Vote for our families’ future

By Don Karr

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My family came to Linn County and Cedar Rapids 150 years ago. Why did my family stop the move west and plant roots here? Because of a future for its children.

Cedar Rapids was progressive and offered hope, jobs and the quality of life my family felt was best for all. It stayed and helped build this community.

As a child, I was taught to be proud of our accomplishments and this city. I was told that the people were special here, hardworking, honest, and had pride in the community.

As a City Council member, I take these teachings and look at my responsibility to this community's future for our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. This community needs to get back to the progressive attitude that built it. I do not want to live in the past. I do not want my children to live in the past.

I look to the future of what we could be. I look to see how we can make this city a place to be proud of again, a leader of our state and country.

This will take a little pain and a positive attitude to look outside the box.

We need to rebuild this city in an image of future needs with that same attitude that brought my family here to stay. We have to recover from the flood and rebuild for the next generations' well-being and give them the same future we had growing up here.

This will take an investment from all of us, an average of about $200 a year for the proposed 20-year extension of the local-option sales tax (for flood protection, street repairs and property tax relief). This is a lot of money, but many spend that in a night out or at a Hawkeye game. For some on a fixed income, like myself, this is also a lot of money.

But we need to make this investment for our future as a community so we don't sink into the past and become just another dot on the map that people bypass and say how lucky they are to live somewhere else.

Please vote for the future of our families. Please vote yes on Tuesday for the local-option sales tax extension, and watch our community become the progressive leader of Iowa and the home we will continue to love.

Don Karr is an at-large member of the Cedar Rapids City Council. Comments: affordableplumb@aol.com