Keep businesses in downtown Marion

Chandra Jordan was correct in her Nov. 27 letter, “Marion street plan vote should have been public.” We lost four grocery stores, two restaurants, creamery, train station, two pool halls, one bowling alley, two furniture stores, hardware store, two bakeries, two barbershops, two banks, one movie theater, one cleaner, one funeral home, one hotel, one carpet store, three bars, all on Seventh Avenue from Ninth to 13th streets and 11th Street from Seventh to Sixth avenues.

All we have left downtown since 1988 is one clothing store, two bars, one drugstore, three restaurants, two barbershops, two banks and a dozen antique shops.

When they closed 11th from Seventh to Sixth avenues, seven businesses were lost alone.

Keep Seventh Avenue two ways and semis, buses and campers off Seventh Avenue, then make Sixth Avenue two ways for trucks and large vehicles to use and people going and coming from work.

This will move traffic through Marion faster and people who want to shop will use Seventh Avenue. We have to got to keep the few major businesses in downtown.

Robert McBride

Marion