Bottom Businesses Should Stop Whining

I can understand the problems the various people in Shockoe Bottom face as my home was flooded by Hurricane Isabel Sept. 18, 2003. What I don’t understand is the mind-set they have expecting the taxpayers of Richmond to provide funds to repair their damage (“Hung Out to Dry?” Cover Story, March 23).

They would not be facing this if they, as responsible owners, had carried flood insurance. Shockoe Bottom is noted for flooding, and even I recognized that the flood wall was only good for a rising James River fed from heavy rains upstream.

Thousands were affected by the hurricanes. Many did not have flood insurance, so they did what we all have to do: Pay for our own repairs, not expect someone else who have probably already paid for their own damage to do it for them.

The time for crying and whining is over. Either fix your businesses or abandon them as not viable. Quit expecting someone else to bail you out of a problem you created by not having insurance. The problem is yours, not Richmond’s or anyone else.

H. Jackson

Corrections

We incorrectly reported that Chesterfield County owns a fourth of the Greater Richmond Partnership (“Power Play,” News & Features, March 30). Rather, Chesterfield, along with Richmond and the counties of Henrico and Hanover, each provide 12.5 percent of the partnership’s funding, about $390,000 each. According to the partnership’s bylaws that money is leveraged to obtain matching funds from the private sector.

The $340,000 that Shockoe Bottom residents received from the federal government for disaster relief from the flood were grants, not loans (“Hung Out to Dry?” Cover Story, March 23). Style regrets the errors.

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