Choose our actions now based on what’s best for our future
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Posted: Saturday, June 4, 2011 12:00 am
|
Updated: 6:20 am, Sat Jun 4, 2011.
Choose our actions now based on what’s best for our future
I thoroughly agree with those persons who have written letters
on two important matters that will both impact Lodi, although in
different ways.
I have already spoken to Mayor Johnson about leaving Farmers and
Merchants Bank to do business with Bank of the West or other
financial institutions. F&M has proved itself to be a solid and
growing institution which has served Lodi for 60 years. Why leave a
good thing for a more unknown quantity just because the cost is a
bit cheaper? As I said in my invocation the other night, what is
expedient (even financially) is not always right.
The idea of covering up productive farmland on Harney Lane or
anywhere else with concrete and asphalt for the sake of one big
institution and a bunch more small stores is irresponsible and
unproductive. Here again, expediently, the construction will
provide jobs and some city income for the moment, but what then?
How many empty lots are there already in the city? How many empty
business places, including whole buildings, which have never been
occupied?
Already, there is talk of stocking up on foodstuffs against
future calamities of some sort. The severe storms, fires, droughts
and other extreme disasters in the world will sooner or later
affect all of us here. We will need all the arable land we can get.
Some populations in the world are already starving or are (North
Korea) predicted to do so soon.
We need to think more broadly and more responsibly about what we
do. We are part of a vastly changing world, unfortunately not for
the better, and we all need to wake up and see what's going on
beyond our city's boundaries and act as responsibly as we can
within those boundaries.
Gwinnett Mitchell Paden
Lodi
Posted in
Letters
on
Saturday, June 4, 2011 12:00 am.
Updated: 6:20 am.
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Doug Chaney posted at 10:48 pm on Mon, Jun 6, 2011.
Mr. Schmidt, it's the same old city council pyramid scheme in livable, lovable Lodi!
Kevin Paglia posted at 11:53 am on Sat, Jun 4, 2011.
Steve, forcing businesses to buy existing locations that are bad for their business won't help anyone either.
On the other hand, creating more jobs will increase not only tax revenue but increase the amount of disposable income in Lodi. The more disposable income the more small business owners can go back and build their businesses in the vacant commercial buildings.
And I can understand your point and if all things were than same then I would agree with you, but things are not the same. Some areas get more traffic which makes them better suited for some businesses. In a tight economy new businesses need every chance they can get, forcing them to go to an low traffic area and say "you have to make it work here" does only one of two things, scares the potential new business away or sees them fail in a short amount of time anyway.
I'd much rather see existing buildings filled with new, vibrant businesses. But that will not happen unless there is disposable income for people to spend at those businesses. That disposable income will only come from new developments.
Steve Schmidt posted at 11:32 am on Sat, Jun 4, 2011.
Kevin, look at the commercial vacancy rate in this town and then tell me how this development is going to create jobs. The developers are playing a shell game that creates sprawl on one end and blight on the other. The time has come for the people of Lodi to stand up and tell their government that they aren't going to be conned again.
Kevin Paglia posted at 7:12 am on Sat, Jun 4, 2011.
Hmmm, a strawberry field in which the owners are looking to get out of anyway (per a response from there daughter here on the blogs), a field by the way that is just a small part (3-5 acres?) of the weed filled plot of land, is more important than the creation of jobs in this economic environment.
Here is a question: if it has been so important to you few people that this land stay a "ag producing" piece of American resource, then why did you buy it with your own money and turn it into such as the weeds got higher? Why are you not willing to spend your own money but ARE willing to cost people jobs for your conviction? Don't blame the city for trying to help those who need jobs.