Dear Editor,

The City Council said in this paper last week that politicians had to make unpopular decisions that were in the best interest of the community.

I went before council Tues and said I failed to see how giving money to rich developers was in the best interest of the community when there are many areas of the City that have safety concerns and promises unfulfilled.

The safety of our citizens and children are in the best interest of the community but there's no money for that.

The Sunflower Community Action company was promised sidewalks last September so their children could have a safe way to get to and from their public schools, but, no money.

A Neighborhood in the North part of town was promised something would be done about the noise from Hwy. 96 when it was built. Again, no money

Council themselves admit there are lots of places in the City where safety is a concern so where do they begin? Their pet project, Waterwalk, downtown.

Council proclaims, and you can go to wichita.gov to see it, that putting in sidewalks and funding child advocacy centers isn't profitable. They “believe” in such things but there isn't any funding. There always seems to be plenty of money to propagate their “vision” though.

I say the $760,000 that is being given to the Waterwalk developer would go a long way to funding child advocacy centers and sidewalks in the NE part of town. Another 2.5 million dollars that the people will not see tax revenue for 20 years could go even further.

One wise council member did his best to explain to us all how the City is saving money in other areas in order to be able to give it away your money to developers.

The County stands ready to help with the Child advocacy issue, but the City says no. They have better uses for your money?

Everyone interested in this project keeps telling the citizens that hotels and shops are so desperately needed downtown. If that were indeed the case it seems that developers would be clamoring over each other to get to build them. Instead we have to bribe them with taxpayer money that should be being used for the benefit of all the people, not just the select few. The few winners that council decides.

Council themselves have openly admitted that they have dug themselves into a hole they can't get out of. So much money has been given away in subsidies that they can't stop now. Surely no one will want to build their vision with out their fair share of your money.

The City Council and the mayor will have an answer. Their answer will be this big beautiful picture of all the money and business this is going to generate. I thought the citizens of Wichita voted down gambling.