Planner’s influence growing with Cedar Rapids leaders

CEDAR RAPIDS - Blame Jeff Speck.

Point the finger at him if you like one-way streets better than two-ways, or traffic lights at every corner downtown instead of stop signs at some, or bicyclists who stay off the streets.

Speck, a national urban planning consultant, has become something of a darling to Cedar Rapids city officials, who have embraced his ideas of the essential city as a place that slows traffic in downtowns and neighborhoods, celebrates pedestrians and bicyclists and designs its street infrastructure accordingly.

Speck, author of 'Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time,” is an advocate for converting streets to two-ways, replacing traffic signals with signs and building 'complete streets” to accommodate pedestrians and cyclists as well as vehicles, while featuring attractive lighting and landscaping.

Tuesday in Cedar Rapids, Speck said his message has gotten traction here and elsewhere because of a central truth: 'Cities want to be competitive.”

He said the American economy has changed. The days of a giant corporation building a big plant to bring people to town don't happen anymore. To attract people now, cities need to create an environment where people want to be.

Adults under the age of 35 as well as empty nesters increasingly are drawn to live in city centers where a lot is happening and where they don't need to drive to get to it, Speck said.

Cities like Cedar Rapids can change to tap into this trend; in fact, he said, a place like this is positioned well because it is more affordable than cities like New York or Chicago.

'The question is, are you resigned to losing all your (young) talent to bigger cities with bigger reputations?” Speck asked. 'Or do you believe, as I do, that if you can provide the same walkable urbanism that those places provide, you can retain a significant portion of your (younger) population?”

Speck provided the city's development and public works professionals with an in-house workshop Tuesday afternoon, and he spoke Tuesday evening to a public gathering at the City Services Center.

The Cedar Rapids City Council is on board with Speck's message, and the council has adopted a complete-streets design manual and has incorporated many of Speck's ideas in the new comprehensive plan, called Envision CR.

'His concept on complete streets has hit a stride throughout the country, and he is seen as a leading expert on this new type of urban environment,” City Council member Scott Olson said.

His vision is visible here first-hand.

In 2014, for instance, traffic signals at Third Street SE and Fourth Avenue SE and Fifth Street SE and Fourth Avenue SE were turned off in favor of four-way stop signs. More recently, signals at Second and Third avenues SE at First Street SE have been turned off and replaced with stop signs as construction of the CRST Center is underway.

He said motorists prefer the stop and go of signs, rather than long waits at traffic lights.

'As a driver, there's nothing worse than just sitting still,” he said.

In addition, many one-way streets have turned to two-ways and more are coming this year.

Yet more will happen over five years.

Olson said he and Jennifer Pratt, the city's development director, attended the American Planning Association's annual conference in last year in Atlanta where much of the focus was on the before and after of cities that had adopted the concepts.

'And the results were impressive both in how neighborhoods and commercial areas were rehabbed and in the positive impacts that cities of all types and sizes had experienced around the country,” Olson said. 'So we're on the right track.”

Speck first came to the attention of Cedar Rapids city officials when Trees Forever brought him to the city to speak in 2012.

To date, the city has paid Speck, of Speck & Associates, $52,472 for his services.

In an interview before his talk, Speck said a large majority of Americans in the years ahead will be empty nesters or Millennials under age 35, both of which would be attracted to city centers.

'If you are a city that can be characterized as suburban, you will not capitalize on this rush to the city,” he said.