My name is William Travis Kukovich and I am the owner of William Travis Jewelry. The recent Independent article on the pulse of Franklin St. was very disapointing. They overlooked so many of the positive things going on downtown. I will only speak for myself. I sent the independent a small press release before the story was written having heard it was in the works. In the last 5 years my business has grown leaps and bounds on Franklin St.,tripling in size. We are listed in the top 50 custom design stores in the country and the only one in North Carolina. We opened a 2nd location in Costa Rica due to our success on Franklin St. and recently have been creating celebrity jewelry. We use all recycled metals and conflict-free stones. Why the independent would choose to write the story the way they did knowing my own success and the other success stories on Franklin St. is a mystery to me. Our community can only succeed if we are willing to support one another in our successes and even more importantly our failures. I will end by saying I am deeply troubled by the lack of positve media attention given to our downtown community.