Tuesday's letters: Public art, Piney Point cleanup, housing at Bobby Jones, more

Let tax dollars shape city’s public art

Concerning "Who is paying for Sarasota's public art?": The April 5 article presents a new twist in the ongoing relationship of economic forces and aesthetic quality in the public square, a dialogue seen in the West since the Renaissance.

However, the writer's priorities skew the argument as not so much one of art history, but financial reward for investors through the "branding of art."  The minute you allow marketing jargon to influence public art, the credibility of Sarasota as a "cultural community" becomes questionable.

Must the multicultural nature of this city allow the limited understanding of sculpture, as evidenced in the real estate community, to dominate artistic sensibilities? 

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Conceptually, public art is one of the most immediate ways a community can express itself to visitors. The parochial ambition of our current "real estate culture" is neither an appropriate venue for serious public art to be determined, nor to be seen by visitors.

In the end it is the public tax dollars that shape this community. Don't let an uninformed segment of that community make us look like inconsequential parochials.

Kevin P. Costello, Sarasota

No guarantee of cleanup at polluted sites

I think this is the most important sentence in Zac Anderson's April 9 story on Piney Point: "Valenstein said Florida has about $1.5 billion in financial guarantees to cover the cost of potential problems at other sites" (“DEP chief: ‘Close the site’”).

I very strongly doubt that this is a meaningful guarantee.  A real guarantee is backed by a bond or some funds-backed insurance, ensuring a cleanup. 

Phosphate mining is such a pollution hazard that bonded insurance would be prohibitively expensive and make the mining financially unprofitable. 

Thus, you get a guarantee that is no better than the financial condition of the company, which isn't worth much, as you can see from the financial condition of Piney Point owner HRK Holdings.

Ed Hurley, Sarasota

Connect environmental disasters to GOP rule

With Earth Day approaching April 22, Floridians have another environmental disaster to deal with.  Not a near disaster but a real disaster: millions of gallons of toxic, red-tide-fueling water released into Tampa Bay from the Piney Point plant.  

As Florida voters, we need to draw connections between who runs the state and the results of their policies.

Republicans are in full control statewide and in local counties, and have been for decades.  They are not known for regulating polluting industries or being proactive environmentalists.  

Their “solutions” for the waste products of polluting industries are to send the toxins into our Gulf or into our groundwater.  Then they come up with innocent-sounding terms like “deep-well injection” for what is really a permanent polluting of our agricultural and drinking water source.  

Red tide and other algae blooms keep recurring, to the detriment of residents' health and the massive tourist economy.

In an email, Democratic state Rep. Andrew Learned, of Brandon, informed me that Republicans just voted to cut funding for the Department of Environmental Protection by over $286 million, including a $134 million reduction in wastewater management grants. 

That’s while Piney Point was all over the national news.  

Environmental disasters are the inevitable result of Republican rule.  Vote them out!

Peter Burkard, Sarasota

Go back home, DeSantis bashers

I moved to Florida five years ago to enjoy living out the last years of my life enjoying good weather, political freedom from Northeast Democrats, low taxes and good governance.

I now see many people escaping from other states to enjoy the fruits of Florida and then bash our governor for his brave actions in the COVID-19 minefield created by inept federal agencies and ruthless political parties fighting for votes at any cost.

My wife and I couldn't be any happier living in Florida during this pandemic. For the bashers, please return to where you think you would be better off.

Peter Balint, Sarasota

Bobby Jones ideal for affordable housing

If you searched the world over, you could never find a more perfect site for affordable housing than the portion of Bobby Jones Golf Course that fronts Fruitville Road.

There is plenty of room for several hundred units of affordable housing. We have more parks that people seem to think are necessary, and room would remain for at least 18 holes of golf at the historic club. 

Fronting an arterial road with bus lines and great access to shopping, schools and services is ideal for affordable housing. This is a simple solution to the problem of workforce housing, while utilizing city-owned land to help with the financial issues of the city.

Len Smally, Sarasota