Dangerous Roads

Is this really summer in Florida? It sure feels like it is outside! It’s hotter than Hades but the streets are still active with traffic. My goodness, I could barely get out of my driveway in the Lakewood Community on Sunday to go to church! What is going on here? In past years you could bowl on the streets and never hit anything. This is so unusual. In the Lakewood community, we have one major street, Lakewood Blvd, which leads from Airport Rd to U. S. 41E, a two-mile road. It’s a two-lane street, with only one sidewalk on one side and no bike lanes. Very dangerous, to say the least, when someone tries to pass a slower car with only one lane. And they do it ALL THE TIME!

In many new communities about to be built, they first build the ingredients to attract buyers, like a huge pool, a clubhouse, a golf course, a restaurant, etc. When Lakewood was built in 1974, I was the second person to buy a house, (the realtor bought the first house) and there weren’t any trees in the entire place, only sand, so you couldn’t even tell what it would be like, but they showed you pictures of a grandiose community. We were coming from Cleveland and had never been to Florida but the plan looked beautiful, and my husband left me here with our very sickly son to buy a house and get back to Cleveland and to the doctor’s office. We had ONE day to purchase, pick out roof tiles, paint color, etc. and get back to Cleveland. I thought all the other grand things came with the community. Many years later - actually recently – I found out that the developer sells – YES sells the rights to build the golf course and the restaurant and the pool to investors. We moved in and had a pool built in our own backyard at the same time as we purchased the house. Who would ever think that someone else owned the golf course that we had all been playing on or the swimming pool that the community used? But all of a sudden we find out that the owner of those things is GIVING THEM to a charity with families with handicapped children (and I’m sure he can get a huge deduction on his taxes) but the problem is this street is a very busy street, not only the 1,000 houses in the community, but Kings Lake empties into our roads, and of course, our roads lead to the shopping center on Davis Boulevard and to Home Depot on Airport Road, and to other communities in the area who use our road as a cut thru (which I don’t blame them for). And the construction trucks and delivery trucks all use GPS which leads them through our community to shorten the distance between the two main roads. Our children walk to the school buses, or to school, with so many cars rushing down the streets to get to work, to the store, to the doctor, etc. To enter handicapped children in vehicles is insane! We can’t even get out of our own driveways! I worry about our community, and our children when we can’t get on our own streets, but to add this other home for handicapped children who must be driven to school and home, is dangerous for us, for them and for drivers! We’ve actually had deaths on this street, and I was a witness to one of them. Ask the Sheriff’s Department about this road. Ask the Road and Bridge department at the County. I don’t blame them for wanting a free building, but it won’t be a safe place for them or for the people who live there. And I’ve lived here since 1974.