Starting to Come Together

Recently, the vendor list for the NewBo City Market was released.  This is the first round of vendors who will have permanent indoor stalls in the market when it opens October 27^th.

I am excited to see that Wallace Farms, the source of a lot of my meat products, will have a stall in the market.  I love the monthly buying club, but it is so much easier to menu plan if I know I can get something on a more frequent basis.

The NewBo City Market is starting to feel like it is coming together:

If you build it, they will come:

Okay, I could not help myself.  Anytime I can use a line from Field of Dreams it is going to happen.  Sorry.

It does not look like a lot because there is a lot of equipment surrounding the building and the plaza to be in front is a staging area for the construction, but there is progress.  Trust me.  If you want to see a lot of pictures of the interior and other construction shots check them out here. 

The NewBo City Market is going to serve as a real catalyst for the vitality of this area that was devastated during the 2008 flood.  Already, the Legion Arts’ CSPS Building is open with a ground floor bookstore and coffee shop.  Check out the beautiful restoration job on the historic building next door:

For those of us living in Cedar Rapids the events put on by Legion Arts are a real treasure.

For all of the progress however, signs of the destruction wrought by the flood are never far away.  Next door to the Hose Co. No. 4 building are two abandoned homes:

Down the street, next door to the recently opened Capone’s, is a scene right out of Detroit ruin porn:

These are just two of the examples within a camera shot of the other pictures that I took on a walk with my son.  I know it’s not politically correct, but when I was a kid we used to refer to scenes like this as “looking like Beirut.”

It’s a work in progress, I know, and dealing with FEMA, local governments, and property owners is a tangled mess in the best of circumstances.  Following a catastrophic natural disaster is nothing short of Sisyphean.  However, on a weekday at noon people were streaming into the area to eat lunch which is a harbinger of what this area can become with a little work.  Maybe someone should open a pizzeria like Pizzicletta in Flagstaff.

A nice little touch from my friends at Parlor City:

It’s nice to be able to pump up your tires or tighten a bolt without bringing the tools when you are heading down to New Bo for a few drinks in the evening.  Always better to arrive on two wheels than four.

New Bo City Market

Approximately four years ago—June of 2008—the Cedar River finally crested well above flood stage in an epic disaster that inundated much of downtown and the surrounding neighborhoods.  After three years of often bitter back and forth the wheels of recovery finally seem to be moving in the right direction.  Just to give you an idea:

The new public library, whose predecessor was completely flooded and transferred to a private entity for redevelopment, is finally under way forming a new heart to the urban core.  The city offices are moving back downtown for the first time since the flood as renovated buildings are completed.  Several long gestating projects are underway and demolition of ruined properties has reached well beyond the halfway mark.

There is still a lot of work to do until the city can be considered “healed,” if that is even possible but there are signs of progress.

An opportunity that was “birthed” by the flood was to reimagine a former foods warehouse into something useful to the community at large.  Sure, a warehouse that provides a service has utility but located in a burgeoning entertainment and—dare I say—lifestyle part of town would be a waste of space.  Following the flood, plans were hatched for the New Bo City Market in the New Bohemia district of downtown Cedar Rapids.  Across the Cedar River from the more famous Czech Village, New Bohemia or New Bo was becoming a nightlife and arts destination.

The idea is great—build a facility that can be used year round as a market for local vendors, much like a farmers market but with the benefit of cover, and serve as a center for community events.  Considering that the former warehouse loomed over the neighborhood like a sullen ogre only makes the transformation more of a plus.  Check out the progress and news at the Facebook page for the New Bo City Market or join the Friends of the New Bo City Market group.

Four years ago this is what the area looked like:

The arrow is where the New Bo City Market will be located when it is complete.

So, the immediate are will go from looking like this after the flood in 2008:

To looking something like this in fall of 2012:

If you get a chance, check out the happenings at the New Bo City Market’s Facebook page where new photos are added regularly and the progress of construction is well documented.

Every time I am downtown I take the opportunity to pass by the construction site and see the progress.  Along with the new coffee shop and bookstore going into the CSPS building this area is becoming a real destination.  It helps that Parlor City has somewhere close to 50 beers on tap and many great Iowa beers included in that inventory.  When I need a Toppling Goliath fix, Parlor City is the go to place.