I'm Going to the Anti-Moen Building Group Meeting Mon., 1/28/13, 7:30 p.m., in Rm. A of the Iowa City Public Library: Hope to See You There!

Come to the new Moen building opposition group, the Coalition Against the Shadow on Monday evening, 1/28/13, at 7:30 p.m., in Room A of the Iowa City Public Library. I believe Room A is the big room off the first hallway to the right as you walk in the front door of the library. Rockne Cole is organizing the group strategy meeting.

If I'd ever in my wildest dreams imagined that the Iowa City Council would vote for the only project out of all the proposal bids submitted that didn't include New Pioneer Coop grocery store (as well as the Bike Library), I would have opposed the Moen project sooner. I'm not sure anyone else imagined that the city council would gift Marc Moen once again in its Tax Increment Financing awards for downtown projects. 

The Moen building looks green (city councilor Connie Champion "loves it!"), but it's not green. It's 35% energy efficient versus a project that would have been 89% energy efficient and included New Pioneer Coop and the Bike Library.

Isn't Iowa City supposed to be progressive? Increasingly, it's not, and that's the fault of voters and the Iowa City Council, with the exception of city councilor Jim Throgmorton.

First, there's this disturbing worship of wealth and elitism for its own sake that we're starting to see here in the way political games are played in the community. Was it always thus?

Does Marc Moen throw great parties? Johnson County Supervisor Terrence Neuzil thinks so. Has the Iowa City Council also been wined and dined? If so, is Moen's charm and money offensive really any different than the K Street mentality we all object to in Congress?

I thanked city councilor Jim Throgmorton for his vote against the Moen building at the 1/15/13 Iowa City school board meeting. He encouraged me to talk to Mayor Matt Hayek, who was right behind me. I talked to Mayor Hayek, who didn't feel that New Pioneer Coop should feel in any way slighted by the council's decision.

Seriously? No slight intended? That's not how some New Pi managers and members feel, including myself. 

Marc Moen is obviously pandering to the anti-drinking campaign by the University of Iowa and the Iowa City Council. A theater and bowling alley are obvious nods to that campaign. If the bowling alley succeeds I'll be extremely surprised. The U already had a bowling alley at the Iowa Memorial Union and it closed for lack of interest.

There's the church across the street on Gilbert and College Streets to think about, too. Those beautiful stained glass windows won't have sunlight streaming through the windows into the church if a 20-story tower is built across the street. The Moen building is too tall to fit into the surrounding area and will cast a big shadow in more ways than one.

There's too much money on the city council and not enough thought to what Iowa City has and should continue to represent as a uniquely enlightened city. We need to vote out the moneyed interests too well represented by this council. Iowa City isn't Coralville and shouldn't try to be. We don't want to be as indebted as Coralville is, either.