Cedar Rapids

Cedar Rapids is a city in and the county seat of Linn County, Iowa, United States. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, 20 miles (32 km) north of Iowa City and 128 miles (206 km) northeast of Des Moines, the state's capital. The population was 137,710 at the 2020 census, making it the second-most populous city in Iowa.[5][6] The population of the three-county Cedar Rapids metropolitan area, which includes the nearby cities of Marion and Hiawatha, was 276,520 in 2020. Cedar Rapids is the economic hub of Eastern Iowa, located at the core of the Interstate 380 corridor.[7] The Cedar Rapids metropolitan area is also part of a combined statistical area with the Iowa City metropolitan area. Cedar Rapids is nicknamed the "City of Five Seasons", for the so-called "fifth season", which is time to enjoy the other four.[1] This slogan is often satirized by residents as the "City of Five Smells", as a result of the smell combinations in the 1970s from the city's Quaker Oats and Penford factories, a hog slaughterhouse, and the municipal sewage plant and landfill.[8] The symbol of the five seasons is the Tree of Five Seasons sculpture in downtown along the north river bank. The name "Five Seasons" and representations of the sculpture appear throughout the city in many forms.[1]