The article, "A makeover for Pratt Street plaza" (April 23), proves that the general public has almost no say in what happens in their city. A New York-based company "helped develop the plans" for tearing out the McKeldin Fountain (an oasis of softly falling water and nothing for sale) with the Downtown Partnership to make over what they call the Pratt Street Plaza. The conceptual rendering of what it would look like is ludicrous.
A few people sitting at umbrella-shaded tables, reading. Someone at a card table waiting for — Godot, perhaps? What is probably plastic fake grass for a little lawn? Why can't the mentioned "heart of the community" — that is, the people who live here and have dangled their feet in the water of the wonderful fountain — and everyone else have a say? I'm sick to death of the steamrollering of ideas that come out of nowhere to slam against citizens.
Linda C. Franklin, Baltimore