It should be crystal clear to all SunRail funding jurisdictions that it’s time to terminate this experiment (“How much would it cost to run SunRail on the weekends?” July 26). Examine the numbers: ridership is minuscule and does nothing to improve local transportation. The thought of taxing the general population so 5,000 people can ride the train daily is criminal. Any additional taxes for transportation improvements that do not specifically exclude SunRail funding should be rejected.
Mitch Gordon Casselberry
Fight for Kaley homeless shelter
Many people in Central Florida see homeless people and think, “What can I do?” Here’s what you can do – join with other like-minded people to urge the Orange County Commission to proceed with the Kaley Ave. Work Release Center as a shelter for the unhoused (Editorial: “Fight negative voices against shelter by raising your own,” April 14). What does that mean? Write or call the commissioners asking them to move forward with the shelter plan. Show up at a BCC meeting and tell the commissioners and the mayor that this shelter is the right thing to do. Join your commissioner’s neighborhood council and advocate for this shelter to be completed.
Everyone deserves shelter, safety and dignity. Housing is a human right.
Val Mobley Orlando
DOGE must look at Everglades
It would appear to me that fiscally conservative Republicans are a dying breed. With the recent reporting done by Florida newspapers, it’s been alleged that Florida hatched a plan with major Republican donors, who coincidentally do business with the state, to build out an immigration holding area in the Everglades. To the voters in Florida who continually vote Republican, you might want to pay attention. Contracts with vendors were offered as “no-bid” contracts, thereby eliminating that messy thing called “itemization of estimates.”
At $450 million, this is a moment to turn his DOGE team loose and point them towards the Everglades. The waste, fraud and abuse will probably make you sick. You can think about the wasted money the next time you are stuck in traffic on the Beachline Expressway. With taxpayer money at stake indefinitely, there seems to be zero accountability with the governor and statehouse Republicans. Go ahead, make a call to your district representative and demand accountability with your money.
PJ Whelan Orlando
Common kindness is hard to imagine
In response to the letter in Saturday’s paper (“Make America kind again”), it would be great if it were so simple to direct a divided population in a single direction that would benefit us all. But I am a native of this state, and I have seen everything about it deteriorate — environmentally, infrastructural, political, and kindness-wise. I tend to agree with an earlier letter by an individual taking his family and leaving the state (“Time to bid farewell to Florida,” July 18), except I plan to travel further away than a state in the U.S. With Florida looking at your next governor being Byron Donalds or Casey DeSantis, and the current president and his administration, the thought of America being kind again is not something I see in the time I have left on this Earth. Sadly I will miss my home state of Florida but I have turned the other cheek too many times.
Ed Gerry Longwood
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