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Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor:
The incomprehensible downtown project is a “traffic calming” device designed for highly-congested, densely-populated urban areas, not a five-block-long shopping district in a small town. More traditional and far less costly methods of “yield to pedestrian” crosswalks with signs, lower speed limits, and less drastic modifications to handicap ramps could have been done first. The plan to reduce traffic by diverting it to Magnolia is devastating to retail businesses who need traffic. Increased parking is primarily 200 feet near Market Street and in front of vacant lots.
The City received a 2006 Capital Fund Grant to remove downtown slum and blight. They have been out of compliance with the grant throughout the process. There is no documentation of mandated open public meetings. A single legal ad with postings at the Department of Health and Human Services, Council on Aging and at public housing announced the June 27, 2006 Council meeting where the grant was only one of a dozen items on the agenda. No details about the project were given and there was no open exchange of information. In the grant application, their description of slum and blight conditions was shaky, photographs appear manipulated (one picture makes dangerous Austin look as wide as an interstate). For eligibility, 75% of the downtown community had to support the project, but with 15 letters of support from the project site, they ignored the remaining nearly 80 landlords, business and property owners downtown. Not all the letters were valid and three are from businesses which have closed.
A massive concrete bulbout prevents delivery access to four stores and exacerbates an existing flood problem. Traffic moving closely behind angled parking makes rear loading or unloading merchandise, strollers and wheelchairs extremely dangerous. Visibility of traffic is blocked from parking and side streets. Bicyclists now using sidewalks put pedestrians at risk. A tow truck couldn't maneuver the street, can fire or rescue vehicles? Historical iron rings embedded in the sidewalks in the early 20th century which the City promised to protect when awarded the grant were removed and apparently discarded. Now with practically no downtown support, taxpayer funds will be used to continue the project on the entire length of Austin Street.
Being blamed are “an inexperienced grant administrator” and an engineer whose grant administration duties “prevented him from fully dedicating his time to the construction design,” (letter to the Capital Fund from the mayor, date Oct. 22, 2008.) Please, stop this thing now and lets work together to fix this mess.
Sincerely, Donna Sites
Dear Editor:
I do agree with both the last two letters concerning downtown Austin Street being destroyed. We had head-in parking for many years, then the downtown was improved with the new raised sidewalks, widened lanes and parallel parking.
It appears change is being made for the sake of change. It is not an improvement.
Janine Stacy
Dear Editor:
Thank you for your editorial comments Nov. 19 titled “Thought-provoking questions shared.” Your concerns are shared by many. When the waves of admiration and adoration for Barack Obama, led in lockstep by ABC/NBC/CNN/CBS, eventually die out to a dull roar, as they surely will, won't there be many more who will begin to wonder, “What have we done,” turns out he was a mere mortal after all, and basically a socialist.
He was a candidate who was unscarred and unscathed from legislative battles taking stands and making decisions. He was practically virginal on the political landscape. He was an unknown, and paradoxically he used it to his advantage.
Then there was the photogenic attractiveness of the candidate. He flashed that beguiling smile to his great advantage. But wasn't that smile too automatic and too practiced, used too often at too many inappropriate moments?
To their credit, let's remember the historic ground game the Democrats put into place to get staggering amounts of money to get out the vote before and during election day. It will become the standard and example for many campaigns to come. Unfortunately the source of possibly millions of contributed dollars will never be known due to the clever use of untraceable debit cards.
There were circumstances not under the control of the Democrats which dramatically favored them. Ring them up to political good luck. There was decent weather in the major urban centers for the elections, allowing large turnouts very favorable to Obama. There were the political circumstances of a “dispopular” president combined with an economy in crisis. With those factors in play, even Mickey Mouse could be elected - who, if memory serves correctly, did try to register to vote through ACORN.
How did we get here? My suspicion is Obama rigidly stayed on a strategy born two years ago in some back room discussion with a few advisers, before Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. What is that strategy, or philosophy? Never underestimate the naivete of the American public.
And it worked.
