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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-03-02 Correspondence~~®~ CITY C-F IOWA C1T 4 1 . ,~~,~~ D ~ ~~ RAC ENIC~ Date: February 18, 2010 To: City Clerk From: Kent Ralston, Acting Traffic Engineering Planner~~ Re: Item for March 2, 2010 City Council meeting; Installation of NO PARKING ANY TIME signs on the east side of S. Riverside Drive between Commercial Drive and McCollister Boulevard As directed by Title 9, Chapter 1, Section 3B of the City Code, this is to advise the City Council of the following action. Action: Pursuant to Section 9-1-3A (12), Install NO PARKING ANY TIME signs on the east side of S. Riverside Drive between Commercial Drive and McCollister Boulevard. Comment: This action is being taken to facilitate the movement of through traffic on S. Riverside Drive. The area has become increasingly congested since the completion of McCollister Boulevard. N O C7 Y ....i W ~ n~ ~ ~~ ~~ ~_ ~ % N --.J 4 2 Marian Karr From: Risinger, Julie [mailto:julie-risinger@uiowa.edu] Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 3:35 PM To: John Yapp Cc: Kathryn Johansen; Dale Helling; *City Council; Matt Johnson Subject: RE: Greenwood Drive Railroad crossing Mr Yapp: Thank you for your response. I would assume that this would fall under the switching activity, since it occurs frequently. It's unfortunate that this occurs at the busiest time of day for pedestrian traffic. From: John Yapp [mailto:John-Yapp@iowa-city.org] Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 3:14 PM To: Risinger, Julie Cc: Kathryn Johansen; Dale Helling; *City Council; Matt Johnson Subject: Greenwood Drive Railroad crossing Hello Ms Risinger -Thank you for your note - it has been forwarded to me for a response. There is very little regulatory authority municipalities have over railroads, which are regulated by the federal and state governments. There is a state law restricting blockages of public streets for more than 10 minutes, but there are several exceptions including if the train is involved in switching activity, if there is an issue (safety-related, personnel-related, something which needs to be removed from the track, etc) further down the track which needs to be resolved, or to avoid conflict with another train on a parallel track or an intersecting track. We will contact the Iowa Interstate Railroad about the Greenwood Drive situation on the date you describe, including your observations of the pedestrians climbing between the cars. You are correct that when pedestrians do this, they are putting themselves into a dangerous situation, which if the Police observe can be actionable. The Iowa Department of Transportation has some other information on railroads and crossings at: h ttp_//www,iowad ot_ g ov/i owa ra i U Regards, John Yapp, Transportation Planner From: Risinger, Julie [mailto:julie-risinger@uiowa.edu] Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 8:56 AM To: Council Subject: railroad crossing I work at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics and drive to work every morning via Greenwood Dr. Occasionally I have to stop for a train at the railroad crossing and have been concerned that when the train stops, people 2/25/2010 Page 2 of 2 (especially students) climb over the stopped railroad cars to get to the other side. This morning the train blocked the intersection for 33 minutes (I timed it), and I saw at least 20 people climb over the cars, some only seconds before it started up again. I have even seen people carry a bicycle over the car. This is a very dangerous situation and makes me cringe to see it happen. Are there city ordinances, or any other regulations, regarding the length of time a train can block a street? Thank you for your consideration of this matter. Julie Risinger 20 Arbor Hill Circle #39 Iowa City, IA Julie-risinger@uiowa.edu This correspondence will become a public record. 2/25/2010 4 3 Marian Karr From: Sarah Clark [sclark52245@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 12:16 PM To: Council Subject: Reconsideration of urban chickens Dear Mayor Hayek and Honorable Council Members: I write to ask you to reconsider your decision to remove the matter of urban chickens from the Council's working agenda. Keeping a small number of backyard chickens is part of a growing national movement in favor of local, sustainable food sources. I see no reason Iowa City should be an exception. I moved to Iowa City last fall; the city I left - San Francisco - has an ordinance permitting backyard chickens. San Jose, Oakland, Berkeley and Los Angeles do, as well. Closer to Iowa, the cities of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Madison, Ann Arbor, Lincoln, Omaha and Chicago allow their residents to raise chickens. There is no need for City staff to reinvent the wheel when it comes to researching and drafting ordinance language from scratch - they can review and adopt appropriate language from any of the municipalities that have already successfully tackled the issue. I appreciate the fact that two Council members were in favor of continuing the discussion on urban chickens. I hope that the remainder of the Council voted to drop the matter based on an incomplete understanding of the issue. When hundreds of residents express an interest in an issue, I would hope (and expect) elected representatives to give the matter a fair hearing. Respectfully, Sarah Clark 509 Brown Street 1 r ~`_,_,®~~ CITY OF IOWA CITY ~'~~~ RA~DUM ~E~C~ ~~ Date: February 24, 2010 To: Marian Karr, City Clerk From: Melissa Miller, Revenue & Risk Manager Re: Insurance Requirements for Taxi Cabs ~4~~~A,~e~~ Per your request, I've reviewed the current insurance requirements for taxi cabs. I reviewed the information provided by FiveStars Taxi, researched the requirements of other municipalities, and asked the City's insurance broker for annual premium comparisons for different Combined Single Limit liability policies. The current insurance requirements were established a number of years ago in consultation with the City's insurance broker. It is Risk Management's recommendation that the City maintains the current insurance requirements. Please let me know if you have any questions or I can be of further assistance. 4 4 FiveStars Taxi 2117 S Riverside Dr. Iowa City IA 52246 February 16, 2010 City of Iowa City City Clerks Office 410 E Washington Iowa City IA 52240 To whom it may concern: I am a long-time resident of our city, and I am writing to express my concern about a recent discussion and the pending decision regarding review of liability insurance responsibility for Taxi companies in Iowa City. During my research of other cities and their Taxi/Chauffer codes regarding insurance I found that Iowa City has a much higher liability requirement than other cities. Five Stars Taxi is requesting that this matter be reviewed for the purpose of lowering the amount paid for this requirement. I have included some of the information gleaned from other cities and their municipal codes regarding these fees. Sincerely, ~ ~ ~ ~ 1~-~~~ Rr~ 1" E's I ~.=~ ~~~;-1,11 ~.. O C7 O ..,,t LA T ® ~ 3C _ ~~ Sterling Codifiers, Inc. i' ~. ~ " ~ ~_ry _~- . ~ _ ~_. ~ ' ~ ~ Page l of 1 5-2-3: LIABILITY INSURANCE REQUIREMENTS: A. Requirements: 1. As a condition to receiving a taxicab business license or a vehicle decal, the applicant shall file with the dty deck evidence of liability insurance coverage via a certificate of insurance which shall be executed by a company authorized to do insurance business in this state and be acceptable to the city. Each certificate shall list all vehicles licensed to the company. It is the responsibility of the company to file with the city clerk one certificate per company listing all vehicles. (Ord. 06-4243, 11-14-2006, eff. 3-1-2007) 2. Each certificate shall provide for ten (10) calendar days' prior written notice to the city deck of any nonrenewal, suspension, cancellation, or termination. A taxicab business licensee shall provide at least ten (10) calendar days' written notice to the city dark of any nonrenewal, suspension, cancellation, or termination of the policy of insurance. (Ord. 07-4292, 11-5-2007, eff. 3-1-2008) 3. The minimum limits of such policy shall be determined by city council resolution. 4. The cancellation or other termination of any insurance policy or certificate shall automatically revoke and terminate the licenses issued for the taxicab business and the vetucles covered by such insurance policy, unless another policy, complying with this chapter, shall be provided and in effect at the time of such canadlatipn or termination. The dty clerk shall immediately issue written notification of the revocation of all licenses for the taxicab business and the vehicles covered by such insurance which is canceled or terminated. All decals must be returned to the city Berk. Subsequent issuance of business licenses and deals will be in accordance with the terms of this chapter and at the applicant's expense. (Ord. 06-4243, 11-14- 2006, eff. 3-1-2007) N O ~ O ~ "~ 1 .~ ~ ~.. 3=~ rTJ ~ http:llwu~_sterlingcodifiers_corns/eodebook/getBookData.php?id=&chapter id=7367&key... 2/16/2010 City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa -City Clerk Page 1 of 1 Busness F~pticac~_~ $30.00 Same form is used for new license and for license renewals. Required Attachments: Zoning Certificate received from the t3uildina Deoartn~eni Copy of lease and/or rental agreement, if applicable Driver Ap~~lica~ion $8.00 Same form is used for new license and for license renewals. Required: 3 photos (chest/head shot looking at the camera); dimensions: 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" Please visit the Iowa Department of Transportation, Off c2 q~ Driver Services. website for information on obtaining an Iowa Chauffeur's License. Criminal t'istory Records The City will submit this completed form to the Iowa Division of Criminal Check_ReauestForm Investigation. $12.00 Email request sent $13.00 Postal request sent $15.00 Fax request sent Vehicle License Taxicab /Limousine /Shuttle Vehicle License (expires on June 30 of each year) for renewal of license or new license issued in July, August, or September $31.50 for new license issued in October, November, or December $24.00 for new license issued in January, February, or March $16.50 for new license issued in April, May, or June $9.00 Certificate of Insurance n/a Required for Taxicab !Limousine /Shuttle Vehicle License In order for an insurance policy to be approved by the City Attorney it must meet the requirements of the City Council. These requirements are as follows: An original policy or certificate of insurance with an original penned signature of the agent writing the policy. No typed or stamped signatures will be accepted. The name, address, and phone number of the agent signing the policy must be typed under his/her signature. A copy of a Power of Attomey or some other document (copy of insurance license) showing the agent's authority to sign for the insurance company must be attached to the policy. Minimum limits of liability: Personal Injury/One Person $250,000 Personal Injury/All Persons $250,000 Property Damage $250,000 or Combined single limit in the amount of $250,000 Must state on certificate: "Before a policy may be suspended or cancelled, the City Clerk's Office of the City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, must receive 10 days prior written notice of such proposed suspension or cancellation." The year, make, and VIN number of the vehicle being covered shoe be listed on the insurance certificate. _ Ca The effective dates of the policy must cover the full te~jt of the li e~'~j, se which is July 1st to June 30th. ~ C7 '~7' The City of Cedar Rapids and its employees are namediti~ insureds. ~"~...