READERS WRITE: From Campus Crest to parking lots

About Columbia P&Z approving Campus Crest Communities

Hello Mike,  I read that UMC is concerned that 2,000 students may not be back for the spring semester.  The question could be asked, is there a need for addition student housing?  If there is surplus housing, will it be new today and slums tomorrow?
-- Ernest Boughton, Columbia

What in the heck are these local governments thinking?
-- Dr. Linda Lutz, Columbia

Is this getting published in either local paper?
 -- Mariel Stephenson, Columbia

 

Mike, Your articles are creating a bit of a stir here.  We cannot thank you enough.  We cannot get our newspaper to pick up the information similar to what you have posted, and now your community's newspaper has published.  The project here is like a 'third rail' - no one but a group of citizens who are being painted as NIMBYs have taken the time to learn about Campus Crest.

I wanted to let you know that one of the articles in the Columbia newspaper quoted Ted Rollins as saying the EEOC claim had been dismissed.

 

You can contact the attorney listed at the end of the lawsuit directly (her contact information is there).  One of my neighbors did, and is under the impression that the EEOC found validity in the claims, and that now the McCormack and McAuliffe suits are going to be combined in US District Court in Western North Carolina. 

 

Anyway, I would encourage you to fact-check any statements you might receive from Rollins or Hartnett. I assume you would anyway, but the last sentence in the newspaper article did not match what my neighbor understood from the attorney (Sharpe). Just thought I'd pass that along.
-- Sarah M., Colorado

 

We would love to share with you an article that we just posted, The 10 Worst College Towns in America. 

It should be an interesting story for your readers to check out and discuss.   Either way, I hope you continue putting out great content. It has been a sincere pleasure to read.

-- Emma Taylor, Accredited Colleges Online 

[Ed. Note:  Columbia is not on the list]

 

Another great issue of Beat Byte, Mike, esp your piece on Ines Segert.
-- Judith Tharp, M.D., Kansas City

 

About Ken Midkiff , the Sierra Club, and City Hall
Mike, I don't remember exactly my "inspired verbiage of the moment" that occasioned me to comment on Ken Midkiff's current "beef" with the City over charges for copies of reports; however, it went something like:  We have often been taught that there must be opposition in all things.  Checks and Balances, right?   The need for a "Devil's Advocate"?   I wonder if our future remembrances of Ken Midkiff will equate to those many of us had and still have of Paul Albert? 

-- Al "Brady Bunch" Brady, Columbia

 

About City Council persons knowing little or nothing about local groups

Hi Mike:  Good issue.  Couple of things:  Having been chair of the local Sierra Club group off and on for some three decades, I can testify to any number of community/environmental matters we've engaged, among them being one of the major proponents and drivers of the 1989-1992 fight to prevent the city from dumping its wastewater in the Missouri River. 

 

As co-founders of CRAP (Citizens Resolved Against the Pipe), we were the spark, along with Lupus mayor Doug Elley, that resulted in the country's largest biological wastewater wetlands project.  We took on Ray Beck and his legion of back-slapping engineers and forced the city to address its wastewater woes in an environmentally responsible manner. 

 

We've worked on issues of energy and waste management, served on city task forces and commissions, and yes, been the occasional thorns in the sides of thoughtless developers and lazy administrators.  The Smart Growth Coalition and the Greenbelt Trust are Sierra Club spinoffs as well.  I could go on, but you get the idea.

-- Hank Ottinger, Columbia

 

 

Mike,  Just in case you aren't aware, the Mayor mentioned on one of the radio shows that the League of Women Voters of Columbia Boone and I presume other leagues, supported and supports candidates. 

 

Trouble is that's totally false.  In the 91 years we've been around after passing voting rights for women, we never, ever have supported any candidates.  We support citizens voting and knowing what the issues are.  We do study and take positions on issues after consensus, but we never ever support any candidates.
-- Elaine Blodgett, Nominating Chair, League of Women Voters US, Columbia, MO

 

 

About Parking Lot Mania, from Pat Fowler's yard to downtown garages
The following came to mind when I read your story.  Thanks for caring.  One of your devoted readers.

They paved paradise and put up a parkin' lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot

Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT
I don't care about spots on my apples,
LEAVE me the birds and the bees please
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Hey now, they paved paradise to put up a parking lot
Why not?

Listen, late last night, heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi took my girl away
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Well, don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise to put up a parking lot
Well now, they paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

I don't wanna give it
Why you wanna give it
Why you wanna givin it all away
Hey, hey, hey
Now you wanna give it
I should wanna give it
Now you wanna givin it all away

Hey, paved paradise, put up a parking lot
Paved paradise, and put up a parking lot