John Gay
The incomprehensible downtown project is a “traffic calming” device designed for highly-congested, densely-populated urban areas, not a five-block-long shopping district in a small town. More traditional and far less costly methods of “yield to pedestrian” crosswalks with signs, lower speed limits, and less drastic modifications to handicap ramps could have been done first. The plan to reduce traffic by diverting it to Magnolia is devastating to retail businesses who need traffic. Increased parking is primarily 200 feet near Market Street and in front of vacant lots.
The City received a 2006 Capital Fund Grant to remove downtown slum and blight. They have been out of compliance with the grant throughout the process. There is no documentation of mandated open public meetings. A single legal ad with postings at the Department of Health and Human Services, Council on Aging and at public housing announced the June 27, 2006 Council meeting where the grant was only one of a dozen items on the agenda. No details about the project were given and there was no open exchange of information. In the grant application, their description of slum and blight conditions was shaky, photographs appear manipulated (one picture makes dangerous Austin look as wide as an interstate). For eligibility, 75% of the downtown community had to support the project, but with 15 letters of support from the project site, they ignored the remaining nearly 80 landlords, business and property owners downtown. Not all the letters were valid and three are from businesses which have closed.
A massive concrete bulbout prevents delivery access to four stores and exacerbates an existing flood problem. Traffic moving closely behind angled parking makes rear loading or unloading merchandise, strollers and wheelchairs extremely dangerous. Visibility of traffic is blocked from parking and side streets. Bicyclists now using sidewalks put pedestrians at risk. A tow truck couldn't maneuver the street, can fire or rescue vehicles? Historical iron rings embedded in the sidewalks in the early 20th century which the City promised to protect when awarded the grant were removed and apparently discarded. Now with practically no downtown support, taxpayer funds will be used to continue the project on the entire length of Austin Street.
Being blamed are “an inexperienced grant administrator” and an engineer whose grant administration duties “prevented him from fully dedicating his time to the construction design,” (letter to the Capital Fund from the mayor, date Oct. 22, 2008.) Please, stop this thing now and lets work together to fix this mess.
Sincerely, Donna Sites
Dear Editor:
I do agree with both the last two letters concerning downtown Austin Street being destroyed. We had head-in parking for many years, then the downtown was improved with the new raised sidewalks, widened lanes and parallel parking.
It appears change is being made for the sake of change. It is not an improvement.
Janine Stacy
Dear Editor:
Thank you for your editorial comments Nov. 19 titled “Thought-provoking questions shared.” Your concerns are shared by many. When the waves of admiration and adoration for Barack Obama, led in lockstep by ABC/NBC/CNN/CBS, eventually die out to a dull roar, as they surely will, won't there be many more who will begin to wonder, “What have we done,” turns out he was a mere mortal after all, and basically a socialist.
He was a candidate who was unscarred and unscathed from legislative battles taking stands and making decisions. He was practically virginal on the political landscape. He was an unknown, and paradoxically he used it to his advantage.
Then there was the photogenic attractiveness of the candidate. He flashed that beguiling smile to his great advantage. But wasn't that smile too automatic and too practiced, used too often at too many inappropriate moments?
To their credit, let's remember the historic ground game the Democrats put into place to get staggering amounts of money to get out the vote before and during election day. It will become the standard and example for many campaigns to come. Unfortunately the source of possibly millions of contributed dollars will never be known due to the clever use of untraceable debit cards.
There were circumstances not under the control of the Democrats which dramatically favored them. Ring them up to political good luck. There was decent weather in the major urban centers for the elections, allowing large turnouts very favorable to Obama. There were the political circumstances of a “dispopular” president combined with an economy in crisis. With those factors in play, even Mickey Mouse could be elected - who, if memory serves correctly, did try to register to vote through ACORN.
How did we get here? My suspicion is Obama rigidly stayed on a strategy born two years ago in some back room discussion with a few advisers, before Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. What is that strategy, or philosophy? Never underestimate the naivete of the American public.
And it worked.
John Gay
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