Buying Crowne Plaza Hotel makes no sense

We had thoughts going, before our last city election, that we should build a new Taj Mahal-type City Hall. A lot of people were against this, along with our current mayor.

I thought all of these thoughts of erecting monuments to the ruling City Council had ceased, but now we have Mayor Ron Corbett stating that we should buy the Crowne Plaza Hotel for $1.5 million and then spend another $17 million to renovate it. He states that it makes sense for the city to purchase it.

Where does this come from? It makes absolutely no sense for the city to purchase this piece of property. We have other things in Cedar Rapids that this money could be spent on. Does Mr. Corbett not wonder why some other hotel company has not come forward and made a bid on it?

Mayor and City Council, if you want to spend money that we don't have, then why not spend it on fixing the washboard streets that we have and that keep getting worse. Why not use it to purchase some of the historic houses that are being demolished and preserve them?

The city does not need to be in the hotel business and nothing says that we need a hotel downtown. We have plenty of nice, upper-class hotels that can accommodate visitors.

How many of you have kept track of promises that some politicians make while campaigning and how fast they change when they get elect?

Jim Cannon

Cedar Rapids