Wasteful boondoggle
As the nightmare of Alligator Alcatraz appears to be coming to an end, this should be considered one of the biggest frauds perpetrated on the taxpayers of Florida. This project began as a way for Governor DeSantis to ingratiate himself back in Donald Trump’s good graces, while attracting large amounts of national publicity to fuel his future aspirations for another presidential run in 2028. At great expense, and with the hope of being reimbursed by Trump’s federal government, DeSantis jumped in with both feet despite protests, environment issues, and legal action, to open the facility as quickly as possible. Now it turns out, Florida is unlikely to be paid back for this boondoggle. It’s no surprise Trump and his administration wouldn’t pay this bill. It’s not like we haven’t seen countless examples of this in Trump’s past. In the end, while our governor rants about his DOGE programs and waste, it is he who has committed one of the biggest wastes of our money with Alligator Alcatraz.
Eugene Kelsey, Bonita Springs
Naples losing its personality
Collier County Commissioners have failed us. Amid the many promises made to the citizens of our county, by candidates for county commissioner, are controlling growth; not letting Naples become another Miami; not issuing building permits until first providing for the necessary additional infrastructure and limiting rows of high-rises. The county has issued thousands of building permits without any apparent plans for more roads and parking. In “Season,” try getting home from your employment during rush hour on Pine Ridge Road, Immokalee Road or Golden Gate Parkway. Our politicians plan short-term with little or no vision of what we are becoming. Naples is losing its personality.
John Licciardi, Naples
Our children will suffer
Congratulations. You got what you voted for. Denise Carlin cannot be fired. You made her an elected official. Now you get to live with your decision. Talented, hard-working, award-winning teachers are being fired from and leaving our district. Our children will suffer while Denise continues to collect over $220k plus benefits annually and Florida remains 50th − last − in teacher pay.
Melinda Clarkson Isley, Fort Myers
Dangerous street crossing
The crosswalk safety situation at Seagate Elementary School has become an accident waiting to happen. The administration of Seagate Elementary School, Saint William Catholic Church, and Collier County appear to be overlooking a serious and ongoing safety issue involving parents and students crossing outside the designated crosswalk areas.
Each morning and afternoon, many parents and students park in the Saint William rectory parking area located at the corner of Seagate Drive and West Boulevard, then cross West Boulevard approximately 20 feet away from the designated crosswalk. Although there is an official crosswalk staffed by a Collier County crossing guard, the guard understandably has no authority or ability to control pedestrians who choose to cross elsewhere.
Unfortunately, convenience and impatience are placing children and families at unnecessary risk. The situation is made even more dangerous by a royal palm tree that partially obstructs drivers’ visibility of children crossing the street outside the designated crosswalk area.
Parents are modeling unsafe behavior, and children are following their example. It is only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured unless corrective action is taken.
Gerardo J. Lugo, M.D., Naples
Excessive regulation on Marco
At times, it feels as though Marco Island is in constant conflict with its own government. Many residents are exhausted by what feels like a nonstop cycle of new ordinances, new restrictions, and new debates over how people live their everyday lives. One issue ends and another immediately begins. That growing frustration is why some residents openly question whether the city has drifted away from the purpose it was created to serve in the first place. Government should exist to serve the people — not constantly place them at odds with their own community.
The role of city leadership should be to protect and preserve the Marco Island way of life: peaceful neighborhoods, outdoor living, family gatherings, beach traditions, and the freedom to responsibly enjoy the island we all love. Residents should not feel like normal parts of life — a conversation on a patio, kids laughing outside, swimming in the pool, families gathering together, fishing at the beach, or neighbors enjoying their property — could eventually become another ordinance issue or another trip to magistrate court.
Marco Island has never been made better by more ordinances or more restrictions. It has always been made better by strong communities, respectful neighbors, common sense, and leaders focused on bringing people together instead of dividing them. The people of Marco Island are not asking for chaos. They are asking for balance. They are asking for leadership that listens, protects the island’s character, its heritage, and focuses on the larger issues facing our community like infrastructure, resiliency, and the future generations who will one day call this island home.
There is still time to change course. This city council is full of talented and accomplished people capable of leading Marco Island toward better times and restoring confidence that local government exists to preserve the Marco Island lifestyle — not slowly regulate it away. Because what has always made Marco Island special was never another ordinance or another restriction. It was the memories made here that last a lifetime.
