To the editor:

Small pink signs in the window of my favorite downtown shop are advertising that it is on the chopping block. The Casbah, essentially the only store of its kind in Lawrence, is for sale, and I can only say how disappointed I am that the citizens of our fair Midwestern town couldn’t keep an L.A.-inspired independent boutique afloat.

I know that the natural ebb and flow of business will never change; there are good years, bad years, and the years when you decide the struggle isn’t worth the bottom line. Maybe I’m being young and idealistic, but it seems that, especially on Massachusetts Street, where real estate is at a premium, Lawrencians could show a little more support to the businesses that make our city unique.

National chain stores aren’t Lawrence; they’re any other city in the United States. The Lawrence Journal-World and lawrence.com publish regular articles regarding our downtown, and I feel no need to regurgitate the ideas stated so deftly in these. I want only to say that I came to Lawrence to escape suburbia; I didn’t come here to keep giving my dollars to chain stores.

I’m not trying to push any anti-national-chain sentiment here, but I am trying to say that Massachusetts Street, along with Haskell and Kansas University, is our town’s identity. I would be sad to think that we are defined by our similarities to cities where suburban sprawl runs unchecked.

Abby Woody,

Lawrence