Iowa City candidates discuss affordable housing at forum

IOWA CITY – It was the first forum of the Iowa City Council election season, and the candidates jumped right in on the hot-button issues of race and affordable housing.

With seven candidates and a 60-minute time limit, only a handful of questions were asked. But two of them dealt with poverty and its associated issues.

In a question about whether Iowa City was a welcoming community for the working poor, Jim Throgmorton agreed with the other candidates that it is. But he also said he believed black people are treated differently in town than white people, although he said he thought it was a nationwide problem and not a matter of systemic racism here.

“Even if it's a welcoming place, I think it's pretty tough,” he said.

Throgmorton was the last candidate to tackle that issue, so the others did not respond to his claim.

The forum was hosted by the Daily Iowan newspaper. Participating were:

• Mayor Matt Hayek, 41, of 14 Heather Dr., an attorney
• Josh Eklow, 25, of 618 E. Court St., who graduated in May from the University of Iowa with a master's degree in intermedia art
• Richard Finley, 55, of 704 Ronalds St. He works at Rockwell Collins as a technical project manager
• Real estate agent and historic preservationist Mark McCallum, 50, of 932 E. College St.
• Rick Dobyns, 55, of 950 Calvin Ave., a University of Iowa family doctor
• Dan Tallon, 22, who just completed a tour of Afghanistan with the Iowa Army National Guard and plans to live near Lucas and Burlington streets
• Jim Throgmorton, 66, of 714 N. Linn St., a retired urban planning professor and former City Council member

The district A and C seats and two at-large positions are open in the November election. Candidates can't officially file until Aug. 15, so the field could still expand.

Hayek is the only incumbent and is running at large, as are Eklow, Finley and McCallum. Dobyns is seeking the District A seat, and Tallon and Throgmorton are in District C.

Another question was how the candidates saw southeast Iowa City and areas along Mormon Trek Boulevard integrating with other parts of town. Those are areas that, for right or wrong, have reputations for having more minority residents, affordable housing and criminal activity than other parts of town.

McCallum said he grew up in a racially divided Waterloo and saw the same thing happening in Iowa City south of Highway 6. He said assisted housing needs to be distributed more evenly throughout the community.

“Whatever public housing policy we have needs to be sustainable,” he said.

Eklow said affordable housing should be more scattered and public transportation should be available in low-income areas to get people to and from jobs.

Finley said the city has programs in place that can help people and he would work to protect those in the budget process, including fire and police, parks and the library.

“It's my belief that the best thing we can do is maintain our level of services,” he said.

Tallon said the city should consider making public transportation free in low-income and business-heavy areas. He also spoke of growing up in public housing in Davenport and said he would support offering incentives to developers to include affordable homes in their projects, a concept known as inclusionary zoning.

Affordable housing is an issue that has vexed the council the past couple of years, and Hayek said part of the problem is it's a regional concern but other communities have not been willing to tackle it as Iowa City has.

“We've tried to approach this issue in a regional basis but thus far have not had much luck,” he said.