Census shows population shifting to city’s edge

CEDAR RAPIDS - A few pictures are worth a thousand numbers.

The picture of much of the long-established, working-class Time Check Neighborhood along the Cedar River in northwest Cedar Rapids, decimated by the 2008 flood, shows what Linda Seger, Northwest Neighbors president, calls a “barren” landscape with a smattering of homes, some occupied and some still awaiting demolition.

The 2010 Census figures tell the same story: Census Tract 12, which comprises the Time Check Neighborhood and a few streets beyond it, lost 60.1 percent of its population in the decade, declining from 3,215 people to 1,282 people.

None of the 45 tracts into which the U.S. Census Bureau has broken Cedar Rapids and Linn County lost population to the extent that Census Tract 12 did between the 2000 Census and the 2010 Census.

Census Tract 22, in and around the flood-ruined Central Fire Station and Taylor Elementary School on the city's west side, came closest: It lost 37.7 percent of its population in the decade, dropping from 2,941 people in 2000 to 1,832 in 2010. Next door in Tract 26, which includes the Czech Village area, saw a drop of 18.6 percent in population, from 2,967 to 2,416.

Other telling pictures of the changing landscape of Cedar Rapids' and Linn County's population over a decade feature blocks and blocks of new housing starts - single-family homes, duplex condominiums, planned-unit developments and apartment complexes - reaching to the southern edges of Cedar Rapids and on into the northern part of Fairfax and in the direction of Ely.

[caption id="attachment_246837" align="alignright" width="300" caption="A driveway leads to an empty lot in Time Check on Wednesday, May 18, 2011, in Cedar Rapids. The Time Check area of Cedar Rapids had the greatest loss from the 2000 to 2010 census. Many homes in the area were demolished after the flood, and few residents have returned. (Liz Martin/SourceMedia Group News)"]

Karla Johnson walks her children, Hannah, 10, and Josh, 8, home from school while pulling Cloie, 2, (facing camera, back of wagon) and neighbor Kaylee Hagstrom, 2, in a wagon on Thursday, May 19, 2011, in the Prairie Hills neighborhood of southwest Cedar Rapids. The Johnsons moved to the neighborhood in 2003 from the northeast side. (Liz Martin/SourceMedia Group News)

The two fastest growing census tracts in Linn County in the decade were Tracts 30.01 and 30.02 on the far south side of Cedar Rapids with Tract 30.01 reaching into a portion of fast-growing Fairfax.

The population in Census Tract 30.01 jumped 76.9 percent from 2000 to 2010, and next door in Tract 30.02, it jumped 72.8 percent.

Only Census Tract 1, which comprises much of the east and north sides of Marion, has grown in a comparable way, by 63.9 percent. Next in growth are Tracts 2.05 and 2.06 - which comprise Robins and sections of far northern Cedar Rapids and a northern piece of Hiawatha and which had been one tract in the 2000 Census - together have grown 40.4 percent.

By comparison, Cedar Rapids' overall population grew 4.6 percent and Linn County's, 10.2 percent, between 2000 and 2010.

Sufficiently dramatic has the growth been in the southern and southwestern parts of Cedar Rapids that Joel Miller, Linn County Auditor and commissioner of elections, estimates that Cedar Rapids City Council District 5 in this part of the city has itself seen a population jump of 25 percent just in the last six years since the Cedar Rapids council districts were created.

District 5 council member Justin Shields says the growth into his council district comes, in part, as people settle near where the city has seen job growth and expects to see more.

“I think it's a reflection of hardworking people trying to find a real nice area of the city where they can put their roots down,” Shields said. “And I think it will continue to grow, and I think the jobs will be in that area of town.”

No one on the Cedar Rapids City Council has been a stronger voice than Tom Podzimek in pushing for development in older parts of the city - sometimes called infill development - and cautioning against the costs to provide city services in a city that sprawls toward the horizons.

