Neighborhood Reinvestment Action Plans have been published on the Corridor Recovery website. This plan was developed by Sasaki Associates with a great deal of community input through the Neighborhood Planning Process during the first few months of 2009. It was approved by the City Council on May 13, to guide short and long term redevelopment in flood-affected neighborhoods. The final action plan includes a specific set of tasks to be completed that will compliment comprehensive goals.
RIck Smith of the Gazette reports on his city government blog that dates have been set for three public participation meetings lead by OPN Architects, on the future of flood damaged city facilities, including the former home of City Hall, the Veterans Memorial Building on Mays Island. The meetings will be on June 23, August 18, and October 6; location TBD. I look forward to participating as all concerned Cedar Rapidians should.
The City officially, at this point, has no position on the matter, whether to return to existing facilities or locate elsewhere, possibly in a brand new building. However, as Rick points out in his post, neither Mayor Kay Halloran, Councilman and mayor pro tem Brian Fagan, or City Manager Jim Prosser seem very adamant about returning to the former location. There is a buzz about the sustainability of facilities as the city moves forward, which some use as an argument for a new, more energy-efficient facility.
I am not one to be paranoid, overly-skeptical, or presumptuous of poor decision making about City leaders, and remain generally supportive of their actions and understanding of the current situation the city is facing. I do, however, find it a bit odd, with the issue of sustainability being so important, that returning to the Veterans Memorial Building is not given much consideration. Since the structure is historical, it is required to be renovated. If such an expense will be inevitably required, it would be much more economical – and environmentally sustainable – to return City Hall to where it has been the past 80 years. What could be more sustainable than reusing an existing building? With brand new mechanic and electric systems the building could become much more energy efficient than previously and the City could renovate current space into contemporary office and meeting space that a modern municipal government demands.
Renovating and reusing the space the City already has would not only be more environmentally friendly, but also politically. Despite arguments about long-term energy savings with a new or different city facility (which wouldn’t necessarily be the case), getting the City back into City Hall makes sense now and would be a major PR boost for city leaders, who have not fared well in the public eye since the flood. Renovation of the VMC could be completed much sooner than a brand new facility – extending the City’s need for temporary facilities not centrally located.
Additionally, I believe it’s the City’s responsibility to the community to make sure this architecturally and historically significant building doesn’t go sitting vacant and underutilized for years to come. The building is an icon of the city; it makes Cedar Rapids unique, unites the east and west, and symbolizes our civic pride.
City Hall should return to Veterans Memorial Building on Mays Island. It could be done in a timely manner and makes the most environmental, social, and economic sense. That is my position and why I plan to participate in the public forum.
Today I participated in the second of three community workshops for the Cedar Rapids Neighborhood Planning Process for the River Corridor Redevelopment Plan. The focus of today’s workshop was on transportation and connectivity, and land use in the redevelopment plan. Individuals from Sasaki Associates, the Boston design firm selected last year (pre-flood) to develop a riverfront redevelopment plan, were there to present different scenarios and facilitate discussion.
The first breakout session was to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of three scenarios presented on transportation, connectivity and open space. All scenarios were based off a tentative plan for a greenway / flood protection system. The second breakout session considered land use and locations to focus housing and business revitalization. My table was fairly diverse – one older man, a retired woman formerly a planning consultant, two women from Time Check, one of their daughters; and our table leader, a planner with the City Community Development Department.
Turn out looked pretty good, maybe 150-250, but I could be way off. I saw a lot of familiar faces from City Hall and in the business community. I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and hearing what other citizens had to say about the schemes, as well as offer my own input. Despite being six hours long, it seemed to go by pretty quickly and was actually really pretty fun for me. I look forward to participating in the next meetings I’m able to make it, as I’ll be returning to Ames tomorrow for school.
The next meeting will be Tuesday, March 31, from 6pm – 9pm, at the Crowne Plaza, for scenario evaluation and determining a preferred scenario. The last of three workshops will be April 25. An action plan will be confirmed at a May 5 meeting and will be presented to the City Council on May 13. I encourage anyone and everyone from Cedar Rapids to get involved in this process.
> Cedar Rapids River Corridor Redevelopment Plan
> Cedar Rapids Neighborhood Planning Process
> Sasaki Associates: Cedar Rapids River Corridor Redevelopment Plan
Cedar Rapids’ neighboring city, Marion, is kicking off a community brainstorming initiative this week called Imagine8 to come up with eight ideas to focus on for the city’s future. This is similar to Cedar Rapids’ Fifteen in 5 plan that identified fifteen projects or issues for the future and progress that could be made within five years. An Imagine8 Marion Community Visioning Kick Off Breakfast will be held Thursday, January 15, at the Longbranch from 7:30 – 8:30am.
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.
Check out all my photos on Flickr from the Iowa City Jazz Festival.
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.
