Letters: Excessive rent inflation for Harbor Art Gallery isn't logical

Usually, when you rent a place, you expect your rent to go up if the area where you rent is in better condition than when you first rented. If the rented area has actually become less attractive, basically blighted, you could expect to pay less rent.

The harbor had much more activity and businesses in place 10 years ago. Now, we (the Harbor Art Gallery) have been the only business that draws tourists. We gave free tours of the harbor for two years, claiming to one and all that the harbor had plans to improve the area and using the gallery as an anchor, it could be expected to be a place where many people would enjoy shopping and the scenery. We have maintained our building and helped beautify the surrounding area on more than one occasion. But, even now, we rarely can use the parking lot across from the gallery, because it is full of tires and barricades of some kind.

Now, again the paper said the commission is looking for direction on how to build the harbor. Plus, they are pricing the gallery out of the harbor all together. As we replaced the roof, we were assured that the lease would not be a problem. Raising the rent from $180 per month to $750 per month is definitely a problem. We expected to pay more, even though the logic is not necessarily there; but would never expect to be surprised in such a fashion.

BJ Clausen

Crescent City