My Life. My neighborhood. Our world.

The Flood of 2008 in Cedar Rapids devastated the older core neighborhoods around Downtown Cedar Rapids. For one hundred years, these inter-generational, tight knit neighborhoods have provided modest, yet pleasant affordable homes. These are our working class, historic neighborhoods. Our City never officially designated these neighborhoods as historic districts, but the real fact is, the hands that built these historic homes are the very same hands that built the economic base of this City in factories, mills, machine shops and foundries.
 
We are confronted with a huge challenge as a result of this disaster in 2008.  We also have a huge opportunity if we move forward with an innovative approach to rebuild our communities better and stronger after this time of unprecedented disaster.  We have an opportunity to build green and sustainable neighborhoods as the essential building blocks of a thriving city and state.
 
This can best be accomplished with neighbor helping neighbor as we rebuild our community.
 
Before the flood, most of the older housing stock in these core neighborhoods sold on the open market from prices ranging from $40,000 to $90,000.  This was truly affordable housing.  We can never provide new housing in this same price range.   Our only solution then, is to find the most creative and effective ways to preserve the existing housing stock that we already have in our flood damaged neighborhoods.
 
We know that about 350 homes will be demolished because they were damaged so severely that they are not cost effective to rebuild, or they are such a vulnerable locations in the 100 year flood plain that residents will not be allowed to return to residency.  Our family knows this fact intimately; our son's  flooded home was demolished by the City this week.  Some homes will be lost, but every neighborhood must be saved.
 
Approximately 5,000 homes were damaged in the Cedar Rapids flood, so that leaves us with approximately 4,500 homes that need to be rebuilt in our core communities.    Since we must rebuild, we need to rebuild better, stronger and smarter.  We can build smarter with the process we are describing as "Grassroots Green-Street Level Sustainability".
 
Usually, when we hear the term "green building" we think in terms such as LEED certification. LEED is most often associated with commercial building, and usually associated with fairly high ticket projects such as Schools, Hospitals and Offices.   There are new LEED initiatives for building new residential housing developments, but again these are usually fairly upscale neighborhoods.
 
No one in our nation has really devised a protocol to provide "green" building at the grassroots/low income/affordable level.   Such an innovative protocol is what I am proposing in this essay. We are dealing with an unprecedented situation here in Cedar Rapids;  How can we rebuild neighborhoods with $40,000 to $90,000 in value with green and sustainable principles and methods?
 
We have to redefine "green" and "sustainable" as these terms specifically apply to our core neighborhoods.
This new definition is what we call "Grassroots Green".  We need function, not LEED certification.
 
Grassroots Green starts with one core operating principle:  The Greenest Home is the one that is already there.   
 
When you measure all of the embodied energy of building materials and the fuel use required to truck new building materials to a lot for new construction, this energy output is huge compared to the Home that is "already there".  The ultimate recycling-reuse project is to rebuild a home that is "already there".
 
If we rebuild a home that is already there, then we have accomplished 50% of the "Grassroots Green" method.  The other 50% of the equation is to carry out energy efficient retrofit.
 
If we were to only save energy by rebuilding to the status quo of how these homes were built before the flood, we would quickly loose all of that energy savings by wasting energy with inefficient furnaces and water heaters, inadequate insulation, and windows that are not tight against outdoor airflow.  We have to calculate the total monthly cost to provide truly affordable housing; the rent or mortgage + the monthly energy use.  If we apply our Grassroots Green principles, then we can actually lower the monthly housing expense for each flooded family residence.
 
Grassroots Green for disaster recovery requires both steps; REBUILD and RETROFIT
 
Our Rebuild and Retrofit plan will be "Green" on several levels:
    A. Preserve and re-use the existing housing structures on site in core neighborhoods
    B. Use recycled building materials; solid core doors, reclaimed flooring etc. (Good Jobs/Green Garages)
    C. Lower the Rebuild/Retrofit cost with as much volunteer labor and donated material as possible
    C. Purchase needed materials locally, and from small businesses if possible to build our local economy.
    D.  Work with local contractors that understand energy efficient retrofit materials and methods.
 
We complete our green approach to flood recovery at the neighborhood infrastructure level;
 
This is where we need to apply "Street Level Sustainability".
 
The words green and sustainable have become buzz words over the past few years.  It's important to just focus on the basic root meaning.  We need to be very practical and cost conscious in this process.  Sustainability simply means that a system can survive over time. Can it be sustained?  
 
The inner core neighborhoods in Cedar Rapids that were flooded out have already been sustained for many generations. By definition then, Taylor, Time Check,Oakhill-Jackson and Czech Village are some of the most sustainable neighborhoods in our City.  These neighborhoods have been sustained over time by strong inter-generational connections, the fact that these are modest affordable homes and by the crucial fact that the residents love their neighborhoods.  Nothing is sustained without love and care; whether it be a family relationship or the vitality of a neighborhood and community.  Love is actually the force that counters entropy and decline in the world.  Anything that is not cared for deteriorates very rapidly; it is thus unsustainable.
 
During the past 30 years these neighborhoods have actually lost some of the crucial social and economic fabric that have kept them very sustainable for the last one hundred years.  In the past, all of these neighborhoods had most essential goods and services available right in the neighborhood; you could walk to work, get groceries, send the kids to a nearby school and walk to church with your whole family as you exchanged friendly greetings with your neighbors out on open front porches.
 
What is old, must become new again.  Our grandparents lived with a very sustainable lifestyle. We need to restore our inner core neighborhoods to this fully integrated/sustainable status; Where we can live our life within our own neighborhood, with groceries, community gardens for fresh and healthy food, small businesses, employment, recreation, neighborhood schools as part of our neighborhood fabric.  Bicycle trails and good public transit can then keep us connected to the services of the City at large. A sustainable neighborhood can really reduce our need to consume fossil fuels as they become very pedestrian friendly. The most important "renewable energy" is energy conservation.
 
Sustainable Neighborhoods are a crucial part of our solution to a declining economy and a city recovering from disaster.  Sustainable neighborhoods also lower our carbon footprint. A sustainable planet is possible only with sustainable neighborhoods.
 
This essay is provided as a community catalyst to stimulate conversation and action by;
 
Michael Richards, President/Oakhill-Jackson Neighborhood ASSN./Cedar Rapids, Iowa
                           Founder, Rebuild and Grow (an initiative for neighborhood based disaster recovery)
                           Author, Sustainable Operating Systems/The Post Petrol Paradigm  (amazon.com)
                           Contact;  floodsurvivor@aol. com     Phone; 319-213-2051