Florida House moves forward with meeting on redrawing Florida’s congressional lines| Nov. 17

In 2010, Florida voters overwhelmingly passed Amendments 5 and 6 — by an impressive 63% margin — to stop partisan gerrymandering. We sent a clear message: Voters should choose their representatives, not the other way around. Fifteen years later, that message has not changed. Recent polling in 2025 shows that 66% of Floridians still oppose partisan gerrymandering, and 55% reject any mid-decade redistricting.

Around the country, states such as Texas, California, Missouri, Ohio and North Carolina have redrawn or are considering redrawing their congressional districts mid-decade. With a few exceptions, like Ohio, which was redrawn due to a court order, these actions are political maneuvers for partisan reasons.

Redrawing political boundaries mid-decade would not only be an unprecedented power grab, but it would be a betrayal of the voters who demanded fairness. It will also waste millions of taxpayer dollars defending maps that are blatantly partisan and would thus violate Florida’s Fair Districts standards. Those funds would be far better spent addressing our state’s real crises, like rising housing costs, hurricane recovery and skyrocketing insurance rates that threaten homeowners and vehicle owners across Florida. Are our politicians listening?

Floridians have spoken — twice. It’s time our leaders listened. Keep politics out of our congressional maps and uphold the promise of fair representation for every voter, and focus on the issues in our state.

Jennifer French, St. Petersburg

Cutting down on speeding saves lives. Why doesn’t Tampa Bay do it? | Column, Nov. 19

This letter is about the second part of columnist Graham Brink’s excellent series on pedestrian deaths in the Tampa Bay area, titled “Cutting down on speeding saves lives. Why doesn’t Tampa Bay do it?” I completely agree with the column: Excessive speed far too often ends in tragedy. I commented on his column article — “Too many people die crossing Tampa Bay streets. Here’s how to stop it” — for the same reason: He is absolutely right.

Every time I drive on a city, county or state road, I witness someone speeding or driving carelessly as if the rules don’t apply to them. And every time I sit at a red light, without fail, I watch one or more vehicles run it. Every. Single. Time. One driver in this column hit a cyclist and walked away with nothing more than a citation for careless driving. Until we start enforcing the law and holding negligent drivers accountable, nothing will change.

And good luck getting the government to redesign roads to better protect pedestrians and cyclists when they can’t even manage to repair the hundreds of potholes scattered across our area. As an avid cyclist and triathlete, I gave up riding on the road years ago, right around the time cellphone use behind the wheel became the norm. That alone should tell us something. Drivers must finally be held accountable if we want safer streets for everyone.

David Burg, Tampa

Florida leads US in executions in 2025 | Column Nov. 16

Guest columnist Austin Sarat claims in his column that the Florida justice system is inherently racist. His evidence? Seventeen percent of Florida’s population is Black, but they make up 35% of death row inmates. This is a nonsensical argument. Do we say that the NFL is racist because over 50% of the players are Black? No, we simply say that 50% of the best football players happen to be Black.

It would be so much more productive if we reduced the crimes that send people to death row rather than making misleading equity arguments for those who earned their place there.

Raymond Baker, St. Petersburg

Cutting down on speeding saves lives. Why doesn’t Tampa Bay do it? | Column, Nov. 19

My son has recently started middle school and is now riding the school bus. His bus stop is on US-19, where there are four lanes of southbound traffic, a median or divider and then four lanes of northbound traffic. Every morning, I watch my son’s bus pick up several middle school-age students. Every day I hear the bus driver honk the horn at the numerous vehicles not stopping behind him and not even attempting to slow down when he pulls up to the bus stop to let the kids on.

If the bus has stopped and has its stop sign out, all traffic going in the same direction of the bus is supposed to stop and wait for riders to board and the bus to continue on its way. If the median did not separate the traffic, then all traffic in both directions is supposed to stop. This is for the safety of our kids, as well as the safety of our bus drivers and all other drivers on the road.

Unfortunately, some of these stops are necessary on busy roads because of dead end streets, apartment complexes and housing developments. Bus stop warning signs would help, but aren’t always practical. When in doubt, stop.

Cassandra Columbo, Port Richey

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