I agree with Sharon Embleton (Letters, March 29). Oak Harbor is already over built and has taken on a slightly trashy look. Doesn’t anybody care about downtown anymore?

To walk through downtown is like a scene out of the movie The Omega Man: empty shops, tacky billboards everywhere, a deserted crumbling old theater with graffiti sprawled all over it. You can’t even see the bay anymore since they put up the ugly beehive-type buildings and condos.

Oak Harbor has lost its charm. Did we really need another bank? I long for the days of when downtown was dignified and quaint. When there was a Chimes Cafe, Kow Korner, Masten’s Variety, Ponchos Mexican cafe, Big Dipper soda fountain. When I travel to Coupeville, Langley or Anacortes it’s plain to me they have grown yet they have kept their charm. What happened to Oak Harbor?

I think Al Koetje is mostly to blame as well as the apathy of those around him. We need a noise ordinance in place to stop the never ending house-shaking car bass systems and start enforcing the speed limits in town as posted.I am not speaking as an outsider as I grew up here. I find the situation very sad.

Michael Gartner

Oak Harbor