LETTERS TO THE EDITOR | The Reporter

Drivers can’t follow slower speed limits

E-Mail this story

Print this story

tool goes here

Posted - Friday, November 06, 2009 11:00 AM EST

To the Editor: I read your editorial “Highway patrol should ease up on bridge speed traps.” I totally agree that the highway patrol is ineffective in their “ticketing” effort, and our “guests” may not come back.

As a person who follows the law, I try to do 45 mph over the Jewfish Creek Bridge. The way I do that is to pull to the right hand lane about a half mile prior to getting to the bridge to allow everyone to pass. By the time I get to the peak of the bridge tailgaters are just beginning to meet my bumper even though I am now exceeding the 45 mph speed limit.

At this point, I just want to pull over and let them pass, but this is not really safe. Some of the better drivers pass me using the exit ramps as a passing lane. So lately, I have been speeding up after reaching the peak as I approach the 55 mph speed limit on the stretch. This seems to soothe the persons behind me and “we can all get along.” I am sure that by setting the speed limit to 55 mph or higher it would reduce the need for police surveillance and that all these problems would just go away.

Where we really need your help and your editorial commentary is on the “work zones” on the stretch. Just try doing 45 mph there. It is extremely dangerous when cars pass you here, because they can have a head on collision in their SUV or truck. Incidents like these will likely involve you.

Why do you think the Grim Reaper keeps count at the Homestead side of the stretch, now standing at a low of 10? It is because the law-abiding slow pokes like me cause them to fall asleep behind the wheel with their foot pedal stuck to the floor. Remember, these are the same high-energy, bored people that were exceeding the speed limit on the bridge while on their cell phone.

What we need here are NASCAR barriers between the workers and the roadway. They can then increase their speed to 70 mph, as they hydroplane their way through the swamp waters off the side of the road. I’ll be sure to wave as I pass you in the ditch.

Incidentally, some of our “guests” to the Keys are major offenders to our “go slow” lifestyle, as I have noted their license plates. To them, please consider the ticket as a “guest fee” for your condescending behavior, on your way home. Just thanks for visiting!

Bill Cobey, Key Largo

DOT responsible for bridge speed traps

To the Editor: Reference your editorial of October 30 regarding the FHP enforcement of the speed limit on the northbound lane of the Jewfish Creek Bridge, I agree the enforcement efforts are being overdone and reflects poorly on the Florida Highway Patrol. The bridge has now been opened for several months and the education period should be discontinued.

It is unfortunate the Florida Highway Patrol command for the Florida Keys is bearing the brunt of criticism for the “speed trap.” The troopers assigned to the detail are on Extra Duty basis paid for by the Florida Department of Transportation. They are therefore not on regular duty and other areas of the Keys are not being neglected. It is the DOT that should be pressured into ceasing the operation. I wonder if the funds used to pay the off-duty troopers could not have better utilized with the installation of a caution light and additional speed limit signs.

Bob Senk, Key Largo

Growth director should support height limits

To the Editor: Citizens Not Serfs is writing to reiterate the importance of ensuring that Ms. Hurley, the prospective appointee to the Growth Management Director position, is publicly committed to supporting the Keys’ designation as an Area of Critical Concern and equally committed to permanent prohibition of all new structures in excess of 35 feet.

As we have pointed out on other occasions, this designation benefits the Keys significantly and an overwhelming majority of the population supports living within an Area of Critical Concern. A March 2006 scientific poll conducted by Lake Research demonstrated that 82% of likely Republican, Democrat and Independent Monroe County voters were opposed to the construction of high-rise condos and hotels and were equally opposed to rescinding the 1974 Area of Critical Concern designation. The Area of Critical Concern designation is the primary reason the Keys are devoid of the wall-to-wall high-rise condos and hotels that blight southeast and west Florida. On May 15, 2007 Islamorada citizens validated the scientific poll and overwhelmingly verified the import of maintaining this aspect of the Keys environment by voting to permanently encode a 35 foot building height restriction in their charter.

