Maybe the problem is the roundabouts

I just watched the Marion city engineer on television news talking about how increased traffic at 10th Street and Central Avenue has basically made the need and case to place a roundabout there. Apparently, the city didn't stop to consider this increased traffic could be because people avoiding other roundabouts.

There seems to be a current virus going on in which the City Council and company have delusions of Marion as some big, bustling city metro scape. We are not, and we never have been. Marion, the Marion that I grew up in, had classic Midwestern small-town charm - no ginormous and ugly buildings across from Pizza Hut, no roundabouts. The library was in the Carnegie building, whose aspirations did not force other business owners into upheaval.

If you clog traffic in one area, traffic will shift to another. So perhaps the message is to stop the roundabouts, eh? How many more people will be forced out of their homes with this new proposal? What happens to the Granger House? 'Get used to them and learn to drive them because they're here to stay and more are coming” seems to be the official message.

To the people making these decisions and saying these things, keep in mind that your jobs are dependent on voters.

Chandra Jordan

Marion