Brightline, Costco trains; DeSantis & Biden; Vero Beach messes; mangrove harvest | Letters
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Brightline nothing but a mess; blame the politicians
As a local resident adversely affected by the FEC/Brightline mess, I must say that I find it ludicrous that our state and local officials have let FEC/Brightline completely get away with such a large-scale boondoggle against local residents and businesses. How is it even possible that local residents and businesses find themselves so completely taken advantage of?
We’re facing huge increases of trains through our quiet towns and residential areas, and for what?
Residential properties anywhere near the tracks will surely suffer in value due to increased noise and danger from derailments. Boaters and local businesses will suffer from decreased crossing time availability at the Stuart bridge.
Oh, that’s right, we were going to get a new bridge, right? Nope, not happening. Oh, and we were going to benefit from Brightline, right? Nope, not getting a train station here.
From my point of view, I see nothing but negatives from this mess, yet somehow our state and local officials let it happen. We need to drag all the politicians who let this mess occur out into the light and expose them for the backstabbers they are.Kevin Donovan, Port St. Lucie
Vero Beach should take care of Crestlawn Cemetery
Vero Beach's Crestlawn Cemetery is not glamorous. It does not generate annual revenue. It doesn’t draw tourists or their dollars. It doesn’t even attract locals, unless they have loved ones buried there.
Well, I do.
And each time I have gone to visit my first son’s burial plot, I am saddened. Not because I am visiting my son’s resting place, but because the city’s cemetery is in a serious state of decline.
Weeds grow up and over rows of marble grave markers. Once every so often, someone apparently sprays weed killer, leaving dead weeds and grass in the white crushed rock each marker is set in. No one ever edges along the crushed rock.
On a recent visit, I picked up some trash and pulled the grass runners and weeds from around my son’s headstone. I am sure others may do the same for their loved ones. I am also sure many plots are rarely, if ever, visited and don’t have someone to care for them.
The city’s ordinance regarding the cemetery bars using general funds for upkeep, unless specifically authorized by the City Council. Funds for general maintenance and care come from the Crestlawn Cemetery Trust Fund. I wasn’t thinking about that when I chose to bury my son there. It always seemed lush and manicured when I drove by on Old Dixie Highway.
I don’t know how much is in that trust fund, or how much the city spends on upkeep.
What I do know is the care and attention being afforded the cemetery is woefully lacking. City leaders ― be they council members or department heads ― should put at least a little more effort into caring for the cemetery.
I’m tired of being sad.
Adam Chrzan, Vero Beach
State Road 60: Vero Beach council priorities mixed-up
I’m prompted to share my thoughts about the Twin Pairs again after reading about the 17th Street Bridge issues in Laurence Reisman's recent column. I had forgotten about it, thinking the bridge repairs have been completed.
A week ago, I voiced my opinion of the Twin Pairs debacle to a popular local Facebook group, and the response surprised me. Not one out of the 30 or so responses were in favor of what the Vero Beach City Council is doing. I figured there would at least be a few who disagreed with my opinion.
Instead of wasting money on studies to suit their needs, they should have put that money into getting this bridge fixed quickly.
Here's more food for thought: I don’t need to guess the answers to this question, but ...
What do the locals think is more important: fixing the bridge problems or adding another sidewalk on the east side of State Road A1A?
Dave Habel, Vero Beach
Intracoastal Waterway: Here's another way to prevent vessel pollution
Your editorial regarding derelict vessels caught my eye, and I wish to add some other suggestions.
As a former marine and pollution inspector (among other certifications with the U.S. Coast Guard), the allowance of "anchor outs" — those that live on their vessels anchored in the Intracoastal Waterway — are a potential problem. Not only do they pollute by adding raw sewage and other contaminants into the waters, they are usually the first to drag in a storm and have no funds to salvage.
This is not a hard issue to correct. Since I am limited to words, I cannot be more articulate in a solution. However, I am willing to assist any agency to seek more finite solutions.
Barry du Moulin, USCG (retired), Ormond Beach
Think you can fight city hall? Just look at Costco in Stuart
You can't fight city hall.
There is a reason that statement is embedded in society. It is because power and money always prevail. It is merely an illusion that we have freedom, rights and the liberty to stand up against injustice.
The rare event of stopping a damaging development is a matter of coincidence. The only time a big developer loses is when he or she chooses to move on. Take the Palm City battle with Costco. The fact that Palm City doesn’t have Costco is surely a win for the community. But for the developer, it does not represent a loss. The developers simply were not satisfied with the location enough to do whatever it took to complete the project.
Kanner Highway in Stuart is a completely different situation. It proves that when all the players benefit, nothing can stop that train.
The developer did not participate in the legal battle because he did not have to. The outcome was predetermined. He was so confident that he purchased the property before the court decision was made. No one in their right mind would have paid that kind of money, not knowing the fate of the land.
The administrative judge’s decision to favor the community and the environment was only a small mistake in the process. She must not have gotten the memo at the time of the hearing. But I bet she got the message now.
When it comes to fighting city hall, you can have your day in court, but you will never win. With their thumbs on the scale, all resemblances of fairness vanish like pine trees on vacant land. Your belief in the justice system is replaced by a reminder that the machines of industry will never stop. All in the name of progress.
