Letters to the editor for Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Don't spoil Jaycee Park

Jaycee Park is an oasis of tranquility in an increasingly chaotic and noisy world.  It is a place to sit on a bench by the river and watch the sunrise.  To walk the dog, push the child in the stroller, greet friends and neighbors and meet new ones.  A place for family picnics, walking, jogging and bike riding or just sitting on a shady bench.

The "improvements" that have been proposed are designed to make it a "waterfront destination;"  24 boat slips are included -- bringing noise and the smell of fuel to where the dolphins, manatees and pelicans hang out.  A food truck court -- the squirrels are already aggressive and this would bring even more scavengers.  And also a bar -- why?  This is a neighborhood park, not the South Cape Entertainment District.  An amphitheater for small concerts?  Who is going to monitor that?  Two people and a couple of amplifiers can make plenty of noise.  What isn't mentioned in the article in The News-Press is that the trees by the river will be removed.  So you get a boardwalk by the river, but now it is in the scorching sun, not a shady path under the trees.

If you want to make improvements, renovate the bathrooms, add more trees and another walking path.  Don't spoil Paradise.  I'm sure the 9-12 million these "improvements" would cost can be spent elsewhere.

Dorothy Erlbaum, Cape Coral

Concerned about pickleball noise

The May 7 article “$5M pickleball project in works” has prompted my attention. Residents living near Pelican Bay Community Park are rightly concerned about the noise that will be generated. Unlike tennis, the unmitigated noise from pickleball play is an annoying invasive high pitched popping noise. It travels long distances and can be heard inside nearby homes.Pay close attention to what is being proposed for noise mitigation. If an industry standard outdoor acoustic sound fencing barrier is being proposed, make sure court use is prohibited whenever the screens are down. Remember promises made are not necessarily promises kept.In another Naples community, full sound screens were approved with the courts to address noise concerns. The courts went into service without the screens and when homeowners complained only partial screens were installed (not full screens). It did not take long for the screens to be removed for six months per year because the HOA did not want the expense of removing and installing screens during hurricane season. The partial screens are now down permanently because the pickleball players claim they make the courts too hot. Our options are to move, install sound insulating windows (forget using the lanai), file a lawsuit against the HOA or live with the annoying invasive high pitched popping noise.It’s very important to recognize pickleball is very popular and that once the courts are built, nearby residents will be in the minority. Don’t depend on the county or governing board to protect your rights to peacefully and quietly enjoy your home. You may easily fall victim to the will of the majority.Bob Gagliardi, Naples

Follow Lee example on housing

Lee County is moving forward with affordable housing. Lee’s elected leaders are on board with incentives and funding. They are using federal grants and developer incentives to spur the initiative on. Lee has tapped into HUD for $1.1 billion to rebuild after Ian. Affordable housing is part of that rebuilding. Lee includes these elements in its affordable housing initiative:

Expediting approvals, orders, permits and other requirements for affordable housing projects;Waiving utility connection fees and other permit costs;Adjusting zoning densities so a portion of apartments or condos can be rented at below-market rates;Reserving infrastructure capacity for housing for very-low-income persons, low-income persons and moderate-income persons;Supporting development near transportation hubs and major employment centers.

Why can’t our Collier County commissioners do likewise. The longer they sit on their hands, the greater our resident cost of living becomes. Without local service workers available, we Collier residents have to pay more to get workers to travel here.

At the moment, 50,000 workers commute daily. No wonder our highways are overwhelmed with traffic.

According to recent statistics, 29,842 workers commute from Lee County, 5,219 from Miami-Dade, 3,680 from Broward. 2,881 from Palm Beach and over 5,300 workers from Sarasota, Charlotte, Monroe and Manatee counties. We Collier residents are paying for their transportation in the cost we pay for their services and in the number of their vehicles on the roads obsoleting our infrastructure.

To move our dormant Collier commissioners, we residents must get involved. Start with a phone call or a letter to the editor. You may save yourself some big bucks.

Joe Haack, Naples

Penalized for good credit

So, those of you that work hard, pay your bills on time, and have a high credit score will now be paying more so that those that do not honor their debt on time can buy a house.

If you are a socialist Democrat, this may be music to your ears. If you are an American that has lived by the rules, conducted themselves honorably with the integrity to pay back loans according to the terms they agreed to, it may not be good news.

