Dear readers, It is with no small amount of regret that I announce that this will be the last ever Brock About Town column. I’ll be leaving Iowa City soon, and while I would love to keep this column running until my editors wise up and stop accepting my emails, I can’t very well be […]
Eastern Iowa Community/News
Posted inEastern Iowa
Eastern Iowa Give Guide 2022
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”202288″ img_size=”full” add_caption=”yes”][vc_column_text]Supporting community is a shared effort. Luckily, there are many different ways to plug in! You might volunteer your time: building homes, serving food, helping animals, cleaning public spaces. Maybe you’re able to commit to shopping locally and directly supporting your town’s economy. Or perhaps you choose to support causes you believe […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Havenpark tenants fight predatory rent increases: ‘Our piece of the American Dream needs to be protected’
Lory Van Allen moved into Modern Manor, a manufactured home park, because it was once an affordable place to live. Before Havenpark Communities bought her neighborhood earlier this year, her rent was $340, a sizable portion of her fixed income. In one year, her rent has increased 20 percent, going up $35 last December, and […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Halloween is over — time to compost your jack-o’-lantern
Stingy Jack tried to cheat the devil and was condemned to walk the earth forever, an ember from Hell burning in his lantern to light his way, or so an old Irish story goes. As part of his punishment, “that forsaken craytur” could find no shelter or place to rest “until the day of judgment.” […]
Posted inCommunity/News
CAMBUS, the University of Iowa’s free transit service, celebrates 50 years on campus
CAMBUS began as six borrowed school buses, carting University of Iowa students east to west and back again across the Iowa River. Fifty years later, CAMBUS has 34 transit buses that give 3.5 million rides a year. And it’s still student-operated and fare free. “CAMBUS has become viewed as an essential service for the university, […]
Posted inEastern Iowa
Street closures for the University of Iowa’s Homecoming Parade start Friday afternoon
“No Parking” signs will start going up downtown at noon on Friday, as Iowa City gets ready for the University of Iowa’s Homecoming Parade. Street closures for the event will begin at 4 p.m. The city crews will block off the streets in three stages. 4 p.m. street closures: • Van Buren Street, between Jefferson […]
Posted inEastern Iowa Community/News
Noreen Bush, ‘an incredible leader’ in the Cedar Rapids Community School District, dies at age 51
Noreen Bush, superintendent of the Cedar Rapids Community School District, died on Sunday. She was 51 years old. Bush was on medical leave and had submitted her resignation to the CRCSD Board of Directors last month, as her health declined due to the cancer she was first diagnosed with two and a half years ago. […]
Posted inElection Coverage
Early voting begins — what you need and where to go in Johnson and Linn County
Early voting in the Nov. 8 general election began on Wednesday with auditors’ offices mailing out absentee ballots requested by voters and opening their doors for early in-person voting. Early in-person voting will run through Monday, Nov. 7, the day before Election Day, and all absentee ballots must be received in the auditor’s office by […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa City switches to new mobile parking app
Iowa City will switch its mobile parking app from Passport Parking to ParkMobile throughout October. Drivers can still use Passport until the block or parking ramp transitions to ParkMobile. The new meters will bear the ParkMobile’s green logo. After downloading the ParkMobile app, users are prompted to create an account. The nearest available zones will […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Cedar Rapids is looking for volunteers to help senior citizens keep their sidewalks shoveled this winter
As the city gets ready for the winter, Cedar Rapids is looking for volunteers for the Snow Buddies program it launched last year. The program pairs senior citizens with volunteers willing to shovel their sidewalks, and “is intended to benefit residents who are not physically able to remove snow and do not have other resources […]
Posted inCommunity/News
The Black Angel and Ana Mendieta
“I have been carrying on a dialogue between the landscape and the female body (based on my own silhouette). I believe this has been a direct result of my having been torn from my homeland (Cuba) during my adolescence. I am overwhelmed by the feeling of having been cast from the womb (nature). My art […]
Posted inEastern Iowa
Brock About Town: Kidspo
I don’t talk about kids very often in this column, because I don’t have any and I don’t know anybody who has any and I have so little maternal instinct that when I was in high school and our next-door neighbors asked me to babysit for them, my dad laughed, as if they had asked […]
