Letter: Protests to Bus. 51 plans should have come sooner

To the Editor-

I’ve been watching with interest the current outrage over the Church Street reduction. I have seen the signs pop up, letters written and conversations happening.

But I do have to ask, where were these people last year, the year before? Where were they when the bike brigade was spawned, nurtured, and cemented in place? Where were they when the UW took over the city council?

This road plan didn’t happen overnight. It wasn’t done in secret and it certainly wasn’t done without public input (although its impact is debatable).

To me, this is a good lesson in what it means to be self-governed. The fate of a community rests on the residents paying attention to what’s happening in your City Hall, County Building, School Board, and State Capital. There’s more to government than what you see on cable news and Facebook. I would suggest subscribing to a local publication, such as this one, and reading it. Then, delete your Facebook and Twitter accounts. There’s nothing there that’s real or of any value.

Local politics has just as much (if not more) impact on your life than Washington, D.C. Five years of “bad orange man” has now brought us a dementia patient to the White House.

In the meantime, no one is paying attention to their own backyard until it’s too late. It’s troubling to know that many people on the city council got there with only a few hundred votes. You want to make a change? Start there.

Here’s a question for the residents of Stevens Point to ponder, how much money has your city paid AECOM over the last five years? How many of you even know who they are and what they do?

Wake up. Support and read local news.

Mark Cegielski
Junction City

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