Main Street ‘improvements’ are destroying our small town charm and making us vulnerable to leopard attacks

There’s something charming about walking down Main Street in the early morning, the wind in your hair, the intoxicating smell of Clyde’s Donuts drifting toward you. The faint neon glow of The Corner Barber Shop sign has a way of mixing with the new day’s sun as it rises gently over historic St. Mark’s. It’s peaceful, and sometimes, if you’re up very early like I usually am, the only sound is your knuckles clomping upon the red brick road as you stroll merrily along.

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If you currently live in our fine town, of course, you know that the musing above was indeed true — about two years ago, before the so-called Main Street Improvement Project began. Since then, the sound of your walking has been replaced by jackhammers, the smell from Clyde’s polluted with dust and the fading neon glow mixes less with the sunlight and more with the feeling that this is all a mistake. You’re left wondering: is a leopard going to jump out of a bush and eat me right now?

The town council likes to throw around a lot of buzz words when it comes to the over-budget Main Street project — “improvements,” “refurbishment,” “modernization.” But what’s becoming clear is that it is reshaping…