Letters to the editor for Tuesday, May 24, 2022

Not a good fit for downtown Bonita

The City of Bonita Springs has put a lot of work into making the downtown Old 41 corridor appealing, walkable and special. New small businesses are investing in the area. These new restaurants, brewery, food trucks, add vibrancy and support the businesses we’ve enjoyed over the years: Grocery, restaurants, bike store, flower and ice cream shops. We are creating a fun mix of activities, all walkable, with so much more potential.

The plan to put four-story apartment buildings on the Imperial River across from the Wonder Gardens doesn’t seem to fit. We would lose the natural open feel and become closed in by massive apartment buildings. Once done we cannot turn back. Why hand over our property and remove it from the potential of being accessible to all. Build apartments somewhere else, not on our downtown jewel. Bonita Springs has its own unique personality and history. Let’s respect and honor that.

Let’s get back to the drawing board. Ask the taxpayers, who own the property, for their input. Have workshops for open ideas exchange. Get new bids with fresh ideas. What’s the rush!?

Patty Martin, Bonita Springs

Remedy obvious for property insurance

An enlightening opinion article in the May 22 Washington Post by reporter Lizette Alvarez shed light on Florida’s property insurance coverage. Not only do her facts obtained from the Insurance Information Institute help us understand how we got in this crisis, but they also provide the Legislature a path forward.

Property insurance is rising an average of 26 percent; mine is going up 43 percent. One insurer just announced it would cancel 68,200 policies; three declared insolvency this year. The tea leaves are pretty obvious: The industry is collapsing.

Although Florida’s hurricanes and lightning are a major contributor to the problem, it’s what happens afterward that is the root of the malignancy. Take, for instance, the out-of-state roofers who arrive the day after a hurricane. One such roofer from New Jersey stopped on my street after Hurricane Irma and offered to replace roofs that had lost just a few tiles. He wouldn’t just fix my roof; he would only replace it because he said that’s where he makes the most money. And he offered to work directly with my insurance company. I told him to leave but at least two property owners in my community took him up on his offer.

As bad as this boondoggle sounds, far worse are the lawyers. Florida laws let a homeowner’s lawyer charge 2 to 2 ½ times their hourly rate for property insurance lawsuits. Talk about a gravy train. And now the worse fact: Property insurers paid $15 billion in Florida claims cost between 2013 and 2020. Seventy-one percent of that went to lawyers. Is it any wonder why lawyers and homeowners are eager to sponge off insurance companies who are powerless to stop this nonsense?

The remedy is obvious: Cut the generous commissions for lawyers and end the fraud. With 43 lawyers in the Florida Legislature and one in the governor’s office, I’m not holding my breath.

Tom Marquardt, Naples

The redemption of Ron DeSantis

During COVID, DeSantis has shown his leadership with policies which risk the health of many citizens of Florida. Now with the state of Florida in a homeowner insurance crisis, he will get another opportunity to show his leadership by protecting us against hurricanes with insurance. But can he do it?

Six Florida homeowner insurers have liquidated, two are in the process of liquidating, many have abandoned the State of Florida, others are choosing not to renew policies and the remainder are changing policy and eligibility terms. According to the Insurance Information Institute, Florida property insurers are projected to post a cumulative underwriting loss of $1.6 billion for 2021. Today, Citizens Insurance run by the state is often the only options for homeowners in the state but this option is not available to all, and Citizens is insuring so many of the high-risk homes that other carriers have walked away from, a major hurricane striking Florida could have devastating effects on the company’s delicate financial situation. Last year, citizens had $166 million in underwriting losses.

Insurance fraud, driven in large part by substantial roofing claims, is a major culprit. Property insurers in Florida paid out $15 billion in claims between 2013 and 2020; 71 percent of that sum went to lawyers, and that’s what DeSantis has to cure to draw homeowner insurers back to Florida. He has an uphill battle because many of his legislators in Tallahassee are not only lawyers, they are legislators by virtue of political contributions made by law firms who have represented roofers in making claims and suing insurance companies.

The drama will unfold during the week of May 23 when a special session of the Florida Legislature called by DeSantis will convene. To protect their fellow attorneys, DeSantis and his Legislature may end up looking to us taxpayers for relief. Still looking for leadership.

