Dear Hilary Anderson, calling CDA 2030 aka ignite cda a community-based organization is misleading to citizens, just as the fancy name of “urban renewal” is misleading. CDA 2030 aka ignite cda is a private organization/business funded by the taxpayers. Period!

To pacify the citizens, CDA 2030 puts on community meetings. I went to one during the summer. We played a useless board game and were allowed to put stickers on white boards. It felt like I was back in kindergarten.

The City Council meeting on Dec. 3 gave testimony that the citizens of Coeur d’Alene reject the Urban Renewal Health Corridor District as it is written. About 60 citizens attended and were against it (add to that numerous emails sent to City Council members). Only two people supported the URD, one of them Jon Ness, CEO of Kootenai Health (of course) and Christine Woods.

Five City Council members (Evans, Edinger, Miller, English, McEvers) clearly didn’t hear the citizens of Coeur d’Alene; they need to be fired and Dan Gookin should replace our Mayor. Steve Widmyer, our mayor, didn’t even show up for the City Council meeting on Dec. 3 because he didn’t want to be on record to vote against the will of the people.

The “Health Corridor” encompasses 281 Acres. Really? Does our city need 281 acres of “Health Corridor?” They dress their projects up with catchy words like health, education, open space, parks, community, library and sustainable living. We have a City Planning Department. Why do we need a private Urban Renewal Agency which uses taxpayers’ funds for their private pet project?

HEIKE JAHNERT

Coeur d’Alene