Editor:

Mayor Taylor's campaign signs read putting people first and he has also sent out mailers saying he supports Brentwood business, big and small.

Really? Maybe big business, but not the little guy. Where has Mayor Taylor been during this whole economic crisis? Where was he when I sent him an e-mail telling about my business (Play at Home) struggling in Brentwood? He never answered my message, even after I cleared his spam test.

Where was he when six other tenants in the same shopping center (Raley's, Sand Creek) closed their doors? What about all the other small businesses that have closed in the past year? These are just a few off the top of my head: Hiro's Restaurant, The Wine Bar, Encore Gymnasium, Home Concepts Furniture, Play at Home, Blue Tomatoes Furniture, Sell it on E-Bay, The Stork baby clothing store, Brentwood Pool & Spa, The Surf Shack, Brentwood Dodge and many, many others, including countless mortgage, title and real estate companies.

Even Albertsons, Linens & Things and a Starbucks closed. Granted, he might not have been able to help us, but my specific request was to look into the high rents for commercial property in Brentwood, ridiculous prices, higher than Walnut Creek. It makes no sense.

I love Brentwood, but we are essentially a dead end, with Highway 4 ending here, no major freeway traffic and not a destination for outlying Bay Area citizens, except during harvest time. They already have malls, so the Streets of Brentwood isn't going to change that. So why is rent so high here?

Now I see Taylor's picture on a flyer with The Streets in the background. Has anybody questioned the timing of this mall? We are in an economic crisis not seen since the Great Depression and Brentwood is building a high-end retail mall? I have to question the retail companies that decided this would be a good idea in an area with as small a population as we have here. And let's be honest: people in East County are a little frugal, to put in kindly. We are a region of blue-collar workers.

The point is that I don't see high-end retail doing well here, especially after reading about the troubles many of these companies are currently having.

Don't get me wrong. I'm looking forward to the mall, especially the REI store and the movie theater, but how do all those stores expect to survive in such a bleak economy, with high Brentwood rent and a small population to pull from?

Also, what happened to the small-town charm, the locally owned small business? Seems like Mayor Taylor wants Brentwood to look like Everytown USA, where you see all the same big-box and chain stores, with no local flavor. How about a Starbucks on every corner oh wait, we already have that thanks, Mayor Taylor!

Is anybody else running for mayor? It would be nice to have another choice; someone who is thinking outside the big box and cares about locally owned small business.

David Lewis

Brentwood