Friday's letters: Put a stop to disastrous road plan

Board backs revamp of I-275 | Aug. 5

Put a stop to disastrous road plan

The Hillsborough County road planning agency's vote to expand I-275 is based on a deeply flawed premise that additional lanes for the interstate highway that cuts through Tampa's heart are the best long-term solution to our dreadful traffic problems.

Globally, transportation planners understand that the best solution to congestion woes is to provide more transportation choices: more modes of transit and alternative routes. Unfortunately, the Florida Department of Transportation has failed to broaden its approach, stubbornly clinging to 20th century solutions that have proven disastrous to the functionality and character of the cities that have been sliced and destroyed under the banner of "moving cars more quickly."

Paving over historic neighborhoods is too high a price for temporary gains in flow, which will disappear in a decade as demand increases. The devastation to the neighborhoods is forever, as the proposed 19 lanes of traffic cut a swath that permanently deters any pedestrian from attempting to cross.

I served as chair and member of the Metropolitan Planning Organization for 25 years, the longest tenure of any person in Hillsborough County. The tedious meetings were endurable because, as a former urban planner, I understood the tremendous importance of the MPO's decisions on the quality of life in our community.

After witnessing the irreparable harm caused by the original bad decision to locate the interstate through Tampa's core, I know that adding more lanes is absolutely the wrong approach. Please contact members of the Hillsborough County MPO and urge them to vote to stop the proposed express lanes. It's not too late to avoid this $9 billion boondoggle.

Linda Saul-Sena, Tampa

Lawsuits run amok | Sept. 11, commentary

Cap on awards is unjust

Having spent many years of my career defending doctors and a major teaching hospital against medical malpractice lawsuits, I must disagree with the Chamber of Commerce columnists' views.

I learned that even good doctors sometimes err, and when they do, the injuries are often catastrophic. A $1 million cap on pain and suffering damages is a mere pittance in many cases. How many 15-year-olds would accept $1 million in exchange for the suffering of being a quadriplegic? Would a young mother accept $1 million for the loss of her legs? Would you exchange $1 million for the inability to ever hear your loved one say "I love you," or hear your infant's heartbeat?

The columnists' goal is simple: make more money for doctors and hospitals and let those injured from malpractice simply suffer. Justice and simple humanity require more.

Paul P. Carlucci, Valrico

Pastor Protection Act

Frivolous bill on marriages

I have just learned about a frivolous and potentially dangerous bill that was recently filed in the Florida Legislature. The so-called "Pastor Protection Act" (HB 43/SB 110) is intended to protect clergypersons from the "danger" of being forced to conduct an offensive wedding ceremony, presumably one for a same-sex couple.

The U.S. Constitution already gives pastors and clergy like me the right to perform or not perform wedding ceremonies as they wish. Pastors can and do refuse to marry people who have been previously married; some refuse to marry interfaith or interracial couples. As pastor of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, I would not refuse to marry a couple for any of those reasons, but I do reserve the right to refuse a couple based on what I learn in their premarital counseling.

The Supreme Court's marriage decision changes none of this. In fact, the court's opinion specifically affirms the rights already guaranteed by the Constitution.

Because this bill alleges to solve a problem which simply does not exist, Florida legislators should not dignify this ridiculous proposition with a single committee hearing, the process for which began in Tallahassee this week. This bill could easily be expanded beyond its original intent to give businesses and government employees a license to discriminate. Even in its current state, it creates fear and confusion in the public and perpetuates the lie that religious freedom and basic human rights are in conflict with one another.

I do not need the Legislature to protect rights that are already guaranteed to me. Elected officials should use their time and the taxpayers' money to protect Floridians who do face discrimination every day.

Rev. Paul Gibson, pastor, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church, St. Petersburg

Don't run the Grand Prix out of town | Sept. 14, John Romano column

Downsides to race

I take exception to the premise with which John Romano begins: "The Grand Prix of St. Petersburg is a great deal for the city." Romano cites the tourists and money brought to St. Petersburg along with the "exposure and prestige" in exchange for "the city's relatively meager cost" as reason enough to turn the city's downtown into a racetrack.

First, he totally dismisses the costs in noise, fuel fumes and inconvenience to the people who live, work or support businesses downtown. That alone is not a "relatively meager cost." I live in Gulfport and I can hear the noise several miles from St. Petersburg's waterfront. I can't take friends to see the Dalí Museum, see a show at the Mahaffey or enjoy a meal downtown when the race comes to town.

So what about this increase in tourism? In the same edition of the Times with Romano's opinion piece, your business writer Robert Trigaux points out what locals have known for some time: that our infrastructure is insufficient for the tourists we already have and the numbers are going up.

Observation will tell you the Times sells a lot of advertising to the organizers of the race. Perhaps that explains Romano's support for a loud, smelly and disruptive event that the city can definitely do without.

Steve Smith, Gulfport