Blowing up Bates Mill No. 5 will do the following things for the community:

• Provide an enormous empty parking lot with no developers in sight at a time when the economy is at its lowest ebb.

• Destroy any vision or hope for an actual community use for the space.

• Let councilors say “We finally made a decision.” Woohoo. Let’s all applaud.

• Let councilors avoid truly putting into play any community vision or public use, and lightening the risk that it may succeed.

• Provide the public with a big bang, not for their buck, but to watch potential crumble into so much dust.

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• Start a precedent for blowing up the even more decrepit buildings on Lisbon Street, so the whole city can be revitalized. The new motto can be: “Parking lots … they’re happening here!”

The public should thank the council for their visionary approach to space, and for not being swayed by the success of other ventures around the country that have turned similar spaces around, spaces such as The Goggleworks, www.goggleworks.org, The Torpedo Factory, www.torpedofactory.org, and The Banana Factory based in Bethlehem, Pa., www.bananafactory.org.

Thank god we have avoided that kind of development here in Lewiston. Whew.

Leland Faulkner, Auburn

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