Impressions of Cedar Rapids since moving here

[Roy G. Biv]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

Cedar Rapids is one of those ho-hum, nice places to live. Safe, nice schools, the economy isn't all manufacturing or horribly depressed, no traffic, clean. At the same time it's just really not too exciting, it never seems to boom or bust.

It doesn't have a particularly bad reputation...it doesn't particularly have a good reputation. For an area of around 200,000, it's amazingly unknown on a national level.

I've lived in CR for thirty years. This comment nails it.

[DSMGuy]

It is kind of the ugly sister of E Iowa (as Peter Greenberg is kind of suggesting here), whereas just down the road, Iowa City is the princess, if you will.

Don't Go There: 5 Stinky Places | PeterGreenberg.com

People I talk to around here look forward to going to IC for the fun and excitement of games, tailgating, taking in the ambiance of the town, etc. It overshadows CR quite a bit.

[zz4guy]

Originally Posted by DSMGuy

It is kind of the ugly sister of E Iowa (as Peter Greenberg is kind of suggesting here), whereas just down the road, Iowa City is the princess, if you will.

Don't Go There: 5 Stinky Places | PeterGreenberg.com

People I talk to around here look forward to going to IC for the fun and excitement of games, tailgating, taking in the ambiance of the town, etc. It overshadows CR quite a bit.

WHo the heck is peter greenberg?

Yes there are a LOT of companies here and some do give off odors . It's called industry. One thing CR has going for it is a stable economy. It's not built on ONE industry. THere's high tech, material processing, heavy industry, financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, etc.

I've lived here my whole life and the occaisional whif of Quaker is hardly ever a topic of conversation. You notice the smell sometimes, but it's not an offensive nauseating smell like sewer or something. If smell and weak nightlife is a reason not to move to CR, then you better not move to Iowa at all because you won't find much better.

[Chicago60614]

I had no idea they were stumbling so much after the floods.

I'm from Iowa City, and while it helped a LOT that the major flooding was university property (stable state rebuilding funds) and it didn't get hit as bad as Cedar Rapids - there was still a pretty huge impact in many areas of town.

It seems as soon as the water dropped the businesses, residents and cites went straight into action mode on fixing it all back up.

By the time winter rolled around, as far as I could tell the entire community was pretty much patched back together and looking pretty good. Of course there are some properties sitting in limbo, and the areas along Normandy that flood all the time probably need some serious concideration on their future as opposed to just fixing them back up...again.

[lovinlife04]

I have lived here all my live and totally agree. I have felt for years that we are at a standstill, nothing for families to do, but at the same time there are some wonderful/respectful families and people here.

We have many that believe bringing in a casino would do wonders. However I have had a terrible experience with someone in my family that has an addiction to this, so I this I cannot agree with. I would love to see more family activities, things to do in the harsh winters, GOOD places to shop (which there is none), but here we sit, 15 years later.

Unfortunately we have wanted to move for awhile because of all of this, and hope that this devastation will bring some good. I believe it could a wonderful/fun place, but we need to be a little more creative than a darn casino. You want families to stay, then give them something to stay for.

It is a great place, but disappointing when it comes to change with the times. Unfortunately if it keeps up, it will die.

We need someone who cares and who has a vision....!

[Corbyesmommie08]

Originally Posted by missy1793

Well that strong base of employers is disappearing, I am getting laid off from of the the bigger ones and they are already speculating about whether it is going to flood again this year. I personally am trying to get out of CR, I have been here 8 years and they could make it a better place, but they were trying to attract the wrong types of businessess here. And because of their slow response to the flood, I anticipate there has already been a decrease of people in this city. It is not that people don't want to contribute, but the city itself wants to spend the money from these taxes on dumb stuff instead of important stuff. When I first moved here, they voted to fix up the ball park over the schools first, what does that tell you?

Here, Here I agree, My family was one that left Iowa because of the flooding and the lack of failed response to the siutation, also my mother was laid off from the Fire Department she'd been there 8 yrs...finally after 8 months has a job, this city sucks at that aspect.

[Chicago60614]

I don't live in Iowa, but I follow everything that goes on there on a daily basis since it's where I grew up and where I ground myself.

There isn't a lot that happens there that ever really surprises or shocks me, but I have to say I'm really taken aback at how slow and "confused" Cedar Rapids seems to have handled the past 10 months after the flood.

Iowa City kinda had that "F-You" attitude towards the flood where they just put things back together again and never stopped to think about being devestated. Cedar Rapids was obviously in a worse position and didn't have "luxury" of having a huge portion of the damage to premier state property that would have action taken upon it immediately.....still though, it's really disheartening to see Cedar Rapids kinda wallow around like this after such a changing event.

My parents kept saying how horrified they were when the mayor of Cedar Rapids, the person who really needed to be a saving grace and fire up the community, ended up being an elderly woman who appeared completely confused and disoriented every time she was on camera.