In my last article, I discussed the planning issues with Iowa City and specifically City High’s neighborhood: Morningside-Glendale. I proposed some relatively cost-effective changes, primarily traffic lights, paths, and bike infrastructure. I finished that article by saying that this was probably all that could be done due to Iowa’s lack of funding for planning changes that aren’t massive highway interchanges.

But what if that wasn’t the case? What if Iowa City was given billions upon billions of dollars to become the American Amsterdam? What if we lived in some kind of planning utopia where you can comfortably and safely walk, bike, or take public transportation anywhere in the city, and cars are relegated to medium to long-distance travel and those who drive for fun? What if mixed-use zoning could actually be implemented, where there’s just a small convenience store on the corner that can satisfy all of your basic needs? What if we could build anything? What should we build?

I should lay out one rule before I propose my changes: I can’t fundamentally change the neighborhood. I can’t tear down all of the buildings and just build a whole new neighborhood, and I can’t just eliminate all the streets and ban cars entirely. We could, however, build new things in unoccupied spaces.

Starting with transportation, we’re immediately creating a tram system. Trams are significantly more environmentally friendly compared to busses due to them exclusively being electric. While the Iowa City Transit department has already purchased three electric buses, those still take up space in traffic and are difficult to operate through extreme snow and ice. Trams are also much more space efficient. They can carry many more people than buses, which at max capacity can only carry roughly 40 people while modern trams can carry well over 150 people. Finally, they are quieter than a bus (a typical bus is roughly 90db at 25 miles per hour while a tram is around 75db 25 MPH)

Two lines would have stops at City High. One line’s terminus would be at the Old Capitol Mall downtown, sharing that interchange with our current bus system. This line would take College Street to City High, go through the current parking lot near the lunch room, and go on to 4th Ave. It would eventually get on to Court St, go out to the end of Court, go through the housing development there, and then get onto Rochester Ave, then Market St, and get back to the downtown terminus.

The second line would run from a terminus at the ACT campus at the northern end of 1st Ave. It would go down First Ave all the way down to Mall Drive near Southeast Middle School. The line would go through the Sycamore Mall parking lot and onto Sycamore St. It would go down to the southern terminus at the Iowa City Kickers Soccer Park, eliminating the need for the infamous “Soccer Mom” and her absolutely massive 2019 Chevy Suburban.

However, people are going to keep driving down the streets of Morningside-Glendale. To get people to take alternative forms of transportation we can’t just make the infrastructure better, we need to make driving slightly harder. I think we should narrow the streets a bit and install more traffic calming devices,

Of Morningside-Glendale’s total area of 0.38 square miles, City High occupies 0.06 square miles, or roughly 16% of the neighborhood. City’s parking occupies roughly 0.009 square miles, or 15% of City High’s land. Therefore, parking just at City High occupies 2.37% of the neighborhood. That may not sound like much, but if all of the parking was torn out, it could be replaced by roughly 30 average American homes. I’m not proposing we take out all parking, as people still need to have the option to drive, but taking out even a single, smaller lot, such as the one at the site of the former Hoover Elementary School, could benefit the community so much more.

The Morningside-Glendale neighborhood is very nice, but all of the business in the neighborhood is located in one of two areas. In the northwest corner at the Rochester/1st intersection, there’s a gas station, two restaurants (Cracken’s and Wig and Pen, both of which are amazing), a dentist’s office, and a bank. The other place is a student doing a bake sale in the lunchroom. There’s a good amount of business near the neighborhood, especially at the 1st/Muscatine intersection with the likes of Hy-Vee, Heyn’s, Walgreens, and many other smaller businesses, but the 1st/Muscatine intersection is outside of the neighborhood, meaning that one can’t fulfill they’re basic needs without leaving the boundaries of the neighborhood.

“But Jethro, where do we build these new buildings?” you ask.

That’s a great question. If only there were some fields of concrete that occupied 2.37% of our neighborhood and were only encouraging driving.

Of course, as mentioned above, parking is required for students and staff who need to drive to school. I would suggest we build a small parking garage with around three floors.

As for the rest of the parking, I suggest we convert those into our own pedestrianized downtown. This would by no means be anywhere as large as our downtown. There would only be a couple of buildings, but if businesses opened in these buildings, local residents could have a place they can walk or bike to, rather than having to drive to Hy-Vee or Walmart.

In the modern US, remaining physical shopping is almost entirely reserved for massive shopping malls with thousands of parking spaces, where social connections can at least still be formed. The other type, however, is much worse. Big box stores are your massive Walmarts, Costcos, and any store that you can’t walk to other stores through. These are also almost no local businesses in these locations. To my knowledge, there is one local business in the Coral Ridge Mall: the Iowa Children’s Museum.

But the indisputably best option is a mixed-use development that combines businesses, especially small local ones that meet people’s basic needs, and homes for people who want options other than some suburban single-family home that’s way too large for their needs.
We can convert all the extra parking to a kind of downtown space with good public transit connections and minimal parking.

As for concerns about the environment, we are building exclusively on City High’s campus. The front lawn (the only place on campus with any real nature) won’t be built on, as communities require green space that allows them to experience nature. The only places that are being built on have already had all of their nature destroyed.

Let me preface this by saying I am in no way an expert in sports venues, but they take up a massive amount of space. I understand that, unlike most football fields, Bates Field is actual grass as opposed to astroturf. However, I feel that having two football fields is kind of unnecessary. I know that the increased traffic would cause a lot of issues on Bates without relentless maintenance, but remember, we have an unlimited budget.

However, if we do need a practice field, I say we don’t build out, we build up. It would require incredible amounts of time and money, but putting the turf on the roof would free up 78,000 square feet.

“Jethro, where on the roof would it go?”

After much measuring on Google Earth, I have found that the best place would be on top of the lunchroom and Little Hawk Arena. That roof is by no means flat, and there would be some overhang over the current small parking lot near the softball field. I would also relocate the tennis courts to the roof of the building.

The roof would require extensive reinforcement to sustain the weight of a regulation size football field. That work would require many years and would cost millions of dollars. However, in this universe we have infinite time and money.

The businesses in the new area would present great opportunities for student employment, with students potentially able to work during open periods if the businesses’ schedules mesh with the school schedule.

There are undoubtedly safety concerns about allowing people to live and work on campus. However, the residents and workers of the area wouldn’t have any access to the school building itself (unless of course, they work at the school). The sale of alcohol would be outlawed in the area as it is still on a school campus. Lethal weapons would also be banned.

So, reader, I give you two options. You can choose to forget this article and everything is the same as it is now. You sit in your car waiting at a stop sign on an over-congested road. A student brave enough to walk crosses the street and is nearly hit by a car. You know this is depressing, but you can’t think of anything to do about it. You just sit in your warm car as the minutes and hours are slowly taken off your life. You have nothing to do but accept it.

You don’t have to accept the blissful ignorance, however. You will see how everything can be so much better. You’ll drive only when necessary, and you’ll suffer walking and biking on our nation’s less than ideal infrastructure. The choice, dear reader, is yours. Will you accept peaceful misery or will you fight for something better.