Blame mayor for Aurora shortcomings

The west side of Aurora has been the home of a vacant decaying property, formerly occupied by Cub Foods, for over six years now. More recently, Aurora could add the Lowes property on Orchard Road to its growing collection of vacant commercial buildings.

This is unacceptable and there should be some accountability.

Now, we cannot blame the Mayor Tom Weisner for the nation’s economic hard times. However, he alone is completely responsible for the image and economic development for the city of Aurora.

Why has Aurora come up short? These large empty buildings have resulted in a loss of tax revenue, higher unemployment and more crime in our city. The mayor’s main objective should be Aurora business and not state business.

Mayor Weisner was appointed by Governor Quinn to a paid position on the Illinois Tollway Authority (a group that unanimously imposed an 87 percent increase in the tolls we pay daily).

How does this help the citizens of Aurora? Mayor Weisner’s focus should be solely on improving the infrastructure of Aurora. He was elected twice to improve the City of Aurora.

As an Aurora taxpayer it is a complete embarrassment not being able to compete with Montgomery, Oswego, Yorkville and North Aurora. All have made some significant commercial and residential improvements in the last six years.

Aurora has proven to be penny-wise but dollar-foolish when it comes to basic economic development strategies.

Failed policies are being recycled by the people in charge, hoping to get different results. Their stewardship of Aurora can be called disappointing at best, and that’s a shame because our hometown has so much potential.

John M. Aguilar

Aurora