Becolorful

Subway Art Meets A Violin

 

What it is:

One of the things on my to do list this week was to paint a violin.

The violin was a project that will benefit our local symphony school. 

The school,  the administrative offices for the symphony orchestra, along with its performance home were all destroyed in the 2008 floods.

Although these violins did not get wet, they were ruined just the same because of the humidity in the building and the inability of anybody to get in there to save them.

Consequently, they were offered up to local artisans to decorate them as they saw fit

and they will all be auctioned off next month to raise funds for the school.

I thought this would be a fun challenge and a small contribution on my part towards local flood relief. 

How I did it:

I  first painted my violin white.

I was thinking of purchasing a Silhouette to do more subway style art for not only this project but also for The Traveling Door sale this November but I quickly learned that the Silhouette isn't compatible with my Mac.

So sad.

So I had to go the old fashioned method.

I printed out the names of places that are unique to Cedar Rapids on computer contact paper.

I cut out each of the letters and pasted them to the violin.

Then I painted over the entire piece with black paint.

After carefully removing the letters I touched up any areas that needed to be cleaned up.

It says:

Czech Village

Orchestra Iowa

TCR (Theatre Cedar Rapids)

CRMA (Cedar Rapids Museum of Art)

and Brucemore.

I tricked out the back with black and white stripes,

 

and did a decoupage treatment with sheet music to the sides.

 

My Motivation

My take on this project was to give a shout out to our city and its efforts to rise above the devastation and reclaim its position as a cultural gem of the Midwest.

For me this piece was pretty subdued and subtle and

I was pretty pleased with my efforts until I saw what my friend did.

String Bling

Now hers is "off the chains".

Mine will be the wall flower to her starlet but I'm okay with that.

I think it is fun to see the different directions and looks these pieces take on. 

There will be something for everybody.

This project is called Art Strings and my friend took her inspiration from that name.

She aptly named her piece String Bling.

Now those who know me know I have a weakness for bling.

Love it.

I am usually the one that is over dressed for every event.

What can I say?

I love to dress up.

So when I saw her violin I was over the moon in love with it.

I want it.

Where could I put it? :)

 

How cool is that?

She glued on each and every one of those rhinestones.

 

I'll bet she closes her eyes at night and dreams in bling.
 
 
 Thank God these were children's violins and not bass cellos.

She would be at it still and it would have cost a small fortune.

 

Sherri says, though, that this blinging thing is addictive.

She wants to bling everything. 

Her phone,

picture frames,

anything with a flat surface.

We could have a blinging party. :)

All in all, this was a fun project and I can't wait to see all of the violins displayed at ARA Gallery.

You can bet I will take pictures to share with you.

XOXO,

P

Linking up here:

"

Block By Block in Cedar Rapids Iowa

Today I'm not writing about a decorating or painted furniture project. I will be back with something along that vein next time.  To be timely this post needed to be written now. My heart goes out to those in the gulf area and to those areas that were flooded earlier this month. I'd like to think that what I write today might help give someone that has been affected by such an event the knowledge and hope that we are a resilient and determined nation and that we do eventually work through these tragedies. It isn't government alone that gets us through difficult times. We help ourselves and we help each other. A little plus a little gets things done.

 

Block By Block in Cedar Rapids

It was two years ago this week that our city suffered through this state's worst natural disaster and one of the most expensive in the country.

Cedar Rapids and Iowa City which is just twenty minutes to our south received the most damage.

We aren't  big cities.

Most people couldn't locate us on a map.

Still, this is the place I call home.

The abandoned homes and boarded up businesses are depressing to see.

Still, we are fiercely proud of what we have here.

We took a huge hit and we are surviving.

It was called an epic flood.

In fact, the flood waters covered ten square miles of Cedar Rapids.

 

 

This was our downtown area.

 

No, this is definitely not a "poor us" type of blog post.

Instead I would like to share some of the success stories that we as a city are slowly beginning to chalk up.

I'd like to say it's hard to believe it's already been two years but that wouldn't be true. 

Some days it feels like forever.

I have never been patient

and I am learning that recovery is a long and tedious process.

Yet, despite a stubbornly repressed economy, our downtown area is finally showing some signs of promise and a pulse.