Podzimek - who operates a small construction firm and currently is building a new home on a small infill lot near the core of the city - says the message about smart growth and infill and sustainable development is still relatively new at City Hall, and the newness of the message, he says, is reflected in the census figures for the decade that show population growth on the periphery of the city.

[/caption]The city of Cedar Rapids' footprint has grown from 64.4 square miles in 2000 to 72 square miles today, City Hall reports.“Much of this comes from long-term decisions made long before us,” Podzimek says of the city's new form of government, which took over in 2006 with a part-time council and full-time city manager. Those decisions include ones about where to extend water and sewer lines, he says.Drew Retz, vice president of Jerry's Homes in Cedar Rapids, has developed hundreds of homes on the southern edge of Cedar Rapids in the last decade.Among the driving forces that have spurred residential development there, he says, is the ease of access to Highway 30 and Interstate 380. He points out, too, that the southern edge of Cedar Rapids also is the northern part of the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor, and the south side of Cedar Rapids has become attractive to those working in and around Iowa City because homes and condominiums are less expensive in Cedar Rapids than Iowa City. People also are attracted by the College Community School District, the boundaries of which start at about 29th Street SW in Cedar Rapids and continue south and west to the Benton County line, he says.Steve Doser, community relations director for the College Community School District, reports that district enrollment stood at 3,609 in 2002-2003 and now is at 4,195 with the expectation that it will continue to climb. The district has added space in the last few years and has plans for two elementary schools in the years ahead, Doser says.He notes that the district serves the smaller, growing cities of Fairfax, Ely, Swisher, Shueyville and Walford and so has a “smaller community feel” that people enjoy.Scott Olson, a Realtor at Skogman Commercial Realty and a past Cedar Rapids mayoral candidate, lives in a condominium in the high-growth southwest side of Cedar Rapids and he says it didn't take the flood of 2008 to prompt developers to look to southwest Cedar Rapids to start building. There were more home-building permits in the section of the city than anywhere else before the flood, he says.Olson agrees that ease of access to Interstate 380 and Highway 30 has fueled residential development in southwest Cedar Rapids as, he says, has the mix of housing products that can get someone in a new town house or condominium for a low six-figure amount so they build equity to buy something more expensive later.“It's access, price and a lot of people prefer the College Community School District,” Olson says.Take a ride, he suggests, out Williams Boulevard SW past Westdale and over the hill toward Fairfax. “They're just building like mad,” he says.Just last week, he says he followed a school bus through a new development south of Highway 30 along the city's bike trail and along Ely Road SW. “Fifty kids got dropped off just in one new Skogman development,” he says. “If you don't drive around, you don't see it.”A gaze into the next decade has Jerry's Homes' Retz and Skogman's Olson looking for a spurt of growth to the west once the long-planned Highway 100 extension is built from Edgewood Road west and south to Highway 30. At the same time, Retz says the growth south in some areas of Cedar Rapids may stall because of the lack of ease at getting sewage lifted and transported to Cedar Rapids' wastewater treatment plant.Not all the development, though, will occur on the city's periphery as a Cedar Rapids City Council consensus has expressed an interest in rebuilding in safe places behind the proposed flood-protection levee in older, core neighborhoods hit hard by the flood of 2008.In fact, the council is steering federal disaster-fund incentives to builders and buyers who build and buy new homes built on newly vacant lots where properties were flooded but behind where the new flood-protection levee is slated to be built.Northwest Neighbors President Linda Seger suggests that the Census of 2010 is already old news in flood-hit areas of northwest Cedar Rapids that are just beyond the Time Check Neighborhood and Ellis Boulevard NW. That's where she lives on Eighth Street NW.“Life is coming back to the area,” Seger says. “I see people running at night, walking their babies, walking their dogs. There seems to be a vibrancy now that hadn't existed a year or two ago.”Seger, who has renovated her flood-hit home, says she backs the need for flood protection for the city, and adds it would be “reckless” not to want protection. The question to debate is just how much to spend on the system, she says.

The city of Cedar Rapids' footprint has grown from 64.4 square miles in 2000 to 72 square miles today, City Hall reports.

