Galen Winegardner: We’ve tried to help downtown before

Re “Helping downtown: City rolls out incentives to attract offices, shops” (Page B2, Jan. 29): I commend city government for its desire to revitalize downtown, however, it may be three decades too late and a dollar shy. There was a group of brave restauranteurs who tried, with the dream of a Performing Arts Center, who did the same and it came to pass. Unfortunately previous city governments were merely concerned with urban sprawl to the detriment of our agricultural land and not to the needs of what’s best for Modesto. I sincerely hope more effort is put into this urgent void before downtown totally dissolves.

This story was originally published January 30, 2015 at 10:13 AM with the headline "Galen Winegardner: We’ve tried to help downtown before."