Price competition hits Fifth Ave.
In Sunday’s newspaper we heard from merchants on Fifth Avenue bemoaning the lack of business and searching, frantically, for answers. And they were not alone: Sounding off as well were representatives of some 250 businesses on Fifth Avenue; an official representing the Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association; and even the chairman of the Tourist Development Council.
More advertising dollars, they say, is the solution that will bring back the sorely needed but seemingly elusive patrons. But I don’t think so and I will tell you why in one word: Competition.
I doubt if any of these officials, industry leaders, or lobbyists have been to North Naples lately and seen the proliferation of many restaurants offering the same fare and ambiance that can be found on Fifth Avenue, but at about half the price.
And there is more: Most comparable restaurants in North Naples have ample parking within close walking distance to the establishment; Happy Hours that generally run until 6 p.m. offering house wines from $7 to $9 per glass; and a variety of discounted entrees featuring ample portion sizes and sides to boot.
These North Naples restaurants are usually located in safe, well-lit plazas and seem to be thriving. And not one of them that we patronize had to close its doors two or three days a week just to make ends meet (a complaint voiced by a Fifth Avenue restaurateur).
As a full-time resident of Naples, I want to see all businesses prosper. But I am afraid that many of the Fifth Avenue restaurateurs have fallen victim to group think, and as a consequence they are losing their grip on being the be-all and end-all to what constitutes fine dining in Naples. Something has to change if the Fifth Avenue restaurateurs are to not only be competitive but also to just survive.
In the meantime, however, the North Naples restaurateurs are eating their lunch.
William E. Leggiero Jr., Naples
Comparison invalid
I read an article in Sunday’s paper titled “Americans gave their lives to stop what is happening here.” The writer is a World War II veteran, and we should thank him for his service, however his comparison of the Trump administration to Nazi Germany is ridiculous.
The writer lays out a variety of U.S. programs that in his opinion would have been in danger if the Nazis had defeated the Allies. He includes: the loss of government checks and balances; eliminating the Department of Education; targeting the media and elimination of public broadcasting; firing experienced and dedicated civil servants; cutting taxes for the wealthy; and cutting medical, housing, food and environmental services for the general population.
There are a few observations on my part regarding his issues.
Nazi Germany was a terrible catastrophe that murdered millions of Jews. That is what we should remember.
Nick Blauwiekel, Naples
Negative Trump letters
I have been an avid reader of The News-Press for over 50 years, especially the Mailbag. Ever since Obama was elected the Mailbag has taken on a more political aura than anything else. Now all you read about is negative Trump letters and letters against the governor. My opinion is that Trump has done more for this country in six months than Biden did in four years. He has closed the border, set up tariffs where as we now have a surplus, extended the tax cuts for everyone, taken a man out of the girls’ locker room, stopped inflation, created a rising stock market, created more jobs, eliminated some of the surplus government workforce, and mostly is trying to clean up the mess that Biden left behind. To me the liberals need a plan. As long as they support illegal immigration, men in women’s bathrooms and DEI their popularity will continue to diminish. Again, I will say Trump is playing chess while the Democrats are playing checkers.
Jim McMenamy, Fort Myers
Stop the massive tax hike
Over the last 8 years Marco Island’s operating budget grew from $25.5M in FY2017 to $31.9M in FY 2025, an increase of $6.5M over 8 years, the equivalent of a 2.4% average annual growth rate. Inflation in 6 of 8 of those years ranged from 1.4%-3.4%, (excluding 2 years of Covid and federal spending induced inflation). The narrative that the city has been starved of money is false. It has been run as one of the most financially conservative and responsible local governments in Florida and perhaps the entire country. Kudos to the city leaders that achieved what few others do.
During this era of $25 million budgets, the city paid down millions in debt, built a beautiful Veterans Park, a new emergency command center and fire station to withstand Cat 5 hurricanes, it rebuilt and widened the bridge on Collier at Smokehouse Bay, just to name a few major multimillion infrastructure improvements. The narrative that the city cannot improve infrastructure with budgets at these levels is false. It is simply a matter of prudently prioritizing projects. Instead, the city is orchestrating an effort to forcibly confiscate more money from the homeowners on Marco.
