Destination Downtown
Written by, Katie Mills Giorgio
"
I am proud to say I am a fourth generation Cedar Rapidian. My mom grew up here. My grandma grew up here. My great grandma lived here, too. I relish the fact that my family is a part of the history of this city.
Over the years I’ve heard both my mom and grandma tell stories about venturing downtown in their youth. They would ride the bus, or their bikes, or—gasp—walk! Downtown Cedar Rapids was a place to shop, eat, work, go to the movies, and stroll…the place to be!
Now while I didn’t live in Cedar Rapids for my entire youth, when I did live here we didn’t go downtown much. Many shops had closed up and I thought of it as just a place where people went to work. When I look back at those years
I feel like I missed out on that experience of growing up with downtown as a place to go and explore and enjoy. Only in the last few years (since joining a committee of the Downtown District really) did I start to take advantage of all that Downtown has to offer.
But I am proud to say now I am doing my part—along with the tremendous work of the Downtown District—to bring the idea of Downtown Cedar Rapids as a destination back to life. I work downtown (for the Linn County Nonprofit Resource Center
lcnrc.org which just moved into the historic Torch Press Building at 324 Third Street SE by the way.) I’ll be at my favorite event of the summer—the Downtown Farmer’s Market—this Saturday morning buying sweet corn and cucumbers and cinnamon rolls as big as your head! A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to catch RENT at TCR
www.theatrecr.org and now I’m making plans to visit the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art http://www.crma.org/ before month’s end (did you know admission is FREE until mid-September?!) I’ll grab lunch at Prairie Soup Company
www.prairiesoup.com (more times than I should admit…I think I’m addicted) and enjoy a pint, or two, at Dublin City Pub
www.dublincitypub.com.
Really, I could go on and on about all the things I love to do in downtown.
Of course I take my kids with me to experience it all (well maybe not the work part or for pints.) Not just because I pretty much have to take them everywhere with me, but because I also don’t want them to grow up missing out on all the fun that is Downtown Cedar Rapids. They love the trains (sorry, drivers!—but next time, just pretend for a second that you are five years old and trains are magical instead of instruments of delay.) They think it’s cool that I work in a tall office building and that much of downtown is connected by skywalks. And we can’t wait for the Cedar Rapids Public Library
crlibrary.org to be back downtown!
If you haven’t been downtown in a while, make like a kid and come enjoy the simple and wonderful pleasures of Downtown Cedar Rapids. If you made downtown your destination last week or work here every day, well, consider yourself
one of the lucky ones.
As for me, in honor of keeping the generations coming downtown, I have plans to take my mom and my grandma out for lunch to Zins
www.zinsrestaurant.com. We probably won’t walk, but we can’t wait!"
Katie Mills Giorgio is a freelance writer and nonprofit marketing guru living, working and having fun in Cedar Rapids. She loves writing, reading, spending time with her husband and two cute kiddies and volunteering with the Cedar Rapids Downtown District, of course. You can read more about some of her projects on her blog www.katiemillsgiorgio.wordpress.com.