Comments on: A sloth garden for Marion http://slothcentral.com/archives/203 A 12,000 year-old mystery in SW Iowa Tue, 20 Apr 2010 02:51:50 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: David http://slothcentral.com/archives/203/comment-page-1#comment-1188 David Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:27:45 +0000 http://slothcentral.com/?p=203#comment-1188 Trav, It has been done before; we have the perfect model in Indianapolis, IN. Their downtown riverfront was a blighted mess of neglected houses, deteriorating businesses and abandoned properties in the 1970’s. The state created a commission to start acquiring the land and turned it into a one-of-a-kind downtown park, the White River State Park. They opened the Indianapolis Zoo there in 1988 and an art and culture museum in 1989. In 1996 they built a minor league baseball field and IMAX in the park; in 2000 a sports museum. In 2002 a state history museum opened. Now 3 million visitors/year are attracted to the institutions and the events they sponsor in the park’s many open areas-- e.g. amphitheatre, hiking and bike paths, sculpture garden, etc. Thousands of new jobs have been created. The flooded Cedar Rapids neighborhoods were never blighted like this of course, but they are certainly candidates for massive urban renewal now. The last thing in the world I want to do is abandon the flood victims, but I hate to see us remain in our current state of denial that the neighborhoods and jobs will return and the floods won’t. The experts say global climate change has upped the odds significantly and that floods are going to be a common occurrence in the future (i.e. 1:17). Geologists put no faith in the billion $$ control system the consultants are recommending--they never work in the long term. Nor will federal $$ ever flow as freely as we hope. The big downtown businesses (e.g. Alliant Energy) are already placing their bets and moving out. I’m afraid the city is on course for a permanent economic decline. Help the victims relocate and give them a reason to hope for a brighter and smarter future (with a sloth garden). . . . Dave <strong>Reference </strong> http://www.brookspublications.com/files/WRSP_may08.pdf Trav, It has been done before; we have the perfect model in Indianapolis, IN. Their downtown riverfront was a blighted mess of neglected houses, deteriorating businesses and abandoned properties in the 1970’s. The state created a commission to start acquiring the land and turned it into a one-of-a-kind downtown park, the White River State Park. They opened the Indianapolis Zoo there in 1988 and an art and culture museum in 1989. In 1996 they built a minor league baseball field and IMAX in the park; in 2000 a sports museum. In 2002 a state history museum opened. Now 3 million visitors/year are attracted to the institutions and the events they sponsor in the park’s many open areas– e.g. amphitheatre, hiking and bike paths, sculpture garden, etc. Thousands of new jobs have been created.

The flooded Cedar Rapids neighborhoods were never blighted like this of course, but they are certainly candidates for massive urban renewal now. The last thing in the world I want to do is abandon the flood victims, but I hate to see us remain in our current state of denial that the neighborhoods and jobs will return and the floods won’t. The experts say global climate change has upped the odds significantly and that floods are going to be a common occurrence in the future (i.e. 1:17). Geologists put no faith in the billion $$ control system the consultants are recommending–they never work in the long term. Nor will federal $$ ever flow as freely as we hope. The big downtown businesses (e.g. Alliant Energy) are already placing their bets and moving out. I’m afraid the city is on course for a permanent economic decline. Help the victims relocate and give them a reason to hope for a brighter and smarter future (with a sloth garden). . . . Dave

Reference http://www.brookspublications.com/files/WRSP_may08.pdf

]]> By: trav http://slothcentral.com/archives/203/comment-page-1#comment-1179 trav Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:22:05 +0000 http://slothcentral.com/?p=203#comment-1179 Dave, It's a cool idea and it makes a lot more sense than turning the whole Cedar Rapids downtown into a park. What would you do with all the people anyway? Where are they supposed to live and how are they supposed to make a living? Dave, It’s a cool idea and it makes a lot more sense than turning the whole Cedar Rapids downtown into a park. What would you do with all the people anyway? Where are they supposed to live and how are they supposed to make a living?

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