CRMEA July/August 2018

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
ORDINARY BECOMES
Extraordinary
WITH DISTRICT BEAUTIFICATION PROJECTS
Downtown and Czech Village/New Bohemia are a little more
colorful thanks to two beautification projects. Both projects,
storm drain murals and community pianos, are part of the
Economic Alliance’s community development work and serve
to create core districts that draw in more people to visit, live
and work.
Storm Drain Murals
More often than not, you probably walk past storm drains
without giving them a second thought. New life has been
breathed into seven downtown storm drains that are sure
to stop you in your tracks. Thanks to a partnership between
Downtown Cedar Rapids, the City of Cedar Rapids and Iowa
BIG, local artists were commissioned to create storm drain
murals that communicate an important lesson on the storm
water cycle: what goes down the storm drain, ends up in the
Cedar River. Grease, cigarettes and trash are forbidden from
being dumped down the storm drains. Take a tour of the storm
drains at the following locations:
• Two drains located between 1st and 2nd Avenue SE can
be accessed along 3rd Street SE via the alley adjacent to
Theatre Cedar Rapids.
• One drain located between 2nd and 3rd Avenue SE can
be accessed along 3rd Street SE via the alley adjacent to
White Star Ale House.
• One drain located between 3rd and 4th Avenue SE can be
accessed along 3rd Street SE via the alley adjacent to the
Cornerstone building.
• One drain located between 1st and 2nd Avenue SE can
be accessed along 2nd Street SE via the alley adjacent to
Red’s Public House.
• One drain located between 2nd and 3rd Avenue SE can
be accessed along 2nd Street SE via the alley under the
skywalk, adjacent to the Cornerstone building.
• One drain located between 3rd and 4th Avenue SE can
be accessed along 2nd Street SE via the alley adjacent to
Edward Jones.
Community Pianos
Seven new community pianos from West Music recently made
their way to the downtown area. Like the storm drain murals,
artists transformed the pianos that are placed outside of local
businesses. Most of the pianos line Third Street Southeast,
known as a Signature Street.
Third Street’s Signature
Street designation came from
earlier versions of the Vision
Downtown Cedar Rapids
plan, which provided a broad
understanding of downtown’s
purpose and helped to direct
the energy and resources
of future downtown
development opportunities.
Third Street connects the downtown core to the New Bohemia
neighborhood. Strategic approaches have been taken to enrich
the street, like redeveloping surface parking lots to create
more urban density, streetscape improvements, encouraging
pedestrian interaction and investing and encouraging local
galleries, studios and shops.
Find community pianos in front of each of these businesses:
• Theatre Cedar Rapids (102 Third St. SE)
• The Lost Cuban (209 Third St. SE)
• Cedar Rapids Public Library (450 5th Ave SE)
• Iowa Brewing Company (708 Third St. SE)
• Fong’s Pizza (1006 Third St. SE)
• Brewhemia (1202 Third St. SE)
• Popoli Ristorante & Sullivan’s Bar (101 Third Ave SW)