I largely agree with Mr. Chris White’s observations in “Mayor’s comments seem like a lot of bamboozling,” which was a response to Mayor Robin Christiansen’s recent Opinion, “Dover can be safer, stronger, more prosperous.” My wife and I lived as apartment renters in downtown Dover for eight years (2014-22). Our rental was on South Bradford Street, a few doors from the firehouse. The area went from a quiet, treelined, almost suburban spot to an urban armpit of drug-related crime over that time — with observations like, “Oh, my God, is that a gunshot?” to “Oh, I guess the drug dealers are at war again.”
Downtown Dover is not a healthy community, and it seriously deteriorated over the time we resided there. The fact remains that Dover has all the problems of a large city but almost none of the amenities that make it worth living there. We were sad to leave in some ways, but as older adults, we simply felt unsafe. The mayor’s words seem hollow and out of touch with the reality of what downtown has become.
John P. McCarthy
Frederica
Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at civiltalk@iniusa.org.
