Does downtown need saving?

The Edmond Sun

EDMOND May 05, 2008 12:30 pm

— To the Editor:
Last weekend, even without an Edmond Public Safety building and parking garage and even without a Second Street pedestrian bridge to a parking lot, some 75,000 people, including many out-of-towners still managed to attend the Downtown Edmond Arts Festival. Hmmm. I guess they managed to park somewhere.
In the recent past, we paid for study after study of ways to improve the downtown. We offered no-interest loans for downtown business owners. We hired promotional managers for special projects and yet, here we are today, still asking the City Council “to save the downtown.”
For decades we have heard people say “A strong downtown is imperative for a town to thrive!” And “We need to maintain the ‘character’ of our original downtown.” The Edmond Sun recently urged the City Council to continue thinking of ways to further enhance the downtown. (“Downtown needs more city investment,” May 4)
Maybe the council should stop its tinkering.
I wonder will they keep doing the same thing for the next 40 years and continue to pour more and more money into “crutching” the downtown? For that matter, why is the local government trying to manage our market economy in the first place? It doesn’t make sense to me. Has anyone on the council heard the term free-market economy?
Is it fair to use taxpayers money to aid a select group of businesses? Why isn’t every other businesses in town receiving special treatment?
The City Council and downtown association constantly are talking about preserving the history and character of the original downtown. If we have to go historical, maybe we simply need to return to the days when professions and businesses changed with the times and businesses managed their own futures … and the government stayed out of it!

Richard Prawdzienski
Edmond