Today's letters: Readers comment on Florida's buildings, school rankings and inflation
Art imitating life
It has been one year since the Champlain Towers South collapse, and I thought it's a good time to mention: the perfect example of art imitating real life is a fictional 1980 movie thriller, “Condominium,” versus the real-life horror of the Surfside condo collapse.
The residents of the fictional Silver Sands Condominium in Fiddler Key, Florida, are dealing with rising condominium association fees as they discover cracks in the building's foundation, and notice the poor materials and workmanship. Sound familiar?
Silver Sands is built by the unscrupulous construction magnate Marty Liss. The residents of Silver Sands do not realize that Liss and his construction operation are a front to launder syndicate money. In the movie, the residents brace for hurricane Ella. Ironically, a week after in the real world, Florida braced for hurricane Elsa.
This all illustrates why DeSantis' "Deregathon" is exactly the wrong path forward for the United States! In case you were wondering, that was a one-day event, hosted on Jan. 31, 2019, that convened more than 90 members of Florida's 17 professional licensing boards, including: Building Code Administrators and Inspectors Board, Regulatory Council of Community Association Managers and the Construction Industry Licensing Board.
It makes you wonder how many shaky buildings got a wink and a nod from “inspectors” in Florida.
Paul Dombek, Ocala
School rankings
The annual rating of Florida’s public schools was recently released by SchoolDigger.Com. It is one of the most referred-to organizations used to compare the performance of Florida’s schools. Our district dropped a spot from 58 to 59 out of 67 districts and is rated a one-star district (out of five possible stars).
It is interesting that the Florida Virtual School is rated No. 6 in the state. Those who are homeschooling, or thinking about it, may find this as useful information in helping you decide what to do this coming school year. It also dropped a spot from last year, but is given a five-star rating.
Don't let the school board members and administration attempt to divert from our ranking by talking about test scores improving. Obviously, so did all of the other districts or we would not have lost another spot in the ratings.
They can spin the discussion all they want, but the fact is we are not making the progress we were promised when our county switched from an elected to an appointed superintendent.
We are getting the same story we have gotten for decades: "Wait until next year!"
Stan Hanson, Ocala
Inflation information
The guest column on July 3 by Michael A. MacDowell on inflation and how we got here is extremely one-sided, and tries to blame the high inflation on the ARP and other measures that the current administration took to help people and businesses during the pandemic. First of all, what and where would the country be if none of those measures had been taken?
Second, if the effects of inflation were only attributed to the money poured into the U.S. economy, how can you explain the high inflation to other countries around the world?
Perhaps the amount of money that was inserted to the economy had inflationary pressures, but it is naïve and disingenuous to present a narrative based on misleading information — particularly coming from an economist.
Manuel Escalante, Ocala
Write to us
Send a letter to the editor (up to 250 words) to osbletters@starbanner.com. Letters must include the writer's full name and city of residence. Guest columns of up to 750 words are also accepted on a limited basis. More information on submitting letters and columns can be found at bit.ly/starbanneropinion.
This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: July 24 letters: Readers comment on buildings, schools and inflation