Joe Haack, Naples

Democrats and cognitive dissonance

In 1956, the psychologist Leon Festinger coined the term, "cognitive dissonance" to describe a person's mental conflict when they simultaneously hold incongruous beliefs and attitudes.

Example: A cult of people assembles to be picked up by flying saucer, to escape the worldwide flood predicted for next morning. As midnight passes and no flying saucer beams down, their reaction is it was just a test of their commitment.

When people of cognitive dissonance are confronted with new information, most will attempt to preserve their current understanding of the world by rejecting, explaining away, or avoiding the new information, or by convincing themselves that no conflict really exists. "Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind's made up!"

Does this remind you of those in the Democratic Party?

Howard Giordano, Naples

Live and and let live

Regarding the LGBTQ event at Naples United Church of Christ. I saw the display of protesters calling this event "grooming gay." Fact is, these kids are committing suicide and self-harm at unsettling rates. I noticed that the protesters wore masks and gear to hide their identity. Thank you to Naples United Church of Christ for live and and let live.

Jeremy Flinn, Naples

Stop the problem at the source

You want to be the keeper of our wombs? I have a 90.9 percent way to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Every male upon the age of 10 will undergo a reversible vasectomy procedure. I hear that there is now a gel that can be placed in the vas deferens that is a remarkably simple procedure to preform and to undo. The vasectomy can only be reversed when a woman decides to allow a male to impregnate her. That would prevent any fertilization to happen, thus, it would prevent a zygote forming. That takes care of your “unborn” rights lunacy. What a bunch of twaddle. A mass of tissue is not a human being and does not have any rights. And now, you are going to try and convince me that an “ovum” is alive and has rights that include it should never be prevented from fertilization? The whole IUD thing, right? The easy and fair answer is to stop the problem at the source! You want to control our wombs, then we can control your vas deferens!

Kathrine Drayton, Estero

Father, state have to take responsibility

With the soon to be released decision on abortion, I would like to suggest that all men submit to a DNA test. This will make sure that all fathers take responsibility for their newborn child. If the father doesn’t take responsibility then the state will be responsible for the care of the child until age 18 or until after college. No child should live in poverty and suffer when our laws have taken control of women's right to choose. I personally don’t believe in abortions except for the health of the mother and child or incest and rape, which to me is up to the mother, not some 70-year-old men.

James Ford, Naples

A pro-choice conservative

I am no constitutional scholar nor lawyer, but I have a good education up to a doctorate and can read plain English. As the assault on women’s rights to control their own bodies began (challenges to Roe v. Wade), I flipped through the Bill of Rights and found a distinction I had not noticed previously.

The 9th Amendment reads: "The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."

The 10th Amendment reads: "The powers not delegated to the United States, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people."

So the 10th Amendment reserves unstated powers to the states OR to the people, while the 9th Amendment reserves rights not already enumerated ONLY to the people.

It seems to me that the Supreme Court is relying too heavily on the 10th Amendment and ignoring the 9th. Why aren’t the originalists on the court giving equal time to the 9th Amendment, which can easily be construed to grant women full control of their own bodies?

For the record, I have been an ardent conservative Republican since business school in the 1970’s and am also pro-choice. Yes, it is possible to be both!

Ira Cotton, Naples

Stop buying so much stuff

Just how hard is it to understand? Inflation is caused by too much money chasing too few products. If you want to stop inflation then simply stop buying so much stuff. Period.

I understand that the past few years have been scary, boring, and very tough on everyone. Stop blaming this person or that person or whoever you blame for this. We are all to blame. Now, suck it up and stop the buying binge. Now.

Clarke Blacker, Fort Myers

Concert not a political event

Last week there was a letter to the editor regarding the concert at Sugden Park in Naples on May 7. The writer claimed it was a Trump/MAGA rally. I was there with 11 of my friends, we attended this same concert and after reading her letter, we all were amazed at her interpretation. None of us noticed a large amount of Trump supporters and patrons wearing MAGA hats (we didn't see any). Also, she claimed the speakers were pro-Trump. None of the speakers we heard were anything but, pro police, pro first responders and pro America. We realize it is a large park and perhaps where she was sitting there were Trump supporters, however, where we were, it was just your average nonpolitical people enjoying the show. She made it sound like something entirely different than what we observed and I wanted to let people know the shows at this park are really not political and just an enjoyable night out.

Anne Copsey, Naples

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Tuesday, May 24, 2022