SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
November 20, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving! I wish you a safe and happy holiday, and I hope you get the time to really reflect on our bounty. Thanks to all of you for your interest in (or tolerance of) my musings.
Congratulations to Regina and Solon for their outstanding football seasons!
A great football season brings a lot of smiles to a lot of faces. Great job!
The Johnson County Land Use Plan (LUP) Committee has been hard at work for a year updating the County's LUP.
The LUP is one of the most important documents we have. It offers guidelines as to when, where, and how growth and development happen. It lays out where you may and may not farm, run a business, or build a home.
The LUP Committee is a diverse group that has worked extremely hard. A huge thanks to Ellen Kapp, Joe Holland, Pat Cancilla, Jim Dane, Dave Long, Larry Wilson, Ryan Olson, Ryan O¹Leary, Dean Oakes, Dawn Terrell, Alan Peters, Terry Dahms, Glenn Siders, Steve Conklin, and William Albrecht. All have put in a tremendous amount of time and effort. Thanks to one and all!
The time will come soon for public input into the document. Meanwhile, I urge everyone to become familiar with the LUP and the work of the Committee.
Do not wait until the Board¹s final vote to have your say!
There is a great deal of information available on the County website at www.johnson-county.com/zoning/land_use.shtml. Please check it out.
Another bit of good news on the P&Z front: according to the Soil and Water Commission, the Sensitive Areas Ordinance adopted by Johnson County has been a big success. It is working as it should, at no additional expense to taxpayers.
Yes, the staff is still feeling its way around the ordinance, but early results look very promising.
Local elections are over, and the so-called "21 ordinance" went down in flames. So 19 & 20 year olds can be in the bars - that has been decided. Yet the reality remains: Iowa City has a serious problem with binge drinking.
I urge all the citizens who care about the effects of binge drinking in Iowa City to keep the pressure on the Iowa City City Council. The public must let the Council know that doing nothing is not an option.
People who complain should be prepared to offer solutions; in keeping with this, I have a suggestion. As is the case in most situations, this issue is all about money. There is money to be made serving underage drinkers.
I suggest that Iowa City begin fining establishments $1000 for every underage drinker they find in the bar. It doesn't matter how they got the alcohol, nor how much they had. Just adopt zero tolerance. An underage drinker in your bar = a grand. Once an establishment is getting fined $10,000 or more per night, they will have financial incentive to follow the law.
It can be done. The Deadwood & Dublin are just two examples of downtown bars that follow the law. Both bars maintain a good business while playing by the rules.
I spoke to lots of people on both sides of this issue prior to the vote.
I cannot count the number of times I heard, "old enough to fight for your country." I think that only serves to reinforce my belief that focusing on the students is a losing proposition. Let's take this argument off the table. (I can't bear to listen to drinking equated with war any longer.) The students are in the bars, and will not be moved. So what CAN be done?
In order to address binge drinking, we need to shift the focus from irresponsible young people to irresponsible bar owners.
Republican Presidential candidates have been running around the country denouncing "socialized medicine." Personally, I think socialized medicine would be great. Despite the BS they try to scare us with, it works very well in most of the civilized world.
Meanwhile, I love this response from Gene Lyons of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette (via the Iowa Federation of Labor newsletter):
"We already have socialized water, sewer, trash collection, police, fire, highways, schools, libraries, parks, airports, universities, and even medical schools. We recognize that these are universal human needs too crucial to be left to the vagaries of the marketplace."
I would add that we have socialism for the rich in the form of bailouts, bank deposit insurance, patent and copyright protection, corporate limited liability, Chapter 11 protection, mortgage interest deductions, Federal flood insurance; all forms of "socialism" the wealthy love. But God forbid similar asset protection being extended to the poor through health insurance.
DID YOU KNOW? The local nonprofit Table to Table has rescued and distributed
5 million pounds of food since their inception in 1996.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website - http://www.johnson-county.com/.
"Sullivan's Salvos" is sent once per week to any interested party. It will give a brief update on issues of interest to Johnson County residents.
These messages come solely from Rod Sullivan, and neither represents the viewpoints of the whole Board of Supervisors nor those of groups or individuals otherwise mentioned.
As always, feel free to contact me at 354-7199 or rodsullivan@mchsi.com. I look forward to serving you!
---Rod
posted by Rod @ 12:35 AM
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