Each week we highlight some of the most insightful, passionate and witty comments shared on Facebook in response to stories in The Durango Herald.
This week, readers weighed in on a petition demanding greater public involvement as it relates to relocation of the downtown fire station, Durango transit challenges, La Plata County’s housing market and the BB gun bandit suspected of shoplifting at Home Depot.
We enjoy readers’ input and reactions to local stories: People can weigh in via our Facebook page, at the bottom of local news stories on our website at www.durangoherald.com or by writing a letter to the editor.
Here are a few comments that stood out this week:
“I find it frustrating that a small group of people dealing with a small neighborhood issue are trying to make this into a citywide issue. This feels like the mayor and her friends are trying to tank this only because it’s near her back yard. There have been police and fire stations in the central business district for decades. This is nothing new. Only the people in the neighborhood are new and are afraid this will hurt home resale.” – Nick Ryan
“Nick Ryan, I feel frustrated that a small group of people, using taxpayers’ money, are allowed to make a decision to alter our historic downtown without allowing any public scrutiny.” – Jim Sims
“We will have a fire station sooner if they just rebuild at River City Hall. We are pro-fire and police, they just have to be in an appropriate spot downtown. That is not the old high school. Also there is no data that the response time would be any better or even equal to River City Hall. The costs is exorbitant. Let the people have a voice – you and me – to find the best solutions since our elected officials and other ‘leaders’ can’t and don’t even talk to one another!” – Ellen Stein
“Stop wasting money on marketing and advertising and focus on what matters. They’re wasting money on public art. I think enough people know about Durango at this point. Durango is not a secret, let businesses pay for marketing and advertising if they really need an increase in traffic.” – Thomas Stevenson
“Have you heard of the phrase, ‘Supply & Demand’? This is exactly what happens when you restrict growth. It’s my understanding that the City of Durango requires developers to build a certain % of low income housing or pay huge fines/taxes. This is designed to restrict growth & force all housing costs higher. It has the exact opposite effect of what the city says they want.” – Bob N Zela
“Remote workers, vacation home buyers and swarms of urbanites fleeing the crowded cities for our beautiful open spaces has chewed up supply. All these forces (ignited by a pandemic) has priced out many hard working people. And yet Visit Durango still finds the need to inject millions into tourism marketing, thanks to their 55% cut of the recently passed lodgers tax. What a mess.” – Derek Thielin
“It must have been the lumber prices!” – Derek MacGuffie
“Gone are the innocent days of Durango when we could laugh at some the entries in the newspaper police blotter.... ‘Woman sitting on a curb with bread on her face.’ That’s one I never forget. But the times change, it’s just sad to see this happening” – Sheila Trank Niblick
“I made us a bingo card.” – Suzie Null
