Letters

All for five

Dear Editor:

I was disappointed to read that a county official opposes increasing the number of Mobile County commissioners from three full-time commissioners to five part-time commissioners. A five-member, part-time county commission would better represent rural communities and allow professional administrators to run day-to-day operations. We need a county commission made up of working citizens from all parts of Mobile County.

Adam Bourne

Chunchula, AL

Mid-City musings

To the editor:

Been thinking…. “Mid-Town.” Everyone seems to kind of know which part of Mobile is considered as Mid-Town. My best guess is that it starts around The Cannon, goes through the Murphy district, and stops around Florida Street.

To the North, some parts of Old Shell Road probably qualify, others certainly don’t.(Hennesey’s IS in Upper Crichton, right?) On the South flank, certainly anyone with an Emogene Street address is in the club. We know Reed Street, Monterey. What about DelWood? What about Police HQ? Are they Mid-Town?

Unclaimed Furniture? What about the, uh, apartments on Westwood and Government Street? Not exactly the quaint image Mid-towners long for. I mean, Mid-Town, with its fancy new markets, Craftsman Cottages, and buckled sidewalks, it’s practically Oakleigh!

Of course, the hardliners will tell you it proceeds to the border with West Mobile, which is unofficially “Everything West of I-65 and North of I-10 and South of Moffett.”

Why not rename the remaining portion, that part the Mid-Towners would rather NOT have to claim as being just a skip and a hop away, lets’ call that part Mid-City.

After all, Mid-City is URBAN, its’ HAPPENIN’, its’ NOW. It’s where things get done. Mid-Town, well, its’ kind of Townie, pink lemonade, porch swings, ferns, chocolate labs and the smaller, more affordable batch of high-end SUVs. Maybe even a tomato plant in somebody’s back yard.

But not Mid-City. Mid-City is hardly Mobile’s version of Mayberry. On the contrary, you can get Tacos there until 2 a.m. You can get bogged down in a Speed Trap. You can go to Wal-Mart. You can get any one of three of the best burgers in Mobile. Bel-Air Mall? They’re Mid-City, no doubt about it.

What’s more, Crichton and Upper Holcombe neighborhoods could be annexed along with PapaGeorge’s Supper Club, the Lighthouse, and Radio Shack. We could even try to reopen the Comedy Club.

You got LoDa, WeMo, well, now you got MidMo.

Andy Thomas

Mid-City

Mobile

Edtior’s note: While we appreciate Mr. Thomas’ thoughtful effort to become the father of Mid-City, we suggest MiMoi as the abbreviation, since we’ve already got MiMo for Midtown Mobile. Doggone this mess is getting complex!

Police talk back

Dear Ms. Cleveland:

I am in receipt of your letter concerning the statements made by Lieutenant DeWayne Hill to the Press Register in which he alluded to the fact that illegal drug sales at Government Street and Broad Street were inconsequential. I am writing to assure you that any sale of illegal drugs, irrespective of the location, is of grave concern to the Department and would never be tolerated. The verbiage used by Lt. Hill was of poor choice and has been addressed. I am confident that he did not intend to minimize or suggest to drug dealers that it was no big deal to sale drugs at Government and Broad. I do think that he was trying to accentuate the seriousness of targeting school children near school grounds for drug sales.

As you know from previous meetings with me, I am intolerant of disorder and criminal activity and will use every resource available to me to either bring a disorderly situation under control or to remove a criminal from the street. I ask that you accept this as my personal assurance of our continuing commitment to providing professional law enforcement to the citizens of Mobile.

As always, if I can be of any further assistance to you or if you have any questions regarding this matter or any other, please feel free to contact me directly at 208-1708.

With best regards, I remain

Yours in service,

Deputy Chief James Barber

Field Operations Bureau

Mobile Police Department

Editor’s note: The preceding letter was sent to Suzanne Cleveland and forwarded to Lagniappe after her letter appeared in the last issue.

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