This past week City Council moved to increase the city’s operating budget from $31.9M to $42.4M, an increase of $10.5M in a single year, raising the millage tax rate by an astounding 34%. This will create a new baseline of annual spending moving forward that will be nearly impossible to cut back in the future.
It is time to pump the brakes on this reckless spending and return to principles of fiscal conservatism. No increase in the mill rate will still provide the city with millions in new revenue.
Peter Rigas, Marco Island
America tarnished
It’s been almost 60 years since I set foot on American soil. I was a young, naive 22-year-old whose vision of the Land of the Brave and the Free was mostly based on novels and a couple of American movies. But, oh how sweet and promising it all sounded.
Well, the reality was much different, but over the years this place became my home, and yes, I would tear up at “America the Beautiful.” No more, no more. Overshadowed by a leader whose language is peppered with insults and vulgarities, whose lies become truth, whose decisions are not only questionable, but destructive and dangerous. I consider myself middle of the road in my political views, I will defend the rights of my fellow man and woman, the rights over my own body, the right to love whomever I choose, the pursuit of my own happiness and religious beliefs, the right for my children, grandchildren and all that come after me, to live a safe and good life.
No, I’m not blind to all that needs to be addressed and “fixed” including fraud and unchecked immigration, in a manner befitting our Constitution and laws, not at the whims of one. Looking up to the leaders of this country, not being ashamed and embarrassed, and afraid has to be a given, it should never be an issue, but no longer so. Now I avoid the daily news, not because I believe all is “fake,” no, because I don’t want to watch myself cringe at what I hear and see. I make excuses in my conversations with my overseas family and friends, and deep, very deep down I sometimes regret my decision to immigrate. I had a good life, worked hard, earned my quiet, comfortable Golden Years. Yet the sheer excess and blatant amassing of more and more of the very people we voted in to govern us, protect our way of life, are failing with their eyes wide open, but only to their own benefit. Make America great again sounds terrific, but the slogan hides reality. America has always been great, but the very people that are supposed to assure it stays so are pulling this country to the brink of disaster.
The News-Press is full of well written opinions, letters to the editor every week. Reality is, the ones who would benefit from a civics lesson are not reading these letters, they are not informing themselves. Loud noise alone will solve nothing. I hope I survive the next 3 1/2 or so years without hearing bombs falling, young people dying, lives being lost, futures destroyed, just to feed one man’s thirst for immortality and fame in the history books. He will be in there, but it won’t be flattering and all the money in the world will not restore honor to his descendants, and to all his followers that are so eager, knowing it will be their doing of making “‘America the Ugly.”
Annely Hudanick, Fort Myers
Vote to fix what’s wrong
What we need to do. We need to register to vote so we can kick out our county commissioners who have voted for overdevelopment, our state representatives and senators who consistently vote against our best interests and for the culture wars, our congressmen who vote for billionaires and against working people and our president who is ruining our entire country. Let’s not listen to the few right-wingers who are repeat letter writers, you know who they are.
Benjamin Glick, Naples
Can’t come soon enough
The Bible says, “As you sow, so shall you reap.” I am but one among many who feel this day cannot come soon enough.
Barbara Geisenburg, Naples
Defunding Public Broadcasting
Question for Senators Scott and Moody? The appropriation bill that funded the 9 billion dollars, 1.1 billion for Public Broadcasting, required 60 bipartisan votes to pass! Yet, taking this money back from the entities, killing their budgets, only required 50 votes! Why? Senators, I await your reply.
Derek Frazier, Cape Coral
‘Stable genius’?