~ -.~ «~~,..,~, ,,.~;°~" ~ A ~' `-° ~ http://www.cedar-rapids.org/clerk/licensing taxicab.asp 2/16/2010 .-__.. ..~._. ~} ~, _ Information regarding insurance for Taxi Cabs in Des Moines IA was gleaned from the following: http:%librar}`'.nlunicade.c~~n1%`default-test'hc~me.hti~~`.'infi}base 1~?-i~'&doc_a::trc~il-«hatsnet~ Sec. 126-187. Liability insurance. (a) A certificate shall not be issued or continued in effect unless and until the owner of the taxicab business furnishes to the traffic engineer an insurance policy or policies, or certificate of insurance, issued by an insurance company having an A.M. Best rating of no less than B+. The policy(ies) shall include commercial general liability insurance coverage and automobile liability insurance coverage, or the equivalent thereof, for the taxicab business and independent contractors of the taxicab business. The commercial general liability insurance shall include coverage for bodily injury, death and property damage with limits of liability of not less than $750,000.00 per occurrence and aggregate combined single limit. The automobile liability insurance shall include coverage for bodily injury, death and property damage with limits of liability of not less than $750,000.00 per occurrence combined single limit. (b) The certificate of insurance referred to in this section shall provide that the insurance policy or policies have been endorsed to provide 30 days advance written notice of cancellation, 45 days advance written notice ofnon-renewal, and ten days advance written notice of cancellation due to nonpayment of premium, and that these written notices shall be provided by registered mail to the traffic engineer. (c) The cancellation or other termination of any required insurance policy shall automatically revoke and terminate the certificate and all licenses issued for the taxicab business, independent contractors and the vehicles covered by such insurance policy(ies), unless another policy(ies}, complying with this section, shall be provided and in effect at the time of such cancellation or termination. The traffic engineer shall immediately issue written notification of the revocation of said certificate and all licenses for the taxicab business, independent contractors and the vehicles covered by such in~rance which is cancelled or terminated and shall file a copy of such notice with the city council. (C42, §§ 23-11, 23-12; 0.4898; C54, C62, §§ 56-35, 56-37, 56-43; 0.7959; C62, § 56-6; C75, C79, § 19-129; 0.10,060; C85, § 19-129; 0.11,580; C91, § 19-129; 0.13,699, 14,805) N O d ~~ Q W ~ ~ '~ ~ ~ „'~ ~~ ~ ~~ ~ _ ~~ ~ .~' l.p 4 5 Marian Karr From: schulz@cooper.edu Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 3:38 AM To: Council Subject: Suggestions from a Student Dear City Council, My name is Karl Schulz, I am a 2009 graduate of Iowa City High School and am currently attending architecture school at The Cooper Union in New York City. I grew up in Iowa City my whole life, up to graduation. I love downtown Iowa City, and think that there is great opportunity for developing the Near Southside area in a way that would enhance the entire community and make the whole of Iowa City (especially the downtown area), an even more fun and vibrant place. I was wondering if the City was still planning on implementing any of the plans proposed by the 1995 Near Southside Design Plan produced by Gould Evans Associates. There were some very good ideas in that plan, especially, in my opinion, the creation of green spaces, the extension of a city plaza area along Clinton street, the creation of higher density housing, and the construction of a public outdoor skating rink. Of the outdoor ice rink especially, I think that it should be a more immediate goal as it would truly benefit the entire city by making the area more of a destination, and spurring of the growth of small businesses in the area. It would also be a good solution to the lack of free or inexpensive public activities and would show that the city is asserting the problem of binge drinking by trying to provide alternate activities. I know that during my High School years I would've loved to just travel a few minutes to be able to go Ice Skating, especially in the dead of winter when there is even less to do. So, from someone who cares about Iowa City and has an interest in its urban development (since it is part of my education as an architect), I hope that the City Council makes the creation of a public skating rink, and the development of the Near Southside according to the 1995 Gould Evans plan a greater priority. Best Regards, Karl Schulz 1 4 g Dear Matt Hayek, I think that Iowa City should still have curfew just for the kids that are 16 and under. I know that some kids 17 and older get in trouble. I don't think they should have a curfew because they are almost adults. They are going to have to learn from their actions and I know that curfew is not going to do it. I am almost 17 yrs of age and I don't want to have a curfew because I am going to want to stay outside later than 12 o clock. I think that these kids should get punished more severely because curfew is not going to stop them from what they were doing before. Some bad things about not having a curfew for kids 17 and older are that they might still be outside getting in trouble late night. The kids that bring this entire: c:txfeti~ upon us probably still be outside and do the same stuff they were doing before like robbing people, stealing, fighting, and shooting guns. A lot of teenagers have jobs. They are important to the Iowa City economy. The Iowa City Council should appreciate the work that they are doing for the community instead of being punished because of what the younger teens are doing. Sincerely, ~~cru~-~ ~~Y~~- Bernice Hamilton c~ ~ B ~ ~~ ~d ~ ~~ ~- t~ .~ Qa ~ ~ ~ ~ o O o 03-02-10 4 7 Marian Karr From: cliff pirnat [cpirnat@mchsi.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 8:06 AM To: tjohnson@ci.coralville.ia.us; Council Subject: flood preparation Seems that with all the news of snow cover, and the Federal Government warning of flooding, it is time for the city and state leaders to act. It is time pressure is applied to the Corp of Engineers to lower the Reservoir to river level before the melt down and rain. The people on the Cedar River have no options, except to move. We have the Reservoir to help control flooding It was not built for fishing and boating. Of course all towns and cities along the river can raise taxes to clean the pending mess up again, but we do have a alternative. cliff pirnat Iowa city,IA 1 4 8 Ryan O'Malley 2634 Hillside Dr. Iowa City, IA 52245 Attn. Mayor Hayek City Hall 410 East Washington Street Iowa City, IA 52240 Dear Mayor Hayek, I am writing to you to inform you about an opportunity that 1 think will be of interest to the citizens of Iowa City. Last week, Google Inc. announced plans to roll out a high speed fiber optic Internet service for trial in select cities in the United States. Google promises to work in conjunction with the city government and local providers in order to install and run the system. They promise that citizens will be able to access the Internet at a download speed of lgbs (100 times faster then what is currently offered in most cities of the United States). I think Iowa City is exactly what Google is looking for and would be a great place for their project. The excellent job you and the rest of the council have done has won us the Healthiest City in the United States award and is something in which all citizens should be proud. The vast integration of geo-thermal heating and cooling technologies throughout the town has shown Iowa City's commitment to be green. I think this is another great idea to advance in this great city and it would allow us to flourish in the modern era of rapid technological growth. I am asking you, Mr. Hayek, to consider putting in an application from the city government. Despite being a young citizen of Iowa City of only 14 years old, I feel compelled to make a difference in my community. One thing I do to help my community is volunteering at the Senior Center, which I have done for over a year now. I hope making you aware of this opportunity may also be helpful to our great city... Please consider applying Iowa City for the Google fiber service as a government official. You can find the application page at http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/. I already put in a citizen nomination in order to get Iowa City on their list. The deadline for application is March 26th. I believe this service will bring many benefits to the Iowa City community and I would like to see it happen. Thank you for your consideration. Yours sincerely, ,,,,, _ ca t r 0 r ~ f ~~ ~ -i ~'? "~ ~-; -II Ryan O'Malley ' ~= rv ~- co 4 9 Marian Karr From: Roberts, Cindy [cindy-roberts@uiowa.edu] Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 1:14 PM To: Matt Hayek; Regenia Bailey; Mike Wright; Susan Mims; Ross Wilburn; Council Subject: letter to the Mayor and all council members from Cindy Roberts Attachments: 2-22-10 IC Council letter--Scattered Site Task Force.doc Attached letter to Mayor Hayek and Council members Topic: Scatted Site Housing Task Force Date emailed: Monday, February 22, 2010 Thank you for forwarding this on, Cindy Roberts 2034 Grantwood Street Iowa City, IA 52240 2/22/2010 Dear Mayor Hayek and City Council Members, I'm looking forward to the Council revisiting the 2005 Scattered Site Task Force report. As a resident of the Grant Wood neighborhood, I remember the public forums held as part of that work several years ago. I was encouraged that such a review was being done. The 2005 report concluded that concentrations of assisted housing were a growing issue for certain neighborhoods and needed to be addressed as a matter of policy. However, since that review and subsequent report I've wondered what has happened to many of the recommendations? Maybe there were some changes in some areas of Iowa City---but in my corner of the world--it seems like the report was forgotten. What a tremendous amount of work by many to be seemingly filed away. Three recommendations from the report that stood out for me as a resident are: .Educating the community about the importance of affordable housing and the impact of allowing the status quo to continue This may be the most critical -and perhaps the most challenging objective to accomplish. Too many inaccurate and incomplete perceptions exist about affordable housing and the need to include this throughout a