Nick Gulotta, Stuart
Related: DeSantis, Brightline & migrants; vote on Vero Beach road; stop dog poison; butts | Letters
Related: Case of the Mangled Mangroves in PSL shows need for greater environmental responsibility
Altitude hits community with low blow in mangrove-cutting case
It is disgusting that Altitude International Holdings Inc., the owners of the former Club Med now called Sandpiper Bay Resort in Port St. Lucie, would destroy nearly 1,000 mangroves, and then apparently lie about it. Perhaps they don’t care about anything but themselves.
Maybe they look at the potential fines exceeding $236,000 as just another cost of doing business. Maybe when they pay $55 million to buy the former Club Med, a fine of $236,000 would be a minor business expense.
These “chump change” fines do not deter large companies or very wealthy people. Perhaps attaching a prison sentence would work better. People used to living a pampered life don’t adapt well to an 8- by 10-foot cell.
Local government should also get involved. I see little restaurants getting fined for not having an “Employees must wash their hands” sign in the bathroom. I can only wonder what thorough inspections by the health department and code enforcement of Sandpiper Bay Resort could find.
If picketing is your thing, then here would be an opportunity to let potential customers know what type of business they are supporting. Many of their customers are not from the area and would be appalled by such a business.
Thank you, Jim Dirks, a local business owner and angler, for caring enough about the Treasure Coast to report this issue to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and for TCPalm for covering the story. You both are the type of businesses we want on the Treasure Coast.
Jim Weix, Palm City
Inflation slowing? Whoopee! Still, things get even more expensive
Yesterday, as I shopped at my local supermarket, the sight of many grim, numb-appearing and even sad shoppers couldn’t be ignored.
The fact is, the inflated price of groceries is depressing. I watched people cruise the meat counter, stop and stare, and then just walk away. The price of a box of my favorite cereal increased almost a dollar in one week. What cost less than $3 a couple of years ago and cost more than $ 4.69 a week ago, yesterday was $5-plus.
One of the few things that seems to be going down (to about twice what it was before the miracle of Bidenomics) is the price of a dozen eggs, and that decline has to do with getting beyond a bird flu epidemic leading to the deaths of many chickens.
Why bother with all of this? Because the powers that be would like us to thank them for “lowering” inflation.
Of course, it’s a good thing the rate at which prices increase has slowed; but we need to remember (and they would like us to forget) that we are seeing an increase of 3% to 5% on top of the massive increases of a year ago. Something that cost $1 when the current administration took over and increased to $2 or $3 a year later may only increase a few cents more. But there is no going back; the damage is done. Any increase, however minimal, is on top of the already ridiculously increased prices that arrived during the first year of Joe Biden’s free-spending reign. It didn’t have to happen.
Sadly, gross mismanagement of our economy accounts for the sad and numb looks on the faces of many of the shoppers in the markets today. Bidenomics' claim of decreasing inflation rates doesn’t seem to provide a very good answer!
Daniel H. Pilon, Vero Beach
Two parties responsible while dog deals with poison
I certainly agree with the letter writer whose recent piece regarding her dog becoming sick because of toxic chemicals appeared in this publication.
We should encourage people to use warning signs and, better yet, use less toxic products when possible, but my question to the letter writer is why is her dog still walking on her neighbor's lawn, especially when she knew he continues to use dangerous chemicals on his grass?
It seems to me both parties are being careless and the poor dog is needlessly suffering.
Julie Eisdorfer, Vero Beach
DeSantis efforts to appeal to voters' 'base instincts' troubling
“Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man’s objectivity … confusing the true with the false,” Martin Luther King Jr. said.
In his recent column, Richard Hall wrote: “Hateful political statements distributed through modern communication channels are more invasive and damaging than ever.”
Through his gay-bashing campaign, Ron DeSantis has placed an enormous bet on Americans’ hatefulness and the internalized resentments that are its genesis. Donald Trump ignited the practice in 2015 by demonizing Mexicans and other immigrants. His acidic vitriol ate into the hearts and minds of millions of Americans who yearned for a scapegoat onto which they could project their anger, desperation, failures, resentments and hate.
Like previous despots, DeSantis must know it’s much easier to garner support by fomenting hate against marginalized groups than by proposing serious solutions to complex problems that require thought, effort and compromise.
DeSantis has picked up Trump’s torch, setting ablaze his supporters’ concealed hatred of homosexuals, people of color, immigrants, women who desire the freedom to live their lives free of religious and government interference — something conservatives once supported — educators whom they shamelessly label “indoctrinators” and “Marxists,” and even corporations (that, like Disney, they want to muzzle).
That a politician would deploy such a disparaging, contemptible strategy is nothing new. That tens of millions of Americans are inspired by such a divisive, hurtful approach is. And it’s corroding America’s collective soul.
Hall notes: “Research has determined hate is an emotion that can result in a person doing drastic things impulsively,” including voting based on negative emotional appeals.
It’s troubling that DeSantis’ entire political strategy is designed to appeal to voters’ base instincts. Thoughtful, loving individuals reject such vile, manipulative nonsense. Instead, they choose to live and let live.
Cray Little, Vero Beach
Free Florida? Closer look shows DeSantis hypocrisy
Our Founding Fathers devised a government that would be strong enough to secure our rights against domestic and foreign oppression. However, not so strong, or controlling, domineering or antidemocratic as to be autocratic itself.
Therefore, based on his political actions and stances on abortion, book banning, critical race theory and wokeness, Gov. Ron DeSantis is governing in an oppressive manner that contradicts and is hypocritical to his cry of "Free Florida."
Ronald D. Roberts, Sebastian
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Brightline, Costco; DeSantis, Vero Beach messes; mangroves | Letters
