It is so frustrating and discouraging to continue to read letters from misinformed and misguided people regarding the development of Auburn’s downtown. It’s time a few facts are clarified.

I would like to ask all the negative folks why they would settle for a run-down city instead one that we can be proud of? I have heard so much rhetoric about the Festival Plaza, the new hotel and city hall.

Do people remember how horrible that area used to be with rat invested, dilapidated buildings? Were residents proud of that?

What is wrong with the canopies? They add a touch of artistic flair and class to the Plaza. The canopies were purchased with Federal Community Development Block grant money, not taxpayer money.

The hotel situation is that the city did loan money, which has to be paid back with interest. Our investment was a shared cost of an initial study, which did determine that the city really did need a hotel. This is a positive step in the revitalization of our downtown. It is a form of imperative economic development and the more we have, the less burden there is for the taxpayer in the future.

If the decision hadn’t been made to move the current city hall, the library couldn’t expand and the Auburn Hall building would have been bulldozed to expand a parking lot. What a waste of an extraordinary building.

This is a plea for people to know the facts before they write and misinform others.

Terri M. DeFilipp, Auburn