Archived Story
Now is the chance to beautify city
Published 9:36am Tuesday, March 5, 2013I was very disappointed in the comments made by some of our city councilors regarding the Broadway reconstruction project. I’m sorry I couldn’t attend the Albert Lea City Council meeting, but I have been to other meetings over the years such as Albert Lea Listens, the design team and the comprehensive plan. These meetings were open to the public and were attended by dozens and dozens of people who were envisioning how beautiful our historic district could be — especially if we could tie it together with Fountain Lake Park. Now the time has come when we have a chance to really make this vision come true. Albert Lea has needed this for many years.
Was there not one positive comment from our councilors at the council meeting about how beautifying Broadway and our Fountain Lake Park would not only impress our visitors, but would encourage building owners to update their facades and possibly entice new businesses? We must not pass on this opportunity.
Rochester is planning to spend $6 billion on their city with plans to make the Mayo Clinic and Rochester a destination for world visitors. Many of those visitors will take side trips while in Rochester. Albert Lea is within an hour drive, and we could entice those people to visit our beautiful city. It is rather hard to entice people to come see our new sewer and water pipes under Broadway. All the people that attended the meetings mentioned above, envisioned a more beautiful historic district. Even little Lake Mills has great visions for their city. They have been making dramatic strides to turn their city into a “destination” community.
The Bible says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” — Proverbs 29:18
Well, we haven’t perished yet, but we haven’t grown either. Ask yourself, why?
Karen Trow
Albert Lea
Karen, you are the last person who should talk about enticing new businesses to come to Albert Lea when you and Tony run your business out of Glenville – despite living in Albert Lea.
Why should we all pay for this “vision” to help a few people and businesses? I’m tired of my taxes rising to help a select few – no one helps me. If the downtown businesses want to beautify downtown, let them pay for it, not the rest of us trying to get by on what little we make.
We are losing businesses downtown because of this “vision” because they don’t want to pay for it. Doesn’t that tell you something? We can’t keep the ones we already have, beautifying the downtown isn’t going to bring in new business. We lost our chance years ago when we actually had a thriving downtown, and it’s too late to play catch-up now.
A Bible verse to justify expensive aesthetic changes to a small part of the city? Really?
I’ve lived in and around AL for most of my life; I’ve watched most of the commercial activity shift from the south side of town to where it sits by the interstate. I’ve driven through neighborhoods whose roads haven’t been touched in years, filled with houses that no potential residents or tourists will want to come back for. Yet year after year, I’ve seen these neighborhoods neglected to beautify select parts of the city.
I know my comment on a letter to the editor won’t change anything, but here’s my suggestion that goes along well with the verse from Proverbs: if money is going to be spent making Albert Lea look better, spend it on fixing the living areas of the city that are falling apart. Most of the roads and sidewalks on the south side of town could use the help much more than the proposed scenery of a vocal minority.