Letter: Residents should rally to protect neighborhoods

Friday, Feb. 7, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

At the City Council meeting of Jan. 22, Nevada Department of Transportation officials began their presentation by stating that they would abide by the wishes of local government entities and not force the I-95 widening project. In spite of hundreds of citizens who asked them to vote no, Mayor Jan Laverty Jones and three of the councilmen voted in favor of the project.

Jones and her council are caught up in boomtown hysteria. More is better, bigger is better. They've become media darlings because growth and money is the only language they understand.

They have a checkered past behind them, projects that cost millions and ended in failure. Main Street Station lost millions of dollars worth of antiques, not to mention the money.

The Minami site is still an empty eyesore despite promises of a new federal courthouse. At the Stratosphere Tower and the Naked City promises made to those who live there never materialized or were far less than promised. The Fremont Street Experience balance sheet never mentions the money being spent on improving Fourth Street. A park was closed and the land given to the state for an office building. Eminent domain has improperly destroyed small businesses. The list is endless.

I haven't missed a City Council meeting for years. I have seen countless people plead before the council. Women from the projects were brought to meetings to generate enough heat so that the mayor could take over the Housing Authority. The homeless became a pet constituency so that money could be showered on a feel-good facility that provides jobs mostly for bureaucrats. Golf courses are built for the few when there aren't enough parks for the many.

All of these causes are fighting the same enemy -- politicians and bureaucrats who do not care about citizens. Increasing their power is their only concern. It will not stop until all of us join forces and fight together, supporting each other's battles so we can all win the war.

Anne M. Golonka