Condo inspection system punishes unit owners | Letters to the editor
The problems facing South Florida condo owners are truly not of their own making, though the Legislature seems devoid of the ability to do anything other than what comes from the governor’s office.
The entire condo situation is a mess. It starts with how reserve funds are treated and how condo owners are treated. If you bought in an older building, you now face the conundrum of paying for the misdeeds of others.
Many units in older buildings were bought by retirees, so many living on limited incomes are victims of a flawed system. Why should a person who moves into an older building under the new law be held responsible because their predecessors ignored the need to properly maintain the building, simply because they are the unlucky owner when the bill becomes due? This is a typical example of how the state does nothing to solve a problem except make it worse. By overreacting to the collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, and providing not one cent to help unfortunate Floridians whose victimization they have made worse, the people we rely on to solve problems have failed us completely.
So, Governor DeSantis, how about putting your campaign against woke-ness and your run for President on hold, while you figure out how to solve what will surely become a housing crisis for your constituents in the coming years.
Trust me, Governor. Whatever you come up with, your devoted Republican puppets in the Legislature will surely pass it.
Michael Peskoe, Fort Lauderdale
The mayor is right: Build a tunnel
Look at what a mess the 17th Street Causeway Bridge is in Fort Lauderdale. Traffic gets backed up and emergency vehicles are delayed, way too often. To try to cross that bridge, which opens way too often, is a cross I’ve learned to live with, living and working in the neighborhood.
I believe Mayor Dean Trantalis is right. A tunnel is better for the city’s future, and will cause less cut-through traffic in the neighborhoods. The cost is worth it. Building a railroad bridge is just wrong.
Robert Kelsey, Fort Lauderdale
End access to assault weapons
I am horrified and growing increasingly impatient. Let me be blunt: I no longer wish to hear NRA-funded Republicans simply offering thoughts and prayers to those who lose family members in senseless mass shootings. Those don’t solve the problem.
Moreover, no longer will I sit idly by and listen to these Republicans once again assert without evidence that the answer to mass casualty shootings is mental health care rather than reasonable gun legislation. The shooter in Lewiston, Maine had been reported for having mental health issues and subsequently was treated for those problems, yet he had access to high-capacity weapons.
It is troubling that Maine has no required background checks, no permit required to carry, no red flag law and no high-capacity magazine ban. In short, the common denominator in almost all of these tragic shootings is the lack of regulations about guns designed for use only in war, and not for sport.
It is not a violation of the 2nd Amendment to stop people from buying AR-15-style rifles. Let’s do the right thing to prevent future mass shootings, once and for all, by finally prohibiting access to assault weapons.
Richard Cherwitz, Ph.D., Austin, Tex.
No acceptance of Gazans
Why is there no mention of Arab and Muslim nations refusing to accept their brethren from Gaza into their countries?
Don’t these people deserve to be welcomed and allowed to live among their own people? Egypt will not allow them to even cross into that country.
Is this what you call humane?
Brenda Frank, Hollywood