'Best fit' for Karp, not for Port

To the editor:

Well, here we go again. Our local Mr. Potter, aka Stephen Karp, is getting ready to swallow up yet another piece of iconic Newburyport, i.e., Fowle's.

In the article (Daily News, Sept. 27), such politically correct phrases such as "best fit" are used to appease the public. However, considering Mr. Karp's track record on Nantucket, my guess is, the definition of "best fit" would most likely be either a high-end retail store that sells impractical foolish merchandise or perhaps an "acceptable" restaurant that you have to be a Philadelphia lawyer to be able to read and understand the menu.

Either way, it will mean one less place that many people, myself included, will be able to afford to shop in. So much for "shopping local." What a farce. That phrase is so highly touted, yet it's becoming more of a rhetorical statement than a feasible reality.

The biggest knee-slapper in this whole charade is the line about the rental price currently charged to the existing tenants not being a factor in the decision. As the old saying goes, in polite terms, money talks and ... that other stuff takes a long, long stroll around the block!

I realize this comes sounding off like another nose-out-of-joint letter, but let's face it — we are slowly being squeezed out of town by corporate greed by a gentleman who considers this city nothing more than another collectible in his curio cabinet of properties. I know there is little or nothing we can do to change it. But I would hope that there are others who feel the same way and would take the time to speak up, even just to let those in power know we are paying attention.

In the meantime, I am going to head over to Fowle's newsstand to buy some postcards while they still say "Greetings from Newburyport," and not "Greetings from Karpburyport."

Laurel Allgrove

Newburyport