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Letters: Building a giant house offends at least 2 neighbors Another open letter to Sid and Karen DeBoer: I agree with most of George Kramer's letter to you published in the Daily Tidings on Sept. 12. As a neighbor of yours just up the street from your proposed 12,000 square foot family residence on Vista Street, I too am concerned about the impact your new home will have on both the neighbors and our historic district. As I have made clear at several public meetings over the past year, including ones you have attended, I fully support our city's efforts to preserve and protect our historic districts. In the last ten years, since you purchased the historic Frank Clark home on Vista, there has been growing concern that our historic neighborhoods are at risk due to the remodeling or removal of historic houses and the construction of large, incompatible new homes. I know you became aware of that concern over two years ago, when you presented your plans to remodel your Frank Clark home to the Historic Commission, as local historian Kay Atwood noted in a previous letter to the Tidings. When I received your open letter mailed last spring to all 1,500 historic district residents, I was surprised, as you must have been, by the intense feelings your new-house proposal aroused, even though you were careful then to refer only to the 4,000-square footprint of your new house, rather than the gross square footage of 12,000. Hopefully you have since taken the time to read the letters from your neighbors, which were sent to the city's Planning Department in response. If not, please do so. They are public documents. A clear majority is opposed to the house you plan to build. Many of these letters are literally from the neighbors on your street or streets overlooking your house or streets just around the corner. Neighbors on Vista, Hillcrest, Pioneer, Pearl, Hargadine, Meade and Gresham have all taken the time to write letters to express their concerns. I ask you to reconsider your Vista Street project one more time. As Mr. Kramer said, with regard to your additional plans for a 7,000-square-foot house on historic Granite Street, "It is the right and neighborly thing to do." Bill Street, Ashland Dean's appeal may confound, but it's founded Political pundits are scratching their heads and offering uninformed opinions about the nature of Howard Dean's constituency and appeal. They try very hard to fit our candidate and our campaigners into neat pigeon holes. But they cannot find any label that fits. What do you call an interfaith coalition of people of diverse color with roots in many cultures? We call them Dean campaigners. What do you call a following composed of young, middle-aged and senior women and men, staunch Democrats, disenchanted Republicans, avid Green party affiliates, Independents and people who formerly didn't care a hoot about our political process? We call them Dean supporters. What do you call a candidate who is a fiscal conservative, a civil-rights liberal, a states' rights libertarian, a physician, a former teacher, a loving husband and father, a clear thinker, an outdoor enthusiast, a formidable politician, and a proven administrator? We call him Howard Dean, the next president of the United States. If the pundits truly want to learn why Howard Dean's campaign is dynamic, they can log onto www.deanforamerica.com and see him in action. If the political savants really want to learn about Dean volunteers, they can attend any one of the hundreds of MeetUps for Dean around the nation - always the first Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. They will see for themselves who we are and why we are determined to see Gov. Howard Dean, M.D., in the White House. Marcia R. Chaiken, Ashland LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -