Now the work begins on downtown’s vision

Cedar Rapids has its long-awaited vision plan for downtown revitalization. Now the hard work begins.

There are 70 recommendations in the plan, prepared by Denver-based consultant Progressive Urban Management Associates. The plan recommends everything from keeping downtown clean to more ambitious efforts to attract storefront businesses, provide more housing opportunities and boosting restaurant and entertainment options.

The future of downtown Cedar Rapids is hanging in the balance. After years of efforts to bring downtown back from the flood of 2008, the pandemic spawned a move to remote work, leaving office space empty and depriving downtown businesses of customers.

The future now rests on efforts to re-imagine downtown as a diverse, mixed use area with housing, entertainment venues and more shopping options.

Some of the objectives are not new. The city has been looking for ways to embrace the Cedar River `as a tourism asset for decades. Attracting jobs to the downtown area, infill development and increasing outdoor recreation uses are efforts that have gone on for years.

But there are some welcome new proposals. The plan calls for expanding public transportation options between downtown and nearby core neighborhoods, such as NewBo. Offering more frequent events and programing in downtown spaces is also a good idea for drawing people downtown.

We’re intrigued by plans to “activate” park and event space on May's Island, along with an adjacent “festival street” on the Second Avenue Bridge, which could eventually become a park. But significant flood protection work must be completed first.

Some of the plan’s goals can be acted on immediately, such addressing homelessness. Others will take years to come to fruition.

We hope the downtown vision doesn’t get blurred amid work on what sort of entity would manage downtown. The mayor-appointed Downtown Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District Commission will make the final decision. Currently, the SSMID works with the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance on downtown efforts.

“I’m in favor of approving the plan now and dealing with the minutiae of who’s going to operate it, ultimately drive it, because councils change, so do downtown businesses,” said City Council member Dale Todd before the council approved the plan. “But you have to have that living document and you have to … make a solid commitment with a timeline in terms of who’s going to drive it.”

We believe there's enough work for all of the entities to dig in and develop momentum and trust to navigate more complicated recommendations. Some of the recommendations — such as encouraging office-to-housing conversions or Third Street streetscape enhancements — will require the city to take the lead. Others, like working with current property owners to recruit businesses or offer vacant store fronts at low or no-cost studio or gallery space, can be done through leveraging relationships the SSMID or Economic Alliance maintain.

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