It seems that what Downtown Development Authority Director Heidi Ham does not understand is that people do understand what is going on.

Less downtown storefront parking will make it more difficult for our senior citizens to stop in front of the stores and pick up quick purchases. Plus, additional retail stores in the catalyst areas bundled into the original square mile downtown plan will also make shopping downtown less desirable. That leaves our downtown merchants fleeing, but we will have new planters.

How about catering to the people spending the money downtown and not the people using it for recreation?

Heidi’s statement reminds me of the other statement made by the city staff  ‘that “the downtown original square mile population is less educated  than the rest of the valley.”

How about listening to our citizens who want to walk downtown to shop and eat in one location instead of walking all over the original square mile?

So, how are the city administration and City Council helping us by ignoring what the people want all over the valley? We do not need to wait a year to see the downtown ruined to understand. Nor do we need to wait to see the residential Historical District ruined to understand.

I fear the merchants and citizens need to worry more about the plans of the city staff, not less.

SHARON SNYDER
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 3:28 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.