The Sun Journal editorial about the People’s Downtown Master Plan and the pellet gun incident couldn’t have been more hurtful. One might imagine a downtown resident thinking: “So, I don’t really need a decent job with a living wage, a decent, truly affordable apartment, or adequate transportation to get to work, the doctor, the grocery store, in order to lift my family out of poverty. I just need to make sure that every single one of my neighbors behaves themselves all the time.” There are issues that affect people’s lives downtown which are far more serious and systemic than worrying about neighbors with pellet guns.

Stopping one person with a pellet gun does nothing to reverse the effects of poverty. God save us and our city from well-intentioned persons who are profoundly ignorant of the causes and the experience of grinding poverty and disadvantage; persons who, in their desire for simple solutions to complex problems, lift up and sustain the most devastating stereotypes of our downtown neighborhoods and the people who live there.

The editor’s insensitivity makes the case for the master plan, that the perspective and participation of downtown residents is sorely needed in solving these problems. It would be more helpful if the Sun Journal would publish more information about the plan which 400 of its potential readers participated in formulating.

Coverage of its presentation to the city council on April 1 would have been a valuable public service.

Peg Hoffman, Auburn