U-Heights in the News

Two interesting articles in today's Press Citizen

The first was
Mercy to open west-side clinic
Facility to open in August with 2 family medicine doctors


This story told of the new Mercy Family Clinic to be located at 1067 Ryan Dr. Signficant growth in the West Iowa City/Coralville area was cited as a driving force behind the new clinic, which will be near the intersection of Camp Cardinal Road and Kennedy Parkway.

“We identified the growth trends on the west side of the Iowa City/Coralville metro area, and it’s been growing significantly over the last several years,” said Bill Watts, Vice President of Mercy Services Iowa City Inc. “We felt this would be a good opportunity to establish a clinic and offer primary care services to people on the west side.”

The article went on to say that even University Heights has experienced a population growth in the past 10 years increasing from 948 residents in 2002 to 1070 in 2010.  This was accompanied by a quote from U-Heights City Councilor Rosanne Hopson,

Although University Heights Council member Rosanne Hopson hasn’t heard of any demand for additional medical services near the town, she said the clinic may help clear up traffic from nearby University Hospitals and Clinics.

“I think it’s a good idea just to take traffic away from the hospital,” she said. “They have a parking issue and depending on the clinic it can be hard for the elderly to navigate that giant place. This (new Mercy Clinic) could be a good drive-up and walk-in.”

I completely agree with Rosanne that we should be mindful of making amenities more convenient to our older residents. Have nearby (walkable?) and smaller business or market sites within our community would be a wonderful way to improve our quality of life. U-Heights has the oldest median aged population in Johnson County, and the 2010 census showed our first population increase since 1970. We are still the only community in the metro area with a smaller population now than 40 years ago. As I mentioned in Strong Communities Survive Disasters, Eric Klinneberg's research shows that walkable and nearby commercial enterprises are vital to improving and even extending the lives of our older residents.

Which brings me to the second story from the paper, the headline and first 5 paragraphs really struck me:

Prof talks business, change
'Everyone has strong emotions about some particular kind of change' 

Sara Rynes-Weller, professor of management and organizations at the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business, spoke about organizational change Sunday at UI's 30th Annual Presidential Lecture.

“The concept of organizational change and change in general is something everyone is going through,” she said. “Everyone has strong emotions about some particular kind of change.”
In many cases, she said, dealing with change from a business perspective is especially critical given the scope of employees and services in an organization. She called attention to the status of the U.S. Postal Service, which recently laid off employees and reduced the availability of delivery services on account of “disruptive innovation” — gradual developments such as email and digital retail that grew in popularity over the decade as postal officials paid little heed.

“Businesses were snoozing; the postal service was snoozing,” she said. “No one thought that instant messaging or texting would be making a lot of money right away; it wasn’t a threat to the postal service.”
Strong management — specifically keeping employees calm during a financial or public-opinion crisis — can help lead companies out of situations brought on by not paying attention to market-wide change, she added.


I would hope that now, and in the future, our citizens will realize we can't be caught snoozing.  We need to work actively to have a voice in, and help to focus and drive the type of change that confronts us on all sides, whether it be the University of Iowa and their long term plans, or our neighbor, Iowa City. In the coming months that will play out as council probably deals with the Planned Unit Development agreement for One University Place (St. Andrew Church site)