Urban Upsetters
I’m so glad the whole thing with Urban Outfitters has finally been written about (LEO Weekly, July 4). Ever since the chain retail store has been moving in on Bardstown Road, I’ve found it to be an interesting juxtaposition to all of the small, homegrown local businesses around it. And at first, I tried to have a neutral attitude toward it. I understand it on one hand — it’s just another business (popular chain store though it is) trying to spread and make money, and perhaps they don’t know any better; perhaps they’re not so aware that they’re intruding on our local-supportive, local-first culture.
Then again, that does not justify the rudeness and inconsideration they’ve shown to their neighbor, Highland Coffee, who was there first. It’s almost like new blood showing a lack of respect for its elders. It makes me upset to say the least. So I’m glad that the details of the company’s nature have been illuminated.
This, I believe, is the beginning of the death of localism.
Brooke Hernando, Louisville
Let’s Stick Together
Help keep Louisville independent businesses alive, please. I have a shop across the street from where Urban Outfitters is going in the Highlands, where we could make every one of those shirts that they sell. Creating something for customers is what we do. I hope tons of people come to Urban Outfitters, as I am directly across the street. When they are inside looking out, they will be looking at me. I just hope they read my signs. I hope to live off of the possible people who might go to Urban Outfitters, and I do mean live. This is what I do to pay the rent. Yes, they might have bullied their way in, but they are definitely going to be here for a while.
Let’s live by ... locals stick together, let’s do what we do, and together we are already giving them a run for their money.
Kevin Burris, Louisville
Grinding Decoded
As a college student, I would like to thank Sara Havens for her Bar Belle column “Confessions on a dance floor” (LEO Weekly, June 27). I will carry a copy with me whenever I go to frat parties as a guidebook for understanding what all of the grinding is supposed to mean.
Laura Garrett, Louisville
In Debt
Your story about Sen. Mitch McConnell’s merger with Goldman Sachs (LEO Weekly’s Fake Issue, June 20) had been widely anticipated by the financial industry media. So it was not a big surprise to those who follow developments in money and politics.
Industry analysts are saying that one of the specialties of this merged entity will be the marketing of CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) composed of the campaign debts of Republican candidates. Given that candidates usually do not want to waste time on raising money for their campaigns after Election Day, these CDOs would presumably create capital losses that can be promptly written off as income tax deductions by the speculative investors who purchase them.
An anonymous financial industry source explains the situation like this: “Since the Supreme Court has already determined that money is a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment, we expect they will also find that CDOs, derivatives, hedge funds and tax deductions are also protected by the First Amendment. Money talks in all of its various forms.”
Tom Louderback, Highlands
Severe Siren Warnings
The horrific storm hit Washington, D.C. — along with disasters in Colorado and Florida — and hurled us an 11th-hour wake-up warning. In our nation’s capital, neighbor is helping neighbor with the cleanup. Now, we must end our status-quo denial. The time is long overdue for other-reality Republicans to get real and join a unified national effort to confront global warming. President Obama must deliver a far-reaching plan in a definitive historic speech.
Our do-nothing response guarantees our global warming doom.
Michael Gregoire, St. Matthews
