Why take homeless policy out of local control?

Sunday’s article on the source of Florida’s latest legislation to address homelessness (“How a Texas-based think tank upended Florida’s homeless strategy,” May 5) is eye-opening indeed. It is legislation duly implemented by the Legislature that removes any chance of local communities serving their homeless population or addressing their housing crisis in any way other than that proscribed by a Texas conservative think tank.

I submit this legislation is not designed to solve or reduce homelessness at all but is really designed to make the problem less visible. That way the people are less likely to seek government solutions. And that is the real goal — preventing government from addressing problems that people see, experience and have concerns about. Apparently, we elect lackeys in the business of legislating for the well-funded conservative ax-grinders that call themselves “think tanks.” The people and their respective communities apparently are of little concern.

Jeff Henderson

Belle Isle

Split Oak decision may doom gopher tortoises

The gopher tortoise is a Florida native that dates to the Pleistocene, when its burrows stood the weight of mastodons. Gopherus polyphemus is also a state-threatened animal the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), under the Endangered Species Act, is mandated to protect.

Is this agency “protection” real, or a shell game with ever-movable parts tacitly agreed to by its governor-tapped commissioners with whom all major species votes lie? The answer lay bare Wednesday. The commission voted to lift the conservation covenant from Split Oak Park and throw the gopher tortoises it relocated and for a decade-plus managed there under the bus — for a developer toll road smack through the tortoise habitat. This, in defiance not only of its conservation mission, but also of the outraged public which treasures Split Oak and the concept of in perpetuity per se.

This betrayal shows FWC as it has been for some time: not a guardian of our wildlife, but a taxpayer funded, constitutionally untouchable arm of the development industry. We must remember this when we vote.

GOP governors have often avoided putting biologists, ecologists, environmentalists, academics, wildlife or animal advocates on the Commission, installing instead ranchers, hunters and developers to decide the survival or extinction of Florida’s iconic and other myriad fauna and flora. We have one of the most biodiverse ecologies in the world. We deserve real stewards of our wildlife.

Orange County should hire savvy environmental lawyers to try to get the original Split Oak agreements upheld.

Rebecca Eagan

Winter Park

Voting is vital

I recently had conversations with two friends about why the upcoming presidential election matters. A vote for Donald Trump was out of the question for both of them. To my surprise, so was a vote for Joe Biden.

One said he would vote for his dog, knowing that I love dogs. The other promised not to vote for president at all. I suggested that an abstention was the same as a vote for Trump. I am not sure that voters who abstain see it that way. Maybe they think it doesn’t matter who they vote for.

If you feel the same way — that you can’t stomach either presidential candidate for whatever reasons — please imagine a tie vote and your vote is over there in the undecided column. Ask yourself which way you would have wanted this to go.

You can decide who wins. Please vote!

Kathy Kennedy

Orlando