More Local Activism: My Letter to the Mayor

Unlike my mayor, I intend to follow through on the promise I make at the bottom of the letter...

Dear Mr. Rybak,

Ordinarily I would not have assumed that you would be the contact point about development plans of the old Kowalski's building at 44th Ave & Humboldt Ave N; with it being a single, freestanding retail location. However, like many of my Camden neighbors, I was quite encouraged by a piece of campaign literature only days before the November election promising a "focus on redeveloping the Kowalsk's site."

Well, in calls to your office prior to the election and leading up until yesterday, I have been unable to find anyone in your office that is even familiar with the building in question, much less someone who has any idea of any specific work you are doing with respect to the property. Indeed, in a conversation with someone in your office yesterday, I was told that, as mayor, you would have absolutely no involvement with any change of ownership or future development at the site. I can assure you, this is an issue of great importance to us up here. The neighborhoods of Lind-Bohanon, Webber Camden, Victory, and Shingle Creek Neighborhoods are at a crossroads and we consider the survival of retail at that corner to be critical to the vitality of our community.

I'm not sure whether you've really got something in the works and I'm just not talking to the right people in your office, or whether you made an empty promise in a last-ditch effort to scrape up a few extra votes from gullible Northsiders, but I'm desperate to believe the former. Please convince me you're involved in this project and/or why you made this promise at election time, or I will most definitely put a lot of energy into turning this apparent deception and lack of follow-through into a real issue via local publications and at neighborhood organizations with which I'm involved.

Regards,

Dan Hylton
Lind-Bohanon, Camden