To the editor:

Reading the recent articles about Lawrence’s economic growth, I was reminded of a conversation that I recently had. I had the pleasure of a round of golf with the head of a chain store with Lawrence locations. Upon being introduced, he said to me, “What’s wrong with Lawrence? We have been trying for several years to spend $3.5 million on one of our Lawrence locations, and we can’t get it done. We’re about to take our $3.5 million and go elsewhere.” He went on to say that nowhere else has he had so much trouble trying to upgrade a location.

There could, of course, be a lot more to the story, and I am not offering any opinion on the subject. I simply felt the conversation was worth repeating.