“Much of this comes from long-term decisions made long before us,” Podzimek says of the city's new form of government, which took over in 2006 with a part-time council and full-time city manager. Those decisions include ones about where to extend water and sewer lines, he says.

Drew Retz, vice president of Jerry's Homes in Cedar Rapids, has developed hundreds of homes on the southern edge of Cedar Rapids in the last decade.

Among the driving forces that have spurred residential development there, he says, is the ease of access to Highway 30 and Interstate 380. He points out, too, that the southern edge of Cedar Rapids also is the northern part of the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City Corridor, and the south side of Cedar Rapids has become attractive to those working in and around Iowa City because homes and condominiums are less expensive in Cedar Rapids than Iowa City. People also are attracted by the College Community School District, the boundaries of which start at about 29th Street SW in Cedar Rapids and continue south and west to the Benton County line, he says.

Steve Doser, community relations director for the College Community School District, reports that district enrollment stood at 3,609 in 2002-2003 and now is at 4,195 with the expectation that it will continue to climb. The district has added space in the last few years and has plans for two elementary schools in the years ahead, Doser says.

He notes that the district serves the smaller, growing cities of Fairfax, Ely, Swisher, Shueyville and Walford and so has a “smaller community feel” that people enjoy.

Scott Olson, a Realtor at Skogman Commercial Realty and a past Cedar Rapids mayoral candidate, lives in a condominium in the high-growth southwest side of Cedar Rapids and he says it didn't take the flood of 2008 to prompt developers to look to southwest Cedar Rapids to start building. There were more home-building permits in the section of the city than anywhere else before the flood, he says.

Olson agrees that ease of access to Interstate 380 and Highway 30 has fueled residential development in southwest Cedar Rapids as, he says, has the mix of housing products that can get someone in a new town house or condominium for a low six-figure amount so they build equity to buy something more expensive later.

“It's access, price and a lot of people prefer the College Community School District,” Olson says.

Take a ride, he suggests, out Williams Boulevard SW past Westdale and over the hill toward Fairfax. “They're just building like mad,” he says.

Just last week, he says he followed a school bus through a new development south of Highway 30 along the city's bike trail and along Ely Road SW. “Fifty kids got dropped off just in one new Skogman development,” he says. “If you don't drive around, you don't see it.”

A garage painted with "Save Time Check" and "Stop the lies" looks over an empty lot in Time Check on Wednesday, May 18, 2011, in Cedar Rapids. The Time Check area of Cedar Rapids had the greatest loss from the 2000 to 2010 census. Many homes in the area were demolished after the flood, and few residents have returned. (Liz Martin/SourceMedia Group News)

A gaze into the next decade has Jerry's Homes' Retz and Skogman's Olson looking for a spurt of growth to the west once the long-planned Highway 100 extension is built from Edgewood Road west and south to Highway 30. At the same time, Retz says the growth south in some areas of Cedar Rapids may stall because of the lack of ease at getting sewage lifted and transported to Cedar Rapids' wastewater treatment plant.

Not all the development, though, will occur on the city's periphery as a Cedar Rapids City Council consensus has expressed an interest in rebuilding in safe places behind the proposed flood-protection levee in older, core neighborhoods hit hard by the flood of 2008.

In fact, the council is steering federal disaster-fund incentives to builders and buyers who build and buy new homes built on newly vacant lots where properties were flooded but behind where the new flood-protection levee is slated to be built.

Northwest Neighbors President Linda Seger suggests that the Census of 2010 is already old news in flood-hit areas of northwest Cedar Rapids that are just beyond the Time Check Neighborhood and Ellis Boulevard NW. That's where she lives on Eighth Street NW.

“Life is coming back to the area,” Seger says. “I see people running at night, walking their babies, walking their dogs. There seems to be a vibrancy now that hadn't existed a year or two ago.”

Seger, who has renovated her flood-hit home, says she backs the need for flood protection for the city, and adds it would be “reckless” not to want protection. The question to debate is just how much to spend on the system, she says.

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