Bayfront Village dream dashed; doctors aren't police: Letters to the Editor, July 16, 2023

Florida Today
·7 min read

Goodbye, Bayfront Village concept

Let's make a note of those four names — Medina, Johnson, Felix and Foster — so they will never be forgotten for the God-awful disservice they inflicted on Palm Bay on July 6, 2023. The "Bayfront Village” concept, with 35-foot heights and low density that was planned years ago, disappeared in just moments when they voted.

It was so amazing that not one of them had the courage to say, "This is so important, let’s take our time."

With hardly any discussion, the vote was 4-0 to give these developers whatever they wanted. Did they stop and question whether the three-story buildings that the zoning now allowed would now be 11-story buildings? Did they ask how many 11-story buildings they planned to build? Did they ask for a plan concerning how parking for the absurd increased density would be handled? Did they ask if their overflow parking would involve the park?

No, they just had dollar signs in their eyes. The thought of how these now-11-story buildings would impact this tiny residential neighborhood with its two dead-end roads, ending in the Indian River Lagoon, was certainly not an issue for them.

I'm sure the developers walked away smiling and chuckling, realizing that Palm Bay is where you get whatever you want. Four men on this council (the mayor wouldn’t allow a fifth to be appointed) demonstrated just how the old term “the tyranny of petty power” works in the city of Palm Bay.

Carol and Ray Walton, Palm Bay

In 2015, Palm Bay planners were performing a market study on conceptual development of Bayfront Village at the mouth of Turkey Creek.
In 2015, Palm Bay planners were performing a market study on conceptual development of Bayfront Village at the mouth of Turkey Creek.

Overreach on immigrant status

Referring to the recent article “Hospitals ask about Immigration status": Since when are doctors, nurses and paramedics and nurse practitioners in the business of looking for illegal immigrants? Since when did we make looking for those here without documentation anything other than police work?

I saw this Houston, Texas, one year when they wanted teachers to expose undocumented students in their classes. We all declined, saying “We are not the police, we are teachers." Teachers are neither the police nor the FBI.

More: 'It's definitely chaos': How immigration law impacts Florida restaurants, construction

It is not the hospital's job to ferret out immigration status — that is not what they signed up for and this is not in their job descriptions.

I think this is overreach In our government — one of many that Gov. DeSantis seems willing to put into effect.

Laura Petruska, Melbourne

The luggage of asylum seekers at the Welcome Center in Phoenix on July 12, 2023. The Welcome Center marks four years of providing shelter, food and other humanitarian assistance to asylum seekers released by federal immigration authorities. Some credit the center for eliminating the street releases of asylum seekers in the past and alleviating the strain placed on local churches that had stepped in to accommodate them.

Inspections, insurance, increases

The July 12 article "Farmers Insurance to leave Florida" describes another factor contributing to increased home insurance costs in Florida.

One factor that contributes to high home insurance costs is roof replacements attributed to hail damage. Claims are promoted by roofers who offer free inspections and offer replacements paid by insurance for damage they claim to find.

For example, I saw a neighbor's roof being replaced during a morning walk several years ago. I asked him about it. He said a roofer approached him and offered to perform a roof inspection. The roofer asserted there was hail damage, which he used as a basis to replace the roof paid by insurance. As far as I know no other homes in the neighborhood had damaged roofs.

Bill Day
Bill Day

Since the week of hail storms a month or so ago, I have received numerous solicitations for hail damage inspections. One reads "Has your home been impacted by recent hail storms?" and "Get a complimentary roof evaluation". Another from a public adjuster reads "DO YOU HAVE HAIL DAMAGE? WE ARE HERE TO HELP!" and goes on: "CALL US TODAY FOR A FREE INSPECTION."

The public adjuster solicitation includes the statement "WE ONLY GET PAID IF YOU GET PAID." This suggests that they have a vested interest in finding damage and exaggerating its extent.

James Beasom, Melbourne Village

More: SCOTUS made right decision on affirmative action: Letters to the editor, July 9, 2023

Climate talk heats up

I am not a climate expert,  but I seem to remember from school days a few things that may be worth thinking about.

