Wednesday, May 06, 2009

An essay on the Bluffs

So I’ve gone on a handful of walks in the Bluffs the month I’ve been back. One of the things I learned to love in Chicago was taking walks. Epic walks. The types of walks that induce strange looks from people when you tell them exactly where you went.

“You walked all the way from your dad’s place to the library? Jeysus,” people say in bemusement, even though the walk took all of about 25 minutes.

One of the most frustrating things about going for walks back here is that whenever I’m out on a busy street I’m bound to have a friend pass me in their car, pull up to the curb, roll down their windows and scream at me.

“Hey Schnick! Your car break down, man!? You need a ride!?” They’d yell, each showing genuine concern about my well being.

“Nah, man. Just out being pipedal,” I’d reply sarcastically.

All the while stacks of backed up cars are honking in annoyance behind them. The hilarious thing is that most times I’m out on these walks I’m listening to my ipod looking to the ground and can’t hear/see people when they do this. I can only imagine how confusing it is for the poor people in the cars behind them.

“Hey, honey. Look! The guy ahead of us is screaming at that poor fella out walking around for no reason!” The husband would say.

“Oh, dear. I hope they don’t get in a fight,” the wife would reply with fright.


The first of these aforementioned walks, I have to say, was pretty depressing. I started at my dad’s place on 26th and I, made my way past Thomas Jefferson High School, then on to 5th Ave. and took it all the way up to the library. Native Council Bluffians know this isn’t necessarily the nicest stretch of real estate in town.

It’s actually downright miserable.

A vast majority of the homes on this route were as dilapidated, if not much more so, than they were when I was growing up. And I remember them being pretty shitty back then.

Some looked unlivable, yet judging by all the porch dwellers, obviously had inhabitants. Sadly, many even had toys and children’s bikes strewn about the yard, leading me to believe there were packs of kids in many of these shanties as well.

Fifth Avenue may be one of the nastiest streets in all of Southwest Iowa. It’s cracked concrete sidewalks reek of hopelessness. Beat up cars that haven’t ran in years rest in backyards and tattered driveways. Front porches are used as closets for throwaway furniture. A boarded up Kum & Go has been tagged liberally with graffiti. If the city’s leaders had any balls amongst them, they’d raze block-long stretches of it.

Once I got to the library things got a little better. The new fountain the city put in at Bayliss Park was truly a great addition, no matter the fact that they spent probably more than was necessary. Same goes with the library. I remember all the groans that thing induced from people in the community when it was proposed, but in my opinion, it’s the best thing the city’s built since I’ve been born (even counting the casinos). It’s much cleaner and more relaxing than any of the ones I’ve been to in Omaha. Kudos to the city for getting that thing made (while thankfully preserving the old one as well).

On the walk back to my dad’s I became more contemplative. Why was my hometown such a dump? And why is it that so few people cared? It seemed to me the main thing that was lacking (other than higher education and household incomes, obviously) was simply taking pride in what you owned. It was obvious that few people seemed to care about maintaining the quality of their properties — and in a larger sense their community.

You don’t have to have to be rich to keep a decently manicured lawn. Or a porch that isn’t cluttered with trash. Or to get rid of the beat up old Chevy in your driveway. (This goes for landlords as well, because I know many of these properties are rentals.)

Many of the things that make Council Bluffs dirty in so many places could be fairly easily remedied. A fresh coat of paint on a house here. Some new grass in a yard there. Building quality affordable homes on the properties where previous ones have been condemned or torn down. Not exactly a massive undertaking.


What really kills Council Bluffs from a perception standpoint is that the west end is usually the only part of town people from Omaha — and casino going tourists — see. Especially now with the pedestrian bridge. This is certainly where all the Counciltucky jokes came from. Of course CB looks like a shithole to them. All they see are the gas stations, laundromats and used car dealerships that litter West Broadway.

Omahans are universally baffled when I take them down streets like Oakland and Glen Avenue, or past the Dodge House.

“This is so nice,” they’d all say in amazement as we’d drive past some of the stately Victorian homes on the East End. “I never knew parts of Council Bluffs looked like this!”

“Did you really think we all grew up in fucking trailer parks, asshole?!” I’d always want to reply.

