Letter to the Editor - help requested

[Miggy]

All,
I'm not sure if anyone here reads the Chronicle at all, but I am writing a response to their recent cover article(http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase ... d%3A458459 by Wells Dunbar and Jordan Smith. Before I submit this evening (their cuttoff I believe), I thought I would post it out here to get your thoughts. All feedback (agree/disagree, grammar, examples, etc..) welcome.

Chronicle Editors,
As a downtown resident I was frustrated by your recent cover article ‘Million Dollar Condo’. The article spends a lot of time teasing the pitches of different downtown condominiums under construction and naively wondering why they would put their best units in the sales catalog or try to upgrade customers. It is hardly difficult to make fun of salespeople of any stripe (been to car dealership lately?), but it takes some courage on your part considering that the developers you’re lampooning are advertising in the same issue.
It’s a shame, then, that this courage was wasted on an article that proposes to understand who are the ‘urban pioneers’ moving into downtown but, in a glaring oversight, fails to talk to any. Instead we are provided with two reporters who mockingly dress up as stereotyped residents and then proceed to cast judgment on my neighborhood all the while holding themselves up as the ideal occupants.
So it wasn’t to make fun of salesmen, which is trite, and it wasn’t to understand downtown residents, because you didn’t talk to any… so why did you write this article and put it on your cover? It can’t be to argue against hipsters, when the Chronicle organized SXSW just the week before that draws more hipsters to this town than any other event. It can’t be to complain about the lack of affordable housing, since several neighborhoods would be far behind downtown in both acknowledgement and action on this issue. If I am to guess, it appears as though this article was designed solely to protest the types of residents moving in downtown – an attitude that may well have stemmed from good intentions, but is sadly deprived of perspective.
My immediate neighbors are secretaries, schoolteachers, small business owners, retirees and military servicemen. I do not recognize your ‘Burton’ and ‘Shanti’ but would argue that they have an equal right to live in this neighborhood, free of prejudice, just as anyone else.
Downtown has not been called home by ‘artists, musicians and slackers’ as your article suggests or really too much of anyone for the last 25 years. That in large part is the problem, and now that people do live here and are trying to improve their area, you complain that they’re not people like yourselves.
Your article failed to mention how all those who visit, work and play in downtown benefit from having 24 hour residents here. You made no mention of how having residents attracts new retail and services that make the area safer and more vibrant. No acreage equivalent to what 25,000 residents would consume in suburban sprawl or what it would cost in utilities or roadways. In the end, I am left to conclude that your article was a disservice to both your readers and to this city.

Best regards,
Michael McGill
Downtown Resident – 5yrs
President, Railyard Condominiums Home Owners Association (HOA) – 4yrs
Steering Committee Member, Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association (DANA)– 4yrs

I left out an earlier draft that included snide remarks asking if they were planning a series of articles that sent the same two white, but diversity-minded, reporters into a majority African-American or Hispanic neighborhood and replicate this same method of dressing up like steretyped locals, not talking to anyone, and passing judgement on their neighborhood, etc... I thought that might be too incindiary.

Let me know your thoughts. Thanks!!

-Mike

[Roy Janik]

Looks good, Mike. My only quibble is that I don't think the Chronicle organizes SXSW. It's just a major sponsor, and covers the crap out of it, right? Just change the word organized to sponsored or something.

[ratliff]

Roy is technically right. But two of the four big cheeses of SXSW are Louis Black and Nick Barbaro, the editor and publisher respectively. And the Chronicle is certainly not rigorous about observing the distinction.

[Miggy]

good feedback - consider it struck. It was the weakest part of my argument anyway.

[The Frightful Turpentine]

Looks good, but in the second sentence I think I would change "teasing" to "mocking" and "naively" to "disingenuously."

Down with the anti-downtownites!

[shando]

You might want to drop the whole lampooning of advertisers angle toward the beginning. I think some readers will dismiss the letter if you imply that the Chron should be editorially kind to their advertisers. This line does get blurred sometimes but I think it strengthens your argument if you don't suggest that Chron should or might do something suspect.

[Miggy]

Ok, here's the revised version. Hopefully they'll publish it (or at least read it).

Chronicle Editors,
As a downtown resident I was frustrated by your recent cover article, ‘Million Dollar Condo’. Your premise was to understand who are the ‘urban pioneers’ moving into downtown but, in a glaring oversight, failed to talk to any. Instead we are provided with two reporters who mockingly dress up as stereotyped residents and then proceed to cast judgment on this, my neighborhood, all the while holding themselves up as the ideal occupants.

Surely you did not waste all of this ink to make fun of the pitches of salespeople, which is a trite exercise. It also couldn't have been to understand downtown residents, because you didn’t talk to any. So why then did you write this article and put it on your cover? If I am left to guess that this article was designed solely to protest the types of residents moving in downtown – an attitude that may well have stemmed from good intentions, but is sadly deprived of perspective.

My immediate neighbors are a secretary, a retiree, a small business owner, a military serviceman and a schoolteacher couple with a small child. None of us are wealthy, most of us contribute to the creative life of this city and all of us are proud downtowners. I do not recognize your ‘Burton’ and ‘Shanti’ characters but would argue that, were they to exist, they should have an equal right to live in this neighborhood free of prejudice or parody just as anyone else.

Downtown has not been called home by ‘artists, musicians and slackers’ as your article suggests or really too much of anyone for the past 25 years. That in large part has been the problem and now that people are finally moving here and are trying to improve their community, your publication complains that those individuals are not sufficiently like yourselves.

Affordable housing remains an on-going concern, but an attack on this neighborhood is misdirected when there are numerous other areas that are far behind downtown in both acknowledgement and action on this issue.

Lastly, your article failed to mention how all of those who visit, work and play in downtown benefit from having 24 hour residents here. You made no mention of how the presence of residents attracts new retail and services that make the area safer and more vibrant; no acreage equivalent to what 25,000 residents would consume in suburban sprawl, nor what it would cost in utilities or roadways.

In the end, I am left to conclude that your article was a disservice to both your readers and to this city.

Best regards,
Michael McGill
Downtown Resident

[erikamay]

nice.

i would only change your signature by line from "downtown resident" to

mike mcgill
downtown resident/bad-ass motherfucker who blew up the intel building

in all seriousness, the letter looks good. i agree with shannon that the mention of advertisers and targets for the article is better left out.

now i'm going to have to read that article...

[York99]

I don't know the Chronicle that well, but most of the letters to the editors that I've seen in most publications are much shorter. You might have good points, but they might not get heard for reason of space issues.

Unfortunately we live in a world of sound bites and short attention spans. I honest to God had one more sentence to write but forgot it. Proof positive.

[Miggy]

Not sure if it amounts to a hill of beans...but my letter got published:
(http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase ... /Postmarks)

Thanks for the help y'all!

Mike

[York99]

You might have good points, but they might not get heard for reason of space issues.

I guess I was wrong.

That makes twice now.