Sanford Lofts Becoming a Hot Topic: Let's Stay Focused

The piece that ran in the Sanford Herald on the Sanford Lofts was never intended as a letter to the editor. I wrote that as a blog entry for my community, friends and family. I sent a link to my post to the Sanford Herald, because nothing but oppositional pieces had been written about the Sanford Lofts. I wanted to show that there was support for the project. The reporter also wanted to run the piece to show the other side of the argument. I never expected the anger and venom that came as a result.

I would like to clarify that I never said the Sanford Lofts issue is a race issue. In fact, I couldn’t care less whether the people who are against it are racists, classists or elitist. That does not matter one bit. It doesn’t even matter that those who spoke up against the project at public meetings made racists, classist and elitist comments. (Though they certainly did.)

What matters is that our local governments have not come out to explain why they are not moving on this project. In fact, at the last city commission meeting, commissioners would not even listen to those in support of the project. I don’t expect an explanation from any of the citizens as to why they don’t want the Sanford Lofts project downtown. I don’t know any of those who spoke at the meetings or wrote in response to my blog post. With all due respect, their personal beliefs don’t really matter much to me at all. But I do expect an explanation from the local government to which I pay taxes. Citizens have the right to be racist, classist and elitist. However, our government does not have the right to base its decisions on prejudice.

Florida SPECS owns the property downtown. They have the right to build whatever they want, unless the City of Sanford and Seminole County give good reasons why this property owner can not go forward. So if our governments have other reasons for being against the project, they need to state them. This was the purpose of my blog post.