Local Editor, Iowa City
PatchEmail: stephen.schmidt@patch.com
Facebook.com/IowaCityPatch
Twitter.com/IowaCityPatch
Phone:
Iowa City (319) 210-7862.
Bio: Stephen was born in Cedar Falls in 1982, but has lived the majority of his life in nearby Solon, IA. A graduate of the University of Iowa, Stephen has covered the Iowa City area for the past four years on a freelance basis for Little Village, the North Liberty Leader and Iowapolitics.com and as a staff writer for the Daily Iowan and the Gazette.
At Patch, we believe in transparency. To that end, I am answering the following questions about my politics and religious beliefs.
Politics
The best summation of my political beliefs is that I am more interested in ideas than ideology. The concept that any one person or political party has all of the good ideas or solutions to our problems has never made much sense to me.
With this in mind, I try the best that I can to stay open minded in any political conversation or when engaging in a political topic.
If I was forced to place myself on the political spectrum between Liberal Left and Conservative Right, I would have to say I am situated in the middle of both, with one foot slightly in the Left column. There are ideas at the extremes of both ideologies that I agree with, and other ideas I disagree with, but overall I am interested in the most practical solutions to the problems we face.
Are you registered with a certain party?
I'm a registered Democrat.
Religion
I'm not religious, especially not in a traditional organized sense. I do however feel that there is a sense of the spiritual in how we treat each other, and in how we appreciate and choose to live our daily lives.
Although I am not a part of an organized religion, I feel that religion can play an important role for some people in their lives, and understanding their religion is often the key to better understanding them as people.
Local Hot-Button Issues
Iowa City is a growing college town and the University of Iowa is a growing university, and in many cases both are growing directly into each other. Both city and university are going through the process of dealing with this growth, trying to make the changes required to meet the challenges ahead, without leaving the identity of Iowa City behind.
Whether you are talking about the 21-year-old ordinance, the change in culture downtown or the crowded school district, the conflict occurs because there is a disagreement over what exactly that Iowa City identity was in the past and what it should be in the future.
Plus, 80's Casettes will never die, a missing siamese cat with faux pearls, a giant free church cross (not at all creepy), and the Indiest romance ever.
The man allegedly fired his BB gun at city employees working on nearby piping.
Boehner to visit the Romney campaign headquarters in Coralville Wednesday afternoon.
The longtime figure in Eastern Iowa sports coverage has decided to call it a career. I wish him good luck.
The UI Library launches DIY History—diyhistory.lib.uiowa.edu—the library’s new initiative that lets users contribute to the historical record by transcribing and tagging primary source documents online.
Because nothing says I love you more than the ability to shoot something afterward.
A quick rundown of local news.
The following operating while intoxicated arrests listed here were gleaned from Iowa City Police information. They do not indicate a conviction.
The following information was provided by the Iowa City Police Department. It does not indicate a conviction.
Round two.
Here are some road projects set to begin this week.
Library administrators hope the work can be done by November.
Free shirt, free food, and a good old fashion debate await you at the Bijou Tuesday night. Show up and enjoy!
A quick rundown of local news.
It appears as if playing a hard schedule has paid off for the Cyclones despite a close loss on Saturday.
From the Iowa City Police Blotter. The following information does not indicate a conviction.
Obama to be in Mount Vernon on Wednesday
See when and where the Iowa City schools will be playing tonight.
Forecasters are predicting the arrival of some potentially heavy rain this weekend. Tornadoes and hail could be possible.
A University of Iowa student with a Mitt Romney sign reported finding it vandalized this morning.
