Jim Miller connecting the dots in NewBo and Czech Village districts

CEDAR RAPIDS — It all makes sense now.

At age 52, Jim Miller realizes he’s been connecting his career dots since his high school days at Cedar Rapids Jefferson.

The newly named executive director of The District: Czech Village & New Bohemia wanted to be performer when he grew up.

“Many people have big dreams in high school. And, quite frankly, I hoped that I would be a performer,” he said. “I think I even knew I didn't have enough talent to be a performer, but that was my big dream.

“I also always wanted to own a business. I was always interested in business,” and to that end, he studied business at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

He blended those worlds into Center Stage, a costume rental shop he owned and operated from 1995 through 2003 in downtown Cedar Rapids.

“I think Center Stage was that perfect melding of the two — to have the business be 100 percent involved in the arts, but I'm not the performer. And it was a good run. It was a great run. It was a lot of fun,” he said. “We worked with schools and theaters all over the Midwest, and it was great.”

A “history geek,” he’s also worked in marketing at The History Center and the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, both in his hometown of Cedar Rapids. Combined with his years as executive director at Historic Valley Junction in West Des Moines from 2005 to 2019, it’s all helped him connect the dots in building up historic neighborhoods there, then later in Illinois and now back in Cedar Rapids. The latter two roles actually overlap this month, as he transitions between jobs and territories.

His most recent position is state coordinator for Illinois Main Street, part of the Main Street America program that describes itself as “committed to strengthening communities through preservation-based economic development in older and historic downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts.”

The District: Czech Village & New Bohemia also is part of that identity movement, and Miller has earned a certificate from the National Trust for Main Street Management and a certificate from the University of Chicago in nonprofit management — all of which add more dots to his pointillist career mosaic.

“Each state operates differently of how they designate communities,” he said, noting they are selected through a competitive process. “And Cedar Rapids, I believe, was designated in 2009, after the flood.”

Typically, Main Street geography tends to encompass a walkable neighborhood, making the districts’ designation a bit unusual in bridging the southeast- and southwest-side neighborhoods metaphorically as well as physically across the Cedar River.

“We're connected by a landmark bridge,” Miller said, which makes them walkable, connecting “two neighborhoods that, in my opinion, are more similar than they are different. Yes, there are differences. But to say here's two neighborhoods — obviously one feeds into the other — and to say, ‘How can we collaborate? How can we do things together?’”

Collaboration is the key in creating destinations within a city, town or neighborhood.

“When I'm talking to prospective new committees, it's the question of, ‘Well, how do we do Main Street? How do we do downtown revitalization? Tell us what we need to do.’

“And my answer frequently is, ‘It's not a prescriptive program. We're going to give you best practices.’ We're going to say, ‘Here's how other communities operate, but it's up to you to decide what structure makes sense. What's the city's role? What's the county's role? What's business-owners’ role?’ I frequently say, ‘It's all about collaborating with every partner you can collaborate with.’”

And that’s exactly what he and assistant director Erica Ernzen are doing and will continue doing — working with business owners and property owners who want to work together on an event. Miller succeeds former executive director Monica Vernon, who stepped down in September.

“Also in my previous roles, I have really dug deep into the whole business education,” Miller said, so he could connect business owners with training in areas like marketing, hospitality or even accounting software.

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As the front door to The District, he wants to encourage shopkeepers to be “that welcoming face to whoever's coming, whether they're residents, whether they're tourists, whether they're people in town for a convention,” he said. “Everyone's coming to The District for a different reason.”

With the post-flood growth spurt in that area — or any area — Miller said it’s important to make planned decisions for growth, “and to say what we are.”

“Not everyone will agree, and I respect that,” he said. “But what do we want to be?”

He sees his role as needing “to really listen to what people are saying, and to say, ‘How do we connect all these dots?’ Sometimes it's obvious. And sometimes I think it's not obvious. … But how do we listen to what people are saying? And then how do we — and I — lead with intention? And how do we connect these dots?”

He’s lived and worked in a variety of locations, but he’s especially happy to have come full circle in recent years, holding leadership positions in his hometown. He’s served as an interim director and volunteer with CSPS Hall in NewBo, and is the board president with Playtime Poppy, which offers educational and entertainment opportunities for young people around Cedar Rapids. So he’s still living his high school dream.

Now empty-nesters, he and his wife, Elaine Watkins-Miller, raised their son mostly in West Des Moines, then moved back to Cedar Rapids in 2019. She’s director of communications for the Iowa State University Foundation and can work wherever they land.

But for Miller, there’s no place like home.

“I'm a self-admitted history geek,” he said, “so I love that I'm surrounded by pretty amazing history in my hometown.”

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