Ten days ago, residents of Gainesville were told by the mayor that our government must be used to condemn the Pierce House (at the corner of Jesse Jewell and Queen City) “as quick and cheap as possible,” and that scores of citizens, who had gathered over the Lanier Plaza rezoning at the city courtroom, must “get on out of here, we (the council) have business to take care of.” Surely the mayor, an honorable small businessman, cannot actually think that condemnation is what government ought to be about, and surely he doesn’t actually think that the council has business to attend to that doesn’t belong to the citizens or that the citizens should be viewed as cluttering our public courtroom. Condemnation of private property, more traffic and lack of public input cannot take us where we want to go.