Another Letter To The Editor That Wasn't Published

Kathrine Manizade
500 West College Avenue
Salisbury, MD 21801
410-341-0797

November 19, 2006

Editor, The Daily Times
One Times Square
115 E. Carroll Street
Salisbury, MD 21801

Dear Sir:

In your article on the November 14th public meeting with the developers of the Salisbury Mall property, you quote Jon Natelson as saying that his project will be unlike anything seen before on the Eastern Shore. His masterpiece of understatement made me choke on my coffee: he and associate Michael Dzaman would like to cram 2000 people (think Delmar) into a city already groaning under ill-anticipated development. While we’re experiencing how unlike anything here is their project, they’ll be laughing all the way to the bank, TIF accomplished, amused at the gullibility of the rubes on this “outhouse” side of Maryland.

Possibly the only equivalent to the stupidity and greed of this plan, was the ramming of Rte 50 through Salisbury’s old downtown area, except instead of creating a ghost-town, this will make a lethal snarl near Rte 50. Picture high-rise anthills surrounded by narrow streets, plus rows of Prince George County-style townhouses, on top of retail shopping that caters not primarily to residents, but to traffic on Rte. 50.

As one of the four successful petitioners for justice on the illegal rezoning of this property to Planned Development District (PDD) status, I’ve seen their plans, and heard them balk again and again at reducing density. One might get the impression that they need that density to flip the property to a bigger developer waiting in the wings. They offer no guarantee that they will provide anything they promise. And Natelson is right about this being unlike anything on the Shore: it’s the very worst of D.C. and Baltimore metro-area urban development. There are foreigners who came here to escape the likes the Old Mall development, and there’s nothing funny about that. Natives who think this will gore only the ox of the come-here’s, should imagine more rudeness in traffic, more accidents, more crime and more anonymity in your own small city. Natelson and Dzaman come from a place where people are so punished by daily traffic that they butt their shopping carts together to beat other hapless lemmings to the check-out line, and curse under their breath when they finish last. Think you’ve already seen this? Get ready to see a whole lot more. Is that what you want for Salisbury?

These men have, with impunity, allowed their property to become a public hazard under a 2005 Salisbury BHZ demolition order that has gone un-enforced by a Mayor and City Council arrantly derelict from their duty. YOU try buying an investment property in Salisbury, and then let it deteriorate over the years, allowing bums, drug dealers and other undesirables to infest it. How long do you think you would go un-fined? Do you really think you could demand and get a TIF from the City Council if you otherwise refused to comply with a demolition order?

This is what these slick operators have done, with the assistance of our Mayor and Council (Mrs. Campbell alone dissenting). While in flagrant violation of a demolition order, they have had the colossal nerve to demand approval of their project with a TIF subsidy, (which will take $1600 from each taxpayer in Salisbury) before complying with the law and removing their stinking eyesore. That really may be unlike anything seen before on the Eastern Shore.

Kate Manizade