Letters reflect the opinions of their authors and not necessarily those of the Crozet Gazette.
Freetown’s Future
If Freetown’s plight, as shared by Crozet Gazette editor Mike Marshall and life-long Freetown resident Richard Brown, doesn’t give the reader pause to consider honestly where Albemarle County is heading, then nothing ever will.
Oh, how I envy the citizens of other areas I pass through, who, when pausing at a crossroads of planning for their futures, quite apparently chose to honor—even celebrate—their cultural heritage by protecting and preserving it.
In our county’s (and state’s!) headlong pursuit of preserving “open spaces,” a very DIS-proportionate amount of attention is being paid to preserving, protecting and celebrating enclaves such as Freetown.
Must we resign ourselves to having only the architectural histories and memoirs of the rich-and-famous to remind us of the many who have gone before us? Faded photographs in dusty albums can never take the place of, or bring back, what has been disregarded and obliterated beneath the weight of supposed progress.
“Close-knit Freetown is Feeling Squeezed” is, perhaps, the best example of collaborative storytelling that I have read in the Crozet Gazette’s four-year history. A sincere ‘thank you’ to all of the western Albemarle County residents who contributed to this heartfelt article. May each of its readers—and our county’s planners—take heed.
