When I moved to Lewiston 45 years ago, upper Lisbon Street was a thriving commercial center. Today the former store fronts serve as shelters for the homeless.

Instead of focusing on homelessness, perhaps city leaders should focus on retail and other business needs to build our tax base and bring Lisbon Street back to life.

Andrew Rice’s article (“Lewiston council forwards shelter moratorium to public hearing,” April 6) brings up disturbing issues that state agencies appear to be ignoring. Why are “homeless youths” living on the streets, not at home? Why are children living out of cars? Why are infants released from the hospitals to be sheltered in a tent? Where are the state agencies set up to deal with these problems?

With property taxes about to rise, what taxpayers don’t need are more unclaimed dependents.

Thank God we have four city councilors who understand Lewiston and look at its problems realistically, not through lenses focused on the current fad of “wokeism.”

Robert Macdonald, Lewiston