USA Today has never been a friend to the conservatives of our country. Dems condemn all news not disseminated from one of “their” trusted sources. Will they now believe the truth, or will they simply turn a blind eye to the truth like they have for the last six years?

Read it for yourselves: Good credit score will cost you more under Biden's new mortgage rule (usatoday.com)

Max Christian, Saint James City

Misleading article

Typical of the Left giving totally misleading information based a little bit of fact. Tuesday's Naples paper had an article that basically said that the Florida Legislature passed a new law that prohibits disclosure of DeSantis' and other public figures' past travel records. On the surface, this indicates that DeSantis is trying to hide his travel records. However, the actual law prohibits disclosure only of records held by law enforcement agencies regarding security measures they took to protect these public figures. The actual article is totally misleading and the paper should issue a supplement correcting the misleading or disinformation. Here is a summary of the bill:

The bill (Chapter 2023-58, L.O.F.) exempts from public records copying and inspection requirements those records held by a law enforcement agency relating to security and transportation services provided for the governor, the governor’s immediate family, visiting governors and the governors’ families, and other persons as requested by certain state officials, and the governor’s office and mansion. The exemption applies to records held by a law enforcement agency before, on, or after the bill becoming a law.

The bill makes findings, as required by the state Constitution, that the new exemption from public records disclosure is a public necessity.

Ron Wobbeking, Naples

Despicable and inhuman

I just can’t stay quiet for one more day. The bill that DeSantis just signed that medical care can be refused to the LGBTQ+ community is just despicable and inhuman!This bill discriminates against the entire community. It gives all Florida medical personnel and those connected to it legalized approval to deny service to anyone LGBTQ+ and pharmacists can deny selling medicine.This places selectively chosen citizens of our country in a dangerous situation. It appears that’s what DeSantis wants, us in a dangerous situation.Those who are in agreement with this new law are uneducated or ignorant about those who are different from them or they just don’t care.Arlene Goldberg, Fort Myers

Trump unacceptable

The CNN town hall renewed in every decent thinking person's mind what an indecent, dangerous, nasty buffoon our former loser president represents. The really crazy fact is that so many MAGA Republicans still support him. What does that say about them? He does not want to govern, he want’s revenge on all of us who made him a loser. We have to do all in our power to keep him home in Mar-a-Lago.

Albert King, Naples

Need common sense party

We have a Democrat and a Republican party but we need a common sense party. It's only common sense to realize that if you borrow $.40 on every dollar that you are not going broke you are broke. Common sense dictates that if you keep electing the same people year after year, ie: Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, Lindsey Graham, Nancy Pelosi and others that have been there for years we will never get out of this situation. The Democrats think that raising taxes will fix the situation and the Republicans think that cutting spending will do it. however, they never get together because of their ideology. What we need is a common sense party of people who believe in the USA and will look out for the people who elected them and sent them to Congress. We should have term limits for Congress and no retirement. The representatives should run for Congress to serve the country, not enrich themselves. The country has lost our way and we need to get back to the way the founders set up our plan.

Joe Arciere, Naples

Who's paying for it?

Who’s footing the bill for Ron Quixote DeSantis’ legal tilting with the Disney windmill? What is the price tag so far?

PS: Is the money source the same as the former for the undeclared presidential candidate out “riding to glory” on his undeclared campaign trail around the nation? (We assume the cost doesn't have to come out of his undeclared campaign chest).

C.A. Farrington, South Fort Myers

Democrat drivel

Headline front page Sunday: “GOP directs nearly $16 million for DeSantis' legal battles.”

Why do I buy the NDN when I can get this drivel from the Florida Democrat website?

DeSantis is to be "fortified" for legal fights and his "polarizing" agenda. Ah, $16 million in a $117 billion budget to be used to defend lawsuits from the left-wing Florida teachers union, the ultra left public employee labor unions and the woke Disney organization that engineered by their lobbying to be a state within a state at least up to now. And a quote from a person few have heard of, Fentrice Driskell, tops it all, or "icing on the cake" as one might say.

Joe Kiernan, Naples

Authoritarian takeover playbook

My primary and sacred responsibility as a citizen living in a majority-rule democracy is to graciously accept the results of every election when the majority vote results go contrary to how I voted. This is what loving democracy means.Sure, it’s normal to be disappointed and frustrated, but to make false and unfounded claims that an election you lost was rigged is as far as one can get from being a democracy-loving citizen and, worse yet, the ensuing propaganda conspiracy campaign sets the stage for widespread distrust in the core of what makes a democracy a democracy (elections), which is Step 1 in the fascist authoritarian takeover playbook.Let’s stay "awake" my fellow democracy-loving Americans or Steps 2, 3 and 4 will certainly show democracy the door.

