SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
August 19, 2016
Sullivan’s
Salvos 8/23/16
In this edition:
*Minimum Wage Anniversary
*Rose Oaks
*Iowa City Beacon
*Did You Know?
*Minimum Wage Anniversary
This
week is the one-year anniversary of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors
voting to raise the minimum wage in Johnson County. (The wage actually went up
by $.95 on November 1, 2015 and again by $.95 on May 1, 2016. It is due to go
up to $10.10 on January 1, 2017.)
While
the impacts of our efforts are still being judged, clearly the sky has not fallen!
Many, many low-income people report living better lives. I remain very proud of
this vote!
*Rose Oaks
You
may have seen that the Iowa City Council recently voted 5-2 to compensate the
displaced residents of Rose Oaks (formerly Lakeside). The total amount is
small; much less than is typically granted to projects that claim to be
“economic development”.
The
two Councilors who opposed the payments claimed they were concerned with the
process that was used.
Here
is the deal: opposing the payments because of the “process” is ONLY legitimate
if you THEN work to improve that process. Otherwise, it is just a convenient
excuse.
So,
I sincerely hope the two Councilors who opposed providing relief to the
displaced residents of Rose Oaks (Councilors Dickens and Mims) lead the charge
in getting Iowa City to adopt a displaced residents ordinance!
A
Displaced Residents Ordinance would be very simple: any redevelopment proposal
that requires anything from the City (rezoning, TIF, etc.) MUST provide for the
relocation of any displaced residents. Period.
This
is not that hard. The city could demand a draft from staff in a month, and get
it passed in under 90 days. And EVERY city should adopt a similar ordinance,
not just Iowa City!
More
of these situations are on the way. Why wait until another crisis? Let’s be
proactive, and get an ordinance passed!
There
are two positives to this approach: First, residents get fair compensation.
Secondly, developers pay rather than taxpayers. I mean, why should YOU
compensate the displaced Rose Oaks tenants? Why wouldn’t we require the people
that CAUSE the problem to repair it?
So,
Councilors Dickens and Mims – here is your policy. Let’s get it done!
*Iowa City Beacon
There
is a new website out there called the Iowa City Beacon, which claims as its
mission: “to foster a dialogue about local issues from a
pragmatic, socially conscious perspective. In other words, a perspective
recognizing it’s possible for our communities to grow while protecting our neighborhoods,
believing that good government should be progressive and financially prudent,
and wanting both a strong tax base and a high level of city and county
services. It’s a perspective focused on the long view of developing thriving
communities.”
They already have the Corridor Business Journal; I guess they felt
they needed more media help!
Seriously, let me begin by saying the contributors to Beacon are
not all cut from the same cloth. So please understand that these comments apply
to some and not all members of the group. Heck, I agree with some of the points
they make. But that is not what this is about!
I
posted a couple responses that showed up on their blog; I also had a couple
responses disappear into thin air. It will be interesting to see if they ever
show up. They are talking about open discussion, but my posts seem to be gone
forever.
Anyway,
the whole premise of the site is setting up and tearing down a straw man. I
have never heard anyone say they wanted local governments to spend too much, or
destroy neighborhoods, or to have a weak tax base, or to provide less services.
No elected official wants that. They are running against a ghost.
The whole thing is a red herring. It is code for, “We are
privileged. We have lost the last few elections, and as privileged people, we
do not like that! We want our city and county back!”
Many
of these folks are pissed that their ideas fall to the right of the mainstream
of the local Democratic Party. There is nothing wrong with that, per se – the
Democratic Party is a big tent. The real problem is that because their
viewpoint is a minority, they do not get to run things. That is the real issue!
A
recent post on their blog said it very well… they want more “normal voters” to
vote in local elections. What does “normal” mean? My guess is wealthy, straight
white males without disabilities.
It
is ironic, too… I just wrote about this last week. The local Democratic Party
has had several meetings, a few fundraisers, a few parades, and the County Fair
over the past 8 weeks, and these folks are nowhere to be found. Wanna run
things? You could start by volunteering a little!
Another
irony is that despite this “bold step”, they are unwilling to take a tough
stand unless it benefits the wealthy. Look at their post about the “Kinnick
House” in Manville Heights. Where is their bold
stance on this? When there is no clear “win” for developers, they do not know
how to decide an issue. So they cop out and say, “What do you think?” Since
when does this group care what people think? Certainly not when presented with
3,000 names on a petition! Certainly not when faced with election results!
The final irony is that some members of this group
refused to compromise when they ran things. Progressives begged and pleaded
every other Tuesday for decades, but got virtually nothing in return. The
neocons had enough votes that they did not need to compromise – so they didn’t.
I
chuckle at how badly some conservatives want to co-opt the word “progressive”.
As I told former Mayor Matt Hayek, cutting the levy rate
and reducing the funding that goes to human services while at the same time
handing money to businesses and reducing the unionized workforce is NOT
progressive! (He disagrees.)
Yep,
he badly wants to be known as “progressive”. I cannot help but think of the
movie The Princess Bride and the immortal words of Inigo Montoya: “You
keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Some
folks are very used to exercising privilege; they expect to set the rules of
the game, and they get really angry when you disagree. Well, I’m not giving up
this fight. There is nothing wrong with being a neocon. It is a perfectly acceptable
worldview. But neocons DO NOT get to redefine the word “progressive” to meet
their own needs. Sorry, guys… you lose this one, too!
The
Minimum Wage debate that I just mentioned is a perfect example of this. Many of
these folks who had been in power had been approached about doing something.
They found excuses to do nothing. When the Board of Supervisors acted, these
folks railed against the “process”. Arguments against “process” are actually
code for, “MY people are supposed to decide these types of things!” Well, in
the case of the minimum wage, they had an opportunity and passed.
Don’t
get me wrong; I like most of the contributors to this new site. Some I consider
friends. I wish them well in their new endeavor. It is important that the right-of-center/neocon
side of things be voiced.
But
does this mean Organized Labor, women, people of color, low-income folks, the
LGBTQ community, people with disabilities, environmentalists, and other
progressive groups are going to simply hand over the keys to Iowa City, Johnson
County, and the Democratic Party? I think not!
*DID YOU KNOW?
Some of the projects already funded by the Conservation Bond include Ciha
Fen, the Sutliff/Cedar River Crossings area, the Clear Creek Trail, the Pechman
Creek Delta, and the Hoover Nature Trail between Solon and Ely, just to name a
few!
Anyone
interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the
County website-
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 8:34 AM
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