Sunday's letters: A considerate neighbor, hearings revealing, character matters, more
Selby Gardens works well with neighbors
In response to “Selby construction disturbs neighbors,” a letter June 21, I as a neighbor would like to respond.
I am an owner/resident at Embassy House, across the street from the Selby Gardens construction site.
First, I was very impressed with new sidewalks put in by Selby, allowing the large numbers of walkers and joggers to come from Orange Avenue and continue along the Bayfront.
More: How to send a letter to the editor
Apparently, several owners in Embassy House complained about early morning construction noise. Selby was contacted by an owner, and the administrative and construction staff contacted us and scheduled a meeting at our building.
Apparently, the early morning concrete work, approved by the city, is due to the heat of summer causing cement to cure quickly, requiring pouring earlier, during cooler temperatures.
In short, after meeting with residents at Embassy House, Selby provides our manager with a weekly cement pouring schedule and backup sounds of trucks are discontinued, as well as other commitments.
Selby’s construction project is no different than what we have dealt with during construction on Palm Avenue. I appreciate the concern and design.
Thank you, Selby staff and construction personnel.
Hank W. Maier, Sarasota
Hearings should put election lie to rest
Evidence presented at the televised hearings of the Jan. 6 committee removes all doubts about whether the 2020 election was “stolen,” as many Republicans claim.
Committee witnesses confirmed, for example, that of the 62 legal cases heard in courts across the nation, many overseen by Donald Trump-appointed judges, only one resulted in a victory, having no impact on the outcome of the election.
Various officials from the former administration, all Republicans, testified that they repeatedly told Trump that Joe Biden won the election. Trump chose to ignore this fact and hired a new legal team that clung to the lie about the election.
He went on to use the lie as a fundraising gimmick.
Despite the facts, Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is running for reelection in November, filled the secretary of state position with Cord Byrd, who refuses to admit Biden is president.
When elected officials condone blatant lies being fed to their constituents, they need to be replaced.
Crystal Evans, Port Charlotte
Presidential campaign begins in second term
What’s obvious to all, except maybe his base at the Villages, is that Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to be president, not governor. Florida is just a stepping-stone.
If he is reelected, DeSantis will immediately start his run for the presidency. I speak from experience, coming from New Jersey.
Our former governor, Chris Christie, followed the same playbook. During his second term, he seemed to spend more time out of the state than in it, but refused to give up power, so nothing got done.
He left with the lowest approval rating of any governor in history and pretty much could not go out in public without being booed.
If you want a part-time governor who will be more interested in national issues than Florida, DeSantis is your man.
We can see how he took his eye off the ball on the insurance crisis, in which 68,000 of us lost our homeowners insurance and have to pay nearly double to find new coverage. That crisis was brewing for years, but he was more interested in passing his anti-gay legislation to get national headlines.
Too bad for us.
Joseph Marra, Venice
Demand public figures with character
The newspaper is getting more and more difficult for me to read.
It’s not because of the political, often angry, division in our community and our country. I like different opinions and perspectives. I enjoy intelligent, respectful debate.
It’s the fundamental lack of character that so many public figures display with complete arrogance. They seem sure that we are fine with their lies, manipulation and retribution.
They seem confident that we will applaud their bullying as long as they prevail. And they seem to believe that, if they don’t have character, we must not either.
Are they right?
Character is about saying what we do and doing what we say. It’s about honesty and humility and humanity. Character is a quality that we display 100% of the time, or we don’t have it.
Until we hold our public figures to that standard, we will not be the country that we were. We will not be the country that we could be. And the newspaper will continue to get more difficult to read.
Lin Williams, Venice
READER QUESTION
Is Sarasota-Manatee county a safe place to live? If not, what would you do to make it safer?
Send us your thoughts at Editor.letters@heraldtribune.com.
Please send no more than 200 words and include your full name, address and phone number. Only your name and city will be published.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Selby works well with neighbors; Reader Question: Do you feel safe?
