I have been a resident of Brattleboro for almost 10 years, and I am very concerned that the town not fall victim to commercial whimsy. The changes to Harmony Lot proposed by Kim Smith of the Conway School of Landscape Design [“Park, or parking?” News, April 17] are clearly a solution looking for a problem.
From my experience in other small communities in Delaware, Massachusetts, and now Vermont, I have seen many unsolicited proposals masquerade as betterments. None of the companies came, looked, and departed. None of them said “You are just fine the way you are.”
Please keep this in mind. The proposal to alter our cherished Harmony Lot was unsolicited. The failure of Kim Smith's plan would be a disappointment to Kim Smith, but not to the town.
I use the lot when I go downtown. I see the ebb and flow of the living community. I see friends rendezvous by car, motorbike, and cycle, and on foot. This urban mix does not exist anywhere else in the center of Brattleboro.