When I reached the end of [Gabriel] Hament’s bizarre tale about Starbucks and the North Trail in the April 1 SRQ Daily, I looked for the expected tagline “April Fool.”

Every assertion in 24-year-old party political operative Hament’s article was false. Actually, as disinformation, it was worthy of Breitbart News or a Richard Nixon political campaign.

Anyone with knowledge of the North Trail knows that there is to be a Starbucks and also a Tex Mex restaurant on the El Pescador site and the property directly the north of it, thanks to creative problem solving by City Commission Candidate Jen Ahearn-Koch and Jim Bridges, developer of the exciting new Whitaker Bayou condo project. It’s a stunning example of how a constructive, problem solving neighborhood leader and a constructive, responsive developer have worked to create a win win for the North Trail neighborhoods and, most especially, for the North Trail corridor. They are to be congratulated rather than excoriated.

One wonders why Hament, neither city resident nor a city voter, so frequently opines with great certainty about city issues on TV, in the print media and even at Tiger Bay. He has created some partisan chaos in this recent City Commission election. The Democratic Party assures that he has not represented them in his recent forays. He is not on, nor has ever been on the party Executive Committee; he is not and has not been an officer or member of the Young Democratic Club; nor has he been a precinct captain or “worker bee.”

Then, was Hament’s article just poor opposition research on the part of an impetuous young man, or is he working with others interested in affecting the outcome of the upcoming election... obviously by whatever means possible?

All we can do is to remind everyone that city commission races in our town and in the majority of cities across the country are non-partisan, so as to avoid this unfortunate kind of activity.

Pola Sommers has been a Tahiti Park resident for 31 years.