Time for city’s leaders to start leading

To the editor: I have a suggestion for the mayor and the city council of Woonsocket:

Start acting like professionals and start doing what is best for the city. We have serious problems in our city, and it is going to take serious people to start fixing them. Put your egos aside and start working together.

Let’s begin with the overall look of the city.

Drive out of the North End every now and then and you will see trashy looking sections of the city. Drive into Woonsocket from Cumberland Hill or Manville Road and you will see empty lots or city properties that look like the town dump. Drive in from Diamond Hill and you will see empty plazas that look like run-down messes. Please take a drive around the city and look at it through the eyes of potential business owners. Would you want to bring your business into a city that looks like it is in such disrepair? Let’s talk about businesses in general. We all know that business broadens the tax base. I’m not talking about bringing in a new pizza parlor (although I do love a good meatball pizza). I am talking about bringing manufacturing jobs, big box stores, etc. where not only could we have the tax revenue, but also put some of our citizens into new jobs. Just how hard is the city working in economic development to bring in business? We have almost sold the Providence Street ballfield several times, but political comments keep getting in the way, and eventually the prospective owners pull out. The old Middle School has a buyer, but plans have been scaled down, and I am left wondering if it will actually fall through.

The finances of the city seem to be in disarray as well.

How much is being done in the finance sections of city hall to ensure proper payments going out, and the right revenue coming in? How are mistakes dealt with, and what is being done to make sure they do not happen again?

You have a small group of people on Facebook dedicated to the city, where volunteers have been coming out to help small business owners beautify their properties. I would like to see this addressed by the politicians of the city. Praise these people and put out a call for more to help out. As city leaders, how about showing up carrying a paintbrush as well.

The school committee recently had a meeting/celebration for the Principal, Teacher, Secretary, Para-professional and Custodian of the Year. Although I was there to support a friend, I did not see any representative from city government to celebrate the work that these people do to better the lives of our city’s children.

I imagine that there may be work going on behind the scenes to help our city, but it is hard to see it with all the bickering going on in front of your citizens. Besides the fighting going on in front of us, you have members of city government who not only won’t promote our city, but publicly bash it. You are the city leaders. Start leading. —Frank Sylvester, Woonsocket