Iowa City celebrates revamped Dubuque Street with block party celebration

The Iowa City Downtown District, in partnership with Dubuque Street businesses, the City of Iowa City, and Portzen Construction, hosted the Back to Dubuque Street Celebration on Thursday, Oct. 24. The event, marked with a ceremonial ribbon cutting by several Dubuque Street business owners, signified the completion of months-long improvements to the streetscape.  It also […]

The Iowa City Downtown District, in partnership with Dubuque Street businesses, the City of Iowa City, and Portzen Construction, hosted the Back to Dubuque Street Celebration on Thursday, Oct. 24. The event, marked with a ceremonial ribbon cutting by several Dubuque Street business owners, signified the completion of months-long improvements to the streetscape.  It also highlighted the local businesses that remained operational during the months of construction, which have since seen a return to normalcy.

Dubuque Street was closed to traffic for the event, lined with picnic tables and outdoor seating in front of several restaurants. Local band Brad and the Big Wave kicked off the tunes at 4:00 p.m., and attendees began to trickle in despite a smattering of rain.  A slightly larger crowd gathered as the night went on, with some heading into Micky's Irish Pub to play a BINGO event, with merch available as a prize — and also for purchase at a booth outside the bar.  Much of the construction was completed over the summer, and the street fully reopened to pedestrian and vehicle traffic on Aug. 30. Still, there are a few final components before the street is completely free of construction tape and traffic cones.  See more Iowa City Senior Engineer Alin Dumachi said that the only remaining updates include replacing the temporary streetlights lining Dubuque with real ones — which will then be installed and connected underground. They also hope to receive and install permanent string lights sometime next week.  “As for the alley,  we have about 100 feet left of storm sewer [to replace],” Mr. Dumachi said. “And then, just paving it. So we have at most, about two weeks left for the alleyway.”  Though the alleyway from Dubuque to Linn Street is still inaccessible, the street allowed ample room for a crowd to gather to listen to the final performance of the night, Saint Silver, who played at around 6:30 p.m. Jan Weissmiller, owner of Prairie Lights Bookstore, said the updates have been wonderful for the street itself. She said she did experience a small drop in her customer base over the summer, when the street was temporarily open to foot traffic through a path made of chain link fences.  “The months of July and August, it was the most constricting, when they had the most maze-like things up,” Ms. Weissmiller said. “And we’re definitely glad that people are coming back in now to make up the little lost during that time…but Iowa City is proud, and should be proud of Dubuque Street, because it’s one of our oldest streets.”