To the editor:
Nothing chaps me more than reading how our Sandy Springs elected officials are going to “revive” downtown (Sandy Springs Reporter, May 3-16, “City Council to Planners: Leave Sandy Springs Circle alone.”)
It would more appropriate to say they intend to “create” a downtown where one never existed.
We need a downtown like Wyoming needs a Naval base. Sandy Springs is a bedroom community to Atlanta and we should embrace that fact. Without Atlanta, Sandy Springs wouldn’t even be on the map. There is no here, here. When put in the context of international travelers to world-class cities – New York, Paris, London, Istanbul – will a downtown Sandy Springs become a jet setter’s go-to destination?
I agree with an earlier writer who stated the purpose of our building a City Hall and government complex is to fulfill a Napoleonic desire by our elected officials to pour their legacy in concrete. It will be their Arc de Triomphe. But, for the taxpayer, it will congest traffic, be costly to build, costlier to maintain, and remove prime real estate from the tax rolls.
The system we have now of renting commercial space as needed is ideal. Every 10 years, determine the most economically depressed area of the city and move the city offices there. It would pump tax money back into the community, uplift improvised areas, and encourage landlords to maintain their property.
As for the former Target store, sell it to a developer.
Jay Purut