To the editor:

Regarding the City Commission primary, the Journal-World declared, “It was a businessman’s special.” Mr. Levy’s letter in Friday’s Public Forum states, “an unchecked coalition of builder’s advocates are about to be elected.” Hold on, please, not by 15 percent of the community!

My wife and I moved here from Hawaii. We could have picked any city we wanted: Topeka, Olathe, whatever. We chose Lawrence for one reason: quality of life.

Let me share a tale of two cities. My wife and I grew up in Ontario, Calif. It was a lovely little town with a beautiful tree-lined Main Street, thriving downtown, friendly neighborhoods, parks, orange groves and wooded corridors, in fact, a lot like Lawrence. Nearby was Claremont, much the same. Then, these two towns diverged. Ontario, seduced by promises of profit, went the way of the developers. The predictable results were the downtown died, tract homes sprouted where the greenbelts had been, the strip malls spread like cancer. When I left in 1975, Ontario had become an ugly urban sprawl and is even worse today. Claremont, by contrast, voted to maintain smart growth when appropriate, no growth when preferable and remains a jewel of a community and a coveted address. Who prospered? In Ontario, the developers; in Claremont, the residents.

Lawrence is at this crossroads today. Take your pick and vote for the road you want Lawrence to go down. Just get out and vote! As for Sally and I, if the majority choose a “businessman’s special,” well, we’ll just have to find another Claremont.

Doug Burger,

Lawrence