How I solve the city's budget crunch

Now that the Cedar Rapids City Council has come up with $2.2 million in new and increased fees, I'm off the hook for solving all of the city's budget problems (whew!) And I agree that fees are the way to go - for the most part - in making up for shortfalls by having primary users pay for those services.

That still doesn't solve the Twin Pines golf course renovation dilemma, for which I've been challenged to come up with a solution.

The Council heard a loud public outcry against a proposal last year to sell part of  Twin Pines' 150 acres to pay for up to $2 million in golf course renovations. I've heard little about a proposal for the same purpose to sell land next to Squaw Creek Park that the city owns, most of which is planted in prairie grass, along with 100 plots that city residents lease for gardens. I don't imagine that Linn County will be jumping in with a pile of money to buy and preserve that land - but what about it, current and future Linn supervisors?

Perhaps Cedar Rapids could sell clubhouse naming rights to help fund the golf course renovation. Or  look to the example set by the city of Marion in funding its library, through a public-private partnership, starting with the help of a generous donor. Let's see... are there any big-time golfers from Cedar Rapids who might be approached about such a proposal? Or they could look to the major effort led by our own Chuck Peters in finding $500,000 in community support for the four Marvin Cone and Grant Wood paintings that the Chamber planned to auction. Even the brick-by-brick naming approach could be a start. If the cause is a worthy one, people will support it. 

 I wouldn't mind having a closer place to lease a garden in the city.  Cedar Rapids might offer empty city lots for community gardens, as Boston and other cities have done. But that doesn't turn back the clock should the 90 or so acres near Squaw Creek Park be sold to developers. Once green space is gone, it's gone forever.

 I realize my friends at the gardens - the potato guy; Hippie gardener, chemical granny and others - may not have the same voice that golfers and other Twin Pines supporters do. (Some of us would oppose selling public green space at either site.) And I'm pretty sure we won't hear from the ground squirrels, monarch butterflies, goldfinch and other wildlife we regularly see in and near our gardens. So, I'd like to ask the golf course task force and City Council to take a look for themselves before they make a shortsighted decision to sell the land.

"In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." (Ecologist Baba Dioum)