Cherokee Trail update

 

You can get there from here!

The Cherokee Trail, which eventually will run all across the west side of Cedar Rapids, is complete between Cherokee Park and Morgan Creek County Park. The next step is to go east out of Cherokee Park, across Edgewood Road to the intersection of Westwood Drive and F Avenue NW. According to the Linn County Trails Association, work continues in the City of Cedar Rapids to determine the specific route the trail will take, while awaiting funding from the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization. Unfortunately, the MPO has not been encouraging on that score ("June 2026 Trail News" 2026).

On a recent sunny weekday, I encountered a few cyclists as well as some walkers; they seemed comfortable, although there currently are few sources of shade, at least not in the middle of the day. Even in Cherokee Park, the effects of the 2020 derecho are noticeable. (I also encountered precisely no pit bulls on my hike, although there were reports that two had run away and were loose in the area.) 

For the time being, the trail starts at the eastern edge of Cherokee Park, a small but delightfully unique park located at Johnson Avenue and Midway Drive NW. A paved trail supplements an older gravel trail that goes completely around the park on either side of a little creek. That gives you three options for crossing the park. 

The paved trail crosses a bridge on its way out of the park...

west edge of Cherokee Park

...crosses Wiley Boulevard (with the help of a new crossing signal), and runs alongside a residential neighborhood. A few steps or turns of the wheel get you to Jacolyn Park, which has a new play area...

Jacolyn Park

...and a restroom. Here the separated trail ends, and the Cherokee Trail follows Gordon Avenue for several blocks.

Cherokee Trail on Gordon Avenue NW

Gordon Avenue is officially designated a bicycle boulevard, for which it qualifies by the low traffic volume, gentle roundabouts like the one depicted above, and frequent reminders on signs and the pavement.

Bicycle boulevard stencil, Gordon Avenue

People's Church (Unitarian-Universalist) moved out here from downtown several years ago. 

People's Church is located on the bicycle boulevard

Gloria Dei Lutheran and Cedar Hills Community Church are also located along the Cherokee Trail, for Christians seeking to arrive at their house of worship by a humbler conveyance than an SUV.

The bicycle boulevard turns right off Gordon Avenue onto Sharon Lane...

...which leads into Cherry Hill Park, where the paved trail resumes.

entering Cherry Hill Park off Sharon Lane

The trail winds through the park, running along the north edge of the large swimming pool.

There's a fix-it station right before you get to Stoney Point Road.

There's no signage at Stoney Point Road...

...but taking the right fork leads to a crossing with warning lights, which leads to E Avenue, which leads to Morgan Creek Park.

On E Avenue there's the choice of a bike lane
or parallel paved trail

In the park, it becomes the Morgan Creek Trail...

...which winds through the park...

...as far as 80th Street, where it turns north and runs parallel to the street, continuing as far as Covington Road (F Avenue in Cedar Rapids). The Linn County Trails Association anticipates the Iowa Department of Transportation will authorized bids for constructing the 1.7 mile stretch between Covington Road and the Cedar River, with construction happening in 2027. The bridge over the river may take longer ("June 2026 Trail News" 2026).

SEE ALSO: "Riding the Districts 2023," 12 June 2023

10th anniversary post: Thinking Big in Cedar Rapids

 

Dale Todd speaks at Cedar Rapids Public Library, 
May 2016

 "Waterfronts are the rock stars of city infrastructure."--

MATTHEW LISTER, MANAGING DIRECTOR FOR GEHL AMERICAS,  AT CNU34

(5/23/2026) When Dale Todd spoke at a special edition of 1 Million Cups Cedar Rapids at the Cedar Rapids Public Library ten years ago, on behalf of the package of projects known as Destination Cedar Rapids, he was between stints on the Cedar Rapids City Council. Ten years later, those projects are well enough along to show they connect the city in important ways, while the jury's still out on the other big idea pitched that week, MedQuarter.

