RAGBRAI will stop overnight in Iowa City this summer for the first time in four decades. Though exciting news for the city, officials also recently announced that construction on the beloved Pedestrian Mall will begin April 30 and will overlap with the riders’ arrival. Allowing construction to take place on one of Iowa City’s highlight features during the event is a terrible mistake.
RAGBRAI was started by two Des Moines Register writers in 1973 and is a seven-day-long cycle across the state, its route length averaging at roughly 468 miles. According to the RAGBRAI website, it is the “oldest, largest, and longest recreational bicycle touring event in the world,” attracting riders from all 50 states and numerous foreign countries.
The ride is a unique experience; you won’t find anything like it elsewhere. It gives the state a chance to showcase its beautiful features and hidden gems. Among the features and hidden gems to be showcased during this year’s RAGBRAI is Iowa City.
People who might never step foot in Iowa City if not for the ride will see the city for the first time. Excluding the university’s unique qualities, the Ped Mall is one of Iowa City’s defining features — and these newcomers’ first view of it will be masked by demolition.
City officials agree that the timing is not ideal, the Iowa City Press-Citizen has reported, but they maintain that access to businesses and the heart of the city will be preserved and open throughout the project. The appearance of looming construction itself, however, might be enough to deter visitors.
In the age of Instagram, aesthetics mean a lot to people. In a presentation for the Northern New England APA Conference in Brunswick, Maine, Urban Land Institute planning and land-use analyst Ed McMahon noted that “young adults — Gen Y — as well as baby boomers, singles, and others want to walk more, drive less, and live in the vibrant core of their community.”
All of these qualities are emphasized by the Ped Mall. Although it’s certainly true that it needs to have work done, choosing to undertake construction when thousands of new visitors will be seeing the city for the first time is a poor decision.
RELATED: Ped Mall updates soon to come
Many of the riders in RAGBRAI could look at Iowa City as a potential future home, whether students looking to enroll at the university, young couples looking to start a family, or older people looking to retire. Iowa City has an innovative, vibrant core, and to portray it incompletely to the RAGBRAI riders, with machinery, fences, and torn up bricks, would be doing one of its greatest selling points a huge injustice.