As an employee of the Daily and a Campustown business, I’m in a pretty rough spot when it comes to LANE4.

What I’ve gathered is most people recognize the need for new buildings, especially those in less-than-well-maintained properties.

However, the way in which LANE4, at the behest of the city, has gone about ‘offering’ to purchase these properties doesn’t seem to sit well with anyone following the story.

The overwhelming majority of business owners haven’t received any such offer, or informed by absentee landlords as to whether or not their businesses will exist in a year’s time.

Then there’s the city , willing to explore eminent domain in an attempt to strongarm business owners into selling, or their content in letting LANE4 take flak for the whole ordeal.

We also have LANE4 officials going on record in the Des Moines Register, stating that the ‘over-abundance’ of tattoo parlors has ‘blighted’ the area.

Last time I checked, the staff at Lasting Impressions, Jaded Angel and The Asylum were also Ames residents. They pay city taxes, live in Campustown and send their kids to Ames schools. While some alumni aren’t jazzed about prospect of rad new ink after FAC, that sole criterion doesn’t qualify any of the aforementioned as a “blight” to the area. Each retains extraordinarily talented artists, and all have made significant renovations to otherwise dumpy buildings.

The fact that these were mentioned, specifically, does little to defend the accusations that the city is trying to turn Campustown into a pet project, hand-picking businesses in the area in order to cater to people who visit Ames twice a year.

Aside from a few deep-pocketed alumni in the ears of city and university administrators, nobody wants to see any of the current Campustown establishments displaced.

I don’t like the way this ‘redevelopment’ is going. – members of the Ames community are being screwed by the city government. They’ve been told they are a blight to their community, – ‘giddout’, or get bought out.

Rest assured, I know I’m able sway public sentiment enough to sink this ship before it sets sail, I’ve been accused of that more than a few times. I figure you’re all smart enough to make up your minds, and know BS when you smell it. Right now, I’m not concerned with tanking this multimillion-dollar real estate fiasco, or making people angry.

I don’t have to.

LANE4 and the City Council have been doing a spectacular job at that.

There’s a City Council meeting tonight at 7:00 p.m. You can show up for the public forum, where you’ll have five minutes to let the Council and Mrs. Campbell know just how you feel.