Will Tom Harkin alone have the clout to bail Coralville out? Cedar Rapids renovated hotel and convention center are supposed to drive Coralville’s hotel and convention center to ruin? All the better people of Cedar Rapids assure me Cedar Rapids will triumph.

“The restored shops on Main Street won’t sell clothes as they did in the PTL days, Joyner said. Instead, they’ll be converted into Christian-oriented bookstores, art galleries and coffee shops.”
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/15651/first-changes-to-former-heritage-usa-near-completion
May your prayers be heard and answered.

It was not a shinning moment for Senator Grassley. It was idea so bad, even Cedar Rapids backed away from it. Like Cedar Rapids bad ideas, look at the figures in the back round. Grassley was being prodded by the usual crowd. People with money so often lose all sense of fiscal sanity when taxpayers’ [...]

“Nicholas Johnson’s FromDC2Iowa blog mentions the ongoing money woes with the Cedar Rapids Science Station and attempts to dovetail concerns about the Rainforest into this issue.” http://state29.blogspot.com/2006/10/imax-theater-in-cedar-rapids-creates.html A rain forest was a really stupid idea. Of course, Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce connected Mayor Lee Clancey briefly pursued it. A rain forest was to bloom [...]

An indoor range and gun shop would be a new cultural attraction. Was that dreamed up by a city planner? If private capital sees a way to make a profit off Westdale, wonderful. Creative destruction is a beautiful thing.

Attach yourself to opportunity. Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors member/Mayor Pro Tem Monica Vernon says she wants to sell the hotel. Buy it.

http://www.downtowncr.org/content/Settle-In/Residential-Hot-Spots.aspx

Would the City Council vote a variance to allow a dog kennel next to these neighbors?

http://www2.iowapublicradio.org/news/news_story.php?story=3029
Much has changed. If anything, the hotel and convention center makes less sense now than it did over 30 years ago.

http://www2.iowapublicradio.org/news/news_story.php?story=3029

Hate, hate, hate, or waste, waste, waste? Now that millions have been committed to projects of dubious value, make a levee with an unending tax levy. Make the levy language vague to hedge your long shot bet.

They keep coming back in a blood thirsty lust for…TAX PAYERS MONEY. Pits the declining against the productive in a struggle for survival.
Do they really believe the city is better off sinking over $100 million into a failed, flood plain located, 1979 hotel and convention center based on a 19th century business model?

Fifty years of tax funded life support spent on a swamp. Will it ever stop?

On a more local note, why did the protesters not picket the Chamber of Commerce and Downtown District Offices. Parking ramps, a hotel, a convention center, etc. their bail out has been going on for decades.

Right to work, labor issues? “I’d have to look at the wording of the legislation,” Mathis said. http://www.flickr.com/photos/crchamber/5759161554/in/photostream/ The Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce supported preferred by the unions labor agreements to get what they wanted in downtown Cedar Rapids. That was taxpayers money. How many Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce members would be willing [...]

The full color flier Liz mailed me showed pictures of herself and Mr. Liz in downtown Cedar Rapids. The text went on and on about the flood three years ago.

http://www.cedarrapids.org/advocacy/bizpac.aspx

Downtown Cedar Rapids is not in Senate District 18. It made me wonder if Liz’s flier had been paid for by Bizpac

“The Downtown Development Corporation was created to facilitate the development of a vibrant downtown in Cedar Rapids by conducting real estate transactions (i.e. purchases, sales, holding, leases, etc.) Randy Easton U.S. Water Company Lee Clancey Community Volunteer Scott Olson Skogman Commercial Randy Rings TrueNorth Companies Jon Dusek Armstrong Development…..” http://www.downtowncr.org/Content/Our-Story/Downtown-Development-Corporation-Board.aspx Fact: Scott Olson has strong [...]

Keeping the sewage plant in good working order is exactly what the City should be doing. Job creating wet grain millers in Cedar Rapids depend heavily upon this facility. Those firms pay to use it. “City Council member Monica Vernon, who chaired last night’s meeting as mayor pro tem, said the council had taken a [...]

Decades of feel good, tax funded projects have not succeeded in restoring downtown. Do you care for an addict by giving them an escape from reality with a short term, cash injection high? As stated before, Downtown needs to stand on its own two feet. Being an enabler only drags you down along with the [...]

Would you people in Des Moines please stop baiting the mouse trap with “free money” cheese?

Will precinct lines for 2012 possibly be shifted as a result, or will they remain as proposed?

“The City Council voted 4-3 to seek bankruptcy protection for Harrisburg, which has a debt burden five times its general-fund budget “because of an overhaul and expansion of a trash-to-energy incinerator that doesn’t generate enough revenue,” Bloomberg Businessweek reported.”

http://nationaljournal.com/economy/harrisburg-pa-votes-to-file-for-bankruptcy-20111012

Good intentions with other people’s money not spent as if it were yours have consequences.