Cedar Rapids at large: Susie Weinacht

Cedar Rapids is a great city, and the envy of many of our peer communities for its steady tax rates, strong housing market and diverse economy, as well as for its people. Strong progress in street repairs, neighborhood revitalization and economic development evident on all sides of town has created new momentum for an even better future.

A telling barometer of the city's strength and the leadership of the city council comes from the candidates themselves in this at-large council election. There's little difference in policy viewpoints among the candidates, who all largely favor the positive, pro-growth agenda of the city council.

I'm certainly proud of the work of the city council and what I've been able to do these past two years as part of that team. But I refuse to run solely on the status quo and what has been done. There's a lot of work still to be done, and I feel great urgency to get it done.

I'm particularly troubled by the recent uptick in violent crime. Our community has seen far too many tragedies lately, and the time for collective action to prevent them is now. We must work together as a community to curb this epidemic of gun violence. We know the origins of these problems are systemic and run deep. We also know the solutions to these problems will come in the form of sound policy and community efforts.

No one solves issues like this on their own. I've had almost two decades of boots-on-the-ground involvement in the kind of community work and coalition building that gets to sensible solutions. That type of experience matters in virtually all the work we do in local government. I've been able to have a positive impact on city council by bringing people of diverse backgrounds together for common solutions. It's why I continue to use #TogetherWeCan as my campaign theme and my philosophy toward governance. It's what helped in building a council coalition around a synthetic drug ordinance, which has given police a way to stay ahead of drug dealers who were using loopholes to legally distribute harmful drugs. It's what helped as I rallied my colleagues around an idea to get more active in youth outreach with our new #CRYOUth program. And it will be what guides all of my efforts for the citizens of this great community for the next four years.

' More information: www.Susie4CR.org; Susie@Susie4CR.org; Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram: Susie Weinacht