The Bee Is Anti-Progress

To the Editor:

Life would be so wonderful if all Newtown properties were gentleman farms, or at least looked like they were. Looking back, a good 50 years, life was so simple and serene.

What changed? Well, our agrarian society modernized, we created institutions such as schools. Governments grew with the intent of providing those services, which we enjoy today. Industry grew from the sickle, through the wars years, to the IT and finance-focused world of 2004.

I object to your request of a test that all economic development projects must hinge on questions of “to whom these benefits accrue” and “are jobs created jobs Newtowners want?” Both show your anti-progress slant and your unyielding kibosh on any project that focuses on industry. Rebuilding storefronts, walks, streetlights, and spending 85 percent of the dollars from state and federal grants are the easy projects to back. The Bee’s track record is shamefully opposed to building a 60,000-square-foot retail store next to an existing 200,000-square-foot shopping center (Newtown’s #2 taxpayer, Sandhill Plaza), opposed to a 40,000-square-foot medical facility on Church Hill Road, opposed to any meaningful increase in the level of visible commerce in our municipality. The real question is why?

Last I checked, we had a school budget that has risen 60 percent in the last ten years, and you, sir, scoff at the one mill (four percent) contribution in tax revenues from the top ten commercial tax payers in town. The reality is that the economics of our families is important and takes a priority to streetscapes and colonial-style lamp posts. Nokia just picked a new corporate site in Westchester County this month. Would The Bee have opposed this kind of economic development had Nokia chosen Fairfield Hills? Is it the “right kind of economic development for Newtown?” Newtown would be better served by a tax base that lifted the burden off of the families in town, and fostered commercial development and corporate tax revenues. The last things we need are more barriers.

Kevin O’Neill

Economic Development Commission member

28 Washbrook Road, Newtown                                     April 21, 2004