Originally Published Sept. 29, 2009

 

If Carl Hiaasen is the Daniel Boone of Florida conservation, Sentinel columnist Mike Thomas is the Jim Bowie. Thomas' knife cuts deeply through the mustard of shim-sham developers ("Blocking build-build-builders," Sunday).

The proposed Florida Hometown Democracy amendment may be our last best hope to turn the tide on the get-rich-and-get-out boys in Florida.

Anyone who remembers Hurricane Andrew knows too many developers have been getting away with too much for too long. But there are still singular good builders and contractors out there. We saw them in Andrew: the house built a little bit higher and stronger that didn't flood, that stood up when all those around it were flattened.

Hometown Democracy may be our best hope, but we have to be careful not to throw the baby out with the muck water. Who will vote for any kind of development? Who will allow the building of an old-folks home, a mission, a battered woman's shelter in their neighborhood?

In Jared Diamond's book Collapse, we see urban sprawl as a world phenomenon. Muscovites are leaving in droves because of overcrowding.

Local writer Bill Belleville pointed out in his bookLosing It All to Sprawl that developers often become bullies, and history shows he's right.

But homeowners can act like bullies, too. Residents of higher-income communities will vote any nearby low-income development into oblivion.

Let's support this amendment, staying mindful not to become a mob.

Dave Ash

Longwood