Today's Letters: Florida manages growth gracefully

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published September 30, 2007

Florida, you get uglier by the day Sept. 23, Bill Maxwell column 

While there are times when I, too, become a bit jaded by some of the building in our state, I wish to respectfully disagree with Bill Maxwell. Florida is not getting uglier, at least from my perspective.

I grew up here and I've lived in other areas over the years. I always come back to Florida. Why? Because compared with other parts of the country, Florida consistently manages a balance between progress and tradition.

In driving across the country, I see signs of reckless building and zoning nightmares wherever I go, from large cities to the rural areas of Virginia and North Carolina. If you want to see "ugly" progress, take a look at the strip mines in Virginia and West Virginia. Now, that's progress that makes the worst of Florida's building look beautiful.

Florida needs to grow and upgrade to satisfy the needs of all those from other areas of the country who decide they want the benefit of nice sea breezes and wildlife protected by conservation efforts. If people are worried about protecting Florida's beauty, don't move here. You can still visit.

Thinking there can be no building to accommodate new residents is just foolish. There have been great strides toward ensuring more responsible building in the past 20 years.

No, I'm not always thrilled by watching vacant land paved over. Having lived elsewhere, though, I'll always come home.

Iris Moon, St. Petersburg

Florida, you get uglier by the daySept. 23, Bill Maxwell column

Give voters a say

Bill Maxwell joins several other talented Florida authors in bemoaning the shoddy and poorly planned sprawl along our highways and byways. Writers such as John D. MacDonald and Carl Hiaasen among others have expressed strong, consistent, negative opinions of this phenomenon.

Over the years it appears developers and builders have decided that Florida is their private playground to do with as they wish. They won't be happy until the entire state is paved over.

I would offer a solution called Florida Hometown Democracy. If you think we citizens should have some say about how our state should look, sign the petition. If you do then you will qualify for intimidating letters and phone calls from the pro-overdevelopment group explaining how we residents aren't smart enough to make these complex decisions.

I agree with Maxwell, and I am ready for our state to adopt a much more reasonable method of moving forward with growth and development. If the elected people cannot get it done - and so far they have shown no stomach for standing up for us - then we need to put it in the hands of the voters.

Lance Peterson, St. Pete Beach

Florida, you get uglier by the daySept. 23, Bill Maxwell column

More can be done

I agree Florida has been getting ugly for quite some time. But Bill Maxwell's best advice is that "all of us should get in our cars and drive some of the back roads across and up and down the state."

Come on! We don't need more cars driving around. We need people to get out of the cars and walk, to push for separate bike trails, to plant more trees and to stop urban sprawl! Stop using pesticides and gas-powered machines to try to reshape Florida into an unnatural image. Speak to your city council to create local change for xeriscaping and be the change you wish to see.

Bryan Hilbert, Gulfport

Guns in America Sept. 23, Perspective story

Guns bring killing

It is with much sadness that we read this article. In the past 20 years, my wife and I have lived in four different countries, and the most violent country seems to be my own. The 200-million guns the article speaks of are evidence enough why killings in any of our major violent cities equal and surpass those in the four major industrial countries of the world combined - Japan, Germany, France and Great Britain. All we need is the killing and shooting records of Newark, Detroit, Washington and now New Orleans to see why people of the world wonder what kind of society we have.

Who needs an assault rifle to protect his family? The sad amendment, "The right to bear arms," was meant for a frontier society, and we have proliferated this sad condition in the past 20 years or so. We are so afraid of the National Rifle Association that any antigun legislator does not stand a chance, and we kill by the thousands every year.

Where there are guns, people get killed, and we have too many in this country. If it was only the police, the military and security that had guns, a lot fewer people would be killed.

We have a sad future with this mentality, and I will continue to pray and speak my piece, but I am afraid with little effect.

David A. Baxendale, Clearwater

Back from Iraq Sept. 2

Reality brought home

I am a junior in high school and like many in my position I look forward to my future and try to find choices that would shape its course. During late spring and throughout summer I looked closely at two choices: The first was to go to college and have a standard career; the second was to join the U.S. Marine Corps.

I usually look through the paper for the sports, but on Sept. 2 I saw the Perspective section. Without even reading a word, the picture jumped out at me. It was the wedding photo of the Marine with his face in real bad condition. I read this story and the one about the man with the prosthesis, and I thought I should really think about this.

In the end I decided I'm going with my first choice not just because of the story but because those pictures really made an impression on me. Also I want to thank the writer and photographer for showing citizens this harsh reality.

Jose Flores, Tampa

With secrets out, end came quicklySept. 28, story

Put away poison pen

Although I can handle your obvious left-wing bias, not only on your editorial pages but also throughout your paper, I find your treatment of the John Bryan suicide distasteful and reeking of tabloid journalism.

I never heard of John Bryan until I read about him in the Times. The man has a family. In deference to them you should give your poison pen a rest. One article was sufficient to trumpet his transgressions.

John Hungerford, Palm Harbor

[Last modified September 29, 2007, 22:36:31]