Dear Editor:It is such a pleasure, for most of us, to attain a high vantage point and look out over the landscape. Downey resides on a flat, alluvial plain; consequently, there are no high points from which to gaze. My suggestion would be to rectify this circumstance by building a 100-ft. or higher exercise tower. Many people use the parks for their exercise jog or walk, and it would be a great way to finish their routine by climbing stairs up to an observation platform and chatting with their fellow exercisers. If there is World Trade Center steel still available to incorporate into monuments, perhaps the tower could have a commemorative piece of steel welded at the top for people to touch as they complete their exercise routines. It would be the sort of unique thing that would set Downey apart from surrounding communities. In order to do something bold, you need visionaries who can capture the people's imagination and sell them on the idea. Perhaps Mayor Mario Guerra or Councilman Alex Saab could fill the bill. Expensive to build? Certainly! But many professionals live here in Downey and surely an architect might agree to design it pro bono in order to gain name recognition or simply because he or she was intrigued by the idea. You could sell tickets for a drawing to name the tower, sell space on the tower for plaques for families to memorialize deceased loved ones. You could, perhaps, take the direct approach and ask people to contribute, simply because they like the idea and want to see something truly unique get built here in Downey. Fundraisers are only limited by the imaginations of the people contriving them. Undoubtedly, the city's legal brain trust would oppose such an idea, on liability grounds. Many of us as children enjoyed teeter-totters and merry-go-rounds but they are no longer seen in our parks, thanks to personal injury lawyers. The lawyers have effectively forced us to wear societal strait jackets as to what we can and cannot do and build. The end result is that cities across the Southland have become more and more homogeneous and cookie-cutter similar. C'mon, can't we break the mold and do something exciting and new here in Downey? Jack Russell Downey

********** Published: February 21, 2013 - Volume 11 - Issue 45