About Bianca Phillips’ story, “New Bill Would Get Wine in Grocery Stores by Summer” …
Liquor stores are wonderful places. When I walk into Joe’s or Kimbrough’s it’s the same feeling I used to get at Happy Hal’s Toy Town. The availability of booze at Save-Mart or wherever will weed out the schlubs from these sacred places.
Crackoamerican
Greg Cravens
Hanging your hat on the personal service you get from a local liquor store is so funny. By that logic, we should not have grocery stores at all, because the corner convenience store owner can better help us pick out milk, Gatorade, or candy. There is no logical reason at all that any retail business should not be able to sell a legal product, just like the liquor stores that have enjoyed political protection from their cronies for years. The message from the voters is clear.
Dewey
About the ongoing discussion about the proposed Fairgrounds TDZ …
I have been a resident of Cooper- Young for six years and I’ve been pleased with the developments in the area. The KROC Center has been a huge success. However, regarding the ongoing effort to establish a TDZ in the Fairgrounds, I can confidently say that the majority of the citizens living in the area affected by this development do not agree with Robert Lipscomb’s vision.
The new development will eliminate almost all of the parking used for the Liberty Bowl games. My neighborhood already fills up with cars during games and events. What will happen when more parking is eliminated?
Baseball? Who is asking for so many baseball fields? Why take land that can be accessed by the public 24/7 for many different uses and relegate it to one sport for only part of the year? It ostracizes people living in the area, not to mention the noise we will have to put up with.
Hotel? There are already two perfectly good buildings that used to be hotels within a mile of the area — at Union and McLean and Madison and Cooper. Let’s make these buildings work before building yet another hotel in a primarily residential area.
Shopping? Most people living in 38104 live there because they don’t want to be a part of the big-box-store culture. This forces a shopping center on people who don’t want it and will lead to a decline in property values (see Wolfchase and Oak Court Mall). Not to mention that the new businesses would compete with those that are already here. We can’t even keep all of the storefronts in Cooper-Young occupied. Let’s focus on that first.
Tearing down the Coliseum and Pipkin building is irresponsible, historically and practically. Both buildings have many years left in them. Before putting a death warrant on these buildings, we need an honest third-party review of what it would cost to keep the buildings.
The most important part of our disagreement with the TDZ plan comes down to the fact that this is public land being sold for private interests. This issue must be addressed with the concerns of all the organizations and citizens involved.
Jordan Danelz
About our cover story, “New Year. New You” …
How about making 2015 a year of working together – affirming our unity and connectedness – seeing America as the one nation that it is. We are at the very point in time when a 400 year old is dying and another is struggling to be born – a shifting of culture, science, society, and institutions enormously greater than the world has ever experienced. Ahead, the possibility of regeneration of individuality, liberty, community, and ethics; a harmony with nature, with one another, and with the divine, such as the world has never dreamed.
Ron Lowe