Iowa City at large: Jim Throgmorton

I am an experienced city councilman and retired University of Iowa professor of urban and regional planning who has lived in Iowa City for almost 30 years. Over the years I have developed a love for this place and deep connections with a wide range of fellow residents. I want to build on what's already great about Iowa City and help lead it toward becoming a Just City: a city that's good on the ground for all its residents both now and in the future.

To a great extent we Iowa Citians now stand at a crossroads, conflicted over which direction we want to go.

Many people - especially those who benefit most directly - say things are going great. If it ain't broke, they say, don't fix it. Just 'keep moving forward.”

But for far too many Iowa Citians, our city is broken. For them, the prevailing vision accommodates the interests of a few while ignoring those of the many. It's rapidly changing the city they love into a place that will soon be unrecognizable. And by dramatically discounting the risks of climate change and the long-term value of biodiversity, it's undermining our children's prospects for a healthy future.

We need to live up to the claim that we live in a 'creative corridor.” We need to creatively develop our city's economy and built environment in a way that provides rewarding business and employment opportunities for all of our residents while also retaining the city's unique sense of place and being ecologically sustainable over the long term. In brief, we need to be building a Just City.

This turn toward the Just City calls for a city council that's willing to change course. The city council should:

' Modify its official practices to be more open and responsive to all of the city's residents,

' Adopt a much more fair and trustworthy process for using Tax Increment Financing,

' Invest more City resources in ways that directly benefit regular working people in the lower half of the income bracket, especially with regard to producing more housing that regular people can afford,

' Make greater progress toward improving racial equity and reducing racial disparities, especially throughout the criminal justice system,

' Invest in older neighborhoods and strengthen our neighborhood schools, and

' Facilitate a money-saving, job-creating transition away from carbon-based fossil fuels.

' Jim Throgmorton is an at-large candidate for Iowa City Council. More information: jthrogmo@yahoo.com; www.throg4ic.org or persuasivestorytelling.wordpress.com; Facebook: Throg4IC; Twitter: Throg4IC