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Czech Village in the 'midst of a rebirth'
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Jun. 2, 2013 6:00 am
Standing on the sidewalk in front of her yellow house, Debbie Kula points down 21st Ave. SW to a spot two houses away where her best friend once lived. She then points a block away to where an old World War II veteran lived for most of his life.
Five years ago, Kula's house was surrounded by a bustling Czech Village neighborhood in which everyone knew one another.
“We looked after each other,” the 58-year-old said.
Today, the lots are empty green space, driveways leading to nothing. A smattering of a few homes remain, many abandoned with windows boarded up and critters taking refuge under sagging porches.
The 2008 flood ravaged the neighborhood and the adjacent strip of stores and restaurants. Over 100 flood-damaged homes were eventually torn down as part of the community buyout program, and many businesses were destroyed after floodwaters reached the tops of their front doors.
Despite the hardships, the Czech Village is slowly re-emerging and rebuilding five years later. Business owners, officials, and residents say they are determinedly moving forward and revitalizing the area with a sense of “guarded optimism,” as antique store owner Lori Spicher puts it.
“You really want to hope for the best, but there's certain things you can't control,” Spicher said, standing inside Caroline's Cupboard on the 16th Ave SW stretch of businesses.
Jennifer Pruden, the executive director of the Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street District, concurred with Spicher's perception of uncertainty regarding future flood protection, which Pruden calls their No. 1 challenge.
The city is holding several plots of land along the river for future flood protection, so the areas are currently off limits to development. Pruden said they do not know when funding will be available to implement the flood protection.
“They tell us it could be 15-plus years,” she said. “...We want to improve the district both economically and aesthetically … and having vacant land doesn't help that.”
John Rocarek, owner of the historic Sykora Bakery, said he wants a long-term plan for the area, but he remains positive help from the city will come.
“We haven't been a priority, but that's okay,” the 57-year-old said, shrugging. “It's going to be our turn soon.”
The lack of flood protection can also be a deterrent to small business owners looking to invest in the area, Pruden said. Though some are willing to take the risk and invest in the re-emerging district, she said flood protection would be a “competitive tool for recruitment. It would set us at a different level.”
“Main Street District is all about small business... and that's a big risk for a small business to take on, the fact that they could lose everything if another flood came along like we had in 2008,” Pruden said.
Despite the aura of uncertainty left by flooding, Pruden said the Main Street District Program and their partners are moving forward with the revitalization strategy for the Czech Village/New Bohemia Main Street district.
Phase 1 included developing the revitalization strategy. Pruden said they expect to release the final report this summer, which will include analysis of development opportunities, infrastructure improvement, wayfinding and signage strategies, and programming and marketing tactics. Main Street Iowa, OPN Architects, the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, and hundreds of community members teamed up with the Main Street district to develop the strategy, Pruden said.
She said they are poised to begin Phase 2 at the end of the summer which will consist of business recruitment strategy and fine-tuning the list of businesses they potentially hope to bring to the area.
A microbrewery is expected to purchase and occupy the Joens Bros. building at 59 16th Ave. SW later this year, and retail/commercial business is planned for the Babi Buresh Center at 77 16th Ave. SW.
Several business owners said they wholeheartedly support the goals of the revitalization plan.
Bob Schaffer, owner of the Czech Cottage shop at 100 16th Ave. SW, said he hopes to see an influx of diverse businesses.
Schaffer and his parents opened the store selling jewelry, crystal, and Czech folk arts in 1975 after his Czech-born mother, Jitka, saw an article in the newspaper touting the revival of the area. In 2008, the floodwaters reached the top of the century-old building's front doors, shutting them down for six months.
Today, Schaffer, 58, and his mother, now in her mid-eighties, have revived their store. Sunlight streams in through stained glass windows along the ceiling and the sign above the door reads “Vitáme Vás”, meaning “welcome.”
Though Schaffer laments the fact that there are “still missing teeth in the neighborhood,” he said he sees the area re-emerging.
“We had pretty respectable tourist traffic and with the flood, that stopped,” he said. “It's slowly, slowly creeping back. It's not the same yet. ... It's still going to take time to build up that momentum again.”
While Schaffer spoke in his shop, Denver Dvorsky, board member at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, entered the store and joined the conversation. Dvorsky also acknowledged the loss of “inherent local people” from the neighborhood, but said he sees Czech Village as “in the midst of a rebirth.”
“[The challenge is] to maintain ongoing development and the harder part of that is to keep that development traditional,” Dvorsky said.
One aspect of the revitalization plan is to encompass the New Bo and Czech Village areas into one destination.
Lou Oettinger-Thompson, owner of Village Meat Market and Cafe in Czech Village, said she hopes there will one day be a trolley system taking visitors all the way through Czech Village and the New Bo area to create “one contiguous line of commerce.”
Oettinger-Thompson said she opened the meat market last year. Though she said it will “never compare” to the historical Pohlena's Meat Market that was displaced by flooding, she sought to fill a hole in the community with her “southern Cajun Czech market.” She said the flooding ended up being a positive for the area.
“Czech Village is sharper and it's cleaner now. It's becoming a hidden gem,” she said. “...[The flood] forced us to take a step back and look at Czech Village and you want to keep all the most wonderful things about it and get rid of the things that were not so wonderful and encompass all of it to create a destination within a destination.”
For all the progress that's occurred since 2008, many credit the success and help of the museum and the Main Street District program, among others. However, they made sure to attribute much of the credit to small business owners and property owners who exhibited a “fighting” spirit and “the inability to stay down when you get hit,” as Oettinger-Thompson put it.
“We invested so much of our lives in the area and the museum, we just couldn't see leaving it. The area has become part of our lives. It's a home,” Schaeffer said.
And the residents: “This is the house I chose,” Kula said from her front porch. “I thought this would be my home for the rest of my life.”
Those individuals and many more are very much a part of Czech Village's ongoing re-emergence, Pruden said.
“Every little business and property owner that put their heart and soul into rebuilding and opening back up … we wouldn't be able to be where we are today without them,” she said.