For example,

only twenty months after it was devastated by the flood waters Theatre Cedar Rapids  returned to its  gloriously refurbished home in the Iowa Building.

This was TCR at the height of the flood in June 2008.

 

 

The sandbags couldn't keep the muddy waters out and this is what the river left behind.

 

You can see the seats caked in mud and silt and an orchestra pit still filled with water and muck.

 

The motto at TCR was, "The show must go on" and go on it did. The productions were temporarily moved to a different venue. Countless volunteer hours, a combination of private donations and grants, and a determined spirit resulted in the reopening of this theater in February of this year.

The excitement was tangible.

 

and the theater was gorgeous.

 
 It was a proud moment for all of us. The successful return of TCR was a huge boost to the local morale. It marked what we hope is the beginning of a recovery for us.

The night we saw the play we later walked down the block to Zin's.

 

It was great.

The downtown felt alive.

Zin's is a tappas restaurant that was forced to close its doors at 4:15 PM  on June 11th 2008 as the waters were rapidly inching up Second Avenue.

The restaurant was decimated by the flood.

Even so, one year to the day 

at exactly 4:15 

it reopened it's doors to an eager and celebratory group of diners.

Zin's was back. 

They just last week celebrated their one year anniversary  ... again at exactly 4:15. 

I wish we had been in town on Friday. I would have loved to have been there to toast their achievement.

Those of us that live here are beginning to feel a bit more positive about the survival of our downtown but it is still an uphill battle.

As I took a walking tour around this area I still saw a lot of boarded up stores and business fronts.

 

I was heartened, though, to see new ventures popping up.

 

and some old familiars returning.

 

Or maybe relocating.

( I will celebrating a high school reunion here in a few short weeks ... great spot for a party.)  

  
 
Every one of the government facilities in Cedar Rapids was impacted by this flood including our Federal Court House.

This was the court house as it appeared at the crest of the flood in 2008. 

Cedar Rapids had been on the short list to get a new court house for several years but the flood pushed this city to the top of that list and funding was approved in 2009.

 The new courthouse is under construction now. The target completion date is summer 2012, four years after the flood.

 

Czech Village, a unique ethnic settlement within Cedar Rapids, was also pounded by flood waters.

The Czech Museum still stands empty but there are ingenious plans in the works to move and elevate the entire building across the street to higher ground.

It could not reopen at its current location as a museum because it would be uninsurable.

This was the museum in June 2008

and as it sits today two years later.

 

 
  Again with the help of state funds, a generous gift from the Czech Republic and corporate and private donations this cultural gem is also moving forward.

For now the workable solution has been a move into a refurbished historical building in the Czech Village. An exhibit has been put in place in this new location called "Rising Above" detailing the events of the 2008 flood and its impact on this part of Cedar Rapids.

These were some pictures I took of Czech Village only a month after the flood.

  

 

 

These images are from Czech Village earlier this week. Two full years later.

It looks great doesn't it?

 

It's true. There is still a lot of work to be done but you can see the progress. 

The people here are working class people.

 A large number that  still live here are of Czech heritage. 

They don't sit back and wait for a hand out. 

They take care of themselves and they take care of each other. 

The other part of the story though is not about the stores or factories, restaurants or churches.

The other part of the story,

the part that is harder to tell

and harder to resolve involves the homeowners.

 

5390 homes were damaged in the floods.

Whole neighborhoods were destroyed.

Many  of these homes were condemned.

Others were tagged uninhabitable until repairs and renovations were made.

Countless homeowners lacked the resources to make those repairs

and they walked away.

This left a large number of abandoned or vacant homes within the city limits.

 

 

I walked through an area of town yesterday that is called the Time Check neighborhood. This is an older part of town that was lined with the homes of working class families.

It was numbing to still see block after block after block of empty houses.

They were just shells and crumbling structures.

It is so hard yet to believe that this happened here, in our city.

Finally this year Cedar Rapids got the go ahead to begin demolishing a number of these houses.

I stood in a misty rain yesterday and watched as a backhoe ate its way through yet another home until it was nothing but a pile of crumbled plaster and wood.

 

I know there is a story and a family behind each and every empty house

  
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

and there are just so many of them.

Then there are also those occasional oasis houses in the middle of all of this ghostly devastation.

They are a sight for sore eyes but they oddly just seem so out of place.

