Any voter who cares about our community should pay special attention to the referendum on the new “justice center”, which includes plans for a large expansion of jail capacity. The current jail has a capacity of 96; the new jail has a capacity for 243. The current jail is overcrowded, with a nightly average of […]
letters to the editor
Posted inCommunity/News
Letters: Vote Yes to Retain the Judges
Bob Vander Plaats recently announced he was getting the band (well, bus at least) back together for a reunion tour across the state of Iowa in an effort to remove Iowa Supreme Court Justice David Wiggins from the bench. We need to see this for what it is: an attempt to delegitimize the relationships of […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Letters: My Brilliant (Bicycle) Traffic Ticket
On a beautiful Saturday in June, with the scent of burning automobile tires still in the air, I received my first bicycle traffic ticket in 40 years of cycling. That morning, in the left-hand through lane of Grand Avenue that travels eastbound across Riverside to Burlington Street, an Iowa City Police Officer stopped behind me […]
Posted inCommunity/News
Letter to the Editor: LGBT Setbacks
I would like to tell my LGBT friends something we sometimes forget in emotional moments of backlash: We’ve been through setbacks before, and we’ll get through this one, too. In 1977, at age 21, I was told that the gay rights movement was over because of the Anita Bryant crusade. In 1981, we were told […]
