Letters to the Editors

Drivers, not roads, cause accidents

Up until this day I pretty much just read all the letters complaining about the pending approval or disapproval of the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in Palm Harbor and all the complaints about how dangerous U.S. 19 and other roads are and how congested they are as well.

I have this to say: Get real and look within. The roads will always be congested in this area, whether we have another store or not. If not a store, eventually another residential neighborhood would go there, sucking up even more fresh water and adding to the cars on the highway anyway.

I am so tired of people blaming the roads for their accidents. Every day I see people totally oblivious to the road and cars around them. They are combing their hair, putting on makeup, eating, talking on their cell phones, tending to their out-of-control children in the back seat, playing their music so loud they cannot hear horns or sirens from emergency vehicles and ignore them and -- get this -- reading newspapers and books, not at a traffic light or in slow traffic but while driving 55 mph.

Then you have the inexperienced young drivers and the elderly who do not have or have lost their ability for quick judgments, and the drivers who think they own the road and race in and out of lanes.

It is the drivers who are not paying attention or who think they are invincible who cause the accidents, not the road or the trees. The roads are only as dangerous as the people on them. It is the responsibility of everyone to make it safe, not the engineers or the government.

Did you not grasp that Wal-Mart is willing to pay early the impact fees that will go to the funds to continue Belcher Road up to Klosterman Road, thereby taking some of the pressure off U.S. 19 from Alderman Road to Klosterman?

I would much rather see a Wal-Mart there than a company that never prided itself on community and family values, which the Wal-Mart chain does. I think they have our best interest and are well aware of the impact to Lake Tarpon, and my hope is that they will look out for it and help conserve its beauty.
-- Sue Heinz, Palm Harbor

Stories on mobile home parks ignore the ugly side

Let's look at the real truth concerning the trailer parks on Clearwater-Largo Road.

The St. Petersburg Times is trying to stir up the manufactured homeowners just for the fun of it. There is a big difference between a manufactured home and a trailer. I guarantee you that if any of those trailer parks were near any of the manufactured home communities, they would have a riot.

My father used to live in a manufactured home community, and I live beside Skyview Trailer Park, so I know the difference. My father did not have to put up with loud music being played at 3 a.m.

He didn't put up with the piles of garbage left beside the road and all the traffic and transient people coming through. I must not forget the constant visits of the Police Department because of drugs and other criminal activity.

The bottom line is that no one on the Largo City Commission, no one from the Times and no one who wants a safe area for children would live next to these parks.

Tell the real truth: Most of these trailers are a danger for the people who live in them and the people who live around them. The only real winner is the landlord who overcharges for them.

The real issue is that the neighborhood would be much better without these trailer parks, and life would improve for everyone. So tell the whole story.
-- R. Boman, Largo

Your voice counts

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