CR road repair process complicated, priorities misplaced

After 30 years of Cedar Rapids road repair neglect, I am pleased to see some progress. However, the street section between Wiley Blvd and Williams Blvd on 16th Avenue is an absolute disaster. Talked to someone in the city street department recently and he said that there were worse roads to repair and the 16th Ave project wouldn’t be addressed for several more years. I know for a fact that West Post Road was repaired last year and it was in far better shape than 16th Ave.

I asked the representative how priorities were determined and he gave a long “word salad” explanation. I am 85 years old and it appears that I will die before 16th is repaired. The sad part about our road situation is Cedar Rapids leadership let the streets get so bad because of misplaced priorities on other nonessential projects. I live in Arizona during the winter and I can tell you that the road situation is far better there.

One last observation on the bottle and can recycling “tax”. It is not needed. I have lived in Arizona for the last 14 years where there is no bottle and can deposit and I never see bottles or cans littering the area. This deposit is a scam and it should be repealed.

Robert Tosh

Cedar Rapids