Edgar Conroy: When is the city's priority going to be the average Laconian?

To The Daily Sun,

As a lifelong resident of Laconia and a Laconia High School graduate of the class of 2022, I live and bleed Laconia. There is no doubt that Laconia needed and has benefited from development. Downtown looks the best it has ever been, bringing money and youth to the city. But when is enough? How many multimillion-dollar condos do we need? As far as I remember, when I looked amongst the students in my class, they weren’t going home to their house on Governors Island or their $1.5 million 600-square-foot lake condo. They were going home to middle-class families. That is for those who even went home. Many kids I grew up with didn’t have homes, didn’t have families, and relied on the public schools for their only meals. The average Laconian doesn’t live in an abundance of wealth, and many live day to day. When is the city's priority going to be the average Laconian? Why is it that the erection of luxury houses that don’t sell out continues to spawn while the homeless sleeping on City Hall are left ignored? The issue on the average person's mind is not where they can vacation for two weeks. Why are their children's bikes being stolen, why are drugs running rampant, and why are there so many homeless sleeping on our sidewalks? We don’t need higher property taxes; we don’t have to give millions to New Yorkers while our senior center is financially neglected. It's time to optimize our citizens’ lives, not push us out. I’m not a lawyer, but it seems like a conflict of interest to fast-track investments in the building where our mayor owns three condos. The future of the community is not paper it's action.

Edgar Conroy

Laconia