Homers: What's going right

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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ICE BREAKER: Half of Cedar Rapids' vacant office space is located downtown, where the flood displaced many business tenants. Rockwell Collins' announcement that it will move 400 information technology employees to the Town Centre building on Third Avenue SE will fill a big chunk of that space and could spur other companies to return or locate downtown. Relatively modest incentives for parking and busing helped city and development leaders seal the deal.

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LUNCH DUTY ENDS: In August 2008, two friends, Joan Force and Deb Sedlacek, created the Meet and Eat lunch program for the many AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers who have worked on flood recovery in Cedar Rapids. They've served more than 52,000 lunches. Initially, they funded the service but their efforts later drew several large grants. With few volunteers still in town, the last lunch was served last week.

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FIRST IN IOWA: Cedar Rapids residents have some of the state and nation's safest public drinking water. A $40 million upgrade to the city's two water-treatment plants included the state's first ultraviolet light disinfection system, which treats bacteria, viruses and other microbe threats.