Salisbury City Council: Don’t pull the trigger
Rowan County to Salisbury city: We knew that the former mall property was not zoned for it. Now we want you to rezone our hasty purchase. One made with little thought, community support or cost/benefit analysis. We are not concerned that it will empty out your downtown of county functions (our traditional county seat for more than 250 years), upend your growing downtown tax base and take prime, tax-paying commercial real estate off the market (at two important crossroads — Jake Alexander and Statesville boulevards) for “government functions” (office and warehousing). We are not concerned that we will leave an expensive lasting scar on your city and saddle our county for generations to come.
Just so we can say that you were complicit, we will hold the pistol to your head. We will let you pull the trigger. Now will you please rezone our property?
Salisbury voters to City Council. Don’t pull the trigger.
By all accounting, the purchase of the mall is a bankrupt decision. The real price of cheap real estate far exceeds benefits. And the people who conceived it have been handily voted out of office. Regardless, Jim Sides and company have doubled down on this bad decision and are pushing forward, making it harder to unwind. Many of the candidates running for county commissioner see the folly in the mall purchase. They recognize the long-term costs as far outweighing the short-term benefit of cheap real estate. They want the opportunity to analyze the decision when elected.
Let the buyer beware. The former mall property was not zoned for government functions when purchased. Government functions aren’t the highest and best use for the property. The real costs of moving out of the traditional county seat far exceed “cheap real estate.”
Don’t be complicit. Don’t pull the trigger.
— Michael S. Young
Salisbury

Praise and support for President Obama
President Barack Obama is a very good president who has given millions of additional people needed health care coverage, etc., despite the hateful treatment of him by GOP obstructionists. It is difficult to watch the disrespect he is given, disrespect never seen before for an American president, because he dares to be our first African-American president. Dare I call it racism?
I support his plan for dealing with the present Mideastern crisis, in many respects brought on by years of wrong turns by the U.S. before he became president, including the Cheney-Bush mistake of an Iraq war.
Thank you, President Obama, for your strength and leadership. Thank you, Senator Hagan, for your leadership and for supporting our president.
— Pat Bullard
China Grove