Instead I’d say I told them so. That Council Bluffs has spots that are as nice as anything you’ll find in the Dundee, Field Club and Country Club neighborhoods of Omaha.


The second walk I went on was in my old neighborhood where my mom and step dad live off Oakland Avenue. In my humble opinion, Oakland is the nicest street in all of the Bluffs. Just about every home on it is nearly a century old and has been well maintained in that hundred years. Walking down Oakland and up Sherman (the street I grew up on) was like taking a walk back in time. So little of the place has changed over the years, and so much of it is still as tranquil, cozy and tight-knitted as it was when I was a child. My mom and step dad know seemingly everybody in the neighborhood. Most of the families that were there when I was a kid still own the same homes. It’s the type of place that would have made Reagan proud.

It was on this walk that I’d realized just how classic my childhood was. I walked four blocks to school every day in elementary. The neighborhood kids made a football field and baseball diamond out of an empty lot next to the cemetery on the top of the hill. Even back then, pretty much all the families knew each other, and had at least one child near my age. And there were numerous winding old alleys to discover and patches of woods to explore.

So many of my aunts and uncles live in the outlying suburban areas of CB these days and I can’t help but feel their kids are going to miss out on some of the best things that I experienced as a kid. Council Bluff’s hilly landscape provided us with seemingly endless acres of raw forest to explore. But pretty much all of the woods in the outlying areas of town have been ripped up for new planned communities.

Even many of the patches of woods in the city itself have been ripped bare for new housing developments as well. Two prime examples being the new homes behind Park Wild Apartments on Oak Park Road — which used to be rife with awesome mountain biking paths — and the new homes off Timbercrest.

Council Bluffs, when my generation was growing up, used to be a playground for your imagination. I remember all the quests my friends and I would have in the woods behind the Black Angel and the cliffs off Oakland Ave. The ridge on the east side of Madison Ave. could have been the Appalachians for all I knew. I’d spend entire days up there when I was staying at my grandma Yochem’s.

Before people started moving out to places like Forest Glen, we could pretty much ride our bikes to any of our friends’ house, or any local ball diamond for a sandlot game. These days I’m not sure that’s possible (even if they’re overprotective parents would let them). Do kids even play sandlot games anymore, or are they so involved with multiple organized teams they don’t have the time? (That’s another blog entry).

ANYWAY, the old neighborhood is still very much unique. Having truly soaked it up for the first time in years, it makes sense that I was so enchanted with the vintage neighborhoods of Chicago. I grew up in one that was pretty vintage itself.


The last, most recent walk, was from the library up Fifth Ave. (which actually gets nice when you head uphill, sort of a universal truth in CB; everything gets nicer when you head up a hill). And then to old Kirn Field.

That park is such a hidden gem. I remember when I was really young living nearby on Glen Ave. and being mystified by the cheering of crowds that seemed to emanate from the hill across the street from our house.

“Where is that sound coming from? Where are all those people at?” I’d wonder while playing in the front yard. Come fourth or fifth grade, when we’d have our annual city-wide track and field day up there, I realized there was actually a football field and track on top of that hill. (I may have been imaginative when I was young, but not necessarily bright).

Also, I’d somehow never realized, despite being somebody who is full of useless Council Bluffs historical knowledge, that there used to be a stately brick high school perched atop that hill until the mid 1930s. You’d think the fact that the street that led up to it was called High School Avenue would have been a giveaway, but again, I wasn’t the brightest.

The views from that old field, which is now a city park open to the public, are fantastic. You can see the old homes that roll up Park Ave. to Fairmount Park, the old brick water pump station at the end of Glen Ave. and the distant Omaha skyline. Being on it feels like you’ve discovered some lost hilltop relic that’s gone unnoticed by humans for decades. It’s hands-down the most scenic overlook in all of the metro area, and I suggest anybody that’s never been there to check it out this summer.

It’d be pretty sweet if that old school were still there, too. Of course, Council Bluff fittingly tore it down like they’ve done just about every one of it’s architecturally significant structures. (See Beno’s, the Strand theater, the Ogden Hotel and just about everything they ripped up to build the Midlands Mall).

