Sarasota's residents must speak up now: Privatizing our parks is a bad idea

Development would ruin Ken Thompson Park

The proposal to the city of Sarasota by Ride Entertainment to turn Ken Thompson Park into a theme park with zip lining, a sky bar gondola, Japanese golf and a restaurant, obliterating the pristine bay shoreline and adding to the barrier islands’ traffic woes, would be an ecological nightmare.

The Lido Shores Property Owners Association, to which I belong, is not alone in opposing this plan. The St. Armands Key and Lido Key neighborhood associations – as well as Sarasota’s 38-member Neighborhood Coalition, are also opposed to this half-baked, harebrained proposal.

Ken Thompson Park on City Island is a civic gem. Could it use improvements?

Of course.

More shade trees and benches – as well as an enhanced playground – could easily be envisioned, implemented and maintained by the city’s parks department, thus maintaining the park’s already beautiful, natural charm and ensuring public access to the bay and all its beauty.

The park’s essential role in stormwater retention and providing natural wildlife habitat would also be preserved.

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Ken Thompson Park is already a great asset to the entire community of Sarasota and our neighboring Longboat Key. Let’s keep private, Disneyesque developments out of our precious city parks.  

With careful thought, planning and citizen input, this wonderful city park could be better than ever. We urge the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board to recommend "no" to the Sarasota City Commission on privatizing Ken Thompson Park.

Bob Thill, Sarasota

Legislature wants to stop lab-grown food

Food companies have come up with a way to take the meat cells from real chickens and grow more real chicken meat from them. Not meat made from mutant cells, but real meat made from real meat.

If grown in Florida, this could mean:

• Creating more jobs.

• Eating chicken without killing chickens, which could possibly lower food costs.

• Putting less chicken waste into our lakes and rivers – and in our landfills.

• Making dog and cat food without inedible chicken parts.

• Eliminating factory farms that raise chickens in an inhumane manner.

So what is the Florida Legislature doing to promote this new cultivated meat industry, which is beneficial to chickens, the Earth and those who eat chicken?

Lawmakers are drafting bills – with help from corporate chicken and livestock lobbyists – that would ban the manufacture, sale or distribution of lab-produced food in Florida.

Meanwhile, China is moving forward and will become the leading seller of protein in the world, leaving the U.S. behind.

Rodger Skidmore, Sarasota

Draft dodger, not commander in chief

Recently, former President Donald Trump revealed his true color – yellow.

At a recent political rally, Trump asked “Where’s Nikki Haley’s husband?”

Well, Maj. Michael Haley is currently deployed overseas and serving our country.

We thank him for his service.

Perhaps Trump forgot that fact due to yet another age-related gaffe. Or perhaps Trump just doesn’t care about our American citizens in uniform.

Let this sink in:

• Trump is a draft dodger.

• According to all known information, no Trump has ever served in our military or sacrificed for our country. This allergy to service seems to be a part of the Trump DNA as Trump’s grandfather was kicked out of Bavaria for avoiding mandatory military service.

• Trump belittled the sacrifices of fallen soldiers, calling them suckers.

• Trump mocked POWs as losers.

• Trump wanted wounded veterans kept out of military parades because, according to him, it wouldn't look good.

“Where is Nikki’s husband?” tells us all we need to about Trump’s fitness to lead our nation and command the military. Given his beliefs, how can any “patriot” support such a man?

Gregory Lamb, Sarasota

Let’s have some fun with Leap Day

As a Certified Professional Organizer, I broker peace between people and their calendars. While I can’t eliminate the hated daylight saving time changes, I hereby submit four alternatives to Leap Year:

1.You know what month we should add Leap Day to instead of February? July! We can all use another midsummer cookout complete with a Leap Day drone show.

2. Or how about April 31? This breath of fresh air would be like getting back a day of your youth, or a springtime bonus in your paycheck.

3. Too frivolous? OK then, would you consider November 31? A bonus day to prepare for the holidays: more shopping, cooking, streaming and especially more therapy.

4. Warning: My last and best idea is a mind bender: Every four years we could start with January Zero. A day of nothing pressing to do except baking and ripping up lists of resolutions.

If we’re going to keep this Leap Year tradition in the 21st century, can’t we at least have some fun with it?

Lorriane Holm, Sarasota

New Yorker shocked by 1950s Florida

Thank you very much for your very informative and inspiring article on Joyce Cusack and how she helped to achieve equality for Black people with the early “lunch counter” sit-ins (“Joyce Cusak remembers toppling racial barriers with DeLand lunch counter sit-ins,” Feb. 12).

I was an 18-year-old from New York arriving in Lakeland, Florida, in 1955 for college and I walked into a whole new alien world! The first time I encountered a drinking fountain that had a sign, “Colored,” I didn’t know what to make of it.

The culture of the South and the way Black people were treated is burned in my memory.

Now with “cancel culture” in our schools, we need as many stories about people who fought for civil rights in that era as we can get.

Joan Hastings, Sarasota

Raise awareness of hostages held by Hamas

We recently attended a talk by the stepmother of Sagui Dekel-Chen, a hostage in Gaza.

Gillian Kaye lives in Sarasota and in the Nir Oz kibbutz, near Gaza. The kibbutz is where Dekel-Chen was abducted Oct 7, 2023.

That day hundreds of Hamas terrorists committed murder and other atrocities. They took hundreds of hostages, many of whom died in captivity; more than 130 remain in tunnels.

There are six American hostages in Gaza and they want to come home.

At times like this we, as American Jews, can feel helpless.

Yet we can bear witness to the suffering of this stepmother and other families. We can write letters to our elected officials. We explain what is happening to those who are less aware.

We all need to do everything possible to assist the American and Israeli governments to “Bring Them Home Now.”

Judith and Ike Koziol, Sarasota

Rubio continues to stand by Trump

My senator, Marco Rubio, recently defended former President Donald Trump’s outrageous statements about NATO. Trump said he would encourage Russia to attack any NATO country that didn’t pay enough to the alliance.

Rubio explained that Trump was just being Trump. Clearly, Rubio has drunk the Trump Kool-Aid without regard to the dangers in that statement.

Europe and our allies are terrified at the prospect of another Trump presidency.

I’m terrified that Republicans will continue to grovel at Trump's feet.

Josephine Bloom, Sarasota

Editor’s Note: NATO members don’t pay the alliance or the U.S. Countries are asked to spend at least 2% of GDP on their defense.

President Biden remembers oath

There is little question about it: President Joe Biden can be forgetful.

He has already forgotten more about how to be president than his opponent will ever know or has any desire to know.

President Biden remembers that he took an oath and he does not forget that it is to be remembered and honored.

When this is “forgotten,” all else becomes insignificant.

T. Guy Spencer, Sarasota

Scary comparisons to Nazi Germany

Recently, the Herald-Tribune reported that the state House Judiciary Committee voted Feb. 7 to approve HB 601, which eliminates police review boards.

Ironically, in your Feb. 10 “Today in History” column, there appeared this item: “1936 – Germany’s Reichstag passed a law investing the Gestapo secret police with absolute authority, exempt from any legal review.”

Bill Duda, Bradenton

Pay attention to Trump's comments

Within the space of 24 hours, former President Donald Trump – the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States – did the following:

• He suggested he would encourage Russia to attack NATO allies who weren’t "paid up."

• He said he appointed an ambassador to the United Nations not based on qualifications, but as a way to remove her as governor.

• He questioned the whereabouts of his opponent’s husband, a combat veteran who is honorably serving his country overseas.

I hope those who are undecided are paying attention.

David Lapovsky, Longboat Key

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Ken Thompson Park no place for zip lining, golf and restaurant