One of those DDRC members (an unnamed one, I noted) claims that Future Five represents "fascism." But true fascism would involve collusion between the municipal government and developers like Travis Butler, who would love nothing more than to make Five Points into yet another soulless, dense, corporate storefront-littered monstrosity like the Sand Hills development.

Butler himself further muddies the intellectual waters with his absurd declaration that these guidelines, designed not to impede but actually foster reasonable and acceptable development, represent "neighborhood activism run amuck (sic)." I would respectfully suggest that Mr. Travis reconsider just who should and should not have a voice in the future direction our urban village takes. If not the neighborhood activists and merchants who care enough to want to protect the area from profiteers, then who? Surely not the developers, whose vested interest in a place like Five Points begins and ends with how many wheelbarrows of profit they can leach from miniscule plots of land-and how many locally-owned businesses can be pushed out in favor of corporate chains with deep pockets.

I would submit to all official bodies involved in this decision that to listen to the developers over the residents and merchants who have the most at stake will insure that it is only those builders who profit in the end, and at the expense of the people who actually live and work in the neighborhood.

Thank you,