Editor:

“Lazio’s Last Stand” (July 24) was well done and of great significance to the harbor issues of today. It is also the perfect, living example of why local governments should not get involved in economic development. They should leave that to the private sector, guided by the marketplace.

Go down and look at the Eureka waterfront that once teemed with fishing boats, lumber schooners, steam ships, ferry boats and trains. You will see vacant land, destroyed docks, idle fishing boats, empty tracks and rusting trains. You will see an area where facilities exist to clean up oil spills from ships that never come anymore. Next door is city property filled and graded for the construction of offshore oil platforms, an economic opportunity lost when we decided that we didn’t need to drill for oil, even for exploratory reasons.

At the foot of C and D streets you can see the site of more Eureka redevelopment projects, one begun 13 years ago. Look closely and see the bare ground and patches of grass. That’s all the city has to show for that project. Other redevelopment projects have been proposed and allocated along the waterfront, but let’s wait and see if they fare any better than those of the past.

There’s not space to list all of the projects that have failed on the waterfront, mostly because of too much government.

— Jerry Partain, Bayside