David Boggs, Marco Island
Lee County’s fiscal incompetence
“Sensationalized”… “Annihilated.” These are big words, and they are also the words that the Lee County Board of Commissioners are trying to hide behind in an attempt to cover up their continuing fiscal incompetence. Because they ran into overwhelming public opposition to a proposed new tax, they are trying to blame press, radio and TV for the dilemma they find themselves in. In my opinion, local press and media have been, for the most part, remiss in asking the hard questions.
How have we reached this point? Why have they failed to add needed infrastructure in conjunction with growth instead of scheduling it (MAYBE) 10-20 years in the future?
Let’s travel back in time to the year 2008. The commissioners, at the behest of the developers, drastically reduced impact fees on new home construction. They did this under the guise that growth would be great for Lee County. Apparently, in their great sagacity and their zeal to placate the developers, they set aside any notion that new growth would require additional infrastructure; infrastructure which they no longer had the means to pay for.
Since then, the commissioners came up with a Growth Fund which they claimed would make up for the lost impact fees. This now presented a two-fold problem for the taxpayers of Lee County. The first is the money for the fund would come from current residents, not from the construction of new homes which were the de facto cause for new infrastructure. The second problem is that the commissioners have failed to fund the Growth Fund for at least two years.
Now, you might ask why the commissioners show/have shown such deference to the developers. Could it be, and this is in the public record for all to see, because the commissioners receive over 70% of their funding from developers.
Are there any other ways they are fiscally irresponsible? How about the piece of property, promoted as being for a future EMS Station, they purchased in North Fort Myers. The property was listed on Zillow for over a year at $1.7M. The commissioners, in their great exuberance, spent $2.4M of your tax dollars to buy the property.
Recently they approved the purchase of new/replacement phones. Now giving credit where credit is due, whomever wrote the contract seemed to be making an attempt at containing costs by ordering refurbished equipment. On the surface, this seems great, but I was able to locate online the same equipment (model for model) at a minimum of 40% lower cost.
There are many more of these fiscal skeletons in their closet.
As far as their present attitude towards growth goes, it seems like anything goes. They do place some minor restrictions on developers but fail to address the necessity of building energy efficient and environmentally friendly homes.
This only scratches the surface of their shenanigans, but they know that as long as the public remains ignorant, they can convince them to vote for the incumbent or whichever candidate is put forth by the Miller machine.
Norman Cannon, Fort Myers
Oil company profits surge
Thanks to Trump’s war with Iran, Shell reports nearly $7 billion profit amid “unprecedented disruption.”The oil giant’s earnings in the first three months of 2026 were more than double the previous quarter’s and follow similarly strong results of European rivals.
Surging gas prices are inflaming a longstanding economic divide in America, as households with lower incomes struggle to pay more at the pump at a moment when prices are already elevated. Economists at the New York Fed found that higher-income people increased spending on gasoline the most in March, but the amount of gas they bought when adjusted for inflation was “essentially unchanged,” a sign that their behavior has been largely unaffected by the fuel price surge.
The strong returns have renewed calls for a windfall tax on oil profits that Republicans refuse to consider.Keep voting for Republicans at the federal, state and local levels to guarantee that large corporations and the wealthy do not pay their fair share of taxes!
Ray Allen, Fort Myers
Blame it on Biden
Joe Biden has been a fixture in American political life for decades, and I had never thought of him as anything more than a mediocre, “get along, go along” career “pol” before now. Boy was I wrong. This guy was an evil genius. Recently our gallivanting Secretary of Transportation took a break from his promising reality TV gig and informed us that Joe killed Spirit Airlines. And here I was thinking that bad management or high fuel prices might have been involved. Nope … it was Joe. So I took a cue from my right leaning pals and “did my research.” And guess what. Did you know that Joe Biden also killed Jimmy Hoffa and kidnapped the Lindbergh baby? Well,I have to give it to Joe on the latter one. It’s not easy to pull off a crime that happened ten years before your birth. But he did it. And hey, remember the fall of the Roman Empire. Yup … you guessed it … Joe Biden. Wow … this guy was as perversely effective as George Soros, and everyone knows that he funded the persecution of Jesus.
Well, live and learn; there’s always an upside. When bad stuff happens, I won’t have to waste time and energy looking for its myriad possible causes.. I can just assume it was probably Joe Biden and get a good night’s sleep.
Geremy Spampinato, Naples
A gift from China?
It is rumored that the Chinese, as a tribute to the American people on our country’s 250th Anniversary, are going to drop off Donald Trump at The Great Wall and just leave him there.
