Bill Klaproth (Host): This is Our CR Podcast. I'm Bill Klaproth. And with me is Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell as we talk about the 2026 State of the City of Cedar Rapids. We're also going to dive into her recent address, the progress underway, and what's ahead for our community. Mayor O'Donnell, welcome.

Tiffany O'Donnell: Thank you, Bill. My pleasure.

Host: It is so great to have you here and an honor to talk with you. So, thank you so much again. I know you held your State of the City address on May 27th. For anyone that wasn't able to catch it, can you walk us through your message to the audience this year, and what is the State of the City?

Tiffany O'Donnell: Yes. Well, thank you for that kind introduction. And in case you missed the address, it is always available on our city's website too, just FYI. What an exciting time to live in Cedar Rapids.

The theme of our address this year was Built For The Long Run. And it was a bit of play of a play on words based on our very first-ever Cedar Rapids Marathon, a Boston Marathon qualifier. So many comparisons to being ready to run a marathon, the grit and resilience it takes, the planning. A lot of parallels between marathon runners and the city and where we are. Like a marathon, our progress didn't happen overnight. It really reflects years of planning, investment, partnership. And I think if you know anything about our history, grit and resilience. So, to have so many opportunities in front of us right now, I quoted my mom who said, you know, "It's tempting to say you're lucky, but we know that luck is when opportunity meets preparation." And when all of these opportunities have come our way in the last four and five years, Cedar Rapids has been able to say yes because of the planning and preparation that's gone into it to getting us ready.

Host: I love that. Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. That is fantastic. So, all the preparation and the hard work that you've done, when the opportunity is there, that's when great things happen. So, what a great message, and thank you for sharing that. Can you tell us what developments or successes feel like they best represent where the city is headed right now?

Tiffany O'Donnell: You know, I think one of the metrics that gives a pretty clear indication is when you look at the scale of private investment in our community. In 2015, so we're talking 10, 11 years ago, incentive-supported projects were about $110 million in investment.

In 2025, we saw nearly $897 million, nearly a billion dollars in incentive-supported capital investment. It's pretty staggering. And then, you look at permit valuation, which gives you another indication of who's coming here and whether they're building for the first time, whether they're expanding and improving. In the early 2000s, our annual permit valuation was somewhere between $130 and $200 million. In FY '26, $4.6 billion in permit valuation, which again this is data that shows us we are moving in an incredible direction. And none of it would be possible if we weren't able to have that kind of growth. So when we talk water, when we talk wastewater, when we talk roads and streets, just basic infrastructure, we had to have a lot of things in place in order to be able to say yes to those, whether they're new projects or, I'm most proud of, expansion projects of companies who are already here.

Host: And that data of investment, that's kind of the bellwether of a healthy, growing, vibrant city. Would that be correct?

Tiffany O'Donnell: Absolutely. You know, if you're not growing as a city, you're dying. And unfortunately, in our state, you don't have to look very far to see, so many of our smaller towns and communities around us really struggling right now. And as the second-largest city in the state, Cedar Rapids takes that role as an economic driver and an engine very seriously. Of course, we want those businesses to grow and expand and land in Cedar Rapids. And we want people to find housing and schools and amenities in Cedar Rapids and around us. So, we look at our role as pivotal, not just for our city, but our region. So, our growth, we really hope, is everyone's growth around us.

Host: Yeah, that's a good way to put it. And our residents should absolutely be proud of all of the private investment pouring into the city, and great job on that. So with all of that investment and things going on, what opportunities are you most excited about as Cedar Rapids continues to grow and evolve?

Tiffany O'Donnell: Yeah. Well, I think, for me personally, and the council is aligned on this as well, our river and riverfront greenway are a huge priority to us. Understanding that flood protection, when all is said and done, Bill, we'll have spent a billion dollars to protect our city from another, God forbid, flood like we had in 2008. But we weren't content to just wall off our city. We've taken all of that rehabilitation and rebuilding and flood protection mitigation and doubled it as an amenity.

So for example, when you see 100 miles of bike trails around our city center, most of it's from flood protection. It's trails built on berms and trails on land that we can't build on because it's in a floodplain.

When you look at art next to the amphitheater, which is also, by the way, a flood mitigation project, if you look inside the art, you'll see that it's actually a removable floodgate. Archways into NewBo and Czech Village, look inside that beautiful archway and you'll see, again, rolling flood walls that should we need to protect ourselves, we can do it. But we didn't want to do it at the expense of the beauty of our city or at the expense of not being able to enjoy our river.