Isn't this just so cheerful and homey?

Looking at this image today you would never guess what this pretty house and it's owners have gone through.

This one too. What a doll house. 

Kudos to the families that brought these two houses back to life so colorfully.

Tragically, though, these homes are almost always flanked by this

 

or this -

an empty lot where the  house has already been demolished and the debris hauled away.

 

 

Without neighbors you can't have a neighborhood.
 

Too many of us have learned to believe that the government will fix all that is wrong for us.

It isn't so.

There is too little money and too much red tape.

You have to think beyond what you have believed to be true.

To have the initiative to not sit back and wallow in what has happened.

It happened.

Move on. 

It isn't fair.

Move on.

Your neighbor needs help?

Help him.

This philosophy is what I had the pleasure of seeing here this week and it moved me to tears of realization and gratitude for the kindness of friends and strangers.

There is an effort underway in Cedar Rapids called Block by Block.

 

Block by Block is a grassroots program that is helping homeowners and their neighbors recover and  rebuild one block at a time.

The seed money first came from a local couple and then corporate and private donations and grants followed.

This money paired with donated materials and literally throngs of volunteers from all across the country who are gifting themselves and an awe inspiring number of humanitarian hours are the reason this effort is so successful. 

At least 60% of the houses on a block must agree to participate in the rebuilding.

Some homeowners are rebuilding to stay while others are rebuilding in order to be able to sell their homes and move on.

Block by Block helps these homeowners  by offering assistance in the securing of funding, by bringing in volunteers, and by supplying donated materials.

Sometimes there is an abandoned home or a homeowner that doesn't want to participate.

Then Block by Block will take that house on itself and make the repairs.

It will sell the home at before flood values and the profits are put back into the program to help spur the effort forward.

In 2009 eight blocks were rebuilt.

In 2010 the goal is to complete sixteen blocks.

I turned a corner yesterday while driving through this neighborhood and came upon one of these block projects.

 

I talked briefly with a couple of the volunteers. One was from San Francisco and another from the Portland area.

This woman was from southern Florida. 

 

 

It was truly inspiring to see the enthusiasm, the energy and the sense of community here.

 

 

To watch as these dedicated individuals working as a unit to take a block like this one

 

and this

  

and bring it back to something like this.

   

House by house and block by block. 

It is miraculous what we can do together.

The volunteers have come from every state, from every religious denomination, from all age groups and from colleges far and wide.

Cedar Rapids can never thank them enough.

Someday we will be whole again 

and it will be our turn

to offer a helping hand.

We will be ready to give back.

 
 

XOXO,

P 
 
 
 
 
 image of tee shirt with quote taken from St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church website

images of TCR off of TCR website
 

  

 
 

 
 

 

Helping to Make A Difference: Operation Photo Rescue

I began blogging a little over a year ago and I am so flattered by all of the positive feedback I have received but it was a response from Operation Photo Rescue that was the most fulfilling. Someone from that organization saw my June post regarding our flood recovery here in Iowa one year after the flood and contacted me for more information and asked to tag my blog on their homepage. OPR is a volunteer organization that goes into communities that have suffered devastating natural disasters and helps to restore photographs damaged by storms, floods, or fires. They will be coming to Cedar Rapids in October of this year and will be working closely with the African American Museum and individual families. A big shout out to this organization and to all of the people that volunteer their time and money to make it a success. All of Cedar Rapids says thank you.

Cedar Rapids Iowa, The News Trucks Have Left But We're Still Here

Fact:  The 2008 Eastern Iowa flood ranks only behind Katrina and 9-11 as one of the most expensive U.S. national disasters.

Fact: On June 13th 2008 the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids Iowa crested at 31.12 feet almost 20 feet above flood stage and 11 feet above the record level set in 1993.

Fact: The waters covered over ten square miles of the city - far beyond the 100 and 500 year flood plains.

Fact: 5390 homes were damaged or destroyed. In the first weeks after the flood 25% of the homes in Cedar Rapids were uninhabitable. 

Fact:  1,049 businesses were impacted.

Fact:  310 city facilities were damaged including Police Headquarters, the Central Fire Department, and the Central Library.

Fact:  21 government buildings were flooded including the County Court House, Federal Court House, and the Linn County Jail which were all forced to relocate.

