Letters: FISHING SHOULD BE ALLOWED AT FREEDOM PIER
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
I just read the article from Ken Doyle about not being able to fish from Freedom Pier. Now I don't know how other Gloucester CITY residents feel, but no fishing is just not right. We have two, what used to be nice piers, and Gloucester City cannot take care of them?
These areas are not that old. Come on, how does the city expect people to come here to live if the two places that should offer some type recreation for free to the residents, especially senior citizens, cannot be taken care of?
There have been so many promises about building up this area. Why would an investor come here? It is not safe and not taken care of. If the city can't take care of the pier area without any structures on it and start to turn things around, this city is going to become very unwelcoming. Why would someone tie their boat up at the marina if it could possibly get messed up?
I lived in Camden back in the late 1960s before my parents moved to neighboring Audubon. This was a couple of years before Camden's riots. I am telling you I see the same thing creeping into Gloucester, where eventually it will not be safe to walk the streets at night.
We talk about Gloucester pride and there are a lot of good people here, but if the hoodlums that are wrecking these piers are not stopped it is just going to get worse in some other area. It seems everything nice and or new in this city gets messed up in a few short years.
There used to be a group of citizens that asked people to leave the park at dusk and they reported to the Police Department. Does that group still exist?
I am guessing a lot of the destruction happens late at night. I have been a resident of Gloucester for over 30 years, and I am just saying without change the future does not look too promising.
Rose Dobleman, Gloucester City