community. Too often NIMBYism (Not in My Back Yard) defeats a developer working thru the process of rezoning and public hearings. .Committing resources to encourage future assisted housing to be placed in underrepresented areas. Research, in general, shows that high concentrations of assisted housing in any one area is not in the best interest of those individuals who qualify for such assistance nor for the surrounding neighborhood. Inclusionary zoning is something that can work successfully-and it starts with a commitment for change. Many cities have successful inclusionary zoning policies. The university town of Boulder, CO has a long history of inclusionary zoning. .Not supporting additional assisted housing in areas with existing high concentration At the time of the task force review, several Iowa City neighborhoods already had a high concentration of assisted housing. Those concentrations have continued to increase since 2005. In my own Grant Wood neighborhood, several assisted housing developments have been approved and built (or in the process of )since 2005. Noted below is how the F&RL (free and reduced lunch) percentages have consistently increased over the last 15 years at Grant Wood Elementary. Granted, students receiving F&RL are NOT necessarily in assisted housing. I use the stats below mainly to note the dramatic increase in those overall percentages at one neighborhood school. Grant Wood Elementarv F&RL 1995 19% 2004 45% 2010 65% My neighborhood, as well as others, need help from a variety of resources to help initiate change and create a better future. Let me assure you, there are many residents out there who are actively trying to make a positive difference. However, part of our reality as volunteers is that our resources and time are limited. It goes without saying, your help and support is needed in those initiatives that can promote change in housing issues. As has been stated in the past with other topics---this is not an issue for just the neighborhoods of southeast Iowa City, this is an Iowa City community issue. Thank you, Cindy Cindy Roberts 2034 Grantwood Street Iowa City, IA City of Iowa City and ICCSD resource documents used: -2005 Scattered Site Housing Task Force report -October 17, 2005 City Council Work Session discussion -2007 Housing Market Analysis Report/City of Iowa City/Planning and Community Development -ICCSD School Boundary Redistricting Information -City of Boulder website: http•//www bouldercolorado.aov/ 4 10 Marian Karr From: John B Hudson [John.B.Hudson@att.net] Sent: Saturday, February 20, 2010 4:51 PM To: Council Subject: Drinking behavior Attachments: Drinking Games -New Yorker 2-15-10.pdf To: Members of the City Council of Iowa City, Iowa From: John B Hudson Subject: Drinking behavior Drinking behavior is influenced by many factors, not least of which is social expectations and cultural attitudes. The attached article from the New Yorker magazine reports some interesting research results about this issue, which I wish to bring to the attention of the City Council. The article presents a different paradigm from the dominant thinking on the issue of drunken behavior. --------------------------------------- John BHudson Iowa City IA UNESCO City of Literature This email may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient (or have received this email in error) please notify the sender immediately and destroy this email. Any unauthorized copying, disclosure or distribution of the material in this email is strictly forbidden. This correspondence will become a public record. 2/22/2010 ANNALS OF ANTHROPOLOGY Dii~INI~IN~ ~AN1ES How ~rtuch people drink may matter less than how they drink it. [3Y MALCOLM GLADWELL In lc?5(~, Lhvight Heath., a graduate student in anthropology at Yale University, was preparing to do field work fir his dissertation. He was inter- ested in l~md reform and social change, and lus first choice as a study site was "I~ibet. Bur six months before he was to go there he gat a letter from the Chi- nese government rejecting his request for a visa. "I had to find a place where you can master the literature in four months, and that was accessible," Heath says now. "It was a hustle." Bo- livia was the next best choice. He and his wife, Anna Cooper Heath, flew to Lima with their baby boy, and then waited for five hours while mechanics put boasters an the p.lane's engines. "These were planes that the U,S. had dumped after World War II," Heath recalls. "TlYey weren't supposed to go above ten thousand feet. But La Paz, where we were headed, vvas at twelve thousand feet:' As they flew into the Andes, Cooper Heath says, they looked down and saw the remnants of "all the planes where the boasters didn't work," Liam La Paz, they travelled five hundred miles into the interior of east- ern Bolivia, to a small frontier town called Montero. It was tlxe p~u-t of B~- livia where the Amazon Basin meets the Chaco-vast stretches of jungle and lush. prairie. The area etas inhab- ited by the Camba, a mestizo people descended from the indigenous Indian populations and Spanish settlers. The Camba spoke a language that was a mixttae of the local Indian languages and seventeenth-century Andalusian Spanish. "It was an empty spot on the map," Heath says.."There was a rail- road coming. There was a highway earning. There was a national govern- ment ... aiming." They lived u1 a tiny house just out- side oftov>xl. `°I"]zero was no pavement, no sidewalks," Cooper Heath recalls. "If there was meat in town, they'd throw out t1Ye hide in front, so you'd know where it was, and you would bring banana leaves in your hand, so it was your dish. There were adobe houses witl~t stucco and the roofs, and the totivn plaza, with three palm trees. You heard the nrrnble of oxcarts. Tl1e padres had a jeep. Some of the women would serve a big pat of rice and some sauce. That was the restaurant. The guy who did the coffee was German, The year we came to Bolivia, a total of eig}Zty-&ve foreigners came into the country. It waszi t exactly a hat sl?ot." In IVlontero, the Heaths engaged in old-fashioned ethnography- "vacuuming up everything," Dwight says, "learning ever}thing." They con- vinced the Camba that they weren't missionaries by openly smoking ciga- rettes. They took thousands of photo- graphs. The}' walked around the town and talked tea whomever they could, and then I7~vightwent home and spent the night typing up his notes. They had a Coleman lantern, which became a prized social commodity. Heath taught some of the locals how to Build a split-rail fence. They sometimes shared a beer in the evenings with a Bolivian Air Force officer wha had been exiled to Mantero from La I'az. "He kept on saying, `Watch me, I will be somebody,"' Dwight says. (His name was Rene Barrientos; eight years later }ie became the President of Bo- livia, and the Heaths were invited tc~ his inauguration.} After a year and a half; the Heaths packed up their ph~- tographs and notes and returned. to 1`~Tew Haven. There Dwight Heath sat down to write his dissertation-only to discover that he had nearly missed what was perhaps the rncrst fascinating fact about the community he had been studying. Today, the Heaths arc in their late seventies. Dwight has neatly -combed gray hour and thick tortoiseshell glasses, cohol question struck him as particu- that some proportion of the poptlla- susceptible Co the eneticall as i y g on. w a reserved New T;nglander through larly noteworthy. People drank every L eekend in New I Iaven, too. His focus effects of drinking. I'o~licyrnakers, mean- i ng. w and through. Anna is more outgo They live not far from the Brown Uni- was on land reform. But who was he to while, have become increasingly in- economic and legal ted in usin t d S versity campus, in I'ravidence, in a s i g eres - tu ay no to the QuarterlyJournal of l? So he sat down and tools tt> control alcohol-related behav- Al h o co es on hrn~se filled with. hundreds of African with books and wrote up what he knew. Only after his ion: that's why the drinking age has stanaes and sculptures t - , y papers piled high on tables, and they article, "Drinking Patterns of the Bo- been raised from eighteen to twen drunk-driving laws have been. wh ne S d " sat, in facing armchairs, and told the l y , ep- o , in was publishe ivian Carnba, toughened, and why alcohol story ofwhat happened half is taxed heavily. Today, oux a century ago, fi wishing each approach to the social bur- othcr's sentences. den of alcohol is best de- "It was Augi.~st or Sep- scribed as a mixture of all tember of 1957," Heath said. three: we mor~~lize, medical- "1'Ve had just gotten back. ize, and legalize. She's tanned. I'm tanned. I In the nineteen-fifties, mean, really tanned, wluch however, the researchers at you didn't see a lot of in New the Yale Center of Alcohol Haven in those days.', " Studies found something "I'm an architecture nut, lacking in this emerging ap- Anna said. "And I said I proarh, and the reason had wanted to see the inside of to do with what they ob- this building near the earn- served right .in their own pus. It was always closed. town. New Haven was a Butl}wightsays,Younever city of immigrants Jew- knave,' so he walled over ish, Irish, and, most of all, and pulls on the door and it Italian. Recent Italian im- opens." Anna looked over at migxants made up about a her husband. third of the population, and "So we go in," Dwight whenever the Yale research- went on, `and there was a ens went into the Italian couple of Little white-haired neighborhoods they found guys there. And the}' said, an astonishing thirst for al- `~'ou're tanned. Where have cohol. The overwhelming vou been?' .And I said Bo- of them said A d i li majority ofItalian-Ameriean , one n a. v men in New Haven drank. A `Well, can you tell me how ' " group led by the director of The building they drink? Y<~le's Center of Alcohol Culture and customs help shape the way alcohol a~ects lrs. the Yale alcohol-treatment was Studies. One of the white- per- Jellinelc l~I ired men was E h clinic, Giorgio Lolli, once tember of 19513, and the queries and .interviewed asixty-one-year old fa- , . . a h<~ps the world's leading expert on reprint requests began. flooding in from then of four who consumed more than and calories a day of food h h alcoholism at the time; the other was the editor of the well- 1er 1\lark Ke1 ous ree t around the world, did he realize what t he had found. "This is so often true in and beverages-of which a third was , . reg~u~ded Quarterly,/orsrnal of ~~Str~dzes on anthropology," Anna said. "It is not wine. "He usually l7as an 8-oz. glass following his immediatel i f h fllco~~ol. Keller stood up and grabbed - I ' " y ne w e o anthropologists who recognize t alue ofwhat the}~ve done. It's every- breakfast every morning," Lolli and his c~tow any t I don Heath by the lapels: ~livia. "fell wlu~ has ever been to Br v ane else. The anthropologist is just colleagues wrote. "He always takes , one me about it!" H.e invited Heath to reporting." wine with hi.s noonday lunch-as much as 24 oz." But he didn't display write up his alcohol-related observa_ rions for his journal. he abuse of alcohol has, histori- the pathologies that