Letters

Toland, you rock

Ashley:

I logged onto the Internet just now to try and find something to do with my wife this Saturday night as we are bored. I am 25 and she is 24. We are newly married. I am a native of Mobile and she is from Baton Rouge. I went to the Lagniappe Website and accidentally stumbled across your article here and I must say you make a lot of sense. I like your style of writing and really appreciate your point of view. I agree completely with you.

The way I see it, Mobile should become more like Louisiana, who I joke with my wife as being the “cool kid of America.” They try and prevent underage drinking, maybe not the best they could, but they are relaxed enough to understand that a merchant is going to get tricked into selling to a minor every once in a while, which in my opinion is usually the guy at the counter who really doesn’t care if people are of age or stealing and is getting paid $7 an hour, if lucky.

You rock. I am going to read your articles more often.

David Anderson

We need those water views

Dear Editor:

Please accept this (belated) letter in response to a recently published commentary in Lagniappe regarding EDSA’s New Plan for Mobile. (”’Planning’ for the Future?” by Ashley Toland, August 12, 2008).

Ms. Toland comments: “Speaking of worthless things, some of the planners’ ideas for the waterfront are, while I’m sure well intentioned, a little whack. There seems to be this idea that we are a city with water but no access to it…. The Mobile River is industrial and surrounded by cranes and trains, containers on top of containers, tugboats pushing barges and big ol’ ships, which I think is really cool, but I don’t particularly want to go gaze into it while drinking a margarita and eating cheese dip.”

She then goes on to qualify that we do have nice views of the water available from the causeway and, further away, in Gulf Shores.

Cheese dip aside, I have a few questions to pose to Ms. Toland and to those who may agree with her:

Have you ever been to Boston? To Baltimore? To Norfolk? To Wilmington? To Charleston? To Savannah? How about New Orleans? San Francisco? Or Memphis? Maybe even the obscure little cities of La Crosse, Wisconsin? Mystic, Connecticut? Astoria, Oregon?

What I’m getting at, is that all of these cities, big and small, old and new, industrial and upscale, have something in common. Like Mobile, they are located on the water, on a river, a bay, a harbor, etc., and, like Mobile, they’ve used the water for shipping, transportation, and commerce. However, the cities mentioned above, during the 1970s, ‘80s, and even as recently as the 1990s, started to redevelop their waterfront parcels to include promenades, gathering places, and retail complexes.

And with this redevelopment effort, they’ve seen tourist numbers increase; visitors come more often and stay longer with all this stuff to do in these vibrant cities on the water. Let’s not forget ourselves: local residents, too, meet there and enjoy after-work activities, like outdoor concerts, special events, or even just a weeknight dinner for two.

Ms. Toland may not enjoy watching tugboats, and it may seem outlandish to some, but a lot of people like to see activity, specifically, bustling activity of commerce, of progress, of work – the kind of activity that’s been occurring since the inception of this fine City of Mobile, and what has, essentially, made it what it is today and what will continue to maintain its viability into the future. Let’s capitalize on our waterfront location, like other cities have, and reap those same rewards. More people, more activity, more money.

Go, Mobile, Go!

Sincerely,

Kristin Finn

Midtown Mobile

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