Let’s get our priorities straight

The guest column by Lee Belfield (“Hotel/convention center has great potential,” May 26) promotes the downtown agenda, which The Gazette supports, and is being forced upon the people of Cedar Rapids.

Belfield states he cannot speak for profit other than from operations (when he was general manager of the then-The Wyndham Five Seasons Hotel) and that positive gross profit can be generated (when Doubletree manages the revamped and now city-owned hotel). How about net profit? The city will never recover the money we put into it, which will surely come out of our property taxes.

I would like to see many projects done, if we could afford them. Our debt limit is going out of control and our bond rating will be sure to fall. We need to keep up our infrastructure first, such as street repair, before we take on expensive downtown special interest projects. Let's vote these people out of office. The only one doing a good job for us is Don Karr.

Our local school board has the same attitude as the City Council. They close needed schools to finance a masterpiece out on Edgewood Road. Let's get our priorities straight.

Dave Draheim

Cedar Rapids