Letter: Reasons to build

EDITOR,
I have lived in Scotts Valley for eight years.
In all the years I have lived here, Scotts Valley residents have been fighting and battling against any kind of development, (Target, Woodside, the list goes on and on). I am just completely baffled by this.
Especially now, as I drive down Scotts Valley Drive and see there are buildings for lease posted everywhere, there are abandoned dilapidated buildings all around, vacant lots with junk and abandoned cars and overgrown weeds everywhere.
I see merchant’s signs that have been vandalized, the street medians have been neglected and unattended, the middle school looks totally shabby and needs work, etc.
Why on earth are people against cleaning up this city and giving it the attention it deserves? What is wrong with building something pretty, like new homes, and providing something that our residents can use? Why do people always insist that it is only the investor that profits?
What about all the jobs from the construction that will be generated from this project? What about the taxes, all the legal, accounting, and miscellaneous fees, all the materials that will be purchased, and all the countless local vendors that will profit from one person’s decision to decide to go out on a limb during hard economic times and invest their money?
Oh, not to mention, when it’s completed, there will be nice new homes people can live in. That alone should be reason enough to do it.
We are a city that is in desperate need of revenue. People’s attitude against change and development is ridiculous. This city has the potential to be wonderful.
I am not saying to bulldoze over our forests, knock down people’s homes, cut down trees and take our parks away or build skyscrapers. Let’s just work with what we have. Let’s give the city what it wants and what it needs. Let’s work on the aesthetics. People keep saying it’s a beautiful and a wonderful place to live. At the moment, to me, it doesn’t look that way.
Lisa Menicucci, Scotts Valley