The average human exhales around 2.3 pounds of CO2 a day, around 840 pounds a year, according to nrdc.org. 

"By adding more carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere, people are ... causing global temperature to rise (climate.gov)."

"In one year a mature tree will absorb more than 48 pounds of CO2 from the atmosphere" (and release oxygen in exchange) — U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The global population in 1980 was 4.45 billion, according to infoplease.com. In 2020 it was 7.79 billion.

Assuming the above information is mostly accurate, it takes about 17 trees to absorb the CO2 of one human a year.  Worldwide, according to blog.tentree.com,15 billion (mature) trees are cut a year and 5 billion (baby) replanted.

Net result: Since 1980 we've almost doubled the number of people adding CO2 to the same atmosphere, while destroying 420 billion CO2-absorbing trees.

Could it possibly be that much of global warming is due to 3 billion more people adding 840 pounds of CO2 a year while removing 420 billion trees that absorb it, just in the past 40 years or so?

Just saying.

Ilene Davis, Cocoa

July 6, 2023: A mother and child cool off under a fountain in Coney Island on a hot afternoon in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. As global warming continues to raise temperatures around the world, heat records are being broken at an unprecedented rate.
July 6, 2023: A mother and child cool off under a fountain in Coney Island on a hot afternoon in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. As global warming continues to raise temperatures around the world, heat records are being broken at an unprecedented rate.

Preserving the U.S. Constitution

Our Constitution, kept intact as a whole and valued document, will be a necessary guideline for our progress into the future. Because it embodies not only a statement of our rights and liberties, but a prescription for making additions and changes, if this becomes necessary due to changes in customs, values, populations, demographic factors, morality — even technology.

This remains true and desirable insofar as our guaranteed rights and liberties are not violated in the process.

It is just such basics of its foundation that must be allowed to stand if we are to have any reliable guidance as a free and democratic nation. Soon, managing artificial intelligence and the establishment of new populations on other planets will be just as vital as maintaining order on Earth. We will see if our basic sense of values, even "right" and "wrong," can survive intact.

We believe these values will not only survive, but will be made permanent if we follow the gift of our forefathers — if we follow the law of our land, the U.S. Constitution. Our children and, more importantly, what they believe, will be our future. We must focus attention on the quality and appropriateness of the education we provide, because, we are now seeing it borne out that the problem is not with the students — it is with the administrators and educators of the system we have put in place. If we do not wake up and take firm control on the local level, the problem will be us.

Sylvia Sharpe, Doug Sharpe and Paula Estridge, Melbourne

More: Brevard GOP moves to ban COVID-19 vaccine, calling it a 'biological weapon'

Ministry no 'hate group'

Last month, a local letter writer was critical of the ministry once led by now-deceased Dr. D. James Kennedy. He wrote:: “ ... a 2019 Supreme Court decision essentially labeled Kennedy’s organization a hate group, which speaks volumes.”

I admired the ministry of Dr. Kennedy’s Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, in Ft. Lauderdale, so I researched it.

It turns out:

  • In 2013 Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) declared the D. Kennedy Ministry a hate group for its views on LGBTQ lifestyles.

  • In 2017, the D. James Kennedy Ministry initiated a federal lawsuit against SPLC for perpetual public claims, falsely labeling it as a hate group simply for its biblically based views on marriage and sexuality. The case was dismissed in 2019.

  • Ultimately, the Kennedy case ended up at the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined considering it, based on a 1964 precedent (NY Times vs. Sullivan) questioning the provability of “actual malice” by SPLC. However, they did not declare the Kennedy ministry a hate group.

D. James Kennedy Ministries is in good company, with many other ministries and even the Christian-leaning Family Research Council all having received the “hate group designation” by SPLC.

Early on, Southern Poverty Law Center was an honorable nonprofit organization serving the common good. However, new leadership has chosen to utilize their First Amendment rights to, among other issues, silence voices for religious values.

The Kennedy Ministry promotes a Bible-based belief that salvation is available to all, for the asking, regardless of ethnicity, race, gender or sexual orientation. I don’t see that as a “hate” agenda.

Ed Taylor, Satellite Beach

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Hospital employees aren't police: Letters to the Editor, July 16, 2023