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COMMUNITYNEWSPAPERS.COM
September 6 - 19, 2011
Letter to the Editor Send ‘Letters’ to: <michael@communitynewspapers.com>
R e a d e r q u e s t i o n s p ro p o s a l s f o r B u s w a y, r e d u c i n g d e f i c i t To the Editor: In the Aug. 5-22, 2011 edition of Cutler Bay News, Vice Mayor Ernie Sochin suggested ways to solve the national debt (not the annual deficit). He has been an effective councilman and I am sure he will continue to be an effective vice mayor. I do not wish to criticize him, but I do disagree with him on some of his proposals here as well as an earlier proposal. I assume the vice mayor is presenting this as a serious solution to the problem, although some of his suggestions near the end of the article cause me to have some doubt. Solving the national debt is a very tall order. The national debt currently stands at roughly $14.5 trillion and has been authorized to go to about $16 trillion. At 10 cents a pop this would require 160 trillion emails. I do not know the current rate of email correspondence, but that seems to be an awfully big number to me. Even he admits such a small charge would most likely cause a decline in the number of emails sent. It is easy to see that without a change in habits many would run up bills of several hundred and even several thousand dollars a month. That would probably discourage many diehards of continuing their present behavior after a few months. I have not even discussed the probable political backlash of such a proposal. The other comment I have is that awhile back he proposed turning the South Dade Busway into a toll road. He certainly is not the only one to make such a proposal. It seems to me that this would defeat what I believe to be the original intent of the Busway. As I understand it, the Busway was built as a way to move traffic off South Dixie. It also was an attempt to move more drivers to mass transit. Also, it would provide emergency services a much faster way to respond rather than pushing itself through rush hour traffic on the highway. In my own personal experience, after the Metrorail opened I parked in the Dadeland South lot. It was not long before getting a space there involved arriving at a very early hour in the morning. I switched to Dadeland North. That soon turned into such a long walk in the hot sun or pouring rain that I stopped using Metrorail. I started again after the Busway opened. If the Busway turns into a toll road I most likely will gas up my car and once again help clog South Dixie, the Palmetto and the Dolphin. Charles R. Jones Palmetto Bay
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