A generous gift from China more generous than that of the Giant Pandas. We could give them Alabama and Tommy Tuberville in return.
Manny Cacciola, Fort Myers
Trump’s great Cabinet
A recent mailbag writer May 10, 2026 made some outlandish and disparaging remarks about the great Cabinet that Trump has put together. I would like him to clarify some of his statements if he could to make these remarks without somewhat of a fact is an insult to the mailbag readers. I feel like this Cabinet Trump has put together makes the one that Biden put together look like a group of first graders going to school and fighting with each other when they come to school. Let’s see some facts. Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth make the previous Cabinet look real bad and I could go on and on so again let’s see some facts rather than just making rash statements like most of the other liberal writers.
Jim McMenamy, Fort Myers
A moral failure
Donald Trump’s defenders keep insisting he wins because his voters feel “left behind” economically. That story is far too simple – and it lets people off the hook. Many of the loudest Trump supporters are not the poorest in our communities. They are people who feel their social status slipping as America becomes more diverse and more equal, and they are drawn to a candidate who tells them they are better than someone else.
Trump built his brand by attacking immigrants, Muslims, Black Americans, and now LGBTQ and transgender people. He doesn’t hide his contempt; he flaunts it. When a leader loudly degrades whole groups, he gives his followers permission to do the same. That sense of superiority can feel powerful, even when his policies do little – or nothing – to actually improve their wages, housing costs, health care, or retirement security.
If this were really just about “kitchen table” economics, we would expect his voters to reconsider as housing, insurance, and basic costs remain out of reach for many Florida families. Instead, they double down. Why? Because the bargain isn’t primarily economic. The bargain is: “Support me, and I’ll make sure you stay on top of them.”
We can and should debate tax policy, jobs, and inflation. But we also have to be honest: a politics built on humiliating immigrants, queer and trans people, and other minorities is a moral failure – and it will never build a healthy, shared prosperity for Collier County or for America.
Paul Howard, Naples
Jim Crow resurrected
Racial discrimination in American politics has evolved rather than disappeared. During the Jim Crow era, laws in Southern states openly denied African Americans the right to vote through poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation. Modern political strategies continue to weaken the political influence of minority communities in less obvious ways.
Redistricting is the process of redrawing voting district boundaries after each census. It is meant to ensure equal representation as populations change. However, Republican leaders are now manipulating district lines to benefit their party in order to reduce the voting strength of certain racial groups, a practice known as gerrymandering. Minority communities may be “packed” into a single district or “cracked” across several districts so their votes have less impact. As a result, communities of color are unable to elect representatives who reflect their interests.
This political manipulation is Jim Crow resurrected because it limits minority political power without using explicitly racist laws. The discrimination today is more subtle but its outcome is still unequal representation and “fixing” the ballot box. It is tantamount to Jim Crow laws.
Sally Lam, Naples
Violent rhetoric from the Left
A letter in today’s paper suggested that those on the Right have selective outrage. The prime example was January 6. What was missing is the three assassination attempts on Trump, the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the attempted assassination of Justice Kavanaugh. Also missing was the prominent Democrats calling Trump another Hitler, a Nazi, a threat to democracy, destroying our country, a fascist and untold other derogatory names. That same writer suggests that “it does call us to express them (opinions) with a measure of respect and restraint.” In the same paper, here are some wordings attacking Trump and his Cabinet − ignorant, mind is atrophied, dangerous, sycophants, arrogant, liars, anti-democracy, anti-free speech, ill-mannered, devoid of ethics, self-righteous, low character, shameless, cheat, pyromaniac. What is interesting is that the infrequent Right leaning letters to the editor do not abuse those on the Left with similar language, so it is clear that the violent rhetoric is almost totally coming from the Left.
Ron Wobbeking, Naples
Guns and groceries
As far as I know you don’t need a gun to grocery shop!
Mary Olitzky, St. Petersburg
Compassion has saved us
Neanderthals had larger brains; their bodies were stronger. They had technology and culture. Physically, and maybe even intellectually, they were better equipped hominids. But humans survived. Why?
Anthropologists postulate that homo sapiens had one advantage: our smaller brains and more feeble bodies made us more dependent on one another. Living in community was the only way to survive. And in order for these more complex communities to work, we had to endear ourselves to one another. We had to become friendly and emotive. Our uniquely humane personality was our evolutionary advantage. It fostered trust and enabled cooperation thus allowing humans to outperform Neanderthals in the competition for natural resources.
