Letters: Officials must act on high rents
Editor's Note: This month, national and statewide issues, such as the leaked U.S. Supreme Court ruling ending Roe v. Wade, skyrocketing gas prices, "replacement theory" and, of course, Gov. DeSantis, dominated the news cycle and our letters section. The Post Editorial Board also encourages readers to weigh in on local concerns, and at the end of each month we reprint a sampling of those letters. Here's May's batch:
Officials must act on high rents
I am writing to express my true sadness at the trend by landlords and others to cash in on the influx of residents to Palm Beach County during the pandemic and to raise rents by 30% or more. No landlord needs, or should be able, to raise rents to those levels just because of supply and demand. It's wrong. While I understand that landlords are in business to make money, the issue is price gouging on rents without consideration on what it does to real people involved.
Housing is a necessity, not a luxury. When you raise rents on working folks, you directly affect their quality of life. Shame on the rental industry for showing how irresponsible it can be by increasing rents without regard for the fallout. Shame on public officials by not implementing safeguards to keep rents reasonable. It seems that the only way to reverse this trend is for the public to make their voices heard and for elected officials to get involved and pass legislation to make these practices a thing of the past.
Steven Potanovic, West Palm Beach
Cane growers motivated by profits
The column “Cane growers are stewards of the land “ on May 19 was inspiring, but lacking honesty. It did not mention the burning of leaves to make harvesting easier and cheaper, in spite of the damage it causes to the health of the residents in the area.
Cane burning has been done for decades. Mr. Hoffman promises “Over the next 60 years, we will do our part to keep our nation fed, and we can achieve this as long as we continue to embrace innovation and sustainability, prioritize the need for a domestic food supply, and have the support and backing of our community for the critical work we do.” Continuing the decades-long, health-damaging cane burning, while ignoring other methods of cane harvesting that are available, is not embracing innovation. It shows disregard to the community and the health of its residents, for the sake of higher profits.
Joseph Willinger, Boynton Beach
The turtles should be priority
Most of you have read or seen on the news the issues at Loggerhead. I started volunteering there shortly after they moved from the house in 2007. People who have lived here awhile may remember Elenor Fletcher, better known as the "Turtle Lady." She would invite people to her house to educate them on turtles.
In my years there, we have had over 80 turtles at one time during the cold stun season. You rarely saw an empty tank. Most of us were volunteers but we worked together as a team to accomplish our mission statement of the health and welfare of sea turtles. Now we are in danger of losing that, because of the hostile environment, a lot of finger-pointing and no one is held accountable. We need to speak out for the turtles. People need to put their egos aside and get back to what we were meant to do, help sea turtles.
Karl Kolb, Jupiter
Dreyfoos shooting death raises questions
I am shocked and broken-hearted at the death of Romen Phelps. As a retired Dreyfoos teacher, I remember Romen to have been a kind and invested person in the work at Dreyfoos. He was clearly confused and coming back to a place that was central to his life. Why the need to shoot him in the heart? The policeman said he didn’t know if Romen was armed. He was unarmed. There was no need to shoot. Serve and protect? Not in my mind. Just another unarmed black person is dead.
Jeff Satinoff, North Palm Beach
FOR SUBSCRIBER: 3 Dreyfoos students who encountered Romen Phelps before shooting didn't feel threatened
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Stop high rents disrupting local communities
