Will this nightmare ever end and does National Development not know the meaning of no?
National Development assumes that if they wait long enough, they will whittle us down to a positive vote on a MarketStreet cinema. I am in complete agreement with the residents who wrote letters to the editor in the March 6, 7 editions of The Daily Item — Lynnfield should once again say no to National Development’s 800-seat theater proposal.
Well this is one voter who has no intention of switching my vote at Town Meeting. I foresaw all the problems this development would create and it is coming to fruition and then some. No one can convince me that all of the added expenses to Fire Department, the Police Department and ambulance requirements do not exceed what we get in return.
Just read the police blotter in the paper each week, which has grown to a full page since MarketStreet has arrived.
And, as confirmed by the MarketStreet Advisory Committee, there has been an increase in motor vehicle accidents in and around Market Street since 2012. The MarketStreet Committee report showed accidents increasing in the area from 37 in the year it opened to 78 in the third year of operation.
I hear the sirens and see from my window the red flashing lights going up the hill many times in the course of a single day. I also put up with the fear of exiting my street (Country Club Drive) and being hit by a car exiting off 128/Exit 43 far too fast and not stopping at the stop sign.
I also am tired of being held up on Walnut Street for multiple traffic signal cycles for at least 10 minutes or more to get past Salem Street. Why would I or anyone using Walnut or Salem streets to get to their destinations be inclined to want the traffic that an 800-seat theater will bring to town every day and into the late evening hours, not to mention more crime and accidents?
And this theater operator will be looking for another liquor license at Market Street so that alcohol can be served during movies at which minors will be present, which raises additional public safety concerns.
We already have theaters in Reading (IMAX), Revere, Danvers and Woburn, all of which are within a very easy ride from Lynnfield. Are we that lazy that we have to destroy our town? We already have done enough damage with our lack of foresight.
Carol Maniglia
Lynnfield