So for me personally, in this next four-year term, which I've just begun, I'm really laser focused on amenities and placemaking. We need to make sure that our economy is strong, and we need to make sure that we're keeping people here and we're attracting people here. And I, alongside many of my colleagues, believe that that's all about amenities, placemaking, affordability, good housing, good schools. We got to have all of it. But it's on us to make sure we have a fantastic community that has something for everyone to enjoy, and our river is at the heart of all of it.

Host: What a great case study for turning something that was bad, the flood, into something that really has become useful and beneficial for the city. When you can take, like you said, building those protective measures to ward off another flood, but take those and turn that infrastructure into things that make people's lives better, man, that is a real win-win, isn't it?

Tiffany O'Donnell: Absolutely. And I think you can look at places like our skate park that is always packed with kids and adults of all ages, frankly, that happens to be next to a flood reservoir. You know, putting things that can go underwater at no cost, but for the majority of the time are places that we can enjoy.

And I think, specifically, one of the things that you'll see different, over the next four years for sure, because I look at things, as it relates to my term, Bill, we've actually for the very first time, we will have a person on point for our riverfront and our river development. I was part of an amazing cohort of 36 mayors in the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative last year. And once you're partners with Michael Bloomberg and the Bloomberg folks, they really are vested in us, and my project was the river and the Greenway. And what Michael Bloomberg has done is given us a Bloomberg fellow that the Bloomberg Foundation is paying for.

So over the next two years, this fellow will work alongside city teams as well as private investors and private business to actually go vertical with these river projects, whether it be the canoe safari, kayaking, rapids—Cedar Rapids with rapids, Bill. I know that sounds pretty revolutionary, but we don't have it today—as well as, the ability to sit alongside a bike trail alongside the river and have dinner. These are things that we haven't been able to do, but having a dedicated person and city teams on point with deliverables, our community will really begin to see that river come to life and be the beautiful gem that it deserves to be and that our citizens deserve it to be.

Host: Absolutely. It really can become that true focal point. So Mayor, I love the collaboration you were talking about with Michael Bloomberg. Can you talk about other promising collaborations that you might have going between the city, residents, and partners?

Tiffany O'Donnell: I'm a big believer in public-private partnerships. You know, I believe cities have a role to play. We have very specific roles to play in setting the table, if you will, to have safe and functioning, clean, prosperous cities. And anything truly great that happens in a town, I've learned, comes when citizens are driving it, and even better when people bring it to the city.

And I think a couple of examples, I can point to immediately are programs like Connect CR, which is how we've turned Cedar Lake into an incredible amenity with ADA-accessible fishing piers and opportunities to kayak and improvements of the trail all the way around. And again, that's a part of flood protection. We were able to use federal flood dollars to do a lot of things all at the same time.

In addition, a part of the Connect CR project is the Alliant LightLine Bridge, which it says Alliant because Alliant is our private partner in that, in building the very first pedestrian and bike walkway over the Cedar River. And you may not know this, but the bike trail that connects the East Coast to the West Coast goes right through Cedar Rapids. And coming up this summer, we'll have the American Discovery Trail 250th US birthday celebration. That ride will go smack dab through Cedar Rapids in October, and we will cut the ribbon on our brand-new LightLine Bridge. And the riders and walkers will be able to cross the Cedar River.

So, the last project I'll mention that's up and running is a sculpture park and plaza at Maize Island, which Maize Island is literally the center of our city, and it's where our government sat since time began. And we're not there anymore because of the flood, but we have our Veterans Memorial Building still on that. There's going to be a sculpture park there. And we have private partners that are coming forward to contribute to some really interesting pieces of art, as well as entertainment space and walkways around Maize Island.

So, all of these projects, yes, absolutely, the city has a role to play, and you'll see it in the infrastructure in and around those projects. And to really make it great, we're leaning on our private partners. And, you know, that's, again, a sign of a really great community when you've got very loyal and committed citizens who believe in your town and are willing to not only talk about it, but put their resources behind it, and we're very fortunate in that way.

Host: Another mark of a healthy community is that collaboration between the city residents and partners. And I love it when you say cities are better when the residents are driving things. And you talked about the Connect CR program, the Alliant LightLine Bridge, which is going to be amazing, and the Sculpture Park at Maize Island.