CONNECT CR

Conceptual picture of the Alliant Energy Lightline
bridge over the Cedar River
(swiped from cedar-rapids.org)

Destination Cedar Rapids is now known as Connect CR, and has been supported by $5 million from the City of Cedar Rapids, an equivalent amount from the Hall-Perrine Foundation, and donation of Cedar Lake by Alliant Energy. The hope is to activate the Cedar River and the man-made Cedar Lake, for as  another CNU speaker, Eric Klinenberg argued, infrastructure like this can serve both functional (flood protection) and social purposes.

plans for Cedar Lake

Cedar Lake required a great deal of remediation, and apparently the leveling of numerous trees as well. (I know one avid birder who can't bring herself to return to what had been one of her favorite spots.) A lot of features, like the shelters and challenge course, remain to be built. It is scheduled to be completed in 2027.

Northern view of Cedar Lake

Yet on a Monday mid-afternoon, people were already using the space, walking and cycling around the lake on the trails, or sitting on benches by the lake.

cyclist on upper trail, taken from lower trail

 It is accessible by trail from the north or from Downtown, though being located across I-380 from neighborhoods it's only walkable for the bold and fit.

You can see Mound View from Cedar Lake, but
the train tracks mean you can't get there from here

Down the trail, the Alliant Energy Lightline bridge will connect the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, as it rolls south of Czech Village, to where development is planned in the New Bohemia expansion. Completion is planned for this fall, when it will be a huge contribution to trail system connectivity. In time it may also and help build a neighborhood south of New Bohemia.

Construction progress as of today: view from the SW side

Cedar Lake and the Alliant Energy Lightline are connected by the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, and highlight our emerging trail system. Together they provide both fun and utility. What is fun and useful for residents also is attractive to visitors (see "The Public Realm" 2026.) City Manager Jeff Pomeranz is quoted on the city webpage: "We need these kinds of special places for our residents, for our businesses, and for our visitors." The page also appropriately notes that entire ConnectCR package is "designed to strengthen connections across our city."

North end of the Lightline Bridge,
from 10th St SE

KCRG-TV report on bridge construction from earlier this month (1:48):

MEDQUARTER

I've said a lot about the MedQuarter in this space, most of it negative, but the fact that very little has changed in its 55 blocks during the last ten years means that good choices are not precluded. Ten years ago I imagined an optimistic scenario in which:

Development creates an important connection between what's happening Downtown and in New Bohemia, and the core neighborhoods of Oak Hill-Jackson and Wellington Heights. This proves a source of sustenance for Downtown and New Bo. Work force housing gets built. Expanded employment opportunities create vibrant, diverse neighborhoods that in turn sustain street life and local businesses. Maybe even: Density gradually replaces the current ridiculous oversupply of parking, while visitors are accommodated by local circulator buses that provide easy transportation between clinics and other local sites.

Looking east from 8th Street and 4th Avenue, 2014

The same view today
(The adorable shrub at the corner was removed after 2021)

Looking at the four parts of the "general theory of walkability" created by Jeff Speck (Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time [Farrar Straus and Giroux, 2012]), the MedQuarter does not perform as well as it should be doing, as close as it is to Downtown.

• safety: Mixed. There are sidewalks throughout the MedQuarter, and converting one-way streets back to two-way has helped with traffic speeds. Design still favors motor vehicles, and 1st Avenue, as well as 7th and 8th Streets near I-380, are not safe for pedestrians or cyclists. The lack of buildings and people, particularly at night, does not help people feel safe, either. 
• comfort: Poor. The streets are wide, with few shady street trees (although 8th Street by Mercy Hospital is a nice exception), and at least during the day a lot of noisy car traffic.
• interesting: Poor. With a tiny residential population and little commerce, there are few signs of life on the street. Most sidewalks are next to parking lots or large buildings.
• useful: Poor. Once you leave the hospital, there are few destinations for walking or cycling: no parks or elementary schools, a couple ethnic grocery stores, a handful of restaurants, the Post Office, an excellent coffeehouse that unfortunately is only open three days a week, a few other places.

The MedQuarter has many parking lots and few places

I think this could be fixed, if anyone wanted to. The three big boys--the two hospitals and Physicians Clinic of Iowa--are there to stay, and their preponderance of out-of-area visitors means parking is always going to be a concern. But it doesn't have to be the only concern. If the MedQuarter develops in a way that facilitates connection between the neighborhoods and Downtown--besides driving through it, I mean--it could strengthen the city socially and fiscally. Besides, car dependence is antithetical to public health. I'm not optimistic that these are considerations for those who wield power over the area, but as of now, it could still happen.

