Uber has been welcome in Iowa City for more than a year
In February 2015, the Iowa City City Council passed an ordinance that identified Transportation Network Companies, such as Uber, and allowed them to enter the local market. Uber chose at that time to not operate here because its officials considered our safety regulations as “arcane and cumbersome.” In the meantime, the city has drafted a new ordinance that would enable Uber to steal from local businesses while operating by a different set of rules. Consequently, Uber presented Iowa City with an ultimatum: Approve this ordinance or Uber will leave.
Uber has seized on the public demand and the myopic public-relations campaign put forth by their supporters. What would it say about the integrity of our city councilors, who worked so hard to develop safety standards that the local transportation companies have willingly adopted, if they would now choose to throw those regulations aside because of an ultimatum from Uber?
Anyone who dares question this new ordinance is labeled “anti-competition” or “anti-innovation.” To the Chamber of Commerce and the Visitors and Convention Bureaus: ask the Marriott, the hotelVetro, and the Sheraton what they do when guests ask about Uber. They professionally and unapologetically order their guests a safe, reliable, and local cab. They don’t run around saying the sky is falling because we don’t have Uber.
I suggest we show our leadership with an innovative and untraditional solution to this worldwide problem rather than giving in to an ultimatum. This is the only way to ensure a level playing field and to avoid an equal protection lawsuit. Let us adopt a separate, less cumbersome ordinance that simply recognizes and allows transportation companies to operate and manage their apps in Iowa City while also recognizing that those who may choose to drive for companies have to comply with all existing ride-for-hire regulations.
We have this opportunity to avoid repeating the problems other cities around the world have experienced. We can avoid further legal costs and learn from their mistakes, which have resulted in diminished safety standards, discrimination and price-gouging lawsuits, and accidents resulting in death, just to name a few. We, the people of Iowa City, can give UBER an ultimatum: Play by our rules. We’ve gotten along just fine without you.
We are a progressive city of innovation and creativity. We’ve arrived here through hard work and thoughtful regulation. Not by allowing a monopolizing, labor standards wrecking, discriminating, privacy invader write our local laws. Show some backbone. Don’t apologize. And don’t be fooled.
Joseph Laskowski
Francis disappoints, backs discrimination
On April 8, the Vatican released the apostolic exhortation “The Joy of Love.” As a lifelong Catholic and a gay man, the proclamationis deeply troubling, because it dodges any discussion of gay marriage based in evidence.
When Pope Francis writes that “there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar remotely analogous to God’s plan for marriage and family,” it reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of what constitutes a marriage and/or family.
The church claims that “every child deserves a father and a mother.” There is no evidence that kids with straight parents have better outcomes than those with gay parents. You don’t get to make a claim that has no evidence to support it— that’s what we call a lie. It will not stand.
Francis and the Catholic Church are wrong on this one. Nobody gets to hide behind the idea of “God’s plan for marriage and family” as an excuse for hurtful rhetoric and discrimination; it’s dishonest. This kind of teaching discredits the moral authority of the church and anyone (clergy or layperson) that stands in line with it.
Unless it comes around, the church (and its people) will continue to be an agent in the discrimination it claims to seek to prevent.
Rob Humble