An historian has suggested this analogy: Neanderthals were like wolves, and Homo Sapiens were like domesticated dogs. Our friendly nature caused us to proliferate better than our wolf-like Neanderthal cousins. Our broader networks and propensity for collaboration provided better shelter and protection than brute strength. Neanderthals were a super-fast computer while we were an old-fashioned PC – but we had Wi-Fi and they didn’t. Because of our collaboration, our compassion, we achieved synergy where the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
This human empathy, compassion, was recognized by Jesus Christ whose Gospels preach the ethic of reciprocity: love your neighbor as yourself, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Our evolutionary friendliness had meant survival, and Jesus extended that benefit to include salvation.
Question: does this suggest that the lack of compassion among many conservatives preordains them for extinction and defeats their possible salvation?
Joe Haack, Naples
Getting away with murder
The great German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said: “Madness is rare in individuals but in groups, parties, nations and ages it is the rule.”I would bet my bottom dollar that Nietzsche at this hour if he could would declare America quite insane.This is because almost daily we witness some cold-blooded murderer essentially getting away with murder and subsequently called a “suspect” when anyone with an I.Q. above that of a moron knows the murderer to be guilty.If caught he is quickly read his “rights” and a lawyer takes things from there and spares no effort to get the murderer the lightest possible sentence the law allows.In America’s “Old West” there were not many horse thieves and we know why.America has a golden opportunity today to do the same with its far too many cold-blooded killers.My father Orlo L. Carson, a son of the first Collier County Commissioner of District 5, Adolphus Carson, once told me in no uncertain terms that lawyers have ruined America.I see no good reason to disagree with my father, whose sister once told me, “Kenneth even with all his faults he is one of the finest men who ever walked.” He was.Kenneth L. Carson, Lenoir, NC
Mental Health Awareness
Mental Health Awareness Month is a time to elevate not just the importance of care, but the way we deliver it. As a behavioral health Managing Entity overseeing Florida’s behavioral health safety net for uninsured and underinsured residents, we see every day how fragmented systems can fail people — and how thoughtful coordination can transform outcomes.
Too often, individuals in crisis end up in emergency rooms or cycle through hospital stays that could have been prevented. A more connected system changes that trajectory. By aligning providers and improving communication, we can intervene earlier, stabilize care, and significantly reduce unnecessary ER visits and inpatient admissions. This isn’t just about cost savings — it’s about better health.
Connection is at the heart of effective care. When people fall through the cracks, it’s rarely because services don’t exist; it’s because those services aren’t connected. Our role is to ensure individuals don’t get lost between providers, referrals, or eligibility requirements. Instead, they remain engaged in a continuous, coordinated system that follows them, supports them, and adapts to their needs.
That coordination also brings providers onto the same page. Behavioral health is complex, often involving multiple touchpoints — therapists, primary care physicians, crisis teams, and social services. Without alignment, critical details can be missed. With it, providers can make informed decisions, reduce duplication, and deliver care that feels seamless rather than scattered.
Equally important is addressing the real-life challenges that shape mental health outcomes. Housing instability, food insecurity, and lack of transportation are not side issues — they are central to whether someone can access and sustain care. A system that recognizes and responds to these needs is one that treats the whole person, not just a diagnosis.
Finally, better coordination means providers can work smarter. With improved data sharing and clearer pathways, they spend less time navigating bureaucracy and more time focusing on care. That efficiency strengthens the entire system, allowing limited resources to reach more people, more effectively.
Mental Health Awareness Month reminds us that awareness must lead to action. By investing in coordination, connection, and whole-person care, Florida’s behavioral health safety net can continue to evolve into a system that not only responds to crises, but prevents them — keeping people healthier, supported, and seen.
Alan Davidson, CEO of Central Florida Behavioral Health Network
Plant-based products
Efforts to restrict plant-based products from using the word “milk” are gaining traction again, despite little evidence that consumers are confused (Reuters, April 24, 2026). Most people know exactly what oat milk is — and choose it intentionally.
So why the push to regulate language? It’s hard not to see it as an attempt to shield one industry from growing competition.
Consumers benefit from clear labeling and diverse choices. Limiting how products are described doesn’t protect the public — it limits innovation and restricts access to alternatives many people prefer for health, environmental, or ethical reasons.
What’s next? If the dairy lobby has their way, you soon might have to buy peanut spread instead of peanut butter.
Nigel Dreyfuss, Naples
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Alligator Alcatraz a big waste of taxpayer money | Opinion letters
Reporting by Letter writers / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
