District 2: Paul T. Larson

The City Council has led flood-recovery in a very scattershot manner. Wants are trumping needs. Meeting space for council meetings and library siting have become more important in achieving the “new normal” than the logistics of rebuilding and/or relocating more essential city services such as the Central Fire Station and the Ground Transportation Center.

A recent rush to judgment mentality gripped the City Council on using local-option sales tax funding for permanent flood protection on both sides of the river. Our May 3 LOST vote in Linn County was a very costly election: $151,017.

If we continue to seek this funding mechanism for providing flood protection, we need to include Fairfax, Hiawatha, Robins and Marion, as we vote as a five-city block. These four cities combined make up 27.36 percent of the electorate. We need to be more of a good neighbor to our nearby cities, because they will pay the same tax as we do.

We should continue to seek other sources of revenue streams to fund flood protection.

But the issue that always comes first for any City Council is public safety. Crime prevention and quicker, more effective methodology employed to apprehend criminals are the thrust behind a new idea I've unleashed called Pinpoint Policing.

Beginning with the ground zero trouble spots within the community, Pinpoint Policing could use police reserves, retired cops, armed security guards and/or roving dispatchers. This will help bust up cyclical crime patterns that have happened in small geographic areas of our city over time. Pinpoint Policing sets the bar higher for quicker, more efficient and productive response to crime.

Pinpoint Policing, when combined with cameras, will become the new norm in public safety for a 2050 Cedar Rapids.

Aren't our residents are worth this extra layer of protection?

Paul T. Larson is a 27-year resident of Cedar Rapids, married to wife, Marilyn, for 31 years. Comments: CedarRapidsIowa@webtv.net