Opinion --- That's some bull

That's some bull Re: "We get up to speed," Nov. 8. Commissioner John Albion said, "Our current transportation system is like riding the bull. We're just trying to hold on." To me and my long neglected neighbors in Lehigh Acres, we wonder if that's the same bull Commissioner Albion has been feeding us for over a decade.

To him, "Smart Growth" apparently means — if you're smart enough to be a big developer and make big money, you get to dictate where all the growth goes. It's the golden rule in Lee County. The guys with the gold make the rules.

The double-talk in this article from Albion and Lee County's very smart, Smart Growth guru, Wayne Daltry, was laughable.

C'mon Wayne! You know the bottlenecks in Lee County haven't been caused by "jurisdictional funding issues," but the county government's misguided policies of fighting with the state and federal governments, and allowing the foxes (the developers) to guard the hen house.

Everyone stuck in traffic behind a 221/2-ton dump truck knows development is out of control in Lee County.

And it is far outstripping the local government's ability to provide the infrastructure needed to accommodate the bulls already out of the barn, let alone the planned developments.

In fewer than four years, Lehigh's population has doubled, but we still have poor and deteriorating access to the rest of Southwest Florida. This condition will only get worse because only 2 percent of the land in Lehigh is properly zoned for any use other than housing — no more parks, schools, fire stations, shopping centers, greenways — nothing! It's all gone.

JIM FLEMING, Lehigh Acres