I’ll be off work from May 30 through June 7, and I don’t expect to be blogging.
Archive for May, 2009
Off for a week
Posted in Uncategorized on May 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Hot Property #7: Commonwealth Apartments
Posted in Public Safety, tagged Cedar Rapids, Public Safety, CRPD, Hot Properties, Hot 100, properties, Commonwealth Apartments on May 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The Commonwealth Apartment at 1400 Second Ave. SE rank seventh among residential properties that police were called to most often in 2008.
Police were called there 93 times. Considering the seven-story brick building has 110 apartments in it, that’s not an astonishing number of police calls. Rent (which is by the week) at the place is [...]
2008: Sandbaggers take initiative
Posted in Flood, tagged Cedar Rapids, Edgewood Road, Flood of 2008, Gazette, Mercy Medical Center, water supply on May 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
More memories from the flood:
My mother and I, along with some friends responded to the call. We initially head to Edgewood Road, to assist with the well, but were turned away. We were told to go to Mercy Hospital and got there as soon as we could. We parked on the [...]
2008: Close shave for SanDee Skelton
Posted in Flood, tagged Cedar Rapids, Flood of 2008, floodwater, levee, SanDee Skelton, The Gazette, Time Check on May 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
6 a.m. Thurs., June 12 —- SanDee Skelton woke up at her daughter’s home, and drove to her house to gather a few more things before the water closed in.
“When I got to a block from my house, there was like an inch of water on the street,” Skelton said. But the water was rising [...]
2008: The Sunday after, strike teams in Time Check
Posted in Flood, tagged Adam Belz, Cedar Rapids, Flood of 2008, Gazette, Time Check on May 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
7 a.m., Sun., June 15 —- The Iowa River crested at 31.5 feet in Iowa City that day, and UI President Sally Mason announced the Hancher Auditorium was likely flooded up to the concert stage.
Strike teams assembled in Cedar Rapids, where the water was already back down to 25 feet, to go through the flooded [...]
2008: I Am Legend on Sixth Street
Posted in Flood, tagged Cedar Rapids, Flood, Flood of 2008, Gazette, Iowa on May 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’ll be posting people’s memories of the flood over the next couple weeks. If you remember specific scenes or feelings from the flood, e-mail me: adam.belz@gazcomm.com
Memories of that Thursday are somewhat sketchy. In my mind, all 3 days really blend together. Memories of the news coverage, sights of the orange cones that kept moving out [...]
2008: the woman in the bus
Posted in Flood, tagged Cedar Rapids, Flood 2008, Iowa, Iowa City on May 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The city bus idled just off First Avenue West, 10 blocks from the Cedar River, less than a block from the edge of the water.
Mary Lou Conlan was the lone passenger. She sat with her hands folded. Sunlight streamed into the dark bus through the window behind her and the air conditioner hummed as voices [...]
Looking back at June 2008: the scene at Mercy
Posted in Flood, tagged Flood 2008, Flood anniversary, Mercy Medical Center, volunteers, water system on May 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The one-year anniversary of the flood is about three weeks away, and I’m working on a story that will give a blow-by-blow account of some of the key events of the flood. One of those is the evacuation of Mercy Medical Center. Hopefully I’ll post a few more of these before I have to turn [...]
Hot Property #6, 300 31st St. NE
Posted in Public Safety, tagged apartments, Cedar Rapids, crime, CRPD, Hot Properties, Iowa, Landlords, renters, tenants, The Gazette on May 15, 2009 | 4 Comments »
And we’re back! Back on the tail of Cedar Rapids landlords who own properties that can’t stop attracting the police. Sorry for the delay. We’ve still got a map, and we’re up to property number six.
It’s the Flagstone Apartments at 300 31st St. NE.
Police were called there 99 times in 2008. There are 16 apartments [...]
