Well said Josh! Embrace the new business coming to our town by the bay.

The one great thing that would turn our whole city aroynd into Destination place,rather than a bywater,is the Saginaw Bay itself.No single action or building,development or redeveopment could revive our moribund city like the return of swimming on a fabulous stretch of golden yellow sand,no muck at all, filled with families having fun,and yes,even a rebuilt Wenonah Beach fun area. This is not a dream. I remember what we once had here in my youth.We must demand the return of our beach,cleaned and no muck which was the symbol and even the namesake of our city. Without that,we are a hoax and a joke.Demand it from the state and Federal Government.If we can put a man on the moon,we can clean up this bay in two years.Demand it.


Sent by Outlook for Android

I guess you will say I have joined the pessimists on Bay City's future. But I feel my comments may help save some remnant of our once beautiful,historic,and vibrant downtown,so here goes anyway. I am supposed to be thrilled by the replacement condos and apartments where the Mill End 1870's building onced graced this corner.The result is an apartment complex that could just as easily fit on Euclid Street strip mall stores and would probable have done more good. The heart of our historic downtown is gone.Ripped apart by the "big Zero",the motto of our demolished downtown,gleaming all white in the waterfront park at the foot of Center Sve. When I think of what we have lost of our city in my lifetime,I can barely keep back the tears.Young people today will never know what we had here, and older people like me just avoid the intersections where everything is gone.That beautiful waterfront park had giant iron urns overflowing with geraniums in the spring and other flowers--all destroyed. Water Street had long continuous brick buildings from the St.Laurent's nuts and chocolate building,buried under aluminum siding,all the way to the glorious Wenonah Hotel,the Queen of the City.Townhouses,with absolutely no architectural relationship to our historic center,sit on one side of Water St.,while a few of the remaining brick buildings probably await the same fate as the Mill End building. How does tell the story of the Washington Theater,once an Opera House,like the recently demolished Opera House in the West Side historic district,destroyed for a ramp for the Third Street Bridge replacement.The planitarium on the site of the Wenonah only says to me,get out of here while you can.Do you think anyone will bemoan the passing of the Double Tree Inn? Oh ----Wenonah Beach,and even by street car,the towers of the First Baptist Church on Center Ave,the Tower of the brick Presbyterian Church on Midland Street,topped with a crown with roses bursting forth,the Churchill Mansion where the Knights of Columbus met on Center Ave,the Eddy/Ward Mansion with it turrets,tunnel to the carriage house which contained a carriage turn about,like the cable cars in San Francisco. We still have a beautiful city,but if we continue to destroy what makes it special,then there will be nothing left,including those who loved it so,--- once upon a time.Gabe Sheridan