Andy of HoboTraveler.com Travel Blog now in Guatemala, and soon to Peru to get up near the un-contacted tribes.

TAK

I first thought of writing you an angry letter. However that is not my nature nor it the nature of most Cedar Rapidians. Then I though of writing sarcastically to complement you on helping to stop the influx of Californians and Chicagoans to Cedar Rapids who have brought us higher property taxes and bad driving in order to live the good life they wanted but could not live in the bigger cities. But no, if i did that my letter would turn into a novella and I’ve been glad to witness the appearance of numerous sushi bars and coffee houses over the past 10 years. So I will simply write that you, or your researcher, owe Cedar Rapids an apology.
Your description of Cedar Rapids as smelly and your belittling the flood of June 2008 was ethically & morally wrong, as well as inaccurate. Your short description of Cedar Rapids stands out from the rest of your book in its meanness so much that I wondered how such an unfunny diatribe could have made it into your book. Based on the rest of the book’s contents, I find it difficult to believe that it was accidental nor that it was your personal intent to make light of the worst disaster in Iowa history. Perhaps your researcher had a bone to pick with the city.
Here then is a brief bit of information that you can pass on to your researcher who, maybe lived here or visited during the flood, was bitten by rabid native of Cedar Rapids.
Cedar Rapids’ Chamber of Commerce motto ‘City of Five Seasons’ was adapted to replace the previous lame nickname ‘Parlor City’. Many people, myself included, never though much of the new nickname let alone the old one. Many folks, with a typical Iowan sense of humor, modified the motto to ‘City of Five Smells’. Cedar Rapidians like to joke. When the city decided to add to the already plentiful outdoor downtown sculptures by erected a gigantic aluminum tree on the riverfront, city residents laughingly referred to it as the giant toilet bowl brush. In any case, the five smells’ joke referred to the agricultural plants around the city and the large meat processing plants that was located just south of the downtown area. But that was decades ago. The meat processors are long gone and the only odor is an occasional whiff of toasted oats when the winds shift which is infrequently. A nasty stench it is not. The ‘clouds of smoke’ that you reference emanating from the industrial area south of the city is not smoke; it is steam. A steam that can be so dense that US Highway 30, just north of these plants, is sometimes closed when the winds shift and the steam cloud causes foggy road conditions.
The old city dump was nicknamed ‘Mt Trashmore’. Remember what I said the fondness of locals to make jokes. This particular pun was to reference a local historical site named ‘Brucemore’. Look it up on the internet. The old dump indeed had to be temporarily opened to deal with the debris caused by the June 2008 floods.
The Flood of June 2008 was the worst disaster in Iowa history but it seems to have fallen off the nation’s radar. Cedar Rapids was devastated by this natural disaster. It will take years and years for the city to recover, if it ever does. The dollar damage estimate as of December, 2008 is 6 billion dollars. The public service infrastructure was wiped out. The public library was destroyed (worst library disaster in US history). Courthouses, gone; City Hall, gone; museums, symphony, non-profit agencies, all gone. And yes, the downtown did stink. It stunk for weeks after the toxic flood waters receded.
The total financial relief received from the feds so far is 35 million. But Cedar Rapidians didn’t complain. They just rebuild as best they can and the city is slowly coming back.
Your book’s attempt at humor demeans the efforts of the residents of Cedar Rapids who have worked hard to recover form a terrible disaster. Would you have written similar things about lower Manhattan after 9/11? Or of New Orleans after Katrina? I would like to think not and your book’s section on Cedar Rapids was done purely out of ignorance. I think you should correct it.
BTW, I have lived in Cedar Rapids for 35 years but I was born and grew up in New York City. I don’t think the subways have changed much, so If you want a real smell experience, take a ride on the IRT.