typically ac- After the Heaths went Name that '` tally, been thought of as a moral company that kind of alcohol con- T nd Mormans and sumption. The man was successtiilly li M l Do you re- day, Anna said to Ihvight, aline that every- weekend we were in ms a us ing. fai many kinds of fundamentalist Chris- employed, and had been drunk only Bolivia we went out drinking?" The bans do not drink, because they con- twice in his life. He was, Lolli con- 1 do happy ind "a health d d l k code he used far alcohol in his note- t ~~ y, , e u ness e sider alcohol an invitation to wea Around the middle of the last who has made a satisfactory ~ j i d hooks was 3C)A, and when he went over his notes he frumd 30A references s n. an century, aleoholisrn began to be widely ment to life." ic had lli' li I everwaherc. Still, nothing about the al- n s e ,o considered a disease: it was recognized By the late fifties, Th1E NEW YC7RKER, FF;6RUARY 15 ~ 22, 2010 71 admitted twelve hundred alcoholics. Plenty of them were Irish. But just lorry were Italians (all of wham were second- ar third-generation imnli- ~;rants). New Haven was a nanzral ex- periment Ilere were two groups who practiced the same rcligiacr, ~iho were subject to tl~ze same laws and con- straints, and who, it seemed reasonable to s~.ippose, should have the same as- sortment within their community of those ;emetically predisposed to alco- holism. Yet the heav}~-drinking Ital- ians had nothing like the problems that afflicted their Irish counterparts. "That drinking must precede alco- holiszn is ab~~a~as,'" NCark Keller once wrote. `'Equally obvious, but not al- ways sufficiently considered, is the fact that drinking is mat necessarily fol- lowed by alcoholism." This was the puzzle of Ne«r Haven, and why Keller demanded of 1~7wight I Ieath, that day an the. Yale campus, Tell me how die Camba drink. ~"he cnrcial ingredient, in Ke~ller's eyes, had to be ctdturaL The IIeadrs had bee~~ invited to a 1?arty soon after arriving in 14lantero, and every weekend anal lzalidaY thereaf- ,`, u ~~ 't !r ~r~~ ~~`' "We coasld easily sell this~rlat~-itshows nicely." ter. It was their Coleman lantern. "Whatever the occasion, it didn't mat- ter,"Anna recalled. "As long as the party was at night, we were first on the list." The laarties would have been more aptly described as drinking parties. 'I"he bast worzld buy the first battle and issue the invitati<ans. A dozen or so people would Shaw up on Satuxday night, and the party would proceed- aften until. everyone went back to work on Monday morning. The composi- tion of the group was informal: some- times people passing by would be in- vited. But the structure of the party was heavily ritualized. The group would sit in a circle. Someone might play the dz-urns or a guitar. A battle of ruztl, Pram one of the sugar refineries in the area, and a small drinking glass were placed on a table. The bast stood, filled the glass with rum, and then walked toward someone in the circle. I-Ie stood before the "toastee," madded, and raised d7e glass. The toastee smiled and nodded in return. The host then drank half the glass and handed it to the toastee, who would finish it. The toastee eventually stood, refilled. the ~~ ~"~~ ; ~~t: glass, and repeated the ritual with someone else in the circle. When peo- ple got too tired or too drunk, they curled up on the ground and passed out, rejoining the party when they awoke. The Camba did not drink alone. They did not drink orz work nights. And they drank onlywithin the structure of~this elaborate ritual. "The alcohol they drank was awful," Anna recalled. "Literally, your eyes poured tears. The first time 1 had it, I thought, I wonder what will happen if I just vomi in d1e middle r>f the fk>or. Not even the Camba said they liked it. They say it tastes bad. It burns. The next day they are sweating this stuff. You can smell it." But the, Heaths gamely perse- vered. `"I'he anthropology graduate srir- dent in the nineteen-fifties felt that he had to adapt,,, llwight I-Ieath spud. "You don't want to afl'end anyone, you don't want to decline anything. I gritted my teeth and accepted those drinks." "We didn't get dnink that much," Anna went on, "because we didn't get toasted as much as the other folks around. We were strangers. But one zught there was this really big party- sixty to eighty people. They'd drink. Then pass out. Then wake up and party for a while. And I found, in their drinking patterns, that I could turn my drink over to Thvight. "The husband is obliged to drink for his wife. And .Dwight is balding the Caleman lan- tern with his arm wrapped around it, and I said, 'Dwight, you are burning your arm."' She mimed her husband peeling his forearm off the hat surface. of the lantern. "And he said-very de- liberately-`Sa I ant.' When the Heaths came back to New Haven, they had a bottle of the Camba's rum analyzed and learned that it was a hundred and eighty proof. Tt was laboratory alcohol-the concen- tration that scientists use to fix tissue. No one had ever heard of anyone drinking it. This was the first of the as- tanishing findings of the T-Icaths' re- search-and, predictably, no one be- lieved it at first. "Qne of the world's leading physi- ologists of alcohol was at the Yale cen- ter," Heath recalled. "His name was Lean Greenberg. He said to me, `Hey, you spin a goad yarn. But you couldn't really have dnmk that stufl;' And he needled me just enough that he knew he would get a response. So I said, `You want me to drink it? I have a bot- tle.' So one Saturday I drank some under controlled conditions. He was taking blood samples every twenty minutes, and, sure enough, .l did drink it, the way I said Z'd drunk it." Greenberg had an ambulance ready to take Heath home. 13ut Ileath de- cided to walls. Anna was waiting up for him in the third-floor walkup they rented, in an old fraternity house. "I was hanging out the window waiting for hint, and ther.e's the ambulance driving along the street, very slowly, and next to it is Dwight. >vIe waves, and he looks fine. Then he walks up the three flights of stairs and says, `Ahh, I'rn drunk,' and falls flat on his face. I Ie was out for three hours." The biggex surprise was what hap- pened when the Catnba drank. The Camba had weekly benders with labo- ratory-proof alcohol, and, Dwight T-~Ieath said, "1"here was no social pa- thc>lolry°-Wane. No arguments, no dis- putes, no sexual aggression, no verbal aggression. There was pleasant con- versation or silence." On the Brown University campus, a few blocks away, beer-which is to Camba rum approx- imately what a peashooter is to a ba- cooka-was known to reduce the stu- dent population to a raging hormonal frenzy on Friday nights. "The drinking didn't interfere with work," I--3eath went on. "It didn't bring in the police. And there was no alcoholism, either." ~~ ]~ jhat Ileath found among the ~ ~/ Camba is hard to believe. We regard alcohol's behavioral effects as inevitable. Aleahol disinhibits, we as- surne, as reliably as caffeine enlivens. It gradually unlocks the set of psycholog- ical. constraints that keep our behavior in c:hcck, and makes us do things that we would not ordinarily do. It's a drug, after all. But, after Heath°s work on the Camba, anthropologists began to take note of all the purrling ways in which alcohol wasn't reliable in its effects. In the classic. 1969 work "Drunken Comportment," for example, the an- thrc~palogists Craig MacAndrew and Robert B. Edgerton describe an etl- countcs that Edgerton had while study- ing a tribe in central Kenya. One of the tribesmen, he was told, was "very dan- gerous" and "totally beyond control" after he had been drinking, and one day Edgerton ran across the man.: f heard a cornmoticm, and saw people rm7ning past rne. C)ne young n~an crapped and urged me to flee because this dangerous drunk was coming down the path attacking all whom he met. As I was about to take this advice and leave, the drunk burst wildly into the clearing where I was sitting. l stood up, readv to run, but much to my surprise, the man calmed down, and as he walked slowly past me, he greeted me in polite, even defer- ential terms, before he turned and dashed away. I later learned that in the course of his "drunken rage" that day he had be~~uen two men, pushed down a small boy, and eviscer- ated about with a Large knife. The authors include a similar case from Ralph Beals's work amang the Mixe Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico: `Lhe iVlixe indulge in frequent fist fights, especially while. drunk. Although I probably saw several hundred, I saw no weapons used, although ^early all meu carried machetes and. many carried rifles. Most fights start with a drunken quarrel. When the pitch of voices reaches a certain point, everyone ex- pects afight. Thr men hold out their weap- ons to the onlo<,~kers, and then begin to fight with their fists, swinging wildly until one falls down. [at which point] the victor helps his opponent to his feet and usually they embrace each other. The angry Kenyan tribesman was disinhibited toward his own people but inhibited toward Edgerton. Alcohol turned the Mixe into aggressive street fighters, but they retained the presence of mind to "hold aut their weapons to the on.lookers." Something that tntly disinhibits ought to be indiscriminate in its effects. That's not the picture of alcohol that then, anthrapologists have given us. (MacA.ndrew and Edgerton, in one of their book's many wry asides, point out that we are all. acquainted with. people who can hold their liquor. "In the absence of anything observ- ablyuntoward in such. a one's drunken comportment," they ask, "are we seri- c>usly to presume that he is devoid of inhibitions?") Psychologists have encountered the same kinds of perplexities when they have set out to investigate the effects of drunkenness. One common belief is that alcohol causes "self-inflation." It makes us see ourselves through rose-tinted glasses. Oddly, though, it doesn't make us view everything about ourselves through rose-tinted glasses. When the psychologists Claude Steele and Nlahca- rin Banaji gave a graup of people a per- sontrlity dLtestiontraire while they were sober and then again when they were drunk, they foLUrd that the only person- ality aspects tl'tat were inflated bydrink- i ngwere thaw where there was a gap be- rween real and ideal states. if you are good-looking and the world agrees that you are goad-looting, dri~ttk- ing doesn't make you think you're. even better-looking. Drinking only makes you feel you're better-looking if you think you're good-looking and the world doesn't agree. Alcohol is also commonly believed to reduce anxiety. That's what a disinhibiting agent should do: relax us and make the ~vc~rldl ga away. I'cr this effect also tw-ns out to be sc- Icctive. Put astressed-out drinker in ti-ont c,f an exciting football game and he ll forget his troubles. But put him in a quiet par somewhere, all by himself; and he'll grave snore arTxiaus, Steele and his colleague Robert Ja- sephs's exl.7lanatian is that we've mis- read the effects of alcohol on the brain. Its principal. effect is to narrow our emotional and mental field ofvisian. It causes, they write, "a state of shart- sightedness in which superficially un- derst~od, immediate aspects ofexperi- encc have a disprapartionate influence on belra~tior and en~u.