The GOP-led House Oversight Committee is investigating former, I emphasize former, President Joe Biden’s cognitive state. The hearing is being conducted at the same time Donald Trump tells reporters he does not know why Joe Biden appointed the Fed Chairman Jerome Powell (Mr. Trump appointed him), asks the president of Liberia where he learned to speak such good English (English is the official language of Liberia), says he did not know who ordered a pause in weapons going to Ukraine and in nearly the same breath said he knows about every decision made in his administration, and said the deadline for his much boasted about 90 tariff deals in 90 days (no actual trade deals approved by Congress have been made) has always been 1 August when the “Stable Genius” had just signed a letter the previous day moving the original deadline date of 9 July to 1 August. The latest cognitive state give-a-way by Mr. Trump is when he told an audience that his uncle taught the Unabomber at MIT. The Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, never attended MIT and no record exists that Trump’s uncle ever taught him at any institution. We have as president a man who sent a birthday drawing to his pedophile friend and signed his own name in the form of pubic hairs on the nude drawing. Bet the house on this: Mr. Trump will not follow through on his threat to sue the WSJ to the point of going to trial over this lest more about his relationship with Mr. Epstein is revealed. Need I remind MAGA, Mr. Trump is the PRESENT president of the United States and those who voted him in have given him tremendous powers (which he abuses daily) to include access to the use of nuclear weapons. But I am sure MAGA’s attitude is reflective of that famous “I Really Don’t Care” jacket worn by First Lady Melania Trump. It’s up to the rest of us to care and do something about it, now, going forward and in 2026.
Thomas Minor, Bonita Springs
Epstein: Why all the fuss?
A document, consisting of a three-page catalog of evidence seized during searches of Epstein’s properties in New York, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion was recently released. The index offers a roadmap to the records which Trump’s administration has declined to release, including logs of who potentially visited Epstein’s private island and the records of a wiretap of Maxwell’s phone. The three-page index is a report generated by the FBI which inventories the evidence collected by federal law enforcement. The index shows that we have 40 computers and electronic devices, 26 storage drives, more than 70 CDs and six recording devices. The devices hold over 300 gigabytes of data.
The evidence also includes photographs, travel logs, employee lists, massage tables, blueprints of Epstein’s island and Manhattan home and multiple documents related to Epstein’s islands. It has also been reported that over ten thousand downloaded videos and images involve child sex abuse material and other pornography.
If Trump was involved in Epstein’s escapades, so what? Trump has been convicted of fraud. He admits to groping women. He has a history of crimes and his base still wants him. Surely his base will overlook his sex with minors should the Epstein documents reveal that.
Joe Haack, Naples
Reconstitute ICE
I suppose if you try hard enough, you might find a very few “fine people” among I.C.E personnel. I’ll assume they are the ones that simply can’t find any other job. We’ve all seen many videos of how they conduct their anti-immigration activities: indiscriminate kidnappings, general brutality, and ignoring the law and the courts.
The majority of the agency can be described as thugs who either don’t know or care about immigration law or the U.S. Constitution. Some of these raiders don’t show IDs and wear masks because they don’t want to be identified as being temporarily “deputized” as there apparently are not enough permanent employees to meet Stephen Miller’s daily quota of deportations. These same quotas have led to I.C.E clearly not prioritizing illegal alien violent criminals over those with no criminal record. (There is zero evidence of any other country emptying their jails and asylums for the purpose of sending them to our southern border; the number of criminals that do cross our border is likely a small percentage of Trump’s claims). In WWII Germany these I.C.E. agents would be either Gestapo or Brown Shirts.
What is it that has led the United States to allow this abuse of American citizens and non-citizens alike? It has to be more than just electing an ignorant felon to the presidency. Ten years of Trump’s violent rhetoric set the stage for what’s going on today. Congressional Republicans share the blame by their stunning displays of abject cowardice and racism, confirming the appointments of totally unqualified and inexperienced people to Cabinet positions, people with only a passing acquaintance with moral character, ethical behavior, sound judgment and show no interest in doing anything that would benefit all Americans regardless of political affiliation. Hard to get less patriotic.
To return I.C.E. to its original purpose may require replacing as much as 100% of current I.C.E. personnel (including the agency head) and reconstitute the agency with experienced citizens who will swear loyalty to our Constitution and abide by all applicable laws and judicial decisions and conduct their activities in a professional manner.
As far as rescuing the economy, pray the Democratic Party prevails in the mid-terms.
W. P. Reed, Fort Myers
Give smiles a chance
We all have a dark, defensive side and a light, welcoming side. One sure way of sparking the light, welcoming side in strangers is by simply smiling at them as you walk past in a store aisle, for example. More times than not, a smile elicits a smile in return and a subtle unspoken affirmation that we are all in this life-trip together regardless of our physical, political and situational differences. Too often, we walk past each other like neither one of us exists or can be trusted which totally ignores our common human bond.
