Letters to the editor

Key Club referendum: Leaning toward ‘no’

Dear Editor:

It is exceedingly rare for me to ever question the position of your editor on almost any matter exposited on the paper’s editorial page, but I feel that last week’s editorial was not as completely thought-out as are most Longboat Observer editorials.

 The conclusion is exactly right that the No. 1 problem to be caused by expanding the tourist units at Longboat Key Club will be TRAFFIC. But one roundabout is not going to solve a traffic crisis. For someone who wants to go from Longboat to St. Armands Circle or Sarasota during the season, how about having drive-thru sandwich shops and a pull-out line of Porta Potties to provide comfort for what could be a two-hour journey?

This year, even without the requested increase in Key Club units, even without an enlarged Hilton, even without a renewed Colony, plus finishing all the Gulf of Mexico Drive construction going on at present, my wife and I and our friends gave up for nearly two months of even thinking about leaving the island for a dinner elsewhere. North or south. OK, that is good for Longboat Key businesses.

However, instead of approving at this juncture a blanket 300-unit referendum for the Key Club, why not try to baloney-slice the enlargement process to see what happens after various stages of development? 

Rephrase the referendum so that it can take into account a series of steps in the enlargement process so that the results of any, if any, changes in traffic pattern or traffic facilities can be assessed before taking the next step in adding to the island population during high season. 

If we just go ahead and endorse 300 or so more units we might very well be stuck with them, without any recourse and a monstrous problem.

Updating a resort may be critical to keeping a clientele, but the term “updating” is not necessarily synonymous with enlarging the number of units. Updating can also mean modernizing and making more elegant that which already exists. The French word, I believe, is “se soigne.” (It even sounds elegant, doesn’t it?)

I’m leaning strongly toward a “thumbs down” vote on the referendum. Sorry.

Weldon G. Frost

25.83 years full-time Longboat Key resident

Vote ‘NO’ on Key Club referendum

Dear Editor:

It is hard to believe that the Longboat Key Club can send residents of Longboat Key such an advertisement stating that with more visitors we will have a better community with better public services. We who live here as residents all year have just gone through the worst winter of our lives.  

Anna Maria is so filled with visitors and their cars that it is impossible to drive north, and many visitors have moved from Anna Maria to Longboat to find better and quieter lodgings. Longboat is undergoing more construction this year than I have ever seen, so you just wonder how many more people will be here next year. Everybody is complaining about the extra hours it takes to get anywhere in Sarasota. For the first year, I have sat for hours on the bridge and then been unable to get on the Trail because the traffic is bumper to bumper there. A new hotel has been built next to the corner, which forces cars to be crowded together and there is no way to widen the street.

I have not been able to get into any of my favorite restaurants unless I try in the middle of the day when crowds are smaller. I have heard nothing but complaints from my friends who live here. Trying to get to some of my favorite restaurants, I have been unable to find a place to park, and I join a line of cars driving around and around. There are too many people, and nobody benefits.

No, we do not want any more people, especially visitors and renters on Longboat. Condo communities are discovering that their population has gone from buyers who are residents to buyers who rent. Renters do not take as careful care of property as do owners.

What are people thinking who say we will be better with more people? And more visitors? We will become a tourist attraction rather than a community of residents.

So please vote NO to allowing new tourists to be accommodated on an island which is already overcrowded.

Anne Arsenault

Longboat Key

Give us more truth

Dear Editor:

I enjoy reading the Longboat Observer, and, in fact, I look forward to receiving it each week. I have to comment, however, on another one of your transgressions.

In the April 9 edition on your editorial page, you published excerpts from an article by Alyene Senger. The article is obviously (as always) against anything that the Obama healthcare law has tried to do, might have done or is doing. 

But the article doesn’t tell the reader until you reach the end that it is produced by the Heritage Foundation! 

Please, Mr. Editor, you know, as does anyone who takes the time to read or to find the truth, that the Heritage Foundation is a very conservative organization that has been working diligently to remove Obama; to convince the public that he is a Communist and that the world is coming to an end; and the healthcare bill is the worst thing that ever happened to America. All of which is erroneous. 

How about a little more truth as to who and what the Heritage Foundation is so readers would understand why it is so negative about a program that is providing healthcare and assistance to millions of Americans. 

John R Maier

Bradenton