By Arthur Moore

I could not stay for all of it. Brad Rawson spoke but gave a lot of stats which I personally have no faith in as the city is not back in working order to get those yet. And with four more bridges about to close it won’t be for a couple of years in order to get those. So whatever he puts on that screen to me is meaningless until the city is restored. Sure Broadway traffic is down, we have many race tracks now on the side streets. True to his word Mark Niedergang had me go first. Not really being a speaker I probably botched it but tried to make it a point of letting people know about the situation of the poor businesses in Winter Hill. The owner of the nail salon was there to speak. I feel for him as his place lost all parking so he can’t have anyone with mobility issues or the handicapped anymore. He just opened a short while ago and unless our officials some sympathy for him he won’t last long. Same for the hairdresser who just moved from Union Square as they lost their parking there too. They can’t survive this loss. They are taking maybe the biggest hit. The other side of the street is taking a hit also as people are avoiding Winter Hill now and buying elsewhere.  Anyone who has had a small business can understand this, a small loss can mean the difference between earning a living and losing everything.  I hope I am wrong but there did not appear to be any feeling for these small businessmen. I have tried writing the council members trying to get them to see what is really happening even if they just roll things back until the city gets back to normal to figure out what we really need here.