Sitting in the doctor’s office this morning, I read in a copy of Statesville Living Magazine that the city’s leaders are planning a presentation later in September on plans that will be proposed to freshen up Statesville’s downtown area over the next 20-25 years. Of course, I didn’t take the magazine from the doctor’s office, but I figured that the information would be available in the Record & Landmark, and I’d just pull that up to provide the dates, times, locations, etc.. I searched the paper’s web site and did not find anything but a March, ’09 article on the initial plans to do the study. You can see that article HERE. If you go to read that article, I suggest you look at the comments that were added. What’s interesting is the variety of views on what Statesville can or can’t do to invigorate the downtown area, including south Statesville/Shelton Avenue. It brings up a point worth thinking about- just what and how much can a city require/influence/legislate private property owners to do things that will benefit the city as a whole but will also be detrimental to the living circumstances and plans of some residents and property owners. This is an issue that affects counties, states, and nations in similar ways. On the one hand, we often hear people say, “don’t spend tax money on that”, or “don’t tell me what to do with my property.” In the next breath they may say, “they (who?) ought to do something about those people over there who aren’t keeping up their property.” My hat’s off to the people who work in government, especially local government, either as employees or as elected officials. When you have responsibilities in these areas, you know there’s no way to please lots of people on any subject. No matter what decision you make or support, there will be a loud group opposing it.
I would think for those folks, it would be really hard to get out of bed some days.
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