Disappointed with Best Of

I just got done voting for some of the Des Moines “Best” venues, items, people, etc. in the Des Moines area. What a great way to honor local businesses; however, I was very disappointed to see “Best-Looking Media Personality (Female and Male)” as two of the categories. I could have seen this as a category several years ago, but haven’t we yet learned to move on from such labeling and trivializing?  With such a category, these people are objectified and their skills are trivialized when we focus solely on their looks. I’m not sure why the term “Personality” was even used. I’m confident that for most, personality will have nothing to do with how they vote.

Kristi Leonard
-Forest City

Jim Duncan fan

Dang, some people have to pay big bucks (or, subscribe) to read great writing like this. You are fortunate to have Jim Duncan penning articles for you.

Carl Voss
-Des Moines

Affordable Care Act is the best starting point
The Affordable Care Act changed health insurance coverage for millions of people who bought insurance that capped or excluded benefits. Before the law took effect a year ago, patients did not know if they had inadequate coverage until they were diagnosed with a catastrophic illness. Another advantage is that the nation’s uninsured rate has been cut by more than 20 percent in 2014, the largest drop in 50 years. Coventry is a private insurance company that is one of two Iowa insurance companies on the Marketplace Exchange. Unfortunately, Wellmark dominates the Iowa market and refuses to cooperate. Many are cheering that CoOpportunity, the other Marketplace company, is having financial difficulties. It did not help when a provision adopted by Congress reduced the amount of its assets by about $60 million. It is hard to understand why people get so mad about health insurance. They should understand that there are people who really, really need this law. So unless Congress votes for Medicare for all ages, this law is the best starting point for standardized health care in the private sector.

Julie Stewart Ziesman
-Waukee

Curbliner?
Civic Skinny seemed to question 62-year-old Richard Hurd’s childhood memory of riding the “street car” in Des Moines even though the last street car was retired in 1951.

Even though I am only a spry 57 years old, I, too, remember the “curbliners” or in reality electric buses in Des Moines as late as 1964.

As a child, it would be easy to confuse the two because most of our attention was focused on the rods extending from near the roof of the bus to the electric cables above.

Usually when the rod crossed an intersection of cables there would be sparks.  To many a young boy this was much more interesting than if the wheels were on a track or the road.  Easy to understand or confuse a curbliner with a street car in the eyes of a child.

Mike Rowley
-Clive
Mayor Cownie has achieved international environmental recognition for Des Moines!
Are Des Moines residents aware that their mayor, Frank Cownie, has become recognized as a national and international figure on climate change and sustainability reaching far beyond the borders of Iowa’s capital city? His passion and knowledge in championing sustainability led him to create the Mayors Task Force on Energy and the Environment which brought together representatives from across the country. His advocacy for Des Moines green initiatives led to the cities first LEED certified buildings, transformation of the city fleet to hybrid vehicles and urban re-forest goals. He is one of only 11 U.S. mayors to serve on the U.S. International Council of Mayors and one of only eight U.S. mayors chosen to formulate regional environmental policies with the Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) group. Mayor Cownie is a member of the U.S. Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement and is a member of the Presidential Task Force on Climate.  Cownie brought the Presidential Task Force on Climate Preparedness to Des Moines in May, inviting experts from Iowa universities, public utilities and businesses to discuss how local communities can adapt to climate change.

Des Moines residents should be extremely proud of Mayor Cownie’s remarkable environmental leadership.

Rick Smith
-Urbandale