I would like to set the record straight. In her recent follow-up My Turn [“When will Greenfield wake up?” Oct. 16], writer Jen Davenport took something I said out of context and ignored significant aspects of my earlier letter [“I love Greenfield and its agendas” Aug. 22]. She implied I was unwilling to entertain her opinions because I suggested that if she wants more shopping options and finds it so inconvenient to live in Greenfield that she move to a town with more of the options that she craves. It’s true that I did say this with kind of a disgruntled voice, but this was because there were basically two things I was put off by in her original column, one was the line aimed at our elected officials that I quoted: “… why not instead tackle what might make life better for your own residents. Put OUR needs first for once and put your personal agendas aside. DO SOMETHING FOR US.”
In my previous letter I pointed out that those agendas labeled as “personal” were also the agendas of many of us. I was also put off by her dissing Greenfield as she also does in this new piece of Oct. 16. Greenfield is not “circling the drain” as she writes, at least not in the opinion of some of us; it is a wonderful place to live. I welcome debate and her opinions; I just don’t think that voicing one’s opinion has to go along with delegitimizing the opinions of others and I was not voicing the stereotypical “like it or leave it.”
When I moved back to Greenfield instead of one of the wonderful hilltowns it was because it had more of what I now wanted. I wanted to be able to walk to the Greenfield Market, to one of the coffee shops and to the movies. There are nearby towns that are more like the West Harford which the writer puts forward as an exemplar. Personally, I would not want to live there, and I bet its unaffordable in any case. The median home price in West Hartford is $562,500 and in Greenfield it’s $353,100.
John Guenther
Greenfield