Appreciate and build on regional strengths

Here are a few things that Corridor residents take for granted:

Clean air. Air you can't see. Air that allows you to smell the neighbor's lilac bush or a field of clover a quarter mile away.

Silent nights. The ones when you can hear the crickets chipping, a dog barking half a mile away, a distant train, or some unidentified animal foraging for grubs in the lawn.

Reasonable traffic. The type you don't spend an hour in on your six mile commute to work.

Streets you feel safe walking on. Not just safe from crime but also from distracted drivers, fire ants, and roaches the size of small pets.

Many small and large well-kept parks and other recreational activities within easy driving distance.

A quality school system capped by Coe, Kirkwood, Mount Mercy colleges and the University of Iowa.

NewBo City Market, Czech Village, downtown Marion and the Lindale area, Coral Ridge Mall meeting most shopping needs.

A broad-based economy with many small firms and large employers including Rockwell Collins, Transamerica, Nordstrom, Quaker Oats, Penford, Cargill and General Mills.

Tenderloins.

Is there anything I would wish our civic leaders to do to improve things? Why, certainly.

Please remember, when close civic neighbors compete, citizens are left paying the bill for tax or other incentives to 'create” economic activity that would have happened anyway or which support proposals which would not have made economic sense without the incentive. I wish the leaders of Cedar Rapids, Hiawatha, Marion, Robins, Palo, Fairfax and, to our south, Coralville, Iowa City, and North Liberty, would work together to improve the entire area rather than compete as if community development were a zero sum game.

' Robert Mershon was born and raised in Cedar Rapids and has 30 years of experience in successful and not-so-successful business ventures. Comments: robert.mershon@sbcglobal.net