Letters to the Editors

Thanks a miserable lot, politicians

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 7, 2000

I have lived in Pinellas County all of my 46 years. So I finally would like to thank all of the past and present politicians here in Pinellas County for their efforts, so here goes:

Thank you for:

1. Overcrowding.

2. The easy navigation and beautiful scenery on U.S. 19.

3. The even easier-to-navigate and even more beautiful Ulmerton Road.

4. The unlimited zoning for shopping centers, malls and new homes where you wouldn't expect them.

5. The endless rate increases for our monopolies ... I mean power companies.

6. Issuing driver's licenses even if we can't see or hear what's going on around us.

7. Last, but not least, thank you for the water crisis. Because without your immense wisdom, common sense and foresight in knowing that Mother Nature would always cooperate and supply us with all the water we would ever need, we now have the lowest water levels ever and can look forward to even more water restrictions and the fear that this will become an even bigger emergency in the years to come.

Once again, thank you.
-- Dan Herzog, Pinellas Park

Rock concert fans come up dry

On May 28, I attended StarFest 2000, a six-act rock concert held in Vinoy Park in downtown St. Petersburg, sponsored by Star 95.7.

The event's organizers are extremely lucky if they don't face major repercussions for not allowing people to bring in water. There were no clouds to shade the sun, and it was extremely hot outside. Water was available there for what I heard was $3 a bottle. That is insane. According to what a friend told me, there also were no ATMs.

I'm not going to get into a whole lot of "what ifs," but I think everyone will get my drift. Yes, there were water sprinklers there, and a few people had squirt guns. But some people were drinking the water out of the sprinklers and could have gotten sick from the non-potable water.

The next time one of the radio stations in this area puts on a seven-hour concert in hot, dry weather, it should think twice before denying people the right to bring in water. It could have become a very scary and unhealthy situation.
-- Dave Cutler, Seminole

Fixed span is a better option

Re: DOT: Bridge safety gates not to blame in accident, May 24.

We should be grateful that the decision has been made to replace the Pinellas Bayway drawbridge with a fixed span, rather than with another drawbridge.

The recent accident on the drawbridge, in which a woman suffered a broken vertebra as a result of the suspected drunken state of the bridge tender, should demonstrate, again, as did the recent fire in the bridge tender's shack, what an abominably bad idea it was to ever consider replacing the bridge with yet another drawbridge.

The residents of Isla del Sol, who opposed the fixed bridge, and the members of the St. Petersburg City Council, who once threatened to litigate over the decision to build a fixed bridge, should look long and hard at this incident. The vulnerability, the expense and the dangers of a drawbridge have once again been clearly demonstrated.

Such incidents should convince any rational person that the decision to build a fixed bridge is a classic no-brainer.
-- William Douglas, St. Pete Beach

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