AN INORGANIC AMENITY.

My sojourn through the Northern Plains in pursuit of Big Boy brought me to Dubuque, where a lot of money has gone into providing a riverwalk along the Mississippi.

It does offer an unobstructed view of the boat basin and the river, as well as an opportunity to get close to the Illinois Central railroad bridge, and there are several museums and a hostelry alongside, as well as numerous parking lots.

In a way, though, this riverwalk is a sad testament to the Big Idea of about fifty years ago of running expressways through the center of towns, which doesn't work so well in smaller towns in constricted spaces.  It didn't work so well for Worcester, nor did it work so well in Milwaukee.

The most convenient way to get to the riverwalk is to drive, although I did see a few people biking along it.

All that grassland is the levee that the riverwalk is atop, which also isolates it from the, to use the Strong Towns lexicon, parking crater.  That's an excursion boat, the aquarium, and there's a casino nearby.

There is, however, no riverside cafe.  There is a cafe, using the old Dubuque Star brewery for atmosphere.

I'm standing on the levee.  Those inverted carrots are, I suppose, art.  It's too early in the morning for the wine bar to be open.  There's no view of the river from there.

I'm sure it's all with the best of intentions, and there are undoubtedly events to get people to come to the river and mingle or view the exhibits or gamble or tipple.

But it's inorganic, which is to say, the whole thing was intelligently designed.

Emergent riverwalks look more like this.

That's Remagen, Germany, just downstream from the famous bridge.  The bicycle trail runs at least as far north as Köln, and it continues upstream past the bridge.  (Do I have enough ambition to go back there, hire a bicycle, and go for a long ride?)

That's the Rhein at left, and the cafes (and, dear reader, the German custom of coffee and sweets around 15 hours is something I endorse) place additional tables between the bike lanes and the river.  Somehow, the bikers, the pedestrians, and the devotees of ice cream cones stay clear of each other.

There might be some theming in the choice of paving materials, but the concept is more evidently something emergent than something designed all at once as a way of building a tourist attraction.