C.R.’s ideas won’t bring people downtown

Apparently the answer to Cedar Rapids' problems of attracting people to visit the downtown area and attracting new businesses is by closing nearby streets and having one-hour-limit parking meters downtown. And now wanting to jam one more huge building in a small area that will have to accommodate the traffic of thousands of concertgoers at one time with blocked streets.

It is difficult to get to and from downtown already on Eighth Avenue SE with all these buildings blocking the main side streets off Eighth Avenue SE, without blocking streets from other directions.

I have been downtown only once since the flood, about two months ago, and found one-hour limit parking meters in front of the Armstrong Centre.

Drive all over to find a way into downtown. Get a ticket if your business downtown is more than an hour long. Or park in a ramp and walk several blocks in cold, hot or rainy weather to the center of the downtown. That is the future of downtown.

Another problem “solved” in attracting new people to Cedar Rapids is repairing our streets by plopping a shovel full of asphalt in holes, creating bumps instead, or by totally ignoring the rough streets. Try driving on 19th Street SE south from Fifth Avenue to Mount Vernon Road to see how rough it is. It's been this way for years.

All this is very visitor-friendly.

Rae Schaefer

Cedar Rapids