 Rick SmithRick Smith has been covering Eastern Iowa for 28 years. In the last decade, he has reported on City Hall issues for the newspaper and its digital products. He has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Iowa and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Pennsylvania. |
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Cedar Rapids modifying hotel/motel tax funding
CEDAR RAPIDS — Cultural, arts and educational organizations that rely on a piece of the annual revenue from the city’s hotel/motel tax should rest easy, Mayor Ron Corbett says. Corbett on Tuesday said the city intends to continue to fund organizations now receiving money even as changes are made to the program. The city [...]
Cedar Rapids still striving to buy ‘eyesore’ downtown salvage yard
Not many cities with ambitious plans for a riverfront feature a scrap yard hidden by a thicket of trees and underbrush across the river from the downtown. Cedar Rapids does. Eight months ago, the City Council here asked City Manager Jeff Pomeranz to enter into negotiations with Thomas Knutson to purchase his salvage yard, Knutson [...]
Wellington Heights initiative expands to include 55 properties
Four Oaks and its Affordable Housing Network Inc. subsidiary on Monday said they have 55 residential properties under their control as part of the TotalChild Wellington Heights Initiative announced last week. Jim Ernst, president and CEO of Four Oaks, said AHNI now owns 32 properties in the Wellington Heights neighborhood, including three vacant lots. The [...]
How much debt should a city risk?
CEDAR RAPIDS — Little gets more talk on the national political stage than debt. Republicans call for spending cuts by the federal government, while opposing tax increases on wealthier Americans. Democrats support such revenue-increasing taxes, while opposing spending cuts. “The federal government is using debt to pay for operating expenses in a lot of cases,” [...]
Demolition launches Wellington Heights initiative
CEDAR RAPIDS — Over a hundred people watched Thursday evening as an excavator took a giant bite out of a boarded-up 12-plex apartment building in Wellington Heights. Police and neighborhood leaders said the building had come to symbolize the worst in a neighborhood tired of crime, bad behavior and bad landlords. Acting Police Chief Tom [...]
Planning organization commits $2.5 million to trail
CEDAR RAPIDS — A paved bicycle trail connecting Marion and Cedar Rapids got a $2.5 million funding boost Thursday from the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization. The CEMAR Trail was suggested 10 years ago by then-Cedar Rapids Streets Commissioner Don Thomas, but it’s never been completed. A month ago, that fact helped prompt the Cedar Rapids-dominated [...]
Cedar Rapids initiative seeks to improve Wellington Heights neighborhood
It’s Wellington Heights’ turn — especially for the children who live there. This old core neighborhood in southeast Cedar Rapids has combated a perception problem for more than 15 years as being a place where bad behavior surfaces and police cars converge. Terry Bilsland, the president of the well-established Wellington Heights Neighborhood Association and [...]
Cedar Rapids named bicycle-friendly community
A persistent City Hall has been trying for nearly three years to secure a status as a bicycle-friendly community from the League of American Bicyclists. On Monday, Cedar Rapids officials announced that the League has awarded the city the bronze-level designation in a rating system that runs from platinum to gold and silver and bronze. In [...]
Four Cedar Rapids groups join forces to improve conditions for African-American kids
Four local organizations are joining forces to see if their alliance can improve neighborhoods and the housing in them and provide job-preparation opportunities for African-American youth. The organizations are Diversity Focus, the Regional Economic Development Institute or RED-I, the Four Oaks children and family-services agency and Four Oaks’ Affordable Housing Network Inc. RED-I, the newest [...]
111 more properties added to Cedar Rapids buyout list
CEDAR RAPIDS — Six weeks ago City Hall put out an absolute last call for property owners to get into the city’s flood buyout program, and people heard: The owners of 111 residential and commercial properties scurried to beat the deadline. The City Council this week approved adding the final group of flood-hit properties to [...]
