Re: Neighborhood left out of the ballgame, letter, March 22, and A first-class ballpark, but service lacking, letter, March 15.
Regarding the letters from Harold Vick of Clearwater and Patrick Kennedy of Clearwater, I can only ask: Why all the whining?
The parking issue? I was a volunteer parking attendant at the Joe Dimaggio Sports Complex for Phillies games on two different occasions this spring, including last Sunday's game against the Minnesota Twins. We filled the equivalent of three football fields with parked cars (at least 1,000, by my count) and, although the game was a sellout, we could have easily accommodated another 100.
Walking almost a mile to the ballpark? From where? The Dimaggio complex is across the street from the Clearwater stadium for heaven's sake, and a shuttle bus courtesy of Julie's Limousines was available for those who chose not to walk.
As one who has visited nearly every spring training complex in Florida, I can tell you that the Phillies' new facility is one of the finest in all of baseball, and the ingress and egress is certainly much easier than navigating the neighborhoods around Jack Russell Stadium.
Stop complaining and be grateful to the city of Clearwater and the Philadelphia Phillies for this newest jewel of our community.
-- Jim Marshall, Safety Harbor
Field staff still working out kinks
Re: A first-class ballpark, but service lacking, letter by Patrick Kennedy, March 15.
I would like to respond to the person who was yelled at on opening night at Bright House Networks Field in Clearwater.
First, I would like you to accept our apology on behalf of the staff and owners of Bright House park. I am an employee there, and we are told right off that the fans are our No. 1 concern. We are to be friendly, helpful and nice to everyone.
We have had a great deal of complaints about parking, traffic and just a lot of problems, but let me say that everyone, from the owners to every employee to the great bosses, we are all working very hard to make things run smoother. I would like to thank everyone involved who helped Clearwater get this beautiful park and encourage everyone to come see how beautiful it is. As I greet people every day, all I hear is how beautiful the park is and how much fun they have had.
We have a great crew. We all have one goal: to make it a happy experience so you will return again. So please, just give us a chance to get the kinks out. Next year things will run so much smoother.
-- Mary Daher, Clearwater
Parking problem should be easy to solve
Re: Neighbors pay for stadium in quality of life, letter by Barbara Smigels, March 15.
I see by the paper that Ms. Smigels and her neighbors are having a bad time with fans parking along their street during baseball games at the new stadium in Clearwater.
Solving their problem should be easy. They need only do what the folks living in the quiet residential neighborhoods on northern Clearwater Beach did: have their city place no-parking signs along all their streets so none of the thousands of fans of sun, sand and surf dare park there to clutter their part of the beach with undesirables.
The large apartment building at 880 Mandalay once had over 80 public parking spaces along the street. Now there are six or seven, with meters - the only parking on the entire north beach.
-- Bud Tritschler, Clearwater
Enforcement needed to make road safer
Re: Traffic ramps up, thanks to Keene, letter, March 22.
I would just like to say that I, too, a longtime resident of Dunedin, am disgusted with the high volume of traffic along Keene-County Road 1 now. I never, until now, have feared driving in my hometown. I no longer feel safe driving even the shortest distances and I, too, cannot wait to move out of the area.
Furthermore, I would like to see something done about the speed limit as well, as many nonresidents in the area are using our road as a cut-through. For the first time in the years I have lived in this area, I have already seen my first overturned vehicle crash. In just the first week after they opened Keene Road at Sunset Point Road, there was another near-fatal collision. And most recently another terrible crash had shut down CR1 at Tampa Road.
Something needs to be done because this is only the beginning. We at least need more law enforcement out there forcing these drivers to obey the current speed limit.
-- Marcy Lynn Elliot, Dunedin
Voters should have a voice in their city
Re: Why did Clearwater voters turn on park plan? Diane Steinle column, March 21.
I was both maddened and concerned after reading the column. The ignorant city officials can't fathom a voter in Clearwater who wants the right to help determine issues affecting the expenditure of "their" resources, be it money, materials, labor or property. We voters still think we have the right to decide what happens in our city. We voted the daily caretakers in to take care of the regular matters of government (whatever it is that we want to allow them to do). Once in there, they think they are the only smart minds in the city.
Unless I misread the options at the poll, the voters did not disallow anything except the city officials usurping the power of the voters' right to a referendum on issues. We do not want to give up our right to vote on those issues. Although the city must still hold meetings (what a joke), they hear all the citizen input and then do what they wanted to do in the first place. I'm really happy to see that some taxpayer money might be spent to decide why that dumb voter didn't agree with them.
I was also appalled by the business with the Save the Bayfront group. Another political group may have influenced the voters better, so we've got to do something with them. We can't change the impact they had on the vote, so find something. Maybe we can discredit them for sending out the flier before they were supposed to. Spend some more taxpayer money on a consultant to find out.
Even though you say there is a general distrust of the city government, in my 18 years in Clearwater I can easily see where that reputation comes from, and I won't vote to give them my right of decision on anything. Politicians speak out of both sides of their mouths, so I put little faith in going to the council meetings. We all know that the money and power makes most of the decisions. But when it's on the ballot, I get to speak my mind as I wish, and not get overridden by the elite.
You are obviously favoring the city government, and that's your prerogative. Why not, that's where you get your information; you sure don't want to alienate your sources. In reference to Coachman Park and the Save the Bayfront flier, I got the picture. If we voters gave up our vote to the city government, those things (on the flier) could be placed there at their determination. That area is too important for that freedom.
We voters aren't as dumb as we are sometimes given credit for. We are interested. We gave up lounging at home, we left work, we left school and we left doing other things with our time to make our way to the polling booth and be heard. And after we did that, the city officials are going to question us about our vote. They are going to keep putting the same thing on the ballot until we get smart enough to vote the way they want. Disgusting!
-- John Biggs, Clearwater
An amusing contradiction
Re: City utility rates may rise by nearly 25%, story, March 11.
Early on, the article explains utility rate increases are needed because of increasing operating costs "as the city has failed to add many new customers."
Later, the article states "as the city of 70,000 grows, officials say higher tax rates may be necessary to provide residents with the same quality of services they've grown accustomed to."
Apparently, the reader is to understand that failing to add customers adds to taxes while success in adding customers produces the same result.
Doesn't life become more amusing day by day, in a somewhat perverse sort of way?
-- Art Palmer, Largo
[Last modified March 26, 2004, 01:20:43]
