The recent Jan. 19 public hearing by the Utica city Planning Board to decide on Stewart’s Shop’s proposal to put a gas station/convenience store on Genesee Street in south Utica demonstrated Utica’s need for a change in leadership.

Problems with the “hearing” went beyond the severe limitation on the time given for speaking, even beyond the fact many valid arguments against the Stewart’s proposal were clearly not given consideration by the board. What the meeting and vote made clear is the disconnect between the city and its own people — so that a public hearing can be no more than, as one participant called it, a “circus.”

How else to explain that citizens were told at a meeting in south Utica back in August, when we first learned of the plan, that it was considered a “done deed?” Nonetheless, citizens who still believe in participatory democracy spent months learning the facts about environmental and health effects of gas stations, thinking about the impact of Stewart’s plan on the character of south Utica’s historic and scenic neighborhood, assessing the need for another gas station in that location (there is none) in hopes of persuading the city not to hand Stewart’s carte blanche.

All of these issues are well within the Planning Board’s responsibilities as listed on its webpage.

No one can take away from the current administration the good it has accomplished, but nothing can take the place of a relationship of trust between the government and all city residents.

This trust has been so eroded over the years, many people are apathetic; why bother to get involved with a “done deed?”

The mistake of allowing Stewart’s into south Utica – and most of all – the mistake of humiliating the people who in good faith expected to be heard on matters affecting the health of their neighborhoods, will not go away; it will be a big factor in the upcoming elections.

— Kim C. Domenico, Utica