Edgewater plan needs bike lane, other changes
I attended the public meeting last week where partially engineered plans were displayed for the future of Edgewater Drive through College Park. The typical cross-section has a continuous left turn lane or landscape island, centered, through all 11 blocks.
Three miles of curbs are to be removed and replaced so as to widen the shared sidewalk. But there is no bike lane. The new hard curb is next to parallel parking, which is directly adjacent to through-traffic, speeding by in what I call the vehicular sewer. We all know how inattentive certain drivers are, right?
I view it as a colossal waste of money, to ill effect.
Each of the 11 blocks has distinct needs and functions. Where a wider sidewalk is needed, design and create a bump-out, poured concrete, as good design principles might suggest. Leave many curbs in place. Install convenient traffic circles and repurpose the center lane, where possible.
We must provide for a continuous bike lane, 5 feet in width, that serves as a safer solution to the surge of E-scooters, bikes and such. That five feet serves also as a buffer between speeding traffic and the parked-car door zone hazard, which needs prominent marking.
We deserve an opportunity to design a significantly better block-by-block plan that flows well, then engineer it.
Trevor Hall College Park
Leaders’ misdeeds continue unchecked
I am amazed that although every week Scott Maxwell publicly points out the duplicitous and self-serving actions of so many Florida politicians, nobody does anything about it. The state representatives whose only claim to fame is that they blindly obey the governor’s outrageous commands and undemocratic changes in state law, to the self-enriching appointments of former cronies, to the Florida congressional representatives whose only goal is to defy the U.S. Constitution and stop any government action that does not meet their narrow-minded, extreme beliefs. The attitude of “burn down the country” if you don’t do things their way is a path toward the destruction of our democracy, not to mention harming the health and well-being of all Floridians. We can and should do better with our votes.
S.M. Feiner Orlando
Hope for peace, prosperity
It is a terrible situation. Thousands of innocent Palestinians are escaping to the south of Gaza, trying to escape the war that’s devastating their homes.
But Egypt refuses to open its border. Why? Could it be that Egypt is afraid that Hamas will infiltrate its country and bring destruction as in Gaza?
In Ukraine, surrounding countries welcome Ukrainians fleeing for safety with open arms. They are providing refugees all they need and as long as they need until Russia will cease its aggression and the refugees can return and rebuild their young, hopefully democratic country.
There is a definite dichotomy here. Egypt does not see Palestinians as an asset to its country. The Palestinians allowed Hamas to govern, knowing they were a terrorist group, whose only mission is to hate Jews and destroy Israel. Money that should have been invested to build up Gaza was only used to build up a war arsenal to use against Israel.
Ukraine, on the other hand, once winning its war with Russia, will return to rebuild a democratic state, providing resources to benefit its people and hopefully join the other NATO countries as a model to what can happen if you are committed to fight for your country. Peace and prosperity for all the people of the world: This is my hope.
Evalyn Katz Boynton Beach