ORIGINAL POST: "Thinking Big in Cedar Rapids," 4 May 2016

Bike to Work Week is underway, sort of

 

I biked to work!

(5/11/2026) It was 41F (5C) degrees this morning, for a chilly start to Bike to Work Week in Cedar Rapids. The forecast high was 68, and the wind was light, so though it was not as warm as last year, it was a good day for biking. Because I'll be leaving shortly for Arkansas to attend the Congress for the New Urbanism--watch this space for exhaustive updates!--this was my one chance to Bike to Work.

Sad to say, today was a disappointment, Bike to Work Weekwise. Programmers have doubled--tripled?--down on the commuter rides which were a small draw last year. This year, in addition to the two rides to Downtown, there were six rides from various parts of town to Collins Aerospace, a longtime partner in things Bike to Work Week.

2018: Pit stop on the Collins campus

Collins Route 4 riders were scheduled to leave from Bever Park on the southeast side near my house at (gulp!) 6:45. I gamely got up, donned the Sag Wagon shirt I scored at last year's afterparty...

All dressed up and ready to go

...with rubber bands to keep my pant legs away from the bike chain...

...and got to Bever Park with time to spare, only to find...

Bever Park in the morning light

...no bikers at 6:45. As I rode around the park looking for some, I found five people walking dogs, and one guy in a truck opening gates, but no one on a bicycle other than me. After ten minutes of quiet contemplation, I returned home. Had the Grinch stolen Bike to Work Week?

1st Avenue entering Downtown by the
Cedar Valley Nature Trail crossing

I decided to go Downtown to meet the incoming riders, as I had done last year. The first person I met was Ben Dattilo, who works at Collins Aerospace as well as being a member of the city's Active Transportation Advisory Commission. He was the entire Collins Ride 1 group, having no takers on the 12 mile ride in from Hoover Park on the far southern edge of the city.

A little while after Ben went on his way to work, Downtown Ride 2 came down the Cedar Valley Nature Trail from the northeast side.

Haley Sevening bikes to work

Haley Sevening from the city's Community Development Department was also riding alone. "Hopefully the weather ticks a couple degrees warmer the rest of the week," she told me later, "and we get some more folks joining!" There is warmer weather ahead, but there are also such things as gloves. A Silver-Level Bike Friendly Community ought to be turning out more cyclists than this on a day like today!

Do I have suggestions? Well, if I were smart, I'd be rich, or at least have more than two people at my New Bo Open Coffee meetups. I think Bike to Work Week in the 2020s could work on visibility, funding, and a sense of occasion. 

1. Organizers need to start fires under their friends, for if they can't sell it to their friends, how will they sell it to the rest of the city? Half a dozen cyclists on a group ride on a weekday morning is many times better than one, and is a start towards more and larger rides.
2. Are there organizations who could lend members and maybe some funds? The Downtown SSMID, for example, or Main Street, Physicians Clinic of Iowa, the Cedar Rapids Kernels, ...
3. We could use some celebrity presence. Ten years ago, Mayor Ron Corbett was a regular part of these events. I gather our current mayor isn't into this, but what about musicians, athletes, CEOs, and other Cedar Rapids-famous people?

Tuesday, May 12: Not working, still biking!

Thursday, May 14: Bentonville (Arkansas) bike tour with CNU

Friday, May 15: Bike to Work Day pit stop
at Toole Design, Bentonville

The rest of the week in Cedar Rapids went like this:

Tues-Chain Reaction Bike Hub volunteer night

Wed-Bike to Lunch, Bike Camping Basics workshop

Thu-Meet Me at the Market bike ride

Fri-Handlebar Happy Hour at Kickstand 

The Ride of Silence will occur the following Wednesday, May 20.

LAST YEAR'S POST: "Bike to Work Week 2025," May 12-16, 2025

SEE ALSO: Kevin Duggan, "City's In-House Program Proves Speed Governors Work," Streetsblog NYC, 12 May 2026

Strategic Parking Plan

Free on-street parking (free with two-hour limit),
New Bohemia, October 2025

(4/29/2026) The City of Cedar Rapids is taking a realistic approach to parking issues in the "Core Four" neighborhoods (Downtown, Czech Village, New Bohemia, and Kingston). Business owners and customers have complained about the difficulty in finding parking; parking finances are not self-sustaining but have required annual subsidies from general funds; and new residential and hotel construction promise to put new pressure on available parking spaces.

