Rebuild Neighborhoods

A flood does not just destroy property and displace residents and businesses. A flood can rip the heart and soul out of a neighborhood. While buildings can be rebuilt, new jobs created, and lives pulled back together, it is possible to lose the life and spirit of a neighborhood that took years, often generations, of neighbors helping neighbors to create. The Rebuild Neighborhoods project will shine a strong light on identifying the damage done to, and the need to recreate, the unique and special Cedar Rapids neighborhoods affected by the Great Flood of 2008.

Grassroots Green

Usually, when we hear the term "green building" we think in terms such as LEED certification. There are new LEED initiatives for building new residential housing developments, but these are usually fairly upscale neighborhoods. How can we rebuild neighborhoods with green and sustainable principles and methods? We have to redefine "green" and "sustainable" as these terms specifically apply to our core neighborhoods. There are some interesting projects already underway from which we can learn what works and what doesn't.

Help the Self-Helpers

The Neighborhood Self-Help Resource Network is a strategic program to "help the self-helpers" as we work together to rebuild our lives and neighborhoods in flood-devasted Cedar Rapids.

Rebuild Taylor School

In the Great Flood of 2008 two schools were significantly flooded in Cedar Rapids; one of these was Taylor Elementary. Located at 720 7th Avenue SW, Taylor's first floor had about 3 feet of water at the height of the flood. Although not one of the larger schools in the city, Taylor is viewed by many in the largely working class area around it as an important lynchpin of the neighborhood.

Green Building Training for Disaster Recovery

September 1, 2009 - 2:30am — Timlynn Babitsky

The Iowa Department of Economic Development has signed a $1 million contract with the Center on Sustainable Communities (COSC) to develop, coordinate and deliver green building related training programs. The Center on Sustainable Communities, a West Des Moines nonprofit, educates and empowers consumers and professionals to build with a focus on sustainability.

Congratulations Legion Arts!

September 1, 2009 - 6:21am — Timlynn Babitsky

This morning (8/31//09) Gov. Culver's I-JOBS program awarded Legion Arts a grant of $4.8 million toward the purchase, restoration and improvement of CSPS Hall on Third Street SE in the New Bohemia section of Cedar Rapids.

The official announcement from Legion Arts says it all:

"To say we're grateful is putting it mildly.

Congressman Loebsack and City Council Members Join In Time Check Clean-Up Blitz

May 3, 2009 - 4:48am — Mike Richards

U.S. Congressman Dave Loebsack and City Council members Monica Vernon, Brian Fagen, and Chuck Wieneke joined 65 citizen volunteers to clear flood debris from 12 blocks of Ellis Boulevard in the Time Check neighborhood. Our distinguished legislators helped to make this first of our Saturday Clean-Up Blitzes a rousing success.

Rebuild Neighborhoods

Cedar Rapids Neighbors On Block-by-Block Clean-Up Blitz

May 3, 2009 - 3:54am — Mike Richards

Michael Richards, President of Oakhill Neighborhood Assoc. organized the Americorps Green Corp.Team and 80 volunteers to carry out a block by block clean-up blitz in the flooded zone of Oakhill/New Bohemia on Saturday April 18, 2009. Don Steichen of Harbor Neighbors did the same a week or so before in the Ellis Harbor District. Now, this citizen initiative is a citywide effort in all of the flooded neighborhoods.

Rebuild Neighborhoods

Grand Reopening of the African American Museum of Iowa

December 31, 2008 - 1:06am — Timlynn Babitsky

The African American Museum of Iowa will reopen its doors on January 17, 2009 with the premiere of its long-awaited exhibit “No Roads Lead to Buxton,” and an all-day open house to see how the Museum has changed since the 2008 floods.