My three-year-old daughter has a favorite phrase. Ask her to put on her shoes or pick up her toys, odds are her response will be “It’s not necessary.” I am borrowing her phrase. It applies to rhetoric employed by some city council candidates and their supporters.
Iowa City Council
Posted inCommunity/News, Letters
Letter to the Editor: The gang of four strikes back
By Mary Gravitt What first interested me in City Council was the Chauncey and an article published in Little Village magazine, Feb.-March 2013: “Your Town Now: The city council’s Chauncey decision is remarkably opaque” By Zach Tilly and Skaaren Cosse. Chauncey is still causing contention within the City chamber. Tilly-Cosse: To decide between the three […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Finding a balance in Iowa City’s District A
As discourse over downtown high-rises and the use of Tax Increment Financing (TIFs) dominates the public conversation leading up to the Iowa City Council race, an entirely different set of issues drives the District A contest between incumbent councilman Rick Dobyns and his sole challenger, nurse and community activist Pauline Taylor: racial disparity in Iowa […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Chauncey tower question splits council candidate forum
Less than fifteen minutes into last night’s city council candidate forum on environmental issues, moderator Tom Carsner split the field with a question about the direction of the tax-increment-financed (TIF) development known as the Chauncey Tower. Sitting councilors Rick Dobyns and Jim Throgmorton went back and forth on the project after Carsner asked the field, […]
Posted inCommunity/News
County wage ordinace weighs heavy on city election
Update: On Tuesday, Oct. 6, the Iowa City Council indicated that while they plan on allowing the county ordinance to go into effect, leading to a minimum wage increase to $8.20 in Iowa City next month (the first of several wage increases through 2017), councilors stressed the need for a comprehensive analysis of the ordinance […]
Posted inCommunity/News
City officials move to ban e-cigarettes in public spaces
E-cigarette users in Iowa City may soon find themselves lumped in with traditional tobacco smokers under new guidelines proposed by the city council. The Iowa City Council passed its first consideration of an ordinance amendment that would ban the use of electronic cigarettes in public spaces, but not without some trepidation. The council, which voted […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa City Council backs community ID program, commits funds
The Iowa City Council approved a resolution Tuesday expressing support for the community ID program passed earlier this spring by the Johnson County Board of Supervisors. Councilors also committed $6,000 to the county-wide initiative — which could go into effect as soon as July — to help cover implementation expenses. The Johnson County Board of […]
Posted inCommunity/News
City commission mulls big changes to the Iowa City government, invites public to comment
The Iowa City Charter Review Commission is hosting a community discussion at the Iowa City Public Library (Meeting Room A) tonight at 6 p.m. regarding a series…
Posted inCommunity/News
Iowa City Marketplace: City Council’s approval of $1.75 million in TIF aid has some crying foul
At their bimonthly meeting this past Tuesday, the Iowa City Council voted 6-1 to allocate $1.75 million in Tax Increment Financing (TIF) funds for two…