~tion." Alcohol makes the flung in the fore- ground even morel: salient and the thing in the baclgraund disappear. That's why drinking makes ,you thinkyau are attrac- tive wheli the world thinks otherwise: the ~ilcohal removes the little constrain and; voice from the outside world that normally keeps our self-assessments in check. Drinking relaxes the man watch- ing football because the game is front anal center, and alcoh~~~l makes every secondary consideration. fade away. But in a quiet bar his prd>blems are (rant and center-and every potentially cnmfortitig ar tuitigating~ thought recedes. Dramk- d:nness is not disinhbition. Drunken- Hess is myopia. Mvapia theory chanl;es haw we un- derstand drunkenness. Disinhibition suggdsts that the drinker is increasingly insensitive to his enviranrnentthat he is in the grip of an autonomous physiological process. Myopia theory, an the contrary, says that the drinker is, in same respects, increasingly sensi- tive to his environment: he is at the mercy of whatever is in franc of him. A graup of Canadian lasychalogists led by Tara NIacIJonald recently went into a series of bars and made the pa- trons read a short vignette. `t'hey had to imagine that they had met an attractive person at a bar, walked hire car her home, and ended up in bed-only to discover that neither of them had a condom. The subjects were then asked to respond c>n a scale of one (very un- likely) to nine (ver}~ likely) to the proposition: "If I were in this situation, l would have sex." You'd think that the subjects who had been dltinking heavily would be more likely to say that they ~vauld have sex~rnd that's exactly what happened. The drunk people came in at 5.36, on average, on the rune-point scale. The saber people came in at 3.91. "I`he drinkers couldn't sort through the lang- term consequences of unprotected sex. But then MacDonald went back to the bars and stamped the hands of same of the patrons with the phrase ` :~11[)S kills." Drinkers with the hand stamp were slightly less likely than the 'sober people to want t<a have sex in that situation: they corildn't cart through the kinds of rationalizations necessary to set aside the risk of A117S. Where norms and standards are clear and consistent, the rlrinlcer can become more rule-bound than his sober counterpart. In other words, the fiat boys driTk- ing iT abar on a I^ ridgy aught don't have to be loud and rowdy. They are re- sponding to the signals sent by their immediate environment by the ptias- ing music, by tho crush afpeople, by the dimmed light, by the countless movies and television shows and general cul- tural expectations that say that young men in a bar with pulsing music on a Friday night have permission to be loud and rowdy. "Persons learn about drtuTk- enness what their societies impart to them, and comporting themselves in cc>nsanance with these understandings, they become living confirmations of their society's teachings," 1~~Tactlndrew ' and Edgerton conclude. "Since socie- ties, like individuals, get the sorts of drunken comportment that they allow, they deserve what they get." his is what connects the examples of 1\lantero and New Haven. On the face c>f it, the towns are at opposite ends of the spectnrrxr. The Camba gat drunk every weekend an labaratorv- grade alcohol. `T'he Italians drank wine, In civil amounts, every day. The Italian example is healthy and laudable. The Camba's fiestas were excessive and surely tank along-terra physical to11. But bath communities understood. the importance of rules and structl.lre. Camba society, Dwight Heath says, was marked by a sit~tnxlar lack of"com- tnunal expression." "T"hey were itiner- ant farmworkers. Kinship ties were weak. Their daily labor tended to be solitary: and the hours lang. There were few neighborhood ar civic groups. Those weekly drinking parties were not chaotic revels; they were the he~u-t of Carnba community hte. They had a ftnlctian, and the elaborate rituals- one bottle at a time, the toasting, the sitting in a~ircle-served to give r.hc Camba's drinking a clear stnrcture. In the late nineteen-forties, Phyllis Wil.liarns and Robert Straus, two soci- ologists at Yale, selected ten first- and second-generation Italian-Americans from. New Haven to keep diaries de- tailing their drinking behavior, and their entries show how well that cam- munity understood this lesson as well. Here is dyne of their subjects, PlTilo- mena Sappio, aforty-year-old hair- dresser tram an island in the Bay of Naples, describing what she drank one week in C)ctabe r of 1948: Fri.-Today for dinner 4 0~. of wine (noonl. In the eveuittg, I had fish with & a~. of wine ~~ P M.~. Sat.-Today 1 did oat feel like drutking at all. Neither beer oar any ocher alcohol. I drank coffee and 4varer. Sun.-Far dinner I made lasagna at noon, and had S or. of wine. lit the evening, I had company and took one glass of Iidlucur ~ 1 oz. srrcga) with my company. For supper-I did not have supper because 1 wasn't hungry. Neon.-r`~t dinner C drank coffee, at sup- per 6 oz, of wine (5 t.Kf.~. `hues.-~~t dinner, 4 oz. wine (naon~. t7nc of my friends and her husband tank me and my daughter out this evening in a restaurant for supper. We had a splendid supper. I drank I cyz. of vermoc.cth (S:3Q P.A-t.l and 12 oz. of vvir~e Ch P.'v1.~. 74 THE NEW YCJItKER, FEl3RUAftY 15 ~ 22. 2010 ' :;~ fi' ~ _ a /1 ice. ``'~ creasingly, drinking like everyone else. " There is something about the cultural dimension of social p.rablems that eludes us. When confronted w"rth the rowdy youth in the bar, we are happy to raise his drinking age, to tax his beer, to punish him if he drives under the influence, and to push him into treatment if his habit becomes an addiction. But we are reluc- tant to provide him with a positive and construefsve example of how to drink. The consequences ofthat failure are con- siderable,because, in the end, culture is a more powerful tool in dealing with drink- ing than medicine, econonics, or the law. For allwe know, Philamena Sappio could have had within her genome a grave sus- ceptibility to alcohah Because she lived in the protective world of New Haven's im- migrant Italian community, however, it would never have become a problem. Today, she would be at the mercy of her awn inherent weaknesses. Nowhere in the multitude of messages and signals sent by popular culture and svcial institu- tions about drinking is there any consen- sus about what drinking is supposed to mean. "Mind if I vent far a while?" a woman asks her husband, in one popular-and depressingly typical,-beer ad. He is sit- ting on the couch. She lYas just come ]tame from work. He replies, "Mind? I'd prefer it!" And he jumps up, goes to the refrigerator, and retrieves two cans of Coors Light-a brand that comes with a special vent intended to make pour- ing the beer easier. "Let's ventP' he cries out. She looks at him oddly: "What are you talking about?" "I'm talking about venting!" he replies, as she turns away in disgust. "What are you talking about?" The voice-aver intones, "The vented wide-mouthed can from Coors Light. It lets in air far a smooth, refreshing pour." Even the Camba, for all their excesses, would never have been so foolish as to pretend that you could have a conversa- tion about drinking and talk only about die can. ~~~~ `I rz'orr't know rrrzything about forest fires. I ~zte a ran~r'r. " ~k~ed.-For dinnc, ~ oz. of wine [noon] and for supper ~ oz. of v,~ine ~6 P.r4. ~. Thurs.-fit noon, coffee and at supper, 6 OZ. Of Wlll(: ~fl P.M.~. Fri.--~Tbdar~ at noon I drank orange juice; ar supper in the evening ~b P.A-t.J 8 oz. of wine. Sappio drinks Girnost evezv clay, un- less she isn't feeling well. She almost always drinks tvine. She drinks oziy at mealtimes. She rarely has mare than a glass-except c>n a special occasion, as when she and her daughter are out with friends at a restaurant. Here is another of Williams and Straus's subjects-Carmine Trotta, aged sixty, born in a village outside Sal- erno, married to a girl from his village, .father of three, proprietor of a small gr<acery store, resident of an exclusively Italian neighborhood: t~ri~ I do not gener,.nlly eat anyrizing fear brcal.fast if I have a heavy supper the night before. I (cave out eggnog and only take cof- fee w-ida «=hiskv because 1 like to have a little in the morning with coffee or with eggnog or a fevx• crackers, 41on.-~k'hc•n I drink wl7iskv before going to bed .C ahvays put it in a glass of water... . ~k'ed.-Today is rnv dai~ otf from busi- ness, so 1 (drank some beer bcc<zuse it was very her. l never drink beer when 1 am vaork- ing because I don't like the smell of hec:r on my k~xcath for m}~ customers. Thurs.-l::very time that I buy a horde of whisky I always divide sarue, Une half at home and one half in my shop. Sappira and "I"tetra do not drink for the same pzu-pose as the Camba: alco- ~V( \U~V' yl I li' Ji hol has no 1•arger social ar emotional re- ward. It's food, consumed. according to the same quotidian rhythms as pasta or cheese. But the content of the rules matters less than the fact of the nrle, the existence of a drinking regimen that both encourages and constrains alco- hol's use. "I went to visit ane of my friends this evening," Sappio writes. "We saw tele~risan and she offered me b oz. of wine to drink, and it was gaud (9 P.N1.]:' She did. not say that her friend put the bottle on the table or offered her a second glass. Evidently, she brought out one glass c>fwine far each of them, and they drank together, because ane glass is what you had, in the Italian neighborhoods of New Haven, at q P.iV'l. while watching television. Thy can't we all drink like the Ital- ~~r V ions of New Haven?The flood of immigrants who came to the United States in the nineteenth centlrry brought with them a wealth of cultural models, same of which were clearly superior to the pattenxs of their new lzast-and, in a perfect world, the rest of us would have adapted the best ways of the ncwcom- crs. It hasn't worked out that way, though. Americans did not learn to drink like Italians. CJn the contrary, when researchers followed up anItalian- Americans, they found that by the third and fourth generations they were, in- BLOCK Tf1AT b4I:TAPHO R! frrr~a tine Sarcrsotu (Flu.) Hernlr~ Ti•ilunte. "Hc had his hack against the wall and. Sun`I'rust was playing hardball," said John Patterson, C:aninu's longtime Sarasota law- yer. "When someone really gets their back against the wall and a white knight appears, the tendency is nor to kick the tires as much as you should." 