Cedar Rapids has moved beyond flood recovery, Corbett says

CEDAR RAPIDS — In his sixth State of the City address, Mayor Ron Corbett on Wednesday leaned on a pop music hit from 1972 to say that the city's long recovery from the Flood of 2008 is over, assuring the audience that 'I Can See Clearly Now.'

Corbett quoted the song to say 'The rain is gone,' and he said that the city now is able to see and tackle new challenges in front of them.

'Flood recovery has been hovering over our city for the last six years, … but these things are no longer center stage,' he told a luncheon audience of 650 at the U.S. Cellular Center convention center.

Corbett used the address to highlight five top policy priorities of the City Council, priorities that the public can lose sight of in the meeting-by-meeting world of a council not in the midst of a disaster or embroiled in the recovery from it.

Those five policy priorities: Fixing streets; fostering a pro-development, 'open-for-business' climate; luring new retail businesses to the city; promoting 'infill' development as a counter to urban sprawl; and emphasizing city beautification, including the push to clean up nuisance properties.

Word cloud for Mayor Corbett's 2015 State of the City speech

The address, sponsored by the League of Women Voters Linn County, is typically a one-directional event, the mayor speaking, the audience listening.

This time, though, the mayor asked several questions at the end of his speech and had those in the audience text via phone if they liked a city policy or not. The instant polling results appeared on four large video screens with Corbett at the microphone looking on.

Five questions were pretty soft — 'Should we continue or current city beautification efforts' was one — and secured huge instant texting support.

But the questions on two hot-button issues, traffic enforcement cameras and a Cedar Rapids casino, both won support in closer votes. The vote was 144 to 91 to fight the Department of Transportation to keep traffic cameras, and 176-77 to continue the effort to land a casino license.

Afterward. Corbett said he wasn't surprised to see support for the city to stand up for itself on cameras and the casino.

'I listen to a lot of conversations in the community, and I really did feel that people support the cameras and aren't ready to throw in the towel on the gambling license yet,' he said.

In his speech, the mayor said he believed that attitudes in the city have improved since he took office in January 2010 when the city was still early in its flood recovery and the national economy was in a downturn. Seven of 10 people he talked to in 2010 had a high anger level, and now, six years later, seven of 10 seem satisfied, he said.

In his first State of the City speech in 2010, Corbett said the city stood somewhere between 'running on eight cylinders' and 'on life support.' In 2011, he said community spirit for flood recovery had begun to unravel. The next year, he asked, 'Do you love Cedar Rapids?' By 2013, he said the city had gotten a second wind. Last year, he said the city was 'taking care of business.' But he asked residents not to berate the city.

He said Wednesday's speech left some things out, Police Department initiatives and flood control to name two, he said.

'You can't include everything or the speech would last 90 minutes,' the mayor said. It lasted about 35 minutes.

On the matter of traffic cameras, the mayor told the audience that the city needed to fight for its interests as it has done for federal and state dollars for flood recovery and now for flood control. He said the Police Department recommended the cameras and he said their presence on Interstate 380 has reduced crashes there.

'This is a local control issue,' Corbett said. 'Should some (DOT) bureaucratic rule trump the safety of police officers and the driving public? I am willing to keep standing up for Cedar Rapids.'

On the casino front, Corbett, who is helping push a long-shot bill in the Iowa Legislature to create the state's first smoke-free casino in Cedar Rapids, said Cedar Rapids is treated unfairly now because the city's charities get little of the casino profits that go to charities situated near the casinos.

'Instead, Cedar Rapids is completely boxed out of any benefit of gambling — no (state gambling license) and no percent of the revenue (from nearby casinos),' he said. 'They are happy to take our money, but they don't want any part of sharing.'

To a question from the audience, Corbett said it didn't look as if the city would make progress on the casino this year. But he said the city has six more years to secure a state gambling license before it must ask voters to approve gambling in the county again.

Corbett said the year just passed was a good one for the city as it began its 10-year, $180-million 'Paving for Progress' program funded by the voter-approved 1-percent local-option sales tax. The year 2014 also saw the city named an 'All America City' by the National Civic League, he said.

On the policy front, the mayor spent some time defending the city's push to promote business and encourage entrepreneurship, saying 'that government plays a role in fostering private enterprise.'

He said a sometimes-questioned tactic often used by the city to promote private investment — tax increment financing or TIF — makes sense and provides a temporary property-tax 'discount' to guarantee long-term property-tax revenue.

At each of the luncheon tables was a bowl with packages of five different flavors of lip balm, manufactured by a local company, Eco Lips. There was a flavor for each season, including Cedar Rapids' signature 'fifth season,' a time to enjoy with others. The flavor for it is 'entertain mint.'

'The rain has stopped and has resulted in a whole host of ways to enjoy life in Cedar Rapids,' Corbett said. There's the McGrath Amphitheatre, the renovated Paramount Theatre, the city's trail system, the prospects for Cedar Lake and an assortment of nice restaurants, he said.

'Let's take time to enjoy all our city has to offer because I agree with Johnny Nash (and his 'I Can See Clearly Now' song), 'It's gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day.''