To the editor:<\/p>\n
My son rows for the Cape Coral Rowing Club. The public deserves to know what is actually happening \u2014 and to have several inaccurate public statements corrected.<\/p>\n
In 2020, the City Council approved Tropicana Park as the club\u2019s permanent home. The club planned around that for six years. Then, driven by pressure from the Northwest Neighborhood Association, a coordinated opposition campaign produced a sequence of escalating obstacles designed to make the club\u2019s situation untenable.<\/p>\n
\u00a0First: Safety. Cape Coral Police confirmed zero incidents in the club\u2019s 18-year history. That argument didn\u2019t hold.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Next: Aesthetics. The city demanded a concrete perimeter wall \u2014 up to 12 feet high \u2014 around the club\u2019s boat storage. Estimated cost: $150,000. A nonprofit youth program cannot absorb that.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The club didn\u2019t quit. All parties agreed on a compromise \u2014 a chain-link fence with a natural hedge row, paid for and maintained entirely by the rowing club. The city accepted those terms. Then the mayor moved them anyway. No new safety concern. No failed compromise. The Northwest Neighborhood Association wanted them gone \u2014 and that was enough.<\/p>\n
Now the mayor says volunteers can simply move the club\u2019s existing dock to Crystal Lake at no cost. That is not accurate. The club\u2019s current dock is a\u00a0smaller-in-length, privately-owned structure built for a temporary location on the Seven Islands \u2014 not suitable for a permanent facility. Crystal Lake would require professional grading and a purpose-built docking system comparable to the $400,000 floating dock the city installed at Tropicana Park specifically for this type of boat launching. Volunteers hastily moving a privately-owned temporary dock onto city property with out\u00a0bonding or insurance (both of which cost money) is not a solution. It is a liability.<\/p>\n
The mayor also says Crystal Lake has adequate parking. The count: Seven standard spaces, two handicapped spaces, nine boat trailer spaces, and one handicapped trailer space. That is a boat ramp\u2019s parking lot \u2014 not an athletic\u00a0facility\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The safety concern at Crystal Lake is not rowing near boats \u2014 the club has done that for 18 years without incident. The problem is geometry: motorboats launching from an active ramp directly alongside where rowing shells are carried to the water. Two incompatible activities at the exact same point, then throw in the already relocated Dragon Boat team to the mix, and you have chaos.<\/p>\n
\u00a0For context on how this city treats other sports: Cape Coral has spent $60 million in GO Bond funds on parks, $11.2 million on the Lake Kennedy Racquet Center, $17 million on Festival Park, $12 million on the Oasis Sports Complex, $6 million per year on Coral Oaks Golf Course, and is now planning a $225 million Yacht Club rebuild. The Parks and Recreation personnel budget alone is $16.8 million annually.<\/p>\n
\u00a0The Cape Coral Rowing Club has received $0. In 19 years, it has never asked for a dollar. It moved when asked, funded its own compromise, and still got shown the door.<\/p>\n
\u00a0If Crystal Lake is truly the right location, prove it. Fund the dock. Solve the parking. Fix the boat ramp conflict.\u00a0 And give these kids a respectable\u00a0boathouse for\u00a0proper training and storage. Do for rowing what this city does for every other sport \u2014 without years of obstacle courses and moving goalposts.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Otherwise, keep the promise made six years ago and leave these kids alone at Tropicana Park.<\/p>\n
Tim Uzar<\/p>\n
Parent, Cape Coral Rowing Club<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: My son rows for the Cape Coral Rowing Club. The public deserves to know what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120266,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":{"0":"post-244660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}