Plantation has a Big Brother camera problem. It can be costly if you live there.
At the present time, there are 23 city surveillance cameras that can ticket you after you drive 11 miles over the speed limit. You’ll get a $100 ticket by mail. The city is considering adding more, for a total of 95 cameras. At $100 a ticket, that’s highway robbery. People are going to be angry.
We are overcharged for our gasoline and groceries. Homeowners’ insurance is through the roof. The cost of car insurance is ridiculous. Rents are among the highest in the nation. And now, if you go 11 miles over the speed limit in the middle of the day with no kids around, you’ll get a $100 ticket mailed to your home. Terrible.
Hopefully, residents will speak up. This is supposed to be “the free state of Florida.” I’m thinking of moving. I don’t like being under surveillance every time I leave my home. If something bad were to happen, these cameras would not signal a policeman.
All they want is to ticket you, not help you. They’re not seeing if we need assistance; they’re trying to get money from us. I find this overreach very upsetting, and I hope you do, too.
— Diane Miller, Plantation
Gridlock in Lauderdale
Every week it seems, another major development is announced in the core area of Fort Lauderdale from the beach to downtown, between Southeast 17th Street and Sunrise Boulevard.
Referencing the city’s Urban Design and Planning Department’s planning resources web page and FloridaYimby.com, I count an astounding 80 projects consisting of about 27,000 residences and 1,800 hotel rooms, with 61 high-rise towers greater than 20 stories high, all in the “in review” to “recently completed” stages.
Snarled traffic, crowded emergency rooms and parking gridlock at Publix will plague us. Equally important, our parks, fields and courts for tennis, pickleball and basketball will all be overwhelmed.
Even now, in the off-season, when you pass by Holiday Park or George English Park at 6 p.m., you find no place to park and all the fields and courts overrun, crowded with people waiting for their turns.
The transformation of our city into a super-high-density urban hub is exciting, but it is greatly disappointing to realize how drastically our quality of life will diminish when our shared public spaces are pushed far past their limits to enjoyably serve the public.
— George Mulhorn, Fort Lauderdale
Defining ‘first principles’
Re: A Florida Court becomes right-wing think tank, Editorial, Sept. 15:
Congratulations. You have redefined “first principles” to fit your narrative and actually published it.
You state that it is “ignoring common sense and the modern world in order to interpret a constitution as literally as possible by what the court claims the words precisely say rather than by what guideposts they were meant to express.” That definition only exists in the Sun Sentinel.
In fact, “first principles” actually means foundational truth based on indisputable facts. It excludes interpretation via (and inclusive of) judicial activism, i.e. your “modern world” interpretation. In summary, it’s indisputable facts vs. dogmatic revisionism.
— Mike Corcoran, Deerfield Beach
Part of a cranes collapsed on a car on the SE 3rd Ave bridge in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, April 4, 2024. (Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Too many crane collapses
Five crane collapses in Miami-Dade in five years is too many. The latest was on Sept. 14. The others were on Aug. 26, 2023; Feb. 7, 2024; April 29, 2026; and Aug. 7, 2026.
The numbers are worse if you add the seven other Florida crane collapses in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Merritt Island and St. Petersburg over the past five years.
Does it require a crane to fix Florida’s crane safety laws?
— Wayne Bizer, Plantation
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