So many great things to look forward to and so many outstanding things happening. And like you say, this is just the mark of a healthy, growing, vibrant city. And as you mentioned, unfortunately, there are many communities that are the opposite of this. So, welcome and thankful that we have this right here in CR.

So Mayor, when you think about Cedar Rapids right now, what stands out to you as its strongest qualities or advantages?

Tiffany O'Donnell: Strongest qualities. I think if you live in Cedar Rapids, you live here on purpose. We're about 140,000 people, which is a wonderful size. It's a large city. And yet, you're one degree of separation, if that, from anybody that you need to know. So, I feel because of our size, it's extremely manageable.

And also, I think when you look at the financial and economic development that's happening here, you cannot have a growing city without a growing tax base. And so, those record numbers that I shared with you, all of those tax dollars go to our streets, go to our public safety, and any new project that comes to Townville, if they're going to get any sort of a city incentive, they have to commit to community betterment dollars that go back into those projects, like I mentioned, sculpture parks, some of the placemaking opportunities that we have.

So, I think, the combination of economic growth as well as just amenities that are taking shape make this a real magical sauce, that's going to be creating a pretty dynamic place here in the next five to 10 years.

Host: It's kind of the full package.

Tiffany O'Donnell: It really is. There's a part of me that thinks sometimes we can be the victims of our own success and that our community rightly begins to expect that we're going to continue growing, and that doesn't happen. We've got dedicated city teams. We've got an economic development department that is laser-focused on not only getting new business to come here, but making sure that our existing sectors continue to grow and be successful. Because, if I describe Cedar Rapids in one way, if you were to compare it to, say, other big cities in our state, we're doers, Bill. We create things. We build things here. We're very independent. It's in our DNA. Whether it's Arthur Collins, inventing the radio that transmitted a man from the moon. The Wright brothers lived here. There's all kinds of examples of businesses that were born and live here that touch every part of the world. The largest corn processing city in the world—in the world. More corn comes in and out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, than anywhere else in the world. I just think we are leaning into who we are and joining a really interesting time in our world. We've got a couple of data centers that are coming online that have been in the works for many years.

As people talk about data centers as though they're new, they've been around quite a long time. But Cedar Rapids is really leaning into our sense of entrepreneurship and being a part of America's innovation story, and that's not going away. I mean, that's only going to grow. And I don't mean the data center piece. I mean, even the aerospace and defense hub that we're becoming. It's notable that Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is on the map because we have the most engineers per capita than anywhere, because of British Aerospace that's here, because of Collins and University of Iowa, you know, and R1 University just down the road. I mean, we're at a pretty great moment. And the trick is to make sure that we leverage it and make the most of it

Host: A city of doers. I love it. That's fantastic. The city of doers. Fun fact, my father-in-law used to work for Collins Radio. So, there you go.

Tiffany O'Donnell: Okay. They're still the largest employer in Cedar Rapids. Big player.

Host: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, this has been so fun, Mayor. Thank you so much for your time today. Last question to wrap up. Any final thoughts? Anything you want to add? Any final thoughts for the residents of CR?

Tiffany O'Donnell: Just gratitude because none of this that we've talked about happens through one person or even through one organization. The city really relies on our citizens and our community and our companies and businesses and nonprofits that are here to really work together. We are an incredible city with an incredible future, and it's not an accident. And I just encourage everybody to look around and enjoy the moment and be a part of it in however you want to be a part of it. If it's enjoying a trail, if it's, you know, sharing a kind word about what's happening, in our city, I'll take it. I want everybody to feel the pride that I feel. And it's not just me. There are people across the country that see us and appreciate and admire what's happening here.

Host: Absolutely. I love those thoughts. It's an incredible city with an incredible future. Enjoy the moment. That's a perfect way to end it. So true. Mayor O'Donnell, thank you so much for your time today. We really appreciate it.

Tiffany O'Donnell: My pleasure

Host: And once again, that is Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell. And for more information, visit cityofcr.com/sotc. Once again, cityofcr.com/sotc. And if you enjoyed this podcast, and how can you not with great guests like Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell, please share it on your social channels and check out our podcast library for more engaging topics. I'm Bill Klaproth, and this is Our CR Podcast. Thanks for listening.