76 THE. NEW YORKER. FE6RUARY 15 ~ 22, 2010 4 11 Marian Karr From: Doug Boothroy Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 10:46 AM To: 'alexander-cohen@uiowa.edu' Cc: ''City Council Subject: FW: To whom it may concern Mr. Cohen, I'm the Director of the Department of Housing and Inspections Services which is responsible for the enforcement of the City's snow/ice removal ordinance. The $75 administrative fee was established by the City council on February 10th 2009 to help cover the administrative costs for the City to inspect and cause the removal of snow/ice in situations where citizens fail to comply with the law. The administrative costs include two inspections, office time taking phone complaints, organizing information, computer entry, billing, as well as costs for vehicle usage and other overhead expenses. As a reminder, it is the obligation of a property owners to remove snow/ice from public sidewalks fronting their property within 24hr after the cessation of a weather event. Failure to remove snow/ice may result in the City having the snow removed and the expenses incurred charged to the property owner. In those situations where there are repeat violations, the City may issue a municipal infraction(fine) of $250 in addition to the cost of snow/ice removal. From: Kathryn Johansen Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 4:23 PM To: Doug Boothroy Subject: FW: To whom it may concern Hi Doug, The following email was sent to City Council. If you respond to Mr. Cohen, please cc City Council. Thanks, Kathi From: Cohen, Alexander H [mailto:alexander-cohen@uiowa.edu] Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 3:49 PM To: Council Cc: McGrath, Robert J Subject: To whom it may concern To the City Council of Iowa City, I'm writing in protest of the city's snow removal policy for public sidewalks. Specifically, I take issue with the '$75.00 administrative fee' associated with failure to clear sidewalks. While I understand that it's in everyone's best interest to encourage residents to clear ice and snow, a $75.00 'administrative fee' (plus whatever the actual snow removal costs) is absurdly excessive. Also, you might as well call it a 'fine' instead of an 'administrative fee'. Even if you take into account the time, energy, orange paper, and gasoline associated with distributing warning notices and contracting out snow removal when needed, there is no way that $75.00 per offense merely covers the city's costs. Especially considering the city does not remove the snow itself. 2/24/2010 Page 2 of 2 $75.00 is a very large sum of money. For me, it's the equivalent of an 9-hour workday. I am a graduate student. I have lived here for five years. I pay taxes and I pay to park my car in city lots. But, sometimes, I do go out of town for a few days. Sometimes, I work twenty hour days. Sometimes, I'm simply not able to 'clear the sidewalk to cement' within 24 hours of the end of precipitation. I also can't afford to hire someone to do this for me. A small fine of $10.00 is more than reasonable for this type of thing. You could even fine people more than $10.00 on subsequent offenses. You get the same effect without being overbearing, and you don't unduly punish financially strapped poor citizens (like myself) for making a small mistake in planning their week. I also find it ironic that I have been warned for this infraction at times when the city has been not yet bothered to clear many inches of snow off the street in front of my rented property. Sincerely, Alexander Cohen 2/24/2010 ~`~ Ci~~ Marian Karr From: iccccommittee@pro-democracyadvocacy. net Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 8:47 AM To: Council Cc: alexander-cohen@uiowa.edu Subject: Iowa City Snow Removal Policy Iowa City Citizens Community Committee would like to comment on the electronic message and postal discourse by and between Alexander H. Cohen, Marian Karr of the Department of Housing and Inspections Services, and Iowa City Council about Iowa City Snow Removal Policy. Snow removal from public-access sidewalks in Iowa City limits has been a problematic situation for pedestrians at some locations. A few property owners and contractors have pushed and shoved snow using snow plows from private off-street parking areas onto sidewalks, and where no sidewalks are provided on public rights-of-way, snow has been pushed and shoved using snow plows from private off- street parking areas onto the side-of-the-road pedestrian accessways, in all of these circumstances causing pedestrians to walk in the street area where vehicles travel. A few property owners both commercial and private have neglected to remove snow from public sidewalks and have neglected in providing sand grit and snow melt to prevent "glare ice" and slippery ice sheets from forming. Common sense dictates that it would be far too time-consumng and costly for City to provide city-wide municipal services for snow removal and ice hazard mitigation on sidewalks. Therefore, it has been a duty and in many cases an honor for property owners to provide safe walking conditions on sidewalks for their fellow citizens. Indeed, there are those who heed the need for such responsibility even though it is regarded by them to be a bother, but it is done never-the-less both because it is required by municipal ordinance and includes the extent that failure to comply can result in fines and cost penalties to be levied upon non-compliant property owners. It is hoped that in addition to this fact, that possibly the municipal codes and ordinances address the real factor of perhaps a disability exclusion to property owners of residences who can not do the work and/or who cannot afford to pay for a service whether due to physical or old-age limitations. However, with regard to the communications addressed to City Council for the March 2, 2010 Council Meeting, two points are addressed here: 1) The municipal specification that any penalties or fines must only be applied due to non-compliance after an excessive delay of response by the property owner and/or a short history of continuing incidents of property-owner non-compliance, and that there be a provision for when remedial response by the City is required due to the logical inability of the property owner to comply due to disability or age linked to lack of income to hire a service to provide compliance, and, outlining the steps to be taken by the City in such circumstances; 2) The municipal specification in any cite that the costs and/or penalties are for logical specified purposes and not for vengeance, the latter description not being required to be inclulded in writing on the cite. This Committee feels that snow removal penalties and fines in limited circumstances are entirely justified and necessary within certain defined parameters. This Committee feels that there are those who think that snow removal and ice mitigation is the responsibility of the City, and not of the responsibility of the property owner who does not own the sidewalk. But, this Committee believes strongly that there is a community-shared responsibility by property owners to mitigate litter and winter hazards from City-provided facilities, such as sidewalks, which front their property that is bequethed upon property owners for their 1 being citizen- and-community residents or businesses. Iowa City Citizens Community Committee thus advocates that such Iowa City Snow Removal Policy in its intent is entirely justified. Libris Fidelis ICCC founder Post Office Box 2146 Iowa City, Iowa 52244 > From: Cohen, Alexander H [mailto:alexander-cohen~uiowa.edu] > Sent: Friday, February 19, 2010 3:49 PM > To: Council > Cc: McGrath, Robert J > Subject: To whom it may concern > To the City Council of Iowa City, > I'm writing in protest of the city's snow removal policy for public sidewalks. Specifically, I take issue with the '$75.00 administrative fee' associated with failure to clear sidewalks. > While I understand that it's in everyone's best interest to encourage residents to clear ice and snow, a $75.00 'administrative fee' (plus whatever the actual snow removal costs) is absurdly excessive. Also, you might as well call it a 'fine' instead of an 'administrative fee'. Even if you take into account the time, energy, orange paper, and gasoline associated with distributing warning notices and contracting out snow removal when needed, there is no way that $75.00 per > offense merely covers the city's costs. Especially considering the > city does not remove the snow itself. > 2/24/2010 > Marian Karr > From: Doug Boothroy > Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 10:46 AM > To: 'alexander-Cohen@uiowa.edu' > Cc: "City Council > Subject: FW: To whom it may concern > Mr. Cohen, > I'm the Director of the Department of Housing and Inspections Services > which is responsible for the enforcement of the City's snow/ice > removal ordinance. The $75 administrative fee was established by the > City council on February 10th 2009 to help cover the administrative costs for the City to inspect and cause the removal of snow/ice in situations where citizens fail to comply with the law. The administrative costs include two inspections, office time taking phone complaints, organizing information, computer entry, billing, as well as costs for vehicle usage and other overhead expenses. As a reminder, it is the obligation of a property owners to remove snow/ice from public sidewalks fronting their property within 24hr after the cessation of a weather event. Failure to remove snow/ice may result in the City having the snow removed and the expenses incurred > charged to the property owner. In those situations where there are repeat violations, the City may issue a municipal infraction fine) of $250 in addition to the cost of snow/ice removal. > From: Kathryn Johansen 2 An Important Message From U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert M. Groves Marian Karr From: U.S. Census Bureau [2010census@subscriptions.census.gov] Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2010 3:09 PM To: Council Subject: An Important Message From U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert M. Groves Are you up for the "Take 10" challenge? 03-OZ-10 4 12 On behalf of the U.S. Census Bureau, we are challenging every elected official to join us in making history by helping to boost the mail back participation rates across the Nation and in your community during the 2010 Census. During each Decennial Census, the Census Bureau undertakes the count of every person residing in the United States, as mandated by Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. To encourage everyone to take 10 minutes to answer the 10 simple questions on the 2010 Census form, we are launching the "Take 10" campaign. Through "Take 10," you can visit htt~//2010 census~ov/2010census/take10map/ to get updates on the proportion of households that have mailed back the 2010 Census forms. You also will be able to view differences between your community's participation rates and those of neighboring communities or other areas across the country. The "Take 10" Challenge -Tools to Inspire the Mail Back Participation Rates for the 2010 Census During the 2000 Census, 72 percent of occupied households mailed back their forms. In 2010, we are challenging communities to do even better. The Census Bureau's "Take 10" campaign gives you a wide range of tools to inspire your community to meet our challenge. These include: An interactive, map-based, "Take 10" Web site that allows local areas to track and compare their 2010 Census mail back participation rates, which will be updated on a daily basis at http !