LETTER TO THE EDITOR — Port Arthur frustrates with missing potential

Published 12:06 am Friday, January 13, 2023

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I am writing to express a concern and rant about Port Arthur.

With an overwhelming potential this area has to grow with Beaumont and Orange to become a powerhouse in Texas, it seems to always remain stagnant.

We reach a peak then regress and reach the same peak again and feel that is progression when it is not.

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We can’t seem to get over that invisible hill when growth is involved, city leaders (laugh), and elderly people are the main ones that hold down the progression of the area, with a constant talk of “we can’t build here; it’s swamp land.”

“I don’t want the city to grow because we would get more traffic.”

“I wish we had things that Houston has.”

Just a few, but without realizing that Pleasure Island is man made a was made in a body of water, or that all of this was swamp land at a point of time (look at New Orleans), and if you want things that Houston has, your going to get traffic. That’s what businesses tend to do.

But we are stuck in a bubble that Beaumont and Orange are slowly pulling out of due to that lack of wanting better for the future.

I can’t stress the conversations that people have of them wanting to leave and never coming back, but the way the city is ran, you force that.

Change is suppose to be doing things different and for the better, not to stay in the same position that you are in. I hope this would be a wake up call for that “change” but, no everything will still be the same.

I was going to say let this be seen, but no, just expressing something that many other people also find annoying.

– Gerald Hayes, Port Arthur