Editor,
Will someone please explain to me what the word “Victorian” has to do with the ugly, garish monstrosity called the Rainbow Steps? Where was the Historic District Commission when permission was given to do this?
If we are going to be a Victorian city, let’s start downtown!
Where will the madness stop? If we let everyone who moves here have a “Great Idea” for the city and change our looks – we will lose the unique quality that draws people here in the first place!
I’m disgusted!
Genevieve Bowman
Your argument concerning bringing back dirt streets kind of doesn’t make sense. I have seen pictures of streets during the Victorian era were very much concrete, some dirt. People then were primitive, but not the stone age. However as far as stores are concerned, we need a grocery store, hardware store and useful stores downtown…I am saying like the stores we had during the Victorian era. General stores and not the small one that is already there on Main. Me along with others find it somewhat inconvenient to have to travel all the way across town to the highway, Van Burean/62. Need a feed store around here as well instead of traveling far outside town like Holiday Island. I have no problem with the Rainbow, however. One town I passed through had a rainbow painted on a house several miles from here. The rainbow was painted in 1879 by a woman who had a young daughter who passed away at the age of 6 from typhoid. Her daughter loved rainbows. Although the meaning is different for what it symbolizes here in Eureka Springs; it shouldn’t make any difference. My question is, why do you not like the rainbow on the steps, because of what it symbolizes, or do you have something against rainbows in general? Rainbows have been around for centuries.
Well, if you want to be pure Victorian, how about no cars on the streets? How about keeping anyone questioning the status quo of 1880 locked up and away from sight. How about getting rid of most all the businesses in Eureka Springs? Oh, and take away the concrete roads and bring back dirt and mud and outdoor toilets. I believe that the Rainbow Steps display is art…which only adds to our community.