Convenience survey results: Parking is hard

Those spaces, for the record, number 7230 in this area: 2010 on streets and 5220 off street (surface parking lots and parking garages), not including privately owned parking lots. 

Public attends a Strategic Plan Open House,
Cedar Rapids Public Library, 28 April 2026

The city and its consultants are to be commended for not trying to solve problems by increasing parking capacity in this area. Space devoted to cars--180 square feet per car, unless you want to go bigger for today's gigantic vehicles--is space that can't be devoted to places to live or visit. They create additional distance between those places, making walking more burdensome, and by not being of themselves financially productive, waste valuable space in the city. These costs and tradeoffs are not widely appreciated by the public, in my experience: "I don't like paying for parking" was overheard at Tuesday's open house.

Parking capacity and vibe are mortal enemies

The Strategic Parking Plan's Presentation of recommendations states four main goals:

• Enhance Economic Development: By optimizing parking and mobility, we aim to support local businesses and attract new investments. 

• Improve Customer Experience: We are committed to making parking and mobility more convenient and user-friendly for everyone.

• Provide Cost-Effective Solutions: Providing public parking in a manner that is both financially sustainable and efficient.

• Expand Mobility Options: Leveraging existing assets to offer diverse and accessible mobility choices.

Open house poster on using data to inform policy

Connected to these are numerous recommendations and timetables, which I've distilled to five, because you are a busy person and any list longer than five makes my head hurt.

1. improve customer experience (ease of payment, finding parking lots) (pp. 11-13, 29-30)
2. ParkCR management of Czech Village parking lots (p. 15)
3. create open parking spaces through two hour limits, more enforcement and raising rates at high-demand places (pp. 19-22, 25-27, 31-33)--straight out of the Donald Shoup playbook!
4. Create Resident Parking Permit program (p. 23), so people who live in the district won't have to compete for space with visitors
5. financing and maintenance e.g. parking fees are not self-sustaining, the Five Seasons Ramp (400 1st Ave NE) needs maintenance stat (pp. 36-40)

Cyclists roll by Five Seasons Parking Ramp,
Downtown, May 2025

The plan also recommends further exploration of (1) a Core Four Shuttle for "park once" environment (p. 16); and (2) building a 2. parking ramp in New Bohemia (p. 17)

If the plan works, there will always be spaces available for anyone who arrives in the area to shop or make deliveries, though shoppers may have to pay for the privilege. This may make shopping in the core a more pleasant experience, though that might not overcome the resentment about paying. Shoup recommends devoting the revenue from parking fees to district improvements, which may tend to reduce the intensity of opposition, but that can only happen if there's revenue left over after we pay staff and perform regular maintenance of the facilities.

Increasing enforcement, raising fines
(which were $3 when I first moved to Cedar Rapids)

This difficulty remains, however: People are in the core of the city either because they already live there, or because they have chosen to travel by car, bicycle, walking, or bus.

Bicycle parking at the downtown farmers' market,
Greene Square, June 2025

More construction of apartments and condos may produce more in the first class, but because of the large doughnut of emptiness that surrounds the core, there aren't enough people close enough to rely on cyclists or pedestrians. The bus is not frequent or convenient enough to bring many people, either. Core district businesses rely on people arriving by car. Until and unless the city addresses this--maybe by using parking revenue to improve bus service and cycle paths?--parking in the core will be unsolvable, even by the greatest minds. 

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post said that ParkCR manages the large parking lot on 17th Avenue in Czech Village. Thanks to an alert reader who pointed out that is only a recommendation at this stage.

SEE ALSO:

"Book Review: Paved Paradise," 20 June 2023

"I Wish This Parking Was...," 27 November 2020

Donald Shoup, The High Cost of Free Parking (Planners Press, 2005)

Brian Tabick, "Cedar Rapids Considers Changes to Parking in Four Core Neighborhoods," KCRG-TV, 28 April 2026

My urbanist journey

As a child, I loved to color maps,
or copy the ones in the phone book with tracing paper

I

(4/22/2026) My urbanist journey began when I taught a first-year course on place at Coe College in 2008. Or maybe it was earlier? I have loved maps since I was tiny (see above). But it was teaching a course at Coe on the Sense of Place that led me to a semester-long study on sabbatical in spring semester 2013....

temporary downtown library

...where I kept running across books on the topic of urban design.

