Several assertions made last Saturday in SRQ Daily by Christine Robinson, executive director of Argus, were absolutely wrong. She claims administrative approval rescued a dying city. She stated that in 2001, our Main Street and downtown was a “ghost town.” How wrong she is.

I retired from office in the spring of 2001 and can list numerous facts supporting my statement. In my eight years on the City Commission (without administrative approval but with public hearings on most downtown projects), we saw huge cranes everywhere! We were the first Main Street in America to have a 20-screen movie theater; the Ritz Carlton opened in downtown in 2001; condos were built on the bayfront; and best of all we opened the county library in the middle of downtown, placed appropriately “where the people are.” There were very few vacancies on Main Street, with shops and restaurants flourishing. Those are just a few of the significant projects we accomplished. So NO, Christine, the introduction of administrative approval did not rescue our downtown. The redevelopment began in the mid 1990s.

It is important to realize how disgusted and disturbed so many of our citizens are... you know, the local folks who live in our city. Not the developers, many from out of town, who take advantage of us by maximizing their building to every square inch of space and refusing to contribute any more to the city than the minimum demanded by the code. Our citizens are horrified by those skinny sidewalks, buildings looming over the street, lack of compatibility standards and other problems mostly created because the City Commission has no say in how our downtown looks and feels.

I love our city and am proud of being part of the catalyst for redevelopment; I enjoy the amenities, and even if it seems too late, there is still much redevelopment to take place. I wholeheartedly believe we must return to a situation of public comment and review to rescue our city from all that has happened in recent years.

Mollie Cardamone is a former mayor of Sarasota.