Dare to dream that downtown can once again be energized

Dare to dream that downtowncan once again be energized
EDITOR:
Ever since Federal Street became the Federal Plaza, I referred to it as the "Federal nuisance blockade."
I have always believed the city officials who came up with that plan lacked vision and a good head for business.
With the variety of stores doing business in the downtown area, I thought it would have been wise if shoppers were enticed with the offer of being given free parking since the malls being built were becoming popular shopping places.
With some of the wonderful stores the downtown had, free parking might have helped to lessen some of the competition from the mall.
It's sad to remember what a Saturday night downtown use to be like. I compared it as having the excitement of the Las Vegas strip with the lights, the traffic and people.
I'm also very curious about other cities that all have malls, but their downtowns still continue in doing business.
I have shopped in stores from all over the country from discount stores to some of the higher priced stores, and the stores when downtown was doing a healthy business could have held their own with all of them.
While I don't believe the downtown of yesterday will ever come back, I do believe in "new beginnings," and with time, vision, luck and determination, the downtown area can be restored to an exciting place.
I will continue to believe that impossible dreams are made possible by those who dare to dream them.
The human spirit has proved this time after time and will continue in doing so.
MARY LOU JURINA
Youngstown
To nobody's surprise,the potholes are here
EDITOR:
Regarding the item, "Severe pothole reported by several motorists" in the Local Digest on Feb. 5, it seems Youngstown motorists are once again finding themselves stuck in potholes larger than bomb craters in Afghanistan.
Anyone who has driven Youngstown streets in recent weeks can easily understand why -- just about every road in this dump has been destroyed by a severe and prolonged winter freeze. But there's no real news in this phenomenon, is there?
What I find totally amazing, however, is that our street department, after at least 75 years of similar experience, hasn't been able to predict this cyclical event and make adequate plans to cope with it before everyone is forced to drive around like drunks as they circumnavigate the severe potholes that appear every 10 feet! It seems that their annual modus operandi is simply to wait for unsuspecting motorists to first destroy their suspension systems, blow their tires, rattle their nerves, sustain injuries from multicar collisions and wait for The Vindicator to publish "pothole alert" stories before they lay down their cr & egrave;me-filled doughnuts, get off their bulbous derri & egrave;res and do something about it.
A more incompetent bunch of yahoos would be hard to fathom.
AL BLAZO
Youngstown
If state of union is strong,it must not be in America
EDITOR:
On Jan. 20 our president gave us his State of the Union address. And of course we heard how well our economy is doing. The state of the union is strong, he says.
Well, in Mineral Ridge, Ohio, here is the state we are in. We have no busing for our schools due to no money, we can't afford any additional taxes. Our cable company says it needs more money too, our rates are going up $3 per month. Now our county commissioners are telling us to expect an increase in our water bill because the county needs more money. Natural gas is outrageous, gas at the pump is still rising and the state of my wallet is empty.
The state of our union and economy is strong? What state is our president living in?
JAMES BOWSER
Mineral Ridge