Affirm human rights and dignity in Iowa City

I’m an artist, librarian, and community organizer who has been attending and watching City Council meetings each month since 2023. As state and federal governments began encroaching on transgender rights I watched as my friends and family members exercised their rights to demand their city protect them. City councilors often pushed for respectability politics rather than actually helping my friends, and I decided that was unacceptable.

As a librarian-in-training at the time, it was clear to me that City Council members were not doing all they could to enact change and protect community members. I am running for an Iowa City Council at-large seat this November because Iowa City needs leaders who are not afraid to fight to protect their constituents.

I’m in my final year as a graduate student at the University of Iowa where I’m an MFA candidate at the Center for the Book and is the Unity Chair of the Campaign to Organize Graduate Students (COGS) UE Local 896. I am fiercely pro-labor and supports the right to organize workers and tenants.

As a librarian, I’m guided by the vocation’s core values: access, equity, intellectual freedom and privacy, public good, and sustainability. I believe that fostering a thriving community starts with affirming human rights and dignity for all.

My top three priorities for council all serve to advance the City of Iowa City’s strategic plan. First, I want to protect people and the environment from the harms of AI by regulating its use in the private and public sector, along with restricting large-scale data centers from being built. My second priority is to expand perceptions of public safety beyond policing to encompass public health initiatives that also serve to make our communities safer for everyone.

Finally, I want to see Iowa City continue to educate community members about the resources available to them and empowering them to shape the city they want to live in. Librarians are trained to help library visitors find resources and educate them on how to do it themselves in the future. This approach to city council will help create an environment where community members feel empowered to be active stakeholders in decisions that are made and the process that brought them there.

Clara Reynen is a candidate for Iowa City Council.