Saturday's letters


The Tallahassee circus

No need to pay to go to the circus in Sarasota. There is a free, two-ring circus going at the moment in Tallahassee.

In one ring we have Gov. Rick Scott and his world famous flip-flopping act. He first cut funding for education and is now endorsing a $ 2,500 pay increase for each teacher. He sued to prevent Obamacare from taking effect and now embraces and supports the government Medicaid option in the very same law. But his biggest feat would be getting elected to a second term when only 33 percent of the electrorate supports him.

No circus is complete without the clowns. Enter the Republican- controlled Legislature in the second ring. Everything they do causes people to laugh and snicker. Their tightrope balancing act between voting against anything that will benefit the people of Florida and for anything that makes common sense is truly amazing. Who can forget their loading last year's ballot with so many amendments that most voters thought they were reading a small novel rather than an election ballot?

This collection of oddities and missteps is only available for the next 60 days. So don't miss it.

Felton Marans

Lakewood Ranch

Puzzling rowing numbers

Last Saturday's article, "Meet Our Regatta Rival," left me scratching my head. The article mentions that an estimated 53,000 spectators would attend the world rowing championships and, along with the athletes, spend an estimated $13 million.

I presume they will spend this money on lodging, food and other things upon which the counties would levy taxes. But even at the higher 5 percent county tax rates for lodging, $13 million would return a mere $650,000. This represents a financial benefit well below the estimated $6 million cost, mentioned in the article, to be shouldered by Sarasota and Manatee county taxpayers. Even using the higher $25 million "economic impact" tourism estimate, the counties only get, at most, $1.3 million in tax revenue.

I'm not against rowing or any other activity that brings money to the area. But government officials either need to stop trying to sell these ideas on the basis of lame economic impact studies, or stop using taxpayer money to sponsor and fund the ones that do not make economic sense for the taxpayer.

Wayne R. Guest


Baseball vs. children

I have had a safety concern for several years now about the spring-training baseball games letting out at the same time as student dismissal. I have emailed Ed Smith Stadium in the past and have not gotten any response.

The afternoon baseball games start at 1:05 p.m. and out-of-state visitors (who may not know their way around) are potentially leaving right when our children are walking and riding their bikes home from school.

I am in no way asking for these games to stop, as I think they are great for the Sarasota economy. What I am asking is that these games be moved by 30 minutes to clear out all baseball traffic or school traffic, either way.

I realize that there are many police officers around out there, but they cannot possibly see everything that happens. This can cause a huge risk to our children of being hit by a car or, what is worse, abducted because there is so much chaos and confusion with the traffic. As a mother of three, I would hate to see any harm come to the children because of a 30-minute oversight.

I wrote to the principal of Tuttle Elementary, who contacted the Sarasota Police Department. The SPD suggests that the children walk up 8th Street to Lockwood Ridge Road to avoid the 12th Street and Tuttle Avenue traffic. This is not a safe solution by any means. What if the child has no other route home? It sounds like SPD feels the baseball game is more important than the children's safety.

Andrea Almaraz


Protesting Publix policy

Many years ago when I was a young systems analyst, I attended a software class in Washington. Two of my classmates were men employed by a well-known tire manufacturer. In the course of the week they told me proudly that their company did not employ women in their information systems division. As I said, that was many years ago.

Near my home was a tire store that sold, among others, that brand of tires. I could have shopped there for any of their brands, but instead I chose to go farther from home to a store that did not sell tires manufactured by a company that would not hire me. I understand that the tire store had nothing to do with the manufacturer, but I had no other way to show my displeasure.

I think my story applies to Publix now. I am still shopping at Publix for anything except tomatoes.

Unless Publix reconsiders its stand on the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, however, I will reconsider my shopping destination.

There are other supermarkets just as close to home.

Hilda C. Dillman

Rotonda West

Limit smoking in parks

I am senior at Sarasota High School and I see cigarette butts lying around in Payne Park. I also see a lot of people smoking when there are families nearby.

Secondhand smoke is dangerous for young and harmless children. No five-year-old child should be inhaling cigarette smoke when they're just trying got have fun. We also shouldn't be seeing cigarette butts lying around, causing an unsanitary mess for our environment.

Cigarette smokers should have their own area of the park to have their time to smoke and not cause harm to families and other citizens. I'm tired of seeing cigarette trash littering our parks and public areas. We should all try our best to keep Sarasota County clean and smoke-free in our pubic enviroment and parks.

Francisco Garcia


This story appeared in print on page A20


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