To the editor:

Here in the People’s Republic of Lawrence, we do things differently. For example, I have property along Sixth Street. On several occasions in the 16 years that I have owned the property, the city without permission seized an amount of land I own along the street to accommodate commercial development across the street.

In doing so, the city’s Wiz-Bang Corps of Engineers has reduced the distance from the street to the sidewalk and virtually eliminated the separation between my back fence and the sidewalk. Now, the city’s plows throw the snow in the street up onto my sidewalk, which, in turn, gets no sun to melt the mess. To add insult to injury, during recent snowstorms the city has run heavy equipment up on my sidewalk, thus packing it down.

Now the commissars of the People’s Republic of Lawrence want to fine me for being a bad citizen and not clearing snow and ice from my sidewalk. Please keep in mind, these are the same brilliant leaders who spent $440,000 in this neighborhood to poorly retrofit intersections with roundabouts to correct a traffic problem that could have easily been solved with $1,500 worth of stop signs. Talk about the inmates running the asylum.

David Guth,
Lawrence