The Surprisingly Empty City Of Cedar Rapids, IOWA

We visited Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Travel Vlog 326

[progenitor_amborella]

If you want to view Cedar Rapids (or any of east-central Iowa), you need to not only read about the flood of 2008, but the derecho on 2020/08/10. Nick Stewart, the ex-local meterologist made a great by-the-minute documentary on it. Imagine 60-80% more trees in the metro, with many of them over 100 years old. A lot of trees were not just snapped, but completely ripped out of the ground, root-ball and all. You may notice how some trees are still bent towards the east-southeast. Like you mentioned, the flood did displace many businesses, and also permanently closed a lot too. As an example, there was an IMAX theater inside of the Science Station, which are both gone. Several homes close to the river were nearly completely underwater.

Also, the city had another name when Mt. Trashmore was still in service: "the city of five smells."

[pjsnyder]

Thank you for visiting our city and thank you for the kind words about our town. Come back any time!!

[setsukomarulli]

I am a Japanese (Okinawan) married to an American and living in America. I love learning about America's geography. I very much like the way you share facts, history, crime rates of the cities you visit.

[glengerdes]

Thanks for doing Cedar Rapids. Blair’s Ferry road was named after my great grand parents, My roots are very deep there.

[matildatheoboldt]

Sorry, didnt know youd be in town. We usually all come in from the surrounding counties to make it look more metropolitan when we have guests. Looking forward to seeing Primus there in July

[Mycatsmeow]

I was living in Iowa City in 2008 during the major flooding of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City (the flooding you referred to in this video). I had actually just moved from Cedar Rapids to Iowa City a few months prior to the flood. Those were some crazy times. The flood destroyed all of downtown Cedar Rapids, which prompted most businesses to move out of the area. This is why downtown Cedar Rapids is so desolate nowadays. It was a very bustling epicenter prior to the floods. I hope that maybe one day Cedar Rapids will have a viable downtown again, but people are still way too weary to be moving into downtown for business and such due to the high risk of it flooding again with the rivers being in such close proximity to downtown.

[Frraksurred]

I was born and raised in Cedar Rapids. 56 now and still working at one of the local Corn Mills. I learned a few things from your visit, and appreciate the thought and work put into this video. Thank you for including us in your travels. Another stop of interest would have been Brucemore Mansion, where you would have found more of Grant Wood's works, most notably a Patio he designed and scupted for the owner at the time. The flood of '08 drove a lot of people away from the River, and the downtown area has never fully recovered. Especially on a work day, it is not surprising to see it so empy anymore. The roads always seem to look under maintenenced here because the swing from humid 90+ degree Summers to below zero Winters is tough on them, as is the numerous trucks and semis delivering goods. We take pride in helping to feed the world however. Thanks again for a delightful video. God bless on your travels. Take care.

[idrinkbeer]

I have been to 44 states and Iowa is one of my favorites. It has a lot of cool places to visit and clean and safe cities. It also pushes way above its weight in the craft beer scene with Dimensional, Toppling Goliath, Lua, Confluence, Pulpit Rock, Lions Bridge in Cedar Rapids, etc. The state capital building in Des Moines is one of may favorite capital buildings. Up on a hill over looking downtown with monuments around it is wonderful.

[Northeasy_Iowa_Outdoors]

I've driven through CR 500 times and had no idea how grand the Veterans Memorial is. Thank you for the tour Joe!

[cakxst]

Well I've lived in this town for almost all of my 20 years of life and you are still teaching me new things about it. Thanks for visiting!!!

[SykoByte]

Born and raised there, although moved away 3 years ago. Nice to see they've planted new trees since the 2020 derecho took out half the city's trees. That was a crazy day I'll never forget! That and the huge 2008 flood that flooded all of downtown and destroyed a neighborhood on the NW side. CR is still looking good after going thru those disasters.

[Kungpaoshizzi]

My dad recently died there and I'm from CR. I was familiar with every place you went, albeit 20 to 40 years ago. It was surreal. I laughed there, cried there, worked there, loved there along the river, even performed at the Paramount and saw Citizen Kane with my father there. Thank you for that sir!

[Yourfavbbw]

Wow! First timer here! & I’ve gots to say, I’ve never been so proud to live in Cedar Rapids as I am now! I’ve been here 16 yrs (from Chicago) and never seen the beauty of this city the way you’ve shown it! 16 yrs & now I wanna go out & venture the city and it’s beauty to appreciate it more! Thank you for the view and history lesson 🥰

[MegamanZero]

Born and raised in Cedar Rapids, joined the Navy where I did 6 years time, and moved back to Cedar Rapids. Theres something just special about our little city.

Glad you were able to visit! Safe travels!

[Ashtonsironhorse]

Great video of my hometown. You showed my house which was cool. Glad I had the yard work done. 😅

[edreuben]

It is always with a rare pleasure that I discover each of your videos which offers the French that I am an America different from the usual images that I see! I am happy to be able, in your company, to discover this unknown America which is very different from that which we are shown on many other media: Thank you and congratulations for your videos!

[harryravenkiller]

When I moved to CR I was told by someone said " welcome to the city of five smells" sooo true!

[chopseh]

12:00 that building is abandoned and is not currently being used. It used to be home to a bar called “Toocans” which was a tropical theme bar, then taken over by a country bar called “Hazard County.” That bar moved across the street to a former tire center and uses the building’s garage doors to open up more space in the summer

[ErinMeyrick]

You gave me a new view on a city I've lived in since 1989. Thank you!!

[tadhgcronin]

Another great video. What an awesome road trip.