In the spirit of rejecting the divisive climate that exists in our country, I challenge anyone reading this to just give smiles a chance, just for a day, and see how it feels. Maybe it’ll become a healing habit.
J. Cant, Naples
A two-way street
CBS recently announced it was cancelling the late night show starring the highly overpaid Stephen Colbert. Colbert made his reputation by throwing boulders at Doanld Trump. Every monologue and every left wing guest like Adam Schiff did little more than criticize everything Trump has attempted, stated or done. Upon the Colbert cancellation, Democrats like Senator Elizabeth “far left wing“ Warren immediately said that CBS was caving to Trump. Trump was Colbert’s favorite target night in and night out.
And yet when Trump celebrated the departure on X, the thin-skinned Colbert voiced his displeasure in being criticized by Trump. Making 20 million dollars a year and losing your company 40 million dollars a year, I guess is not enough reason to be dismissed. The far left is seeing its grip loosen and they are falling from Everest and entering Hades.
Michael Zubrow, Naples
Trump insults his followers
Hillary Clinton was pilloried during the 2016 presidential campaign against Donald Trump for referring to some of his followers as a “basket of deplorables.” Leading the charge was her rival candidate, who played up the castigation as a badge of honor for his MAGA base. Still devoted to him, his MAGA supporters may feel like stripping off those badges after President Trump the other day described his backers as “foolish,” “stupid,” and “weaklings” for calling him out for retreating from his campaign promise last year to release all of the government files regarding pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, a long-time friend of his whom he said he disowned years ago.
The President’s phrases, sounding like they were taken from the Clinton 2016 campaign playbook, suggest that the two of them agree on at least one matter: the characterization of many in the MAGA base. Clinton apologized for her remark; the president has yet to do so.
Marshall Tanick, Naples
Stand up to Trump
Everyday a new dangerous decision from the president. What is the benefit to our country from the chaos being created? What’s in it for those supporting: 1. The dismantling of our public health processes around vaccines, HIV, and research; 2. Cuts to Medicaid which will result in millions without health care and hospitals closing; 3.Trash talking our allies with unnecessarily high tariffs and hesitancy to support the mission of NATO; 4. Supporting Putin over allies, through words and action; 5. Threatening cuts to Social Security; 6. Not wanting to recognize and accept LGBTQ as equal valued members of our communities; 7. Name calling and disinvesting in any part of our population not mainly white, male, Christian; 8. The mean-spirited approach to revoking visas for those under Temporary Protected Status. Denying due process to many deportees. Stopping refugee resettlement of people already vetted to enter U.S; 9. Threats to end FEMA while ending policies to slow climate change; 10. Ignoring court orders and Congress’ constitutional role.
The list could be longer. And does not account for the serious consequences that will result from bombing Iran. Itself a result of the president’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 Nuclear Agreement 10 years ago.
These programs could each use thoughtful, deliberative changes to improve. This president chose neither. He disregards advice from experts. It’s time for Congress to stand up to these harmful, illegal decisions. It’s time those who voted for him acknowledge your vote wasn’t for all this.
Barb McFarlane, Fort Myers
Mired in procrastination
Now we can add procrastination to projection. One of Trump’s most prominent characteristics has been the ability to transfer his many shortcomings onto others, for example calling Ted Cruz a liar and Joe Biden sleepy ostensibly to deflect those traits from himself. This is a cardinal symptom of projection. Procrastinating now seems to have become part of his difficult to comprehend ever changing modus operandi. Jeeter Lester in Caldwell’s “Tobacco Road” was forever going to plant a huge garden with rows of corn, parsnips and string beans, a garden like no one has ever seen before. Well, Jeeter would say, “I’m going to start that garden in about two weeks.”
Trump’s loyalists are quick to call this procrastination a smart strategy, but is it? Is it a convenient way to avoid an answer when you have no answer or perhaps hoping that something will change given time so that you don’t have to answer? The promise to solve the world’s problems on day one has now become two weeks from now and maybe with enough new distractions, never.
Fred Jodice, North Fort Myers
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Letters to the editor for Sunday, July 27, 2025
Reporting by Letter writers / Fort Myers News-Press
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