Letters to the Editor (2-20-19)

Dear Editor,

We were very concerned to read the letter from Mr. Santelli (February 13) informing us that we have a ticking time bomb because of curb cuts on 2nd avenue! A Niwot emergency of pedestrian safety has been declared! Who knew? Is there a pedestrian safety study we missed??

We have been prowling 2nd Avenue for several years now, and mercifully to date have not even come within a whisker of being squashed by an errant SUV exiting the Niwot Inn parking lot. They are, after all, driving forward. Recently, however, we have been counting our nine lives as we stroll past the spanking new frontage of the Southpaw development, where the parking arrangement forces monster automobiles to back up across our path on the sidewalk. How dare they!

We were also very upset to learn that Treppedas, our favorite Main Street hangout staffed by appropriately feline-appreciative acolytes, has been driven out by crippling development restrictions imposed by a socialist cabal in Boulder County Planning. Whatever next? Is Lefty’s Pizza, a funky Niwot institution and our main hunting ground for pizza snatched from the hands of babes, to fall prey to such totalitarian overreach? No, thankfully it is only to be demolished to make way for a developer’s “Niwot vibrancy-enhancing” rental residential development. Apparently retail development in this part of town is no longer a “profitable” enterprise! As a self-centered feline, I have to admire the developer’s chutzpah. Greed, after all, is good.

Yours insincerely,

Kronos the Main Street Alley Cat,

as transcribed by his humble servant

Catherine McCall

350 3rd Avenue, Niwot

To the Editor:

I read in your Feb.13th issue that RTD has outlined several projects for Highway 119, at least one that will affect Niwot. Specifically: “one of the proposed configurations for the bus platform would entail cutting down most of the tall cottonwoods in the medium of the diagonal near Niwot.” I would agree,  in the strongest terms possible, with the person who said, “This would be totally unacceptable”. Back East, where we lived for 22 years, there was a divided route highway, with trees all along the medium and it was a beautiful drive to experience. Then to widen it, all the trees were cut down and the highway simply divided by an ugly steel barrier rail. The result was hideous. Niwot should do EVERYTHING possible to protect the present Cottonwoods. Otherwise we will just look like every other nondescript town that has been “improved” around here.

R. Eggers,

8498 Greenwood Dr., Niwot