To the Editor:
I agree with the letter from Mr. La Rocco. I was born in Ocala in 1948 and have lived in Marion County for 73 of my 76 yrs. I still love Ocala and Marion County and feel it is still one of the safest cities and counties in which to live.
I am upset with all the beauty that has been done away with in the name of progress. Almost all of our beautiful old brick buildings have been torn down or the brick has had stucco smeared over the bricks.
Our beautiful original Court House and Post office both gone and what was put in their place? A small green space with a gazebo replaced the court house and a parking lot replaced the post office. I understand we outgrew them, but they could have been used for office space, restaurants etc.
Where the new eyesore of a hotel is in downtown used to be a different beautiful hotel. They encourage people to shop at locally owned shops and most of them are downtown, where most of us older generations can not get to because of the lack of parking. Yes, I know we have a parking garage and we are getting another, but again, a lot of seniors can not walk from these garages to the shops and restaurants.
Do you know that the downtown area around the green space has two, maybe three handicap spots? Why not make more handicap spots; then the young people who can walk would have to use the parking garage.
Our City Council and County Commissioners seems to think the only people with money to spend are young people. We do not need anymore “young blood” on our council or commission, we need some “old blood” who recognize the beauty of an old building and also remember we have a large number of older people who have money to spend and would like to spend some of it downtown.
Pat Savage
Ocala