Dear Editor: Amy Rodriguez must have willfully blinded herself to the real reason for State Street’s rapid decline (“What’s up with State Street?” Nov. 12).
Yes, COVID is partly to blame, as are the riots — yes, riots — in May 2020, in which every window in every business on State Street was broken and many stores looted. And then there’s the increase of chain outlets, which are slowly transforming it into just another shopping mall.
But the main reason fewer and fewer Madisonians venture onto State Street is the ever-growing number of the homeless and the increase in crime — major and minor — that is a direct result of their presence…