Homers -- What's going right

ROUSING START: Despite a brief rainstorm, the first Cedar Rapids Downtown Farmers Market of the season, on June 4, drew an estimated 17,479, breaking the previous record of more than 15,000 who attended on July 3, 2010, according to Downtown District officials who coordinate the twice-a-month event from June through September. The 6-year-old market grew by 20 vendors this year.

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SOUND THE SIRENS: Cedar Rapids finally got the green light to build a new Central Fire Station on the Emerald Knights block, after state and FEMA officials resolved differences. FEMA had balked after it was unable to conduct a required environmental/historical analysis of the site because the property owner demolished most of the buildings before the City Council decided to buy the land.

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WELCOME END: Many business owners, employees, customers and visitors never liked the experiment: back-in angle parking along selected streets and bridges in downtown Cedar Rapids. They're glad the Downtown District, which has taken over management of the downtown parking system, is phasing out the near-3-year-old trial, starting Friday. So are we.