After that, the property served as the athletic field for Kirn Junior High, which was right down the street. That school isn’t there anymore, either, as it burned down in the 70s. However, the old gym across that was across the street from it is still there, and it’s one of my favorite buildings in all of CB. I remember how much I loved practicing there with my YMCA league team back in junior high. It felt like we were in Hoosiers, except instead of Gene Hackman, we had Mr. Kenny, our paunchy, bespectacled junior high math teacher as a coach.

I hope that if anybody ever attempts to tear that building down, thousands march on City Hall with torches and pitchforks. I’ll lead the damn way, even if I don’t live here anymore.


Basically, the conclusion I’d come to on all these walks, was that while parts of my hometown were surely hideous, there are equally as many that are unique, historical, and worthy of taking a leisurely stroll through as anything you’ll find in Southwest Iowa or Southeastern Nebraska.

The place has potential. Especially on the west end along Broadway and by the pedestrian bridge. I mean, how the hell is it that the first businesses you see when you come over to Council Bluffs from Omaha is a gaudily painted cash loan for car titles shop and a laundromat? Nothing says “Welcome To Historical Council Bluffs” like those two eye sores.

Is it too hard to get a decent sit-down restaurant there instead of another Bucky’s gas station or Sonic? Even if it’s just a Bennigan’s or a Chili’s. As it is now, all that Omahans come to Council Bluffs for are the casinos, but do we really want those corporate monoliths as our primary destination?

Also, why the hell hasn’t somebody opened up a bar right on the far west end of Broadway to capitalize on the last call rush yet? Hell, all you got to do is name the place Last Call. You’d make a killing.

And don’t even get me started on Playland Park area by the new pedestrian bridge. Why the city hasn’t done a single thing with that property since the bridge’s inception makes no sense to me, or really anybody else I talk to. As it is now, all that thing does is give Council Bluffians easier access to downtown Omaha. Definitely not the other way around. I doubt many Omahans are setting aside evenings to walk over that bridge and do some shopping and sightseeing in Bluffs. They couldn’t even if they wanted to. The only thing down there is a run-down park that hardly anybody’s used in years.

However, just across the river in Omaha there’s high-rise condos, the headquarters of a nationally-recognized corporation, restaurants, shopping and, shortly, a baseball diamond.

I’ve heard Council Bluffs is simply waiting for the right offer, but what’s taken them so long? The project got the green light back in 2006.

I will give Council Bluffs credit for getting some rehab work in the Haymarket Square district along Main Street and the stretch of Broadway past North 1st St.

They’ve done a nice job putting some artwork along Main Street and fixing up many of those old storefront buildings, some of which are the oldest in town. Namely the Primmer Law building. I worked in the bike shop that was there for two years and today that building is practically unrecognizable.

The bar district on Broadway has grown exponentially since I was in college. There’s now seven bars in a two block stretch, making it where one can actually take a cab there, hit four or five decent bars, then catch a cab back home instead of having to drive all over town to find some action. Ten years ago, that strip had I think three bars, only two of which I ever really hung out at (Barley’s and Bada Bing).

If they were to put a little more back into the area surrounding the library and Bayliss Park — perhaps get a couple nice locally-run restaurant in there and get rid of and/or clean up Charlie’s Boston Boozers and the Quarthouse — the place could be a bonafide tourist attraction. You could start the day off with a trip to the Dodge House or the Union Pacific Museum, then grab a bite to eat and maybe a cocktail, and finish the night off with a walk around Bayliss Park. Sounds to me like a nice alternative to the Old Market.


Sadly, the city seems primarily concerned with developing the outskirts of town with big box stores and restaurant chains. (C.B. may not be getting the cue from downtown Omaha’s development, but it sure as hell is with the urban sprawl of West Omaha).

As much as I think it’s great that we’ve got a Hooters, a Ruby Tuesday’s, and a Buffalo Wild Wing’s (sarcasm), how great would it be if we could get something like another Pizza King or an Upstream on Main street, or a classy cocktail lounge or coffee shop on West Broadway to go with all the sports bars?

If the city keeps building more and more business farther and farther out of town (see JC Penney, Target, etc.) then we’ll wake up one day and realize that we’ve got nothing left of substance actually in town. A sad prognosis for a town with a historic city center that has a lot of potential.