Iowa, Meet Rudy
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA— -- In his first trip to Iowa as a presidential candidate, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani tried to relate his experiences taming one of the toughest cities in the world to the difficulties of revitalizing a struggling neighborhood in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, population 123,000.
"This could be a neighborhood in Queens," Giuliani said during a neighborhood stroll through the city's Southeast Side, where the former mayor walked with neighborhood association leaders.
"No jaywalking!" he jokingly yelled as his group and accompanying media throngs walked across First Avenue, Northeast.
"This reminds me of New York," the former Mayor said as he approached a park and read a familiar sign: "'Dog must be on leash.'"
"I sometimes wonder when you have to watch where you walk," said a local community activist.
Asked the mayor: "Is there a poopy scooper law?"
It may sound like a silly question, but Giuliani was there to share with Iowans the "broken windows" theory of policing that worked so well in New York during his mayoral reign -- the idea that a community tolerating even small indignities, such as dog waste on the street or vandalized windows, helps lead to a neighborhood's disintegration.
"This is no different than campaigning in New York," Giuliani said. "You walk around, you talk to people, you listen to what they have to say."
The former mayor was of course there to emphasize his experience as an executive and discuss things that may better endear him to conservative Iowa caucus voters than his liberal positions on gays, guns and abortion rights.
He kissed babies, autographed one woman's hand, posed for photographs, and -- with some reluctance -- signed a neighborhood resident's copy of Sun Tzu's "The Art of War."
"I read it a long time ago," Giuliani said. "I don't usually like to sign other people's books."
Giuliani's tour began at the local Hy-Vee supermarket.
"The people here deserve a grocery story to shop in," the supermarket manager told Giuliani, who said the store was "part of the revitalization of this neighborhood, and the regrowth of the neighborhood."
After a brief walk through the neighborhood in which he admired home-improvement projects, Giuliani visited a local park that community leaders reported was a haven for drug dealing.