Fact: 45 of the city's 46 clean water wells were compromised and non-functioning.

Fact: Current estimates put flood damage at ten billion dollars for the state of Iowa and six billion of that is in Cedar Rapids.

Fact:  580 Million dollars is what Cedar Rapids has been designated so far for flood recovery. After one year 81 million dollars has been received. 

It was a year ago this week that the flood waters inundated our city. This is the place I have called home for most of my life and I don't remember it ever flooding while I was growing up. While Cedar Rapids like much of the midwest experienced 100 year flood levels in 1993 it was nothing like what happened here last year - just fifteen years later. This event has changed me and the way I look at things. In the past I  watched stories about floods in other parts of the world and was saddened to see  all of the destruction but then I'd move on and it was all quickly forgotten.

 It wasn't until last year that I realized that it is after the water recedes and the news vans pull away that the real story of dismay, hope, fatigue, frustration, and perseverance begins. I learned that what they say is true, looking at it on television doesn't begin to tell the story. It is really so much worse in real life. 

For one thing, the amount of debris left behind was unimaginable. This was not clean rain water. This water was infused with nitrates from farms up north and raw sewage. This was a river raging through our homes and businesses and stores at a rate 34 times faster than its normal flow. That kind of force would move buildings off of their foundations.

A side street in the downtown area in July 2008 a month after the water receded.

I drove around and took pictures in various places through out the city one month after the flood. The devastation was far reaching, overwhelming and sobering. It was immediately apparent that we would not recover from this quickly. It truly would be years and even then it would be a new normal. Someday I hope it will be better than before but I realize that home will never be the same. That is something that you just don't get unless you have lived this. It is one thing to see pictures of a flooded city on television or in a magazine or even on a blog, but when it strikes the places that you are familiar with, the coffee shop where you went on Saturday morning, the library you took your kids to, the theater where you first saw The Rocky Horror Picture Show, then it hits you on an emotional level. Still, it  often seems like this just couldn't be real and couldn't have happened here. We laugh and say nothing happens here, but in 2008 it did and now we are a city trying to rebuild and recover.

I was fortunate. Our house is quite a ways from the river and in a part of the city that was visually untouched. When people talk about the floods here they often  refer to it as "a tale of two cities". From where we live everything appears the same. Our street is not lined with mounds of debris and the walls of the houses are not marked with a water line of sludge left by the muddy Cedar River. From where I live It is sometimes possible to forget that to the west this city is in crisis mode. This week, on the one year anniversary of the flood, I decided to head out again to document the progress and struggles of a city, my city, rebuilding.

I have read that 85% of the flooded out businesses in the downtown have now reopened but as I walked through this area I found that hard to believe. I had to think that most of those businesses that have returned must be on the upper floors because I still saw block after block of boarded up windows on the ground floor.

Still, there are signs of life. Most of these are in the form of delis and coffee shops that cater to the business lunch crowd but there are also some restaurants and bars returning to draw in nightlife.

Initially there were rumors that Smulekoff's, a downtown furniture store would not be returning after it took on eight to ten feet of water but come back it did. They miraculously reopened the upper floors of the store in November only five months after the flood. They are still working on refurbishing the ground floor. This is what it looked like in the middle of June 2008. The flood water came up to right under this awning. When the water pulled back it took much of the merchandise with it. I remember watching the news cast and seeing sofas floating down Third Avenue. It was surreal. Before this flood I never really thought about what everything looks like when the water finally goes down. Now I know and it isn't pretty.

This picture was taken looking in where one of the large windows had been. The water was flowing so fast that the windows were no match for it and they were all blown out.

But by June 2009 we had a success story. Not whole yet, but on its way.

The 85,000 square foot central branch of the Cedar Rapids Public Library was also located downtown. This building was decimated and will probably never reopen as a library. FEMA is still determining the structural integrity of the building. Inside, the entire first floor collection of almost 200,000 items was lost to the water. This is the single largest library disaster in U.S. history. The children's materials from the second floor, though, were able to be saved. A temporary library with a collection of 5,000 books and tapes opened this month in the Armstrong Center. Another small step forward.

The library as it looked at the crest of the flood. It is the building to the right with a flat roof and the triangular piece on top.

