Return to Nicholas Johnson's Iowa Rain Forest ("Earthpark") Web Site

Return to Nicholas Johnson's Blog, FromDC2Iowa
 
 

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  The Marion County community thus joins Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Dubuque, Tiffin, Grinnell and most recently Riverside as a locale where boosters waxed enthusiastic before reality intervened.

  That’s assuming, of course, something will prevent the project from coming to fruition in Pella. It is a cynical but reasonable assumption.

  Some of you may be confused, as the project has moved every few months and changed its name, not unlike a con man on the lam — if you’ll pardon the comparison.

  It began as the Iowa Child Institute in 1998 when Des Moines businessman Ted Townsend offered $10 million toward a $280 million center for education and tourism that he wanted to build around an indoor rain forest in Des Moines. When that city turned a cold shoulder, Townsend looked to Cedar Rapids. Two years later, the project moved to Coralville and was reduced in scope to $255 million and then $180 million.

  By late 2004, it was known as The Environmental Project, under which name it received the promise of a $50 million federal grant, immediately making it the butt of TV comedians and critics of pork barrel spending.

  When the deal with Coralville fell through, the project was cut to $155 million, renamed Earthpark, and the field of interested communities was narrowed to Riverside and Pella.

  Last week, Pella got the nod.

  This is not an encouraging track record. It raises the question of why the project has not been able to get off the ground, or for that matter, even taxi to the runway. After all, a lot of people would like to experience an indoor rain forest and a huge aquarium. Both would offer great educational opportunities. Although Iowa may lack the population to support it, the attraction would be within easy driving distance of several major metropolitan areas.

  Unfortunately, one of those areas is Omaha, Neb., and that is why this has never been a good idea.

  When Cedar Rapids was supposed to be the site, some of us skeptics asked why visitors would flock to an indoor rain forest there when the largest one in the world was only a four-hour drive away. Or why a 600,000-gallon aquarium would be more attractive than one more than 50 percent bigger. Especially considering that the bigger, already operational attractions are an integral part of the world-class Henry Doorly Zoo in an area that offers many other sights and activities for tourists.

  Excuse my pessimism, but I don’t think moving the Iowa site an hour closer to Omaha is the answer.

  For the sake of the planners and the people who will be putting up the money if this thing ever is built, I sincerely hope I’m wrong. On the other hand, I think Riverside Mayor Bill Poch had it right when he reacted to the news that Pella, not his community, was chosen for the latest incarnation.

  Riverside is somewhat disappointed, he said, ‘‘but in some ways, we may be relieved."