I had found my people! I began a blog to sort out all these new (to me) ideas...

...and here we are! On Holy Mountain, I pay a lot of attention to design issues, both in my hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and in places where I travel, particularly where I'm able to spend a good deal of time in one place, like Washington, D.C. (spring 2018)...

Our street, February 2018

...and Belgrade, Serbia (May2022).

Our street, May 2022

II

Urbanism is a movement of architects, planners, and others that has its roots in a number of ideas that came together as the Congress for the New Urbanism in 1993. I joined CNU in 2020, and have been a member of Strong Towns since whenever they started having memberships.

Coming next month! Watch this space for live coverage!!

The thread that runs through all of the ideas that comprise urbanism is a critique of auto-centric development, which took off in this country after World War II.

Memorial Boulevard runs through downtown Providence RI

Sprawl occurs when a metropolitan area relies on low-density housing developments, located far from place to work, connected by vast networks of highways. Atlanta, Houston and Los Angeles are famous for their sprawled layout and awful traffic, but it's plenty visible even in older cities like Chicago, and certainly has occurred in Cedar Rapids albeit on a smaller scale.

Collins Road NE, Cedar Rapids

One year I sorted out the main urbanist critiques this way (relevant questions are from a list at Alden 2015):

1. Community: sprawl separates people and makes it harder to be neighbors to each other (Jacobs 1962, Jacobson 2012)--how do we built stronger social networks?
2. Lifestyle: sprawl forces people to drive wherever they're going, and to spend a lot of time in traffic--can we improve walkability so that people have more time and transportation choices (Speck 2012)?
3. Environmental: sprawl wastes energy resources, pollutes air and water, and contributes substantially to global climate change--how can we sustain our society at lower environmental cost? (Hester 2006)
4. Financial: sprawl makes cities poor, because they can never collect enough tax revenue to pay for all the infrastructure it requires, and it makes individuals poor, because regardless of means they are forced to pay for expensive transportation--how do we make municipal finances more stable? (Marohn 2020)

Northland Square on Black Friday 2025

New urbanism's response begins with traditional neighborhoods, which form the basis of communities that are (Duany et al. 2010, ch 4; Calthorpe and Fulton 2001, chs 1 & 2, Hester 2006):

1. walkable and human-scaled: safe for bikes and pedestrians, interesting (signs of human activity), comfortable (creating a sense of enclosure with street trees and buildings), with meaningful destinations (Speck 2012) 
2. diverse in population: American writ small, with people from every economic class, race, gender and sexual preference, religion, ethnicity, you name it
3. varied in uses: residences, shops, offices and schools close to each other... sometimes in mixed-use buildings
4. supplied with public spaces that serve as community centers and landmarks, attract different kinds of people, and foster a sense of commonality

St. Paul's United Methodist Church was built in 1914
in the Wellington Heights neighborhood

III

Like all municipalities, Cedar Rapids contains examples of both good and bad urban design. There are no perfect places, but people in every community need to understand opportunities and constraints in setting their goals.

Good urbanism in Cedar Rapids

Connecting the bike trails network

More sidewalks

Parks

Redeveloped core

One way to two way conversions

Bad urbanism in Cedar Rapids

Stroads

Lack of basic commerce in the core

MedQuarter

Casino

I-380 slices through the core
(Google Earth screenshot)

SEE ALSO:

"Gleanings from the New Urbanism," 19 April 2013

"The Urbanism CLEF," 4 February 2016

"Urbanism Review," 22 August 2017

PRINT REFERENCES:

Peter Calthorpe and William Fulton, The Regional City: Planning for the End of Sprawl (Island,   2001)

Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck, Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl         and the Decline of the ,American Dream (North Point, 2010)

Randolph T. Hester, Design for Ecological Democracy (MIT Press, 2006)

Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Random House, [1961] 1993)... reviewed by Dave Alden here 

Eric O. Jacobson, The Space Between: A Christian Engagement with the Built         Environment (Baker Academic, 2012)

Jeff Speck, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time (Farrar   Straus and Giroux, 2011)... reviewed by Dave Alden here