To Ms Anderson's (and Florida Hometown Democracy's) critic:
I enjoy Ms Anderson's blog. It's unique. Ms. Anderson takes a larger and longer view: she recognizes that the quality of life we enjoy here in Florida is based on our lovely and bountiful natural surroundings, and that the threat here comes from the development industry which is fast managing to destroy that beauty and that bounty by paving over our lovely land and, in the process, knocking out our once-thriving tourism and agricultural industries.
Thank you, Lynn, for posting the absurdities that you uncover, so often the deeds of legislators eager to please the money-laden development community. I smile at their idiocy, but I also become angry and action-oriented. We need the information she blogs about to be disseminated widely so we can vote the bums out in the next elections. Nice thought, and we'll do it. However, as history has proven again and again, more bums will inevitably take their place -- thanks to developers' sponsorship and campaign contributions.
To stop this unending cycle of crooked pols and the ruination of the Florida we love, we need Florida Hometown Democracy. Only then will we the people regain the right to deny the outrageous permissions that our politicians keep granting to developers.
Land-use decisions won't be too complex for us voters. We're fed up with the present situation: bulldozers everywhere, sprawl, the death of our flora and fauna, and water shortages. Anything that contributes to this ugliness and destruction -- and the higher taxes such activity causes -- is a "no" vote. If the land-use changes the developers request are not in the public interest, it's "no."
Ms Anderson is right! With FHD, we'll have the ability, for once to stop the outrageous plan changes that the politicians are allowing the developers.
If Ms Anderson's critic doesn't like Florida Hometown Democracy, then what does he offer as a better 'fix' for the problem of paid-off politicians and their developer-friends who are overpopulating Florida with housing developments, high-rises on beaches, and shopping centers. People come here for cheap housing and sunshine, then find themselves with no jobs because our tourism and agricultural industries are being suffocated for lack of unpaved land and available beaches. Temporary jobs building some more houses isn't the answer: it's a Ponzi scheme whereby still more people come looking for jobs. Or else, like right now, the houses sit derelict, and become a blight on the tax rolls.
Keep it up, Lynn! Yours is the only way forward for Florida. We have a century and a half of proof that what your critic describes -- land-use power to the pols -- is not only outmoded but has long since become deadly if we are to live in a sustainable place with a reasonable quality of life.
Hurrah for Florida Hometown Democracy -- a future for Florida!
Dorothy Wardell
Ponte Vedra Beach - St John's Co