Florida Keys residents demand assurance that the Growth Management Director understands the massive opposition to the planning and construction of high-rise condos and hotels in the Florida Keys. They need to know that Ms. Hurley is publicly committed to rejecting any and all attempts to plan or construct high-rise condos and hotels. Similarly, Ms. Hurley must commit to defending against any attempts to change the County’s Area of Critical Concern designation.

Furthermore, it is imperative that the potential Director appreciates the burdens that FEMA’s Pilot Inspection Program and subsequent County regulations have placed on the people of Monroe County. Ms. Hurley must be willing and able to find ways to mitigate the community’s suffering while remaining in the National Flood Insurance Program.

Citizens Not Serfs is hopeful that Administrator Gastesi, the Board of County Commissioners, and Ms. Hurley will be mindful of the issues raised in this letter.

Christen Spake & John November, Summerland Key

Have a heart, don’t leave dogs in cars

To the Editor: Once again I witnessed three dogs left in their owner’s car for over 45 minutes.

I would like to stress the neglect and uncaring way you all treat your pets, something you are supposed to love.

Even though the windows were partially down, the car was dark in color and it was around the lunch hour when the sun is beating down on the top of the car.

Have a heart — leave the pups home. They can’t shop with you.

By the way, there was not a drop of water for them in the car.

Martha Leasure, Marathon

Debauchery shouldn’t be a festival theme

To the Editor: Promoting debauchery at taxpayers’ expense? Not long ago, debauchery was one odious epithet. To be debauched was ruinous to your body, mind and spirit, as well as reputation.

Today, taxpayer dollars underwrite the Tourist Development Council and Fantasy Fest. This year’s slick promotion is “Celebrating 30 Years of Debauchery.”

Why would we wish to celebrate extreme indulgence? We know its sure consequences — drunk drivers and horrific car accidents, abused spouses and children, addicts and pushers, pimps and prostitutes. How can we have sunk this low? Do we crave money so greedily that we knowingly tempt the public with the promise of events that leave a bite mark and cater to the bizarre?

After the celebration, what is the crash? What about a drunk driver’s extinction of an innocent life? Is Mothers Against Drunk Driving mad? What about the users who went too far? Will they be found as a patient in the emergency room, a prisoner in the Monroe County Detention Center or a stiff in the morgue? What is the consensus of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Al-Anon?

Especially in tough economic times, we ought to exert great care in planting images into our and others’ minds. Healthy images can inspire and help us live sanely. Diseased ones demean and destroy us. Fanciful images of exotic and bizarre costumes can lead a mother or father to plunge, privately or publicly, into the insanity of that extreme indulgence called debauchery.

Depravity may arrive gradually, like a thief in the night, but its consequences bear their rotten fruit daily.

B.G. Carter, Cudjoe Key

Islamorada rental law should be set aside

To the Editor: I am an English-born Australian citizen who has been vacationing in Islamorada with my family on and off for more than 22 years. We have in the past and still do own a vacation home there.

For many years we helped defray our expenses by renting our home on a weekly basis and at the same time supported the local economy by accommodating a succession of mostly overseas guests.

We now find ourselves in the ridiculous situation where we can only take rentals for a minimum of one month due to the ill-thought-out and what is, for a tourist destination, totally counterproductive transient rental ordnance.

Unsurprisingly the number of foreign visitors wanting a one-month rental is low to non-existent.

The reason for this letter is to point out to the powers that be that despite the fact that we make it perfectly clear in our advertisements that we can only rent by the month, we are having to turn away literally dozens of inquiries for one- or two-week rentals.

I do not know if the authors and supporters of this nonsensical ordinance are aware, but there is a worldwide recession on, and from what I can see, Islamorada needs every possible tourist dollar.

When I inform potential renters that we cannot rent by the week or fortnight, we are usually greeted by a stunned silence, unsurprisingly really, as I cannot think of another single tourist destination worldwide that imposes this nonsense. Most people I correspond with just ask why.

They see the Florida Keys advertised worldwide as the perfect tourist paradise destination, which it is, but are told the good people of Islamorada do not want their tourist pounds and euros, and they then take them elsewhere.

Surely this would be a good time, if not to abandon this folly, to at least set the ordnance aside until the economic situation improves.

Michael Mitchell, Queensland, Australia and Islamorada