Letters to the editor

+ Road work is a deterrent for future visits
Dear Editor:
We are visitors from England staying in a rental house on Gulf of Mexico Drive. We have been coming to Longboat Key for 20 years and are with our son, his wife and three small children. We were all kept awake from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m. this morning by the road work outside our house. The whole house was shaking and vibrating as they tore up the road surface and then trucks drove up and down the entire night.

Surely this is totally unacceptable. The entire road is kept awake in order to avoid causing inconvenience to drivers during the day. We have been here for two weeks, and it is usually quiet with little traffic.

This could never happen in the U.K. — residents would never accept it. Maybe this is because the car is king in the U.S.?

The worst thing is that they have done only half the street and we can’t find out when they will do the other side so that we can check into a hotel that night.

I am afraid that this experience has put us off returning to Longboat Key for future vacations.
The Marshall family
United Kingdom

+ Tourism will help put Longboat at No. 1
Dear Editor:
As a regular visitor to Longboat Key and now Anna Maria Island, I agree with your article “LBK can be, should be No. 1,” especially the section on friendliness. I hope the readers of Condé Nast have not seen the recent guest column (Nov. 12) in a rival newspaper which said Longboat Key does not need tourists, especially not weekly rentals. LBK No. 2? If that selfish attitude is shared, it will not be on the list at all.
Hilary Robertson
Longboat Key visitor

To send in your letters. Please e-mail them to [email protected], or mail them to The Longboat Observer, 5570 Gulf of Mexico Drive, Longboat Key, 34228. The Longboat Observer gives priority to letters of local interest and about local issues. The Observer will print all letters to the editor if it feels they are of general interest, but only if the letter is signed and the author’s street address and phone number are given. The editor reserves the right to condense letters.