/2010.census.,gov/2010census/take10ma~/, and to look up their 2000 Census participation rates. An electronic to.o_Ikit is available which includes talking points, sample speeches, new releases, newsletter copy, event suggestions, flyers, stickers, and doorknob hanger templates, and more. Suggestions on how to use friendly competition with other communities to inspire your community to participate in the census. As an elected official, you can play an important leadership role in encouraging your constituents to mail back their forms. The 2010 Census questionnaires are delivered from March 15-17, 2010. From the time the forms are delivered until the closing of the mail campaign at the end of April, you have the opportunity to remind your constituents of the importance of mailing back their census forms and the impact of the census on their communities. We believe that you can encourage participation through speeches, special events, and challenges. The stakes are high; an accurate count of the local population helps to ensure that your constituents receive their fair share of federal funding. This funding includes resources for services, such as health care, education, and roads. Your constituents must complete and mail back their census forms between March 15, 2010 and April 15, 2010. The good news is that the 2010 Census questionnaire is one of the shortest in history-just 10 questions that only take about 10 minutes to complete. We hope we can count on you to encourage your community to participate in the 2010 Census. Visit htt~/2010 census gov/2010census/take10map/ now to see your area's 2000 Census mail participation rate and check the site daily for updates. The 2010 Census: It's in our Hands. Sincerely, Robert M. Groves Director U.S. Census Bureau 2/18/2010 4 13 0 the . us>En Fellowshi H ~~ o Opening the doors of Johnson County ~'I~° f~ _ "C7 322 E. 2"d St. C~ ~' Iowa City, IA 52240 -- ..:- Office 319-358-9212 w Fax 319-358-0053 February 22, 2010 Iowa City City Council City Hall 410 East Washington Street Iowa City, IA 52240 RE: Correspondence from Mr. and Mrs.lohn Naeve Dear Mayor Hayek and Members of the City Council: On behalf of the Board of Trustees of The Housing Fellowship, I am writing to respond to the Correspondence you received from Lauren and John Naeve and signed by some neighbors and businesses of the Olde town Village neighborhood. The letter expresses opposition to The Housing Fellowship's construction of two zero lot two-family residential homes (four dwelling units) on Westbury Court. The homes will be constructed for rental dwellings. the Housing Fellowship is committed to providing quality homes that are affordable to people with limited incomes. To the best of our knowledge, we have followed all appropriate measures to meet laws and related requirements in order to receive federal and local funds to assist in the construction of these homes. The City of Iowa City has been a long and supportive partner in these efforts. BOARD OF TRUSTEES Steve Atkins AI Axeen Glorine Berry John Bovey Charlie Eastham Jeffery Ford John Gianola Kevin Hanick Sally Jablonski Dick Klausner Rick Oehler Royceann Porter Christy Wolfe Certainly the Naeves' and other signers have a right to express their opinion concerning the efforts of The Housing Fellowship. We believe that the letter contains misrepresentations, or at the very least, a misunderstanding of our mission and practices. Their letter states concerns about building design and scale. The use restrictions of the protective covenants of the subdivision call for 41% of the lots to be for zero lot two-family residential purposes, United. Way of Johnson County notably, precisely what The Housing Fellowship will do. The buildings to be constructed are immediately adjacent to other zero lot line lots. The letter states that the signers "chose this development because its higher density was attractive." This contradicts their previous statement that they "oppose more intensive development. Olde Towne Village is a newly constructed mixed use development with a variety of housing types and commercial establishments. It is also our understanding that Olde Towne Village includes a number of rental homes. The house plans meet the size and design requirements of the protective covenants. As required, the plans and specifications were submitted and were approved and signed off on by Three Bulls Development on July 28, 2009. The land was appropriately zoned at the time of purchase and the City has issued building permits. Three Bulls Development approved the exterior appearance (colors, materials) on February 17, 2010. The Housing Fellowship has engaged a development team consisting of experienced professionals including architect, engineers, and contractors to ensure the highest quality of construction. The letter expresses a concern due to the high water content in the hillside. Again, The Housing Fellowship has engaged experienced professionals to design and construct quality structures. Terracon Consultants, Inc. has conducted soil borings testing and will design and monitor the construction of a retaining wall. The plans and specifications have been reviewed by various City Departments and approved accordingly. The Housing Fellowship will adhere to all requirements of the law regarding excavation and surface water and recognizes its land use responsibilities. Questions concerning the operational policies of the Section 8 rental assistance program need to be referred to the Iowa City Housing Authority. The Housing Fellowship cannot refuse to rent to a family based solely on the criterion of receipt of federal rental assistance (i.e. Section 8). We do not know whether prospective renters will be Section 8 recipients. Finally, it is troubling that some of the businesses have signed the letter. This is not to detract from their right to do so. However, we would hope these new businesses would welcome new neighbors as prospective customers. I have attached a small version of the plans so that you can see that the homes will be attractive for the neighborhood and for the home renters. The Housing Fellowship plans to move forward with the construction of the two buildings in that we have secured all required permits. We believe The Housing Fellowship has proved to be a respected provider of affordable housing with the support of many valuable partners, especially the City of Iowa City. We look forward to continued support as we work toward addressing the needs of working families in our community. Sincerely, ~~ . J '~ ~_~ ~ ~=~~ Charlie Eastham ~'-`• ~' --~ President, Board of Trustees ~ ~ ; ~ ...~ r°~- ~v ~ ~1 ~. ^°-~' N October 7, 2009 Aniston Village, LP 322 East 2nd Street Iowa City, IA 52240 Dear Maryann: ~~~®~ ~11~1111-~~~ ~~_ CITY OF IOWA CITY 410 East Washington Slrcet Iowa Ci[y, Iowa 5 2240- 1 82 6 (319) 356-5000 (319) 356-5009 FAX w~vev.iegov.org The attached plans for lots 21-24 of Oid Towne Village meet the zoning requirements for zero lot line structures as noted in the Planned Development Overlay (OPD-8). They have been approved by the Director of Planning and Community Development. Let me know if you have any questions. Sincerely, Robert Miklo Senior Planner Cc Jeff Davidson, Director of Planning and Community Development n ~ _ _ ~~ ' . ~5 [ ~ .., y~'} ..~ r~ _ ~f +~ w..,, "' N ~'/ / Y \ / ~ ~ / \ tT / I~ tD ~ .y`.ti% •F. ~/ • E~` /~9~0 / ~ / ~ ~ ~ / / N ~~ b,U ~~ m ~ rn~ ~ ~ ~N ..... ~ O . ... Ns)2' i \ \ 'e w I "`Q' ____i m i~ N `~ v N u I ~ I °o: . . ~ ~~ ~ H °' . } w ~ O'^~ i ~ a ~o °m ~~ w ~ r n1(n 1 ~ _ _ Ne _116,18 M "' ~ U N in m FC ~' O ~~ ~i ago I ~ . Zin \` lY I U m I M ~ ~ I ~ a // w ~ I~ ~ J - ~ 3 > i t~ N I N z /~ ~~/ ~ ~, wv F 0~ •yh N~ ~ I ~ j ~~ti N H a' N ~ o N ~ z ~ '/ ~, ~8,,. ~VY // QV W ~ ma I Z; ~~ ~ 9~ ~ ~~~ ^ m }vj ~~ ^N o ~ o ~ in II o n ~ o r<i N Z ~ G L ^n {.~ ,4.w ~"w ~sy `+. °i r~ ~~ rv q d N .~ ~- N Architect John F. Shawn /p~ ~/ Supplemental AIA, LEED AP, INC. Job No: THF22 P'1~ ~.5~®~ ~/ ~"a~~ Westbury Drawing Suite 305 Date: 10.07.09 ® ° • ' COUrt 221-'/z E. Washington St. C ~®"~at~d ~~~~~r~G ^1~ ~D_~ Iowa City, IA 52240 L~ ^ ~ ~ Site Plan i voice ~pyy~ (,'it ~'OW8 319.336.4344 7 `\ ~ I I I I I I I I I I I I ~_- ~ --- III III III II i J III I ~ II III 0 ,.o-,z II a II I - ~J ~- i I I I I luu l ~ N I ^ I I I ~ ... Q ~ E .~ ~ ..cr ~~ w I r,y ~ .j. I I ~ ~ tl i ~ ~ ~"" . . Architect John F. Shaw „ ® Supplemental AIA,LEEDAP,INC. Job No: THF22 ~-~1~St®, i ~~ ~~~r Westbury Drawing Suite 305 Date: 10.07.09 ~~~~~~~ c'~~~r~~i~ ~QU~ 221-Vz E. Washington St. e ~®_~ Iowa City, IA 52240 Unit H L Voice 319.338.4344 IOWF] ~It~/, I®W8 Architect John F. Shaw a s~ Supplemental AIA, LEED AP, INC. Job No: THF22 ~~' ~~®~ V' ~ ~~ ~+ Westbury Drawing Suite 305 Date: 10.07.09 L~~it~~ ®~~~~~~~~~ ~OlJ ft c 221-~/z E. Washington St. ~° V~~~ Iowa City, IA 5224 gg ~,+ U n it H R V Voice 1®~a ~.rl~~/ 319.338.4344 ~.r ~ OWE Page 1 of 3 `~~~,y~ Marian Karr From: Joyce Barker [jm1057@inabc.net] Sent: Sunday, February 28, 2010 6:30 PM To: Council Subject: this is real numbers on affordable housing Now to include my other information on mobile homes, the real affordable housing in Iowa City, You will notice below that I only have included those Mobile home parks that have decent management and websites. In total there are 16 homes available now for under $20,000. 15 year payments on a mobile home $20,000 or under is aprox $122/mo plus lot rent of $270/ month is very close to that minimum wage single earner low income status of aprox 30% of your income only for housing...$392 Believe it or not most of these homes are 2-3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, central air and all appliances... In our case a Mobile Home made sense for my husband and I as we both had low paying jobs and lots of bills to pay... Then he spent 6 of the last 20 years on disability and off work due to near terminal illnesses. So we choose to stay to keep our expenses low and to keep our maintenance low. Now approaching retirement it makes even more sense especially in this economic world we live in. Some of you will argue that you lose money on mobile homes... well.. in Iowa City even they don't do too bad... I will bare our info. We spent $21,000 on our home when we bought it (in 1990) and have been told that it would sell for $18,000..... Tell me where you could live in Iowa City for 20 years for aprox. $141 per month.. . That is including 20 years of lot rent (averaged), 20 years of property taxes we have paid in Iowa City, and loss on the value of the home.... While it is not the same as the investment of a home... We have lived in two mobile homes in 22 years... the first one my husband bought for $4000 and sold for $3500, 4 years later... the second I described above.. if you take total that we have not appreciated on the two properties for 22 years is $3,500.... I don't think that is too bad for 22 year in expensive Iowa City... We had a shocker a few years ago.. Our dishwasher line broke while we were gone for the weekend... It flooded `/z the house... I called serve pro to help... After them tearing up the flooring, cutting down 1/3 of my drywall I would have to tell you my house is built quite well. They said that all mobile homes built after 1990 are built as good as many homes. They dried out my subfloor and I was able to put things back together... So they are not the tinker toys once imagined by all. Please take the time to re-evaluate your thoughts on mobile home living.. It is truly the only low cost housing for people just starting, trying to restart, or retire..... Below I have listed the current holdings in each reputable court.... Bon Aire lot rent aprox. $270 3/1/2010 Page 2 of 3 2801 HWY 6 East Iowa City, Iowa 52240 Has 2 homes below $10,000 And 10 homes between $10,000-$20,000 And Only 6 above $20,000 Hilltop Mobile Home Park lot rent aprox. $270 2018 Waterfront Dr.