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Businesses should accommodate disabled
To the Editor:
If you are like me, you might love to have someone do your shopping for you. But would you be willing to give up your right to look at what is available and make your own decisions, all the time? Or would you want to be dependent on someone else’s schedule? I would not want to be dependent on another person’s schedule and decision making skills to select purchases for myself or gifts for family and friends. I would be surprised that a lot other Jackson County residents would either.
In the last few months, I had the opportunity to attend a Jackson County Economic Development Meeting. There was much talk of what we can do to encourage additional revenues for our local businesses. We separated into several groups and presented quite a few ideas. Unfortunately, there is one idea that we did not come up with, and I am embarrassed to admit that I did not think of it at the time.
We live in a wonderful area, and have many offerings that encourage visitors. Visitors that can climb steps or get around in narrow aisles. We have very few merchants that have invested in making their businesses open to people with disabilities. I have out of town friends that would love to come visit our area, but due to the lack of businesses they can enter or maneuver around in, they choose to visit other municipalities that offer accessibility.
My mother is in a wheelchair and loves to look at and purchase crafts, clothing, groceries and flowers. Instead, I do the running for her, she is forced to accept what I think she would like, rather than her having the opportunity to actually select the item. We also are limited to restaurants that make it comfortable to dine, as well as easy to access.
I realize that our local businesses are on budgets and the investment in making their stores accessible might be a financial challenge. It is a challenge that could pay off.
To fully understand the limitations we have placed on visitors, as well as our local residents, I encourage our local business owners to borrow a wheelchair or a pair of crutches, try to enter your establishment, also try to move around your aisles and see what limitations are there. If you do not have access to a wheelchair, take a straight chair and place at your entrance and in the area your patrons visit the most. Sit in the chair, how does it look from that angle? What can you do to make a difference?
The United Stated has passed legislation for Americans with disabilities, and it is too bad that Jackson County businesses have not embraced the needs of all of our citizens and visitors as well.
Make a difference in the lives of our citizens (and visitors) with disabilities. Let’s use some of our economic development funding or individual 2006 business budgets to give all of our residents and visitors their right to patronize local establishments.
Dale Cate
Whittier
Jackson County needs Greenway
To the Editor:
I have been a resident of Jackson County for nearly 13 years. In that time I have seen Jackson County miss the boat with much of its “planning for the future” ideas.
I currently work in Macon County, but still live in Jackson County. If anyone from Jackson County has ever visited the Greenway in Macon County, they would surely say Jackson is definitely missing out on this idea.
It is a featured attraction in Macon County. Many people daily walk their dogs, ride their bikes, picnic, and just relax on the Greenway. It beautifies their county and preserves some of the beautiful nature areas in the county for the public to use. They have built nice pavilions and have nice benches, beautiful bridges and paved walkways.
Macon is actually helping to retain their county’s value, which like Jackson County is also being ravaged by developers and growth, Providing these areas for the public would be a saving grace to some of the more beautiful areas of Jackson County. This plan needs to begin now for Jackson County before they are gone.
Kelly Timco
Sylva
Public broadcasting deserves support
To the Editor:
Public broadcasting is an important source of news and entertainment for us adults and also our children. It is commercial free and generally free of the things we are ashamed to watch as a family.
Congress has voted to remove the federal share of the support for public broadcasting in two years and unbelievably terminating support for commercial free children’s shows like Sesame Street and Clifford. Over one million Americans have responded and asked Congress to oppose this move. We need to save this wonderful resource.
Bob Jokl
Cullowhee
Town leaders fail to recognize DSA’s contributions
To the Editor:
During its June 15 meeting, the Sylva Town Board voted 3-2 to decrease the town’s funding of the Downtown Sylva Association (formerly Sylva Partners in Renewal) from $20,000 annually to $2,000.
DSA is a volunteer-based organization that exists to improve the economic vitality of Sylva and the quality of life for those who live here, and it has been successful at doing so. It will continue to function with or without town funding. But the fact that members of the town’s own board fail to recognize DSA’s contributions is sad evidence of a gap between those who support the organization’s efforts and those who don’t. It tells us that the importance of DSA’s role in the community needs to be more widely communicated, and that Sylva Town Board members should more thoughtfully represent their constituents’ long-term interests.
DSA has spearheaded many improvements to landscaping, lighting, sidewalks and parking during the past decade and has worked with the town on many more. People who study town planning call such things “the public realm,” and say you can measure the strength of a community by how it treats these places. Economic development experts can measure it in more concrete terms; they’ll tell you that every dollar invested in a well-planned effort to improve public places comes back to the community many-fold. They’ll tell you that by visiting the central business district of any town or city you can measure it’s economic vitality, and that a healthy and vibrant town is always based around a well-planned and much-used downtown. They’ll tell you that employers and professionals are not likely to move to or stay in your area unless your town is a pleasure to live in.
And what makes a town a pleasure? Ask around. It’s not about how many cheeseburgers you can get between here and the high school. It’s about parks. Trees and gardens. Swimming pools. Festivals. Locally owned, authentic businesses. It’s about getting an ice cream cone and walking to a playground, walking from store to store to do your Christmas shopping, and interacting with members of your community along the way.
Together the DSA, the town and many other civic organizations have rescued what was once a faltering downtown. Now, many businesses are thriving. These businesses appeal to locals who need essential goods and services, and to travelers who appreciate the genuine sense of community that our downtown exudes.
Continued growth is inevitable in Sylva, and it’s coming fast. Through support for volunteer groups like DSA, we can help guide that growth.
Without guidance, we’re leaving the fate of our town up to the status quo, the developers and the corporate chains, and the result will be a town that looks and operates like Anywhere, USA.
Last week’s vote by the town board was a vote to do just that.
Sarah Graham
(DSA Board Member)
Sylva
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