Views of the inside a few days after the crest. I also learned the water can take a long time to go back down.

The library this week. June 2009

A year later they are still trying to mitigate moisture from the building. Sad to see it looking so neglected and overgrown. The inside has been gutted back to the concrete.

This picture was put up on the internet for use by the library. I can't explain the flowers.

After touring the downtown area I went over to Czech Village another area of Cedar Rapids that was pummeled with flood waters.

The Sykora Bakery has reopened but many other businesses here have relocated, closed or are still waiting for loans or FEMA funding.

I thought this picture told a story. The Czech part of town has a long and vibrant history and the people that live here are very proud of their heritage and their village. I think it is great that they are planting flowers while many places still don't even have plumbing restored.

The pace of recovery for businesses has been quicker than for non-profits and residential properties. 

The Czech and Slovak Museum, seen below, had water  so high that it reached the bottom of the  large crystal chandelier hanging in the central hall. The building will never house any of the museum artifacts again. Instead this building will hopefully be used as an educational and cultural center and a new museum will be built when the funds are available.

 The clean up begins. July 2008

June 2009. Still closed and operating out of a small store front at Lindale Mall.

The most horrific part of a flood is the toll it takes on the people. Well over 5000 homes in Cedar Rapids alone were impacted by this epic flood. Even the record setting flood of 1993 didn't come anywhere near the devastation of the insidious  waters of 2008. Not only did the river blow past the 100 year flood plain but it also climbed far beyond the 500 year flood plain into areas that had never seen water before.

 As a result of that fact, most of the homes in the 500 year flood plain did not have flood insurance. It was not required because their chances of having a flood EVER were .2%. ( not 2%, point .2%) That is where this story becomes such a tragedy. I read about tornadoes, and earthquakes and fires and yes, the impact on the people that live through them is heart-wrenching. What I never gave much thought to before, though, is that when it comes to property loss, most of the people that suffer those catastrophes have insurance. Most of the people here did not.

 Many have simply walked away, abandoning their homes. There are probably 1000 deserted homes in Cedar Rapids. For a city this size, that is a significant number.

Many are waiting for word from the city as to where the levies, flood walls and green space will be. Some families are waiting for inspectors to give them the go ahead to begin rebuilding. They are in construction and legal limbo. Even while their homes are uninhabitable, they must continue to pay taxes on their properties at their pre flood values. 

Some are waiting for buyouts or financial aid. Sadly, the most FEMA will reward to a homeowner is $28,000 and the average payout is closer to $4,000. That will not begin to cover what these people have lost. The down economy has made these people victims yet again. Because of  the current credit crisis bank loans are nearly impossible to come by. Without that money their lives are put on hold. The frustration is tangible.

Many of those who have begun to rebuild and have been able to get a loan have virtually doubled their debt and are in essence paying two mortgages. Still, some have taken on that risk and have worked feverishly to get back into their homes.

Last year when I took pictures I stayed away from the residential areas. It seemed okay to photograph our public buildings. They were places I had frequented. I had a history there. I  belonged. The neighborhoods were different. I felt like an interloper. Now, a year later it all seems different. I believe  there is a story to be told here. Iowans are proud people and they are reluctant to ask for help but some days it seems like the media and the government have forgotten that we are still here, still struggling, and still hurting. It has been the church groups and non-profits that have come to our aid. So far there are estimates of over 10,000 volunteers that have donated over 167,000 volunteer hours. We couldn't do this without them and for that we say thank you. Just this week my husband was flying home from Florida and he sat with a woman on the plane that was with Habitat for Humanity. She and 500 women like her were coming to Cedar Rapids during the week of the one year anniversary of the flood to help rebuild our community. When I hear things like that it makes me more than a bit emotional. In a world where we only seem to hear bad news, I am sometimes taken back by the goodness in people. Like the local retired electricians that have donated their time and the material to help homeowners rewire their homes free if charge.  And I am so amazed and inspired by the strength and tenacity of the people here that call Cedar Rapids home. They make me  proud to say I am from Iowa. 

We will survive this. It's who we are and what we do. 

If you found this the least bit interesting then please pass it on. We are a small city in a fly over state competing for limited dollars during a tough recession. It would be easy to forget or dismiss us but I hope you won't because there is still so much work to be done.