A round-up of Sunday editorials from Florida’s leading newspapers:
Tampa Bay Times — Facts, Lies & The Lens
For the third time in a century, St. Petersburg has an opportunity to transform its waterfront by building a new pier for the next generation.
And just like before, residents are divided about the way forward. A new Tampa Bay Times poll shows that opponents who have put a measure on the Aug. 27 primary election ballot to try to kill the project have the upper hand five weeks before the election.
But voters should look past the myths spread by critics about the proposed new pier and re-examine the extraordinary project called the Lens. The product of four years of public meetings and an international competition, the design by architect Michael Maltzan incorporates many of the recommendations of a citizen task force and can be built within the city’s limited budget over the next two years.
That makes more sense than starting over with a new concept or renovating the closed inverted pyramid that is not worth saving.
The Bradenton Herald – Manatee’s mental health safety net for youth invaluable
Historically, Manatee Glens has been an invaluable asset to this community as the primary mental health caregiver for children and adults with behavioral, addiction and other issues. This year, the state of Florida recognized some of the ground-breaking work performed here.
The Manatee Glens Children’s Community Action Team found great success in providing intensive treatment and mentoring to emotionally troubled children in the comfort of their homes. A team of counselors, a psychiatrist, nurse, therapist, case managers and mentors are available around the clock.
The state launched Manatee’s pilot program in 2005 but quit funding CAT in 2009. Fortunately for this community’s children and parents, Manatee County provided 90 percent of the program’s annual costs of $792,000.
Perhaps as a reaction to December’s Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy and the resulting national debate over mental health care, Florida lawmakers saw the light. This year, the Legislature finally took notice of CAT’s success and allocated almost $7 million to fund CAT programs in 10 communities beginning this summer.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal — Hard Rock Hotel could lift the entire beachside area
The Hard Rock Hotel that will soon rise on a 10-acre lot along South Atlantic Avenue in Daytona Beach will change the neighborhood and the entire business area. The changes could go a long way in transforming Daytona Beach’s pockmarked beachside into a better place to do business — and to live.
The area will indeed see a boost in commerce and activity, not just on the unused lot but through the entire beachfront area stretching from Ocean Walk Shoppes to Silver Beach Avenue.
It will see more tourists on the beach — tourists with cash to spend.
An added benefit will be a synergy created along South Atlantic Avenue, especially among businesses and property owners who are in the newfound position of having their property located near one of Daytona Beach’s top hotels. It’s likely the city will see vacant storefronts and shops near the lot suddenly get new owners and new tenants — newcomers with plans to renovate the buildings.
And the overall beachside area should get a psychological lift. That could ripple through neighborhoods and improve residential property values.
No one hotel and restaurant can magically transform an entire city. But the Hard Rock Hotel is likely a game changer for the beachside as a whole, as well as the South Atlantic neighborhood.
Construction will begin on the two-tower hotel and condominium development in early 2014 on land that has been unused for 10 years. The lot sits against the beach, across from the intersection of Lenox Avenue and South Atlantic Avenue/A1A.
Neighborhood residents are concerned about the changes. The developers, Bayshore Capital Inc. of Toronto, have acknowledged those concerns and are working to allay them.
The Lakeland Ledger — Lakeland Police Distrust: Faith Falls Apart
For months, Lakeland Police Chief Lisa Womack has told the City Commission, residents in public meetings and police-accreditation organizations, the process of investigating Lakeland Police misdeeds required patience. The Florida Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights is painstaking and slows internal investigations.
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However, she said, the process is pure and would produce results that would make all concerned proud.
The investigations have concerned 10 on-duty Lakeland Police officers who engaged in sexual acts or sexually suggestive behavior. Altogether, more than 20 police officers and employees were involved.
Officers have also required women at traffic stops to pull their bras away from their breasts and shake as part of a search, been unable to testify in court about cases they headed or worked, and produced deficient crime investigations. Another officer testified in court that he and others falsified affidavits.
FINAL STRAW
Tuesday, a letter and report from 10th Judicial Circuit State Attorney Jerry Hill tore down Womack’s facade of faith in process.
Hill’s letter and an investigative report said Sgt. Ray Lloyd had been untruthful in a sworn statement to Hill’s office about the head of Lakeland Police internal investigations, Lt. Hans Lehman.
Lloyd’s “report writing, case preparation and courtroom testimony” in two court cases, said Hill, “were unsatisfactory.”
Hill also referred to David Edds, the officer who had testified in court about falsifying an affidavit. In a DUI case, he filled out the first page of the document, and had the defendant sign that all six pages had been completed and were truthful.
