Newburyport Daily News
---- — To the editor:
I was surprised by Patricia Dorfman’s Jan. 17 opinion piece, “Clearing up myths about NRA.” I didn’t realize she was capable of such jocularity, using such words as “pot shots” and “a dose of clarity” in reference to “a small group of passionate people.” She’s going to need a lot more than fingers and toes to count the growing groundswell of opposition to the NRA’s plans to, in effect, close off the open feel of the waterfront with 70,000 square feet of brick monstrosity.
I really hate to burst their bubble, but we’re far from being a bunch of yahoos with a chronic case of, shall we say, cranial-derriere inversion. We, and so do the rest of the inquiring minds in town, want to know how they can justify a $20 million price tag on 4.2 acres of land when Amesbury’s is only $1.5 million.
I, too, commend Amesbury for taking advantage of the PARC grant, and want to know why the NRA or the mayor did not pursue it. When I attended their Jan. 16 meeting, I did ask them that very question. Mr. Shanley shut me faster than a GTO with a tense “Thank you, we’ll take it into consideration.” When? After the condos are built?
They also did not read the letter from Mark Peters, like they said they would at their Jan. 2 meeting. Why? When another attendee questioned them on the accuracy of their facts and figures on parking spaces, they looked like they were ready to chew rusty nails.
I got a kick out of the “conspiracy theorists with busy pens.” I take that as a compliment, for it was conspiracy theorists with busy pens who shaped, and galvanized the Colonists’ revolution against a tyrannical British monarchy!
They wave around the word “blight” as if it’s a magic wand from the Harry Potter movies. Well, according to Bing.com, blight is defined as “a severely spoiled or ruined state.” I find it hard to believe that innocuous dirt lots constitute such a definition. Newsflash: That’s why grass seed was invented!
The next NRA meeting is Jan. 30 at the library. I urge any and all concerned citizens to attend. Let them know that, like bellbottoms and platform shoes, their time has come and gone and their cries of swiftboating will be falling on (many) deaf ears!
Laurel Allgrove
Newburyport
