How is it that a city staffer can be so na‹ve as to think the educated citizenry of Ames will believe his answer to city council member Matthew Goodman’s question about the environmental impact a mall would have on the Ketelsen Marsh?

The answer to Mr. Goodman’s question was there were “no known environmental concerns.”

I wonder what the answer would be if the several hundred acres of mall and accompanying box stores were planned to abut his property.

Would he really not notice the bright lights, continuous traffic, noise pollution, run-off from acres of paved lots, blowing trash and decimation of natural environment?

Ames has had the unfortunate encounter with a developer who has no passion for Ames, but is hoping to make big bucks by finding a gullible community to accept a mall completely inappropriate for the demographics and location of the community.

The developer knows that Internet shopping is changing the face of retail merchandising. He knows that malls around the country decimate the smaller merchants in communities near them. But why should he care? It will not be his problem.

Ames ought to be offering North Grand Mall that kind of financial incentive to expand instead of trying to humiliate them for their generous, legal and good faith offer.

Our city manager calls their offer “irrelevant” even though it is offered at the very time these decisions are being made. Can he really think informed citizens believe that?

The majority of Ames citizens are opposing this mall; we are not the lackeys of some out-of-town non-profit.

Look at who we are. We are your friends, your neighbors, your work associates, your eighth graders, many of your college students, your senior citizens and your small business owners.

How can the Ames City Council and city administrators just discount us? Remember they work with us they were elected by us, and their opinions should be based on our informed wishes.

Kathryn B. Andre

Graduate Student

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies