A few questions on housing

Affordable housing law is in for repairs | Feb. 11

How can anything be accomplished without a clear definition of what “affordable housing” is, and a blueprint for how it would work? I’ve lived in St. Pete for 45 years and watched it grow into a great and vibrant city. But being three-quarters surrounded by water, the city has nowhere to expand. It is getting overly crowded and losing much of its charm. I understand that essential workers in jobs that often do not come with high salaries need a place to live. Why not concentrate on building rental apartments or buying and renovating standing, but abandoned, apartments, hospitals, shopping malls?

If we are determined to build affordable housing by crowding our communities, destroying the character of our neighborhoods and gutting the county budgets by giving huge tax benefits to large developers, we need state and local government to define and understand the issues, create solutions and be accountable for their consequences.

It is easy to say “affordable housing” is for households making less than some percentage of an area’s median income. Would they be required to have a job? What if they became unemployed? How often would they have to confirm their income? Would city employees (or teachers or firefighters or police officers or school administrative employees) be prioritized? Who would enforce the rules? Without answers to these questions, how can we support the solutions?

Susan Harper, St. Petersburg

An eye toward community

Clearwater needs to take a risk to jump-start downtown development | Editorial, Feb. 11

Thank you for this editorial about the need to take a risk to provide apartments and condos to revitalize downtown Clearwater. I also believe that the interests of those who are not downtown residents or business owners need to be represented in this planning effort.

If downtown doesn’t develop new attractions for the entire community, it will be subject to the same criticism as the beach. Citizens of Clearwater invested for many years in revitalizing the beach, and now that it is successful, it is virtually inaccessible and unaffordable to most residents. Coachman Park was presented as a sort of consolation prize, and we must ensure that the entire downtown remains accessible, affordable and inviting to all who live in Clearwater and Pinellas County. Planning should also include reopening of now-abandoned storefronts.

All residents of Clearwater are stakeholders in the downtown, and they’re going to take on additional investments and risks. There are still many people who say we should just abandon the downtown, but I believe that with the county offices’ relocation, Clearwater has the opportunity to develop a downtown that is more than just a residential community.

Karen G. Cunningham, Clearwater

Let’s not pretend

Florida could remove the majority of mentions of climate change from state law | Feb. 9

Deleting references to “climate change” won’t solve any of the important problems we face. It might make some politicians feel better about things, but our changing climate will still wreak havoc around our nation with or without those words in print. As a California homeowner, I understand getting home insurance in both California and Florida is becoming more difficult and expensive. This is mostly due to wildfires out west and hurricanes and floods in the east causing so much costly damage.

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I would hope that our legislators would work to help protect their constituents and not attempt to hide the tougher issues. Climate change need not be a doom-and-gloom subject nor a partisan issue. This large and daunting issue can be addressed if we are realistic about its existence. We already have the tools today to mitigate the worst of the negative effects. In fact, with current technologies and the proper bipartisan legislative action, we can grow our economy and tackle the problem together. As said with most concerns, acknowledging the problem is the first step toward finding the correct path going forward. Florida, please don’t stick your head in the sand. California and the rest of the nation need your help, too.

Jonathan Light, Laguna Niguel, California

Officially ignorant

Don’t say climate change? | Feb. 10

I thought we had reached the depths of ignorance when, during the Rick Scott governorship, it was rumored that state officials were not allowed to talk about “global warming” — but not so. Now we are officially removing some of the reality of climate change from the books, so to speak. From merely rumored to be ignorant, we move to a new status, officially the most ignorant state in the union, and doubly so: so ignorant that we actually pay money for our Legislature to make us look stupid.

Stephen Phillips, St. Petersburg

Guns kill people

Killed in dog park, but why? | Feb. 9

When you make guns more accessible and pass laws like stand your ground, it increases the odds of getting shot by quick-tempered lunatics. You’re not safe driving the streets in Florida or in dog parks or grocery stores, etc. Apparently, the only place you’re safe is at a Gov. Ron DeSantis rally where guns aren’t allowed.

Eileen Stafford, St. Petersburg

Protect the bears

We don’t need bills that would make it easier to kill bears | Column, Feb. 9

You don’t have to drive too far in rural Florida before you see ads for “deer corn”; that corn is not meant to keep the deer happy. It’s used to lure them to a place that makes them an easier target for hunters. There are all kinds of turkey calls designed to lure gobblers in for a Thanksgiving treat. Entire fields get planted with crops specifically to bring in flocks of doves for successful shoots. Historically, plantations in North Florida were managed specifically to allow the hunting of quail from horse-drawn carriages. Hunters employ a lot of ways to bring targets into range. What will prevent those who want to shoot a bear from trying to lure one into their yard or close to their private hunt camp in order to get an easy shot? On the whole, Floridians want to keep their bears. We are spending millions of dollars to ensure the future of wildlife corridors in Florida, so it makes no sense to facilitate the extermination of one of the main species for whom those corridors are intended. Legislators need to connect the dots.

Peter Meylan, St. Petersburg

Don’t make me laugh

Taylor Swift is a clear and present danger | Column, Feb. 10

Well, columnist Daniel Ruth just needs to calm down. I routinely get up ahead of my wife, and Ruth’s ongoing literary hilarity is interfering with her sleep. My uncontrollable, unmistakable and outspoken laughter at these early hours is complicating our until now 30-year relationship.

David A. Eaton Sr., St. Petersburg

Another point of view on COVID

DeSantis praises COVID-19 report | Feb. 12

Of course the anti-woke Florida governor praises the report from the red-hat MAGA crowd empaneled for the grand jury investigating criminal or wrongful activity in Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic. That much is a given since he is the one who empaneled them. Maybe we should ask some of the friends and families of the more than 90,000 Floridians who died of COVID how they feel about the report.

David Burg, Tampa

Not my tax dollars

Facing an uncertain reckoning | Feb. 11

In Sunday’s paper, we read of a $3.85 million bonus paid to a 16-year-old baseball wannabe (who now as an adult has a wife, kids and had an underage girlfriend) and whose team wants us Pinellas County and St. Petersburg residents to pony up $600 million to replace a 30-year-old stadium. Have we lost our minds? I think any commissioner or council member who supports such a plan ought to be recalled. Professional sports do not need, or deserve, our tax money.

Eric Balcombe, Clearwater