#128 Iowa City, IA 52240 Has 4 homes below $20,000 Modern Mannon lot rent aprox. $300 1 below $20,000 2 between $20,000 -$37,000 Lake Ridge lot rent aprox. $300 893 Spring Ridge Dr. Iowa City IA 52246 18 between $20,000-$68,000 1 below $20,000 Sunrise Village 2100 Scott Blvd. Iowa City, Iowa 52240 Only 1 for sale for $62,000 To be fair, I tried to do a search and look for what could be considered truly affordable housing.... A house that could be afforded by the least paid person in this town.... As the numbers play out... on average 1/3 of the income of someone working a minimum wage job in this town and being the sole wage earner means that the payment would have to be less than $400 per month. I looked and there are no homes for sale for sale in this town for under the $75,000 that it would have to be to meet the payment requirements. Matter of fact.. I looked up the number of homes sold in Iowa City under those requirements.... Homes sold under $75,000 2005--129 2006--73 2007--62 2008--61 2009--43 2010-3 You notice how the numbers have dropped.... And I will tell you that if you look the ones listed up, the majority of them you will see in recent years are bank foreclosures. As a comparison..... I looked up some small, economical possible starter homes: 3/1/2010 Page 3 of 3 The first: on Ginter is a 1 bedroom with 744 sq ft. Total value in 2000 $53,700 Total value in 2003 $62,410 Total value in 2009 $94,000 Taxes 2006 $1512 Taxes 2007 $1698 Taxes 2008 $1756 The second: on J st. is a 1 bedroom with 480 sq ft. Total value in 2000 $54,400 Total value in 2009 $78,900 Taxes 2006 $1230 Taxes 2007 $1561 Taxes 2008 $1616 The third is on Raven st. and has 1008 sq. ft. 2009 133,430 2000 94,230 Taxes2006--$1954 Taxes2007--$2386 Taxes2008--$2469 Now to make a fair comparison of the cost of living in Iowa City per year as I have stated what the average is for a mobile home over a 20 year time span. So the same comparison made on these modest homes brings Counting property taxes...paid to the county over a 20 year time span....of course you have the appreciation of the house which is the plus side but the cost of the property taxes will run you on average over the 20 years $95 per month and homes have not gained as much in value the last few years but the property taxes have gone up substantially.... So we really should be paying more attention to the possibilities that already exist in this town. Not figuring how the city can support more low income by drawing in those federal dollars because there is a cost that the city pays that is not supported by HUD money... the added costs of programs, support, administration and even police.... Joyce Barker 2018 Waterfront Dr.#128 Iowa City, IA 52240 3/1/2010 (.t ~ t ~ Page 1 of 1 Marian Karr From: Jana Hanson (jmhanson5@yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, February 26, 2010 11:54 AM Subject: Housing in Iowa City I would like to encourage the Iowa City Council to take steps to improve the housing situation in Iowa City. Many young professionals and graduate students are unable to afford housing in the area. In addition, I am concerned about price fixing practices of property managers. It is quite surprising to see that rents for a variety of properties are exactly the same each year and move at the same rate. I am curious as to what sort of mechanisms are in place to protect renters and large rent increases year after year. Thanks, ]ana 2/26/2010 .. ~ ~ ~~~ ~ ~-, In regards of Affordable Housing in Iowa City it's time for the City Council to step back and take another look at this whole plan. Yes, there is a problem with affordable housing in this town and has been for years. I have lived in Iowa City my whole life and I don't know when it wasn't an issue. The City Steps plan 2010- 2015outlines several reasons for this on page 39. The high cost of land and construction, places new housing development beyond the reach of most affordable housing developers. In high cost areas such as Iowa City, market rate developments offer higher profit margins to builders and developers, thereby reducing the supply of labor and the number of firms interested in affordable housing. Market rate transactions offer fewer challenges to builders and developers and higher commissions to realtors than do affordable housing development. Market rents for students are higher than HUD Fair Market Rents there for landlords can make more money in that than in section 8. Newly built single family detached homes under $200,000 are scarce. The biggest problem I have with this plan is first of all the tax revenues that come off of the tax rolls with these projects. Currently Iowa City has $14.5 million dollars in assessed low rent property in Iowa City. The city collects only $313,000 dollars in revenue from that. There is a potential loss of $2.5 million dollars in lost revenue there. With the budget cuts our schools face this money would have come in very handy. Investors with these rental properties get a 75% discount on their property taxes. Businesses and other property owners have to make up this difference. According to the City Steps program the MFI in 2009 for Iowa City was $76,000 dollars. I have spoke with people in the banking industry and they have told me it would be hard for a family to make ends meet with that income with a $200,000 mortgage. Iowa City in 2007 (see attachment) 15% of the Iowa City population made $100,000 or more 11 °~ made between $75,000 - $99,000. Almost 74% of the people in Iowa City made $75,000 or less. So right there it tells you how many people might be financially strapped already. Then you throw in there those same people are trying to own their own home, raise a family and make up the property tax difference. Some of these same people may own businesses in this town and already pay 100% valuation on them. This town is becoming a larger retirement area and a lot of these people may be on fixed incomes. Your hearts are in the right place to solve this housing issue but it's not fair to make it any harder on families and businesses than it already is by raising their taxes to solve this housing shortage. Be it perception or fact when it comes to crime and the lowering of property values with affordable housing. It's the City, investor and landlords obligation to make sure both are never an issue. Also what does not help in this whole process that there realty is not any citizen participation in these projects as outlined by HUD. When you only put a small article in the newspaper and think that's going to read by all of those impacted you are terribly wrong. The only fair way to do it is send mailing out to those residents so many feet within the project and set up a meeting to discuss it. That way non -profit developers wouldn't have to ENDURE NIMBYISM as it states in your City Steps Program under Public Policy Barriers. ~I~E~ MAR U 1 2010 '~'-~S e m City Clerk ~ Iowa City, Iowa The real question is "how do you make it affordable for everyone to live in and ~~ have a business in Iowa City if they wish to ?This is a storm that has been brewing for years with higher city and county payrolls -benefits, high land values and a lack of prioritizing housing needs for the sometime. . FILE`. MAR ~1 ~241(~ p m . Ci~Y deck ~, Iowa Ctn .Iowa Casty of Iowa City H ousehold Income 199o-ZOO7 ~;.., r t ~ ., e Less than $10,000 4,487 21.3% • r' 3,585 14.2% ~ 3,486 ' 12.8% $10,p0pto$14,999 2,552 12.1% 2,187 8.7% 2,636 9.7°.6 000 to $24,999 $15 3,236 15.3% 3,772 15.0% 3,592 13.2°,6 , $25,p00to$34,999 3,033 14.4% 3,055 12.1% 2,207 8.1°,6 $35,000 to $49,999 2,953 14.0% 3,710 14.7% 2,853 10.5°,G $50,000 to $74,999 2,894 13.7% 3,976 15.8% 5,164 19.0°,6 $75,000 to $99,999 915 4.3% 2,278 9.0% 3,202 11.8°,6 000 to $149,999 $100 610 2.996 1,623 6.4% 2,603 9.6°,6 , More than $150,000 428 2.0% 1,001 4.0% 1,497 5.5% Total 21,108 100.0% 25,187 100.0% 27,239 100.0% Median Household hcome (ActuaQ $24,565 $34,977 Median Household hcorne (Adjusted)' $38,970 $42,115 $44,357 NOTE Includes all CityresiderNs. 'Adjusted to 2007 doNars Source: U.S. Census 1990 (STF-1, P080, P080A); Census 2000 (SF-3, P52, P53); 20pr2007American Community Survey Three-Year Estimates Cost Burden and Other Housing Problems The following narrative provides an estimate of the number and type of households in need of housing assistance. The review considers needs for the households according to the following categories: Extremely low income households (income less than 30% of MFI) Very low income households (income between 30% and 50% of MFI) Low income households (income between 50% and 80% of MFI) Households with income above 80°~ of MFI (moderate, middle, and high income households). The description of housing needs contained in this part includes discussion of cost burden and severe cost burden, overcrowding, and substandard housing conditions being experienced by income category. Estimated Housing Needs of Extremely Low, Very Low, and Low Income Households Much of the data reported in this portion of the Iowa City CP was derived from CHAS Data 2000. CHAS Data 2000 is a special tabulation prepared for HUD by the Census Bureau. HUD reports that the Census Bureau uses a special rounding scheme on special tabulation data. As a result, there may be discrepancies between the data reported by CHAS Data 2000 and the data reported by Census Summary File 3, which is the source of much of the data in other parts of the CP. FILED MAR O 1 2010 City Clerk Iowa City, Iowa >f Version ?.Q ~ ;t~~_,rC> _,. b c: `o'o qg b7n~'fD ~ `C'an ~ o ~~o ~'° ~'~o ~~ e!~~j1~8~~. ~~(°p~ o °°° pyy~7 cc ,~c~~v cyo ~ ~`C ~~ ° ~~° ~~',a,~" ° F•r O CAD ~ K ~ ~ ~ ~ C~D ry ~ ~ O '" Q4 ~+ ~~}, ~ ~q 0 ~ ~ ~ ''~' ~ o .~.+- ^y ~ ~ M ° ~ ~ ° Q' ~ ° ~ ~ may, ~ (p ~ 2~* ° ~ ~ ~. ~ (~D Z5 ~ ~ ~ ~C Fn ~ ~ t7 ~ ~ o ~ ~o ~•~' c° 5 ~C ~ ~ co .~~, x °4 coo rr ~rgx y~ ~ V] C' '~ (D .7' U1 o F: fpp~~~ n p> O~ e-r ,~~r m ~•~ •~ ~ ~ fD ~ ~ ~G ~$ ~ ~4 coo ~ 3 c o do ~~~ °_a:~ ~ ~ o X ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~~~ a.g o ° ~ cue ~ ~'o ~ ~ ~ ~ o• ~~n ~ fD ~ co co ''~, ~* ~ ~ , _ ~5'b~c ocu~o oc~acoo ~~ ooh ~* ,~~ ~ ~c~ m rm ~ ~~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~•~~~C~ m t r ~ Fo0 qq qq O ebb ~bQ'g b ~' ~ ~ ~o o ~ ~ ~ ~~ ~ ~, o ~b ~- EIo ° €R ~ Q'~ o o ~'.~ ~D c~ c o ~ ^ ^~ ~ d. p ss C c ~ .~.. fD C ~ Ir Q ~ O ~ ~~y CD 3~n"~Ac+~~s ~~a C~i~~m'L7~ ~,d ~~n`Qiyt fi7 nm~g~~ ~~.~ bas? ~~aa ~~na~ ao~'~coa~ FILED MAR U 1 2010 City Clerk Iowa City, Iowa i-+• 0 4 ~'D ~• ~' O O O c^ C"` .n '-a ~- ~ ~~ ~~ ~ .~ d .,~