The Core Four Win Means Iowa City Wants Change

Captions: 1. From left, Jim Throgmorton at the Labor Day Picnic; 2. On left, Pauline Taylor; on right, Rockne Cole at house party; 3. On left, John Thomas at same house party.

Incumbent progressive Iowa City Councilor Jim Throgmorton won and won big. The other two incumbents, Michelle Payne, a MidAmerican executive, and Rick Dobyns, a physician, lost and lost big. Three newcomers aligned with Jim Throgmorton’s progressive vision for Iowa City: Pauline Taylor, John Thomas, and Rockne Cole won. Pauline Taylor, a nurse and former Service Employees International Union official, won with a particularly large margin.

My friends and I are happy. Mary Murphy said she thought the movement toward the Core Four was more anti-status quo than pro Core Four. Paul Show said he voted for the Core Four because he’s still mad that the previous city council voted against bids for the building on College and Gilbert Streets that would have included New Pioneer Coop as a tenant. New Pioneer has at least 160 employees. Show’s son used to be a manager at New Pi and has since moved with his family, wife Jen and two children who were and would have been Longfellow students, to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area to work for Whole Foods.

My vote for the Core Four was a slap against Mayor Matt Hayek, Councilors Susan Mims, Michelle Payne, Terry Dickens, and Rick Dobyns. I want all of the Chamber of Commerce types out. We’ve got three out and two to go. Hayek is leaving voluntarily, and he had the nerve to swipe at the Core Four candidates and to engage in fear-mongering when he labeled the Core Four as “anti-growth.”

Shelton Stromquist disposed of Mayor Hayek’s negative campaigning against the Core Four in an outstanding editorial, “New council would buck trend,” in the 10/28/2015 Iowa City Press-Citizen.

It’s not necessary to give a millionaire developer like Marc Moen a $14+ million Tax Increment Financing (TIF) giveaway to build an energy-inefficient skyscraper in a transitional area that promises to cast a shadow over nearby Trinity Episcopal Church to achieve “growth.” Other bids were more energy efficient (85% energy efficient vs. Moen’s 35% energy efficient building) and would have included New Pioneer Coop, which has now opened a Cedar Rapids store, and the Bicycle Library. They also didn’t ask for enormous TIFs.

The fix was in. We all knew it. The Chamber of Commerce and their handlers on the city council made it happen.

Another outrage was the destruction of three Civil War-era cottages on South Dubuque Street so that an ailing landlord could maximize profits for his heirs. Destroying historic buildings to satisfy someone’s greed is not an Iowa City value. The Core Four do not represent greed at the expense of what makes Iowa City unique and different from Coralville and Everytown, America.

Why do we need Terry Dickens and Susan Mims to follow the other three incumbents on their way out the door? Terry Dickens doesn’t take an interest in city affairs unless it’s an issue that’s literally right under his nose. He took an interest in the issue of panhandlers when a panhandler or two solicited him for money as he left his jewelry store to walk to city hall. He wanted them to keep their distance. There was an issue near his personal residence. I forget what it was, but that captured his interest. Otherwise, except for chickens (I call him Terry “No Chickens” Dickens), he’s been a silent partner of the Chamber of Commerce.

Susan Mims likes to take walks in the woods near her house, or rather, the woods that used to be near her house. Yet she voted to have the woods removed, despite concerns that having the woods removed might violate the Sensitive Areas Ordinance (an ordinance the previous city council loved to ignore), because a developer wanted the land. She’s a Chamber of Commerce vote who even votes against her own best interests. Green space? Woodlands? No. Developers come first. I’d like to see her gone, too.