Tallahassee plan is very expensive, but it's worth it

To the editor:

This is regarding your recent editorial about the Front Porch Florida urban-revitalization program in the Frenchtown neighborhood of Tallahassee, Fla. Before I retired, I worked for the city of Tallahassee in the Frenchtown neighborhood. I met with those citizens over portions of two years, and I wrote the Front Porch Florida plan that was submitted to and approved by the governor.

The Front Porch Florida program, while effective, is neither simple nor cheap to fund. In Frenchtown, it is one of nearly a hundred coordinated human-services programs being funded by local, state and federal governments. City government has dedicated over a million dollars a year to this particular neighborhood. The state pledged over $5.2 million to be split among the first three communities in this program for the first year alone. And we secured over $9 million in federal funds for related efforts in Frenchtown. The program is working, but it takes coordination with other human-services programs in the neighborhood and a large amount of public funding for a sustained period of time to be effective.

Cape Girardeau or any other town must be committed to spending local funds and dedicating a large amount of effort toward working in a bottoms-up fashion with its less fortunate citizens if it is to create such a resident-driven community building plan. It's worth the effort and expense to save part of a community in this manner. I hope Cape does the same thing someday.

JOE JACKSON

Frohna, Mo.