To the editor:
Hello! My name is Sean McCaslin and I am emailing you for the
communications merit badge from boy scouts. My topic is about the
transition from town to city. it seems very clear Vienna would like to
stay the way it is. Tons of small businesses now thrive and make a
friendly community. Schools do well and there are beautiful parks and
sights. This amazing place sounds so good that more people would like to
live here.
The dilemma is more people might mean fewer small businesses and a less
connected community. I believe there is a better way to handle this
change. As we have more people moving in we would have to expand but
keep it simple, for instance, we might have to get higher production
rate stores as long as they serve community needs. We must trust the
small businesses if we're serious about expanding. We could give certain
small businesses grants to help them to be more successful and expand
our economy. As these “Medium businesses” start growing, we could have
enjoyable cafes and restaurants with more capacity for the growing
population.
Regarding housing, we could start working on slightly larger
improvements, similar to the recent Church Street proposal to the Vienna
Town Council. If there were more of these sorts of buildings, with
hopefully more capacity for resident apartment renting, the increase of
people wouldn't be so harsh. This plan is not perfect and takes a lot of
work, but I truly believe we could be doing more with this town.
Sean McCaslin, age 12
Thoreau Middle School, 7th grade
Vienna