Sheboygan letter-writers on Gartman farm redevelopment, ‘pay to play’ in Wisconsin
Here are this week’s letters to the editor of the Sheboygan Press. See our letters policy below for details about how to share your views.
Is ‘the city’ its people or government leaders?
I see by the headlines that “the city” of Sheboygan wants to build a 2,000-unit small town near Sheboygan (“City of Sheboygan makes movement on Gartman farm redevelopment that could bring 2,000 housing units,” published online Dec. 13, 2023).
Is “the city” citizens like me, I wonder? Nobody asked my opinion. Or is “the city” our mayor and a majority of the alders, who just fired the city manager for his lack of wokeness?
If we citizens are “the city,” do we need to finance it, too? Do we own it? Are we its managers?
When our tenants won’t or can’t pay our rents, do we get to go bankrupt, too? Do our kids, our grandkids and great grandkids inherit the debts?
Projects like this remind me of the Johnson administration’s Great Society and Urban Renewal projects that converted so many historic downtowns into empty parking lots and subsidized housing, like the notorious Cabrini-Green that went under the wrecking ball on South Side Chicago not long ago.
For our generation, the now-ironic Great Society and Urban Renewal boondoggles that wrecked so many cities and the families who live there merited Ronald Reagan’s now famous dry observation that “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
Or should he have said, “I’m from the city?”
Art DeJong
Sheboygan
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With Republicans, it’s ‘pay to play’ in Wisconsin
The reason we cannot get good daycare in this state is childcare businesses don’t have millions of dollars to grease Republicans’ palms.
I’m sure childcare businesses would get everything they wanted if they would only donate a few million dollars to Robin Vos or some other Republicans.
Just look at all the tax breaks Republicans give to their wealthy owners. Republicans know they will get a couple million-dollar kickback (campaign donation) for every taxbreak they give their wealthy owners.
When their wealthy owner needs more profit, Republicans fall all over themselves making sure they get it. They don’t tell their wealthy owners to go get a loan.
Republicans love to say they are for small business. What Republicans don’t tell you is their version of a small business is one that makes millions and millions of dollars in profit. Just like Republicans think that someone making a quarter million dollars a year is middle class.
The first thing anyone who wants to own a business in Wisconsin should know is it’s “pay to play” here in Wisconsin. Buy a Republican or take your business elsewhere!
Robert R. Ries
Sheboygan
Our letters policy
Letters to the editor are published in the order in which they are received and letter-writers are limited to having one letter published per month. Letters can be emailed to news@sheboyganpress.com and Editor Brandon Reid at breid@gannett.com. Letters must meet specific guidelines, including being no more than 250 words and be from local authors or on topics of local interest. All submissions must include the name of the person who wrote the letter, their city of residence and a contact phone number. Letters are edited as needed for style, grammar, length, fairness, accuracy and libel.
This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan letters: Gartman redevelopment, pay to play in Wisconsin
