Dear Editor,
Thank you again, city officials, city leaders, for once again, on a Friday and Saturday in downtown Kingman, devastating the economy of downtown Kingman, sucking all the oxygen out of downtown Kingman, putting the most important, the biggest, the most significant event of the year that belongs in downtown Kingman, in our $7.7 million newly renovated and awarded downtown Kingman, in a dog park 2.3 miles away from your downtown. This is all on you, City of Kingman, city leaders and Director of Tourism. You think it’s ok to reach into the pockets of the downtown merchants and take that revenue away from them that they are entitled to, and give it to vendors in a dog park 2.3 miles away? When the event is over, those vendors are going to roll out of town and leave nothing for the city.
Allow me to assure you that the dogs in their area, the field mice, the bugs, the frogs, and the crickets will not ever mind if the Route 66 Fest is never held in that dog park again.
Allow me to assure you that the 68 or so downtown merchants bars, restaurants, wineries, and breweries that support our downtown and City of Kingman with their tax revenue, do mind. We and they all do mind and care and we hate it when our city exhibits such an egregious, disrespectful attitude towards the downtown merchants, the citizens of Kingman, the visitors and tourists from all over the world, by not holding the Kingman route 66 fest in downtown Kingman.
Allow me to assure you also that the folks in wheelchairs, using walkers or canes or have difficulty walking at all, will not mind if the Kingman route 66 fest is never again held in the dog park, over 80% of which is a rutty, uneven grassy area.
Alow me to assure you that these folks in wheelchairs, using walkers or canes or have difficulty walking at all will, be very pleased to be able to walk our beautiful, smooth, recently, paved streets and sidewalks in downtown Kingman.
Allow me to assure you that no one will ever object to not having to park in a dirt lot and walk a huge distance just to get into the event at the dog park. They will be very happy to be able to park on paved streets and parking lots in downtown Kingman, which will accommodate many more than the dirt lot next to the dog park will. Let me assure you of that.
If that park is so important and means so much to whomever, why is all of our signage downtown? Why are the EV stations downtown if it’s so important to show off that park during major events like the Kingman Route 66 Fest, not the dog park Route 66 Fest. Why not move all the signage and EV stations up there?
Please let this be the last year of this mistake.
Jack Alexander
Thunder-Rode
