Letters to the Editor: June 29, 2019

Treasure Coast Newspapers

Lake Okeechobee discharges to blame for algae blooms in our river

Kudos to your reporter Tyler Treadway for his excellent front-page article June 15, "Algae bloom getting bigger.” As many residents have long suspected, the algae blooms which have plagued the St. Lucie River are caused by the polluted water from Lake Okeechobee.

It's not the leaking septic tanks, pet feces or water runoff from existing homes, which have been blamed repeatedly for algae in our river. The real culprit is clearly the chemical, toxic water discharges from the lake into the river.

To substantiate this statement, one need only look at the facts:

  • The new algae blooms are occurring only on the Lake O side of the Port Mayaca Lock and Dam.
  • There have been no Lake O water discharges from the Port Mayaca Lock & Dam into the St Lucie River since March 30 (10 weeks as I write).
  • Water clarity in the river has substantially improved during this time period in spite of the heavy rains producing excessive water runoff.

No further multi-million dollar studies are necessary. The polluting of our river is clearly caused by the discharging of Lake O's dirty, harmful, toxic water into our river. Hopefully, common sense will rule and this practice will stop.

Jack Jennings, Port St. Lucie

Development on H.D. King site should reflect what residents want

Fort Pierce is now, as I write, making a decision that will affect all of us. The H.D. King site in downtown is going to be developed. This is a good thing if done correctly.

The redevelopment agency has chosen Audubon Development. Now, here are the questions:

  • Why would we give the land to Audubon? (Shouldn't they pay for the land like all of us did when we purchased houses or businesses in the city?)
  • Why should Audubon get tax credits? (Do we get tax credits for living here?)
  • What made anyone describe the architectural design as ‘old Florida’? (I've been in Florida since 1956 and I have never seen that architectural style down here. Not even in Miami.)

These decisions will affect the future of our city. No corporation should receive free land or lower taxes just for the privilege of being here. Maybe it's time for the city to ask its citizens if it's what we want. When we are asked to up our taxes for schools or roads, we always vote yes. Do we do this so you can give it away to strangers?

This is not Palm Beach County. Stop trying to be Delray Beach (Egads! The traffic is horrendous.) We don't care about West Palm Beach.

Please don't overdevelop our town; if we wanted to live down south, we would. Think about open space, parks, green areas, sidewalks, trees. All of these make a town user-friendly and beautiful.

Consider the residents and business owners of Fort Pierce, not newcomers who are looking for a handout.

Jane Donlon, Fort Pierce

Who controls the information you receive online?

When you get your news online, you think you're receiving the facts from which to contemplate and subsequently make up your own mind. Not so fast. Silicon Valley wants to relieve you of the trouble of that contemplation and just tell you what to think.

If you do a search for “the best” of something, algorithms will not necessarily give you results based solely on a set of statistics related to the subject of your query, like best selling or somehow similarly rated. In the name of “fairness,” Google may pass over some results in favor of a more favorable result list depicting the world as they would like to see it. 

They call this “algorithmic fairness” and this is just the tip of the iceberg. You are being led what to think in every search you do. Even search suggestions are manipulated. You may have assumed suggestions given when typing in a search are based on search statistics. Not so.

If you search “men can …" you're led to “have babies; get pregnant: have babies now; have periods and can cook.” Conversely, a search for “women can ... returns “fly, vote, do it, do anything and can be drafted.”

Are Silicon Valley tech giants worried about their reputations? Why worry? When you do a search on the subject it will come back “impeccable, completely objective and beyond reproach”!

Ed McCauley, Fort Pierce

Don’t people care about grammar now?

Maybe I'm an old fuddy-duddy, but I must ask the question: What has happened to the English language? Many of the most educated among us have either forgotten, or never learned, proper grammar.

Recently, a local columnist wrote, "me and my friends." Shouldn't it be, "my friends and I"? Television personalities are big offenders when it comes to grammar. They say "lay down," when they should say "lie down"; "bring it there," when they should say "take it there."

One of the most egregious errors is “where is it at?”

A commercial for the American Association for Retired People shows a man speaking of "people as experienced as me and you." Sorry, it should be “you and I.” The other day I read that someone bought something "off" another person. In today's world, people no longer move quickly, they move quick.

I am certainly no grammarian. Neither am I an expert in syntax. But I try to speak properly and think others would as well. I guess it just don't matter no more.

Larry Drew, Hobe Sound