May 21, 2024 | A Note From Clint
Our Neighborhood Check-Up
If we look at neighborhoods as living, breathing, complex and interrelated organisms, then we also should regularly check in on their health.
By Clint Twedt-Ball, Founder & Executive Director
From Spring 2024 Newsletter
The older I get the more I realize the value of regular health check-ups. From routinely scheduled physicals, to the fun of colonoscopies, eye exams, blood tests and more, these check-ups help make me aware of any trouble on the horizon. Ideally, they also make me feel good about the progress I’ve made in keeping myself healthy.
If we look at neighborhoods as living, breathing, complex and interrelated organisms, then we also should regularly check in on their health. At Matthew 25, our focus is on growing strong and healthy neighborhoods and we need to regularly see which direction the places where we’re working are headed.
So, I’m hoping you’ll take some time to step back and assess things with me. In 2019, we started working on our Healthy Neighborhoods Campaign. The goal was to raise $1 million to create a nonprofit grocery store, rehab houses and build new homes in the Time Check area of NW Cedar Rapids. A lot has happened since then and it feels like it’s time for a neighborhood check-up.
You may recall that between Covid and the derecho of 2020, construction pricing escalated dramatically. As we began talking to contractors, we realized we needed to increase our goal to $1.4 million. At times, like after the roof blew off our main building during the derecho, the words of people talking about how Matthew 25 always does what we say we will do, rang in our ears and we wondered whether we could pull this off.
Five years later, I’m kind of astounded at what the Matthew 25 team has done. In April of 2022, we opened one of the first nonprofit grocery stores in the state. The second it opened, with fresh food as the superstar you see when you walk in the door, we effectively removed a food desert from the map. Don’t forget this had also been the highest crime corner in the neighborhood, so we immediately transformed the surrounding area.
Then, we got to work on housing. We threw in with homeowners in the area the last four years to work on more than forty homes. We also bought several houses, some of which hadn’t had people living in them for years, fixed them up and created eleven units of high quality, affordable rental housing.
On top of that, we are helping to bring new housing into the neighborhood. One of our partner for-profit developers built a beautiful, contemporary, four apartment row house. They also rehabbed a commercial building and helped locate Mirrorbox Theatre along Ellis Blvd.
As I write this, Matthew 25 has just laid the concrete footings for three new, healthy homes. These homes will be unlike anything else in Cedar Rapids. They will be small-scale, attractive houses with the latest in energy efficiency and contemporary design. Their rooftop solar will provide all the energy needed to run the homes.
So, five years later, as we check in on the neighborhood, here is what we see: a new grocery store, more than fifty homes that have been invested in, including five brand new homes with another three on the way. Together, the $1.4 million raised has already leveraged or inspired more than $3 million of investment in the neighborhood.
There are still vacant lots. Flood protection is desperately needed. Some homes remain vacant and need to be redeveloped. But, overall, the check up is good. We’re making progress towards a healthier Time Check with investments in food, housing, education and community connectedness taking hold. We couldn’t have passed this check up without all of you supporting the work!