The Miami Herald — Zimmerman trial shows why ‘Stand Your Ground’ law should be rolled back
Aided by Florida’s flawed self-defense laws, George Zimmerman won acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager who was minding his own business walking to his father’s home in Sanford. The verdict underscores the urgent need for the criminal justice system to find a better way to deal with Floridians increasingly prone to use deadly force and claim justifiable homicide.
Legal experts seem to agree that the law and the judge’s instructions left the jury little choice. But the overwhelming feeling of unfairness over the verdict voiced by so many Floridians and others across the nation — of all political affiliations, races and ethnicities — cannot be ignored.
Absent redress, the anger and frustration will turn into contempt for the law.
The acquittal fails to satisfy a basic sense of justice. The fact that the victim was black and the shooter was not compounds the tragedy and deepens the bitter frustration felt by black people in our community, where Trayvon Martin lived, and elsewhere. How, they ask, can this be fair?
Now it’s up to the U.S. Justice Department to determine whether federal charges should be filed under hate-crime or civil-rights statutes. An investigation is certainly warranted, but many legal analysts believe that chances of a successful prosecution are slim. Mr. Zimmerman is a civilian — not acting as an agent of the law — with no history of overt racism.
That brings the issue back to Florida’s self-defense statutes. It is one of at least 20 states with provisions that don’t require civilians to flee from an intruder before fighting back. One study found that in states with these “Stand Your Ground” laws, the rates of murder and non-negligent manslaughter increased by 8 percent, an additional 600 homicides per year.
It also found that whites who kill blacks in Stand Your Ground states are far more likely to be found justified in their killings.
The Orlando Sentinel — Enough blood in the streets — put pedestrian safety 1st
The nation was transfixed after an Asiana jetliner crash-landed in San Francisco recently. Two people were killed, the first commercial air fatalities in the U.S. in four years.
If only Central Florida’s streets were so safe.
An Orlando Sentinel special report has found that in the past six years, 333 pedestrians have been killed by vehicles.
Instead of transfixed, the region seems resigned, as if we are powerless to do anything about the carnage.
And where has that resignation gotten us? Well, in addition to being the nation’s No. 1 tourist destination, we also claim the title as the nation’s deadliest city for pedestrians.
Pictures: Controversial magazine covers
You won’t see that on any chamber brochures or theme-park marketing campaigns.
Instead, Central Florida’s shameful distinction remains mostly in the shadows, unless you’re a family member confronted with the grief of losing a loved one. Or if you’re among the scores of people who survive but suffer horrible, lifelong injuries.
Or even if you’re one of the many blameless motorists who every day bear the burden of having injured, even killed, someone who blundered into the path of your car.
And make no mistake, the majority of pedestrian deaths and injuries are due to the misjudgment or carelessness of pedestrians, not motorists.
There’s a reason for that. In the headlong rush to build, build, build, this region has created the kind of sprawl that necessitates bigger, high-speed roads.
The needs of pedestrians have been an afterthought. Engineers design crosswalks, but covering eight lanes of fast-moving traffic can be terrifying for a hapless pedestrian with kids in tow.
The Sentinel’s series highlighting this near-daily tragedy should be a clarion call, not just for the usual suspects in elected office, but for the region’s businesses, institutions and community groups that can take up the cause of making Central Florida’s streets safer for pedestrians.
The Tampa Tribune — A painful preview of Obamacare
Want a preview of the economic impact of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act? Consider the actions of local community colleges.
As the Tribune’s Jerome Stockfisch reports, Hillsborough Community College and St. Petersburg College are cutting the hours of adjunct professors.
The reason is simple: The law requires an employer to provide health care to employees who work 30 hours or more.
The community colleges are simply being financially responsible and trying to avoid what likely will be millions of dollars in additional costs.
Businesses, you can be sure, will do likewise. The result will be fewer hours and less revenue for part-time workers.
Of course, that impact is from just one aspect of a law that includes a number of taxes and regulations that will entangle businesses.
The White House has delayed implementation of the act’s mandate that businesses with 50 or more employees provide health insurance or pay a fine.
The delay will put off some of the law’s effects until after the midterm elections, but its heavy costs look to be inevitable unless President Obama and the act’s supporters recognize the damage it will cause, and Congress revamps it.
Consider Hillsborough Community College. Stockfisch reports that with the projected health insurance costs of $7,850 per employee, it would cost HCC about $863,500 for the 110 employees expected to affected by the provision.
The Palm Beach Post — Scott should intervene on key Everglades project
A year ago, South Florida had too little water. These days, South Florida has too much water. Worse, South Florida also is saturated with water politics.
Because Lake Okeechobee levels are so high and the dike is so shaky, the South Florida Water Management District and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are dumping polluted lake water into the St. Lucie River to the east and the Caloosahatchee River to the west. In the St. Lucie estuary, pollution levels are at near-record highs. The water around Stuart’s Roosevelt Bridge is brown.