J. Cant, Naples

Stand up for WOKE freedom

WOKE simply means becomIng aware of the world around us, its issues and its people.  Authoritarian leaders and dictators oppose WOKE because a hallmark of their authoritarianism is thought control or brainwashing, to prevent people, especially in a democracy, from becoming aware of, discussing and likely opposing policies and actions that restrict people's freedoms to learn, think and act for themselves.

Such policies, evidenced in countries such as Mussolini’s Italy, Hitler’s Germany, and some present-day nations and states, include banning books, controlling what can be taught, discussed and learned in schools, from elementary through higher education, basing medical care decisions on political factors rather than on scientific facts, marginalizing and denying equal services to minority groups such as gay people and other genders, applying denied but inherent white supremacy and racist tendencies by forbidding learning  and discussion of historical prejudicial treatment of designated racial, religious and ethnic groups, denying women freedom of control of their own bodies, using armed forces, including police and national guards, to enforce leaders’ personal political edicts, vilifying and demeaning immigrants, attacking and attempting to control the media, the watchdogs of society, and other policies and practices associated with authoritarian and fascist regimes. Many people have been confused by the politically driven bowdlerization of the term WOKE, even mailbag letters making up out of whole cloth allegations designed to stigmatize it. Many people have been conditioned to think of it in negative terms,  rather than as their right to know and think for themselves. Those of us who prefer democracy and oppose state attempted thought control need to stand up for our WOKE freedom.

Robert  Hilliard, Sanibel

Campaigning at our expense

Governor DeSantis is many things to many different people but, stupid he is not.  A graduate of Harvard Law School, DeSantis is well versed in American jurisprudence.  DeSantis knew beforehand that  his "anti-woke" legislative agenda was rife with constitutional challenges; bills that denied or severely limited: access to abortion, local control of government, LGBTQ+ rights, (Democrat-dominated) unions, state universities' autonomy, reading selections in school libraries, discussion of "anguish-causing" topics in the classroom or on the job site would be subject to constitutional scrutiny.  The governor's securing some $16 million for these anticipated legal battles arising from the aforementioned bills underscores DeSantis' acknowledgement that said legislation would beget litigation responses.

The actual outcomes of these impending court decisions are largely irrelevant in the aspiring president's march to the White House. His anti-woke legislation has already succeeded in its primary purpose: name recognition on the national landscape. A secondary aim is merely to showcase his political views that mirror (and sometimes exceed) those conservative policies espoused by Donald Trump's base. Regardless if all, many, some, none of DeSantis' legislative acts are upheld or vacated in the courts, he has accomplished what he set out to do -- magnify his presence in the mindset of U.S. voters. Unfortunately that strategy comes with a cost borne by Florida taxpayers in the guise of $4 million (of the $16 million) dedicated to DeSantis' legal defense fund for potentially/probably unconstitutional decisions.  Let us not forget the financial costs that  the litigants will shoulder in fighting for their rights in court, e.g., the Florida Education Association, the Walt Disney Company. In short, the governor is waging a political campaign funded by the constituents that he  purportedly represents.

James L. DeBoy, Fort Myers

Why I support Biden

As invited, I am going to explain the reasons I support Joe Biden:More people are working than at any point in American history.He rescued the economy from the effects of the pandemic.He led and coordinated NATO’s efforts to to support Ukraine as it defends itself from Putin’s aggression.He has given executive orders to protect reproductive rights for women.He has the most aggressive climate agenda in history.

He has worked to promote products “made in America.”He accomplished more meaningful gun violence reduction in the past 30 years.There are more Americans with health insurance than ever before.He works to protect, not dismantle, Social Security.

In addition, while each of these accomplishments are important to me, those most important to me (gun control, reproductive rights, immigration reform and expansion of voter rights) have been steadfastly opposed by the Republican Party, making any progress by the current administration impossible.

Thank you for asking!Cynthia Cromwell, Naples

Causing discomfort

“Stop Woke” gives me guilt, anguish, discomfort and psychological distress.

Michael Finley, Fort Myers

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Wednesday, May 17, 2023