I think the placement of the liquor store will cause all of the problems mentioned in the article. I also think the removal of the flower pots was a bad idea, but the worst part is cutting down the palms in the median of Highway 90. We need more palms, not less. Now we just look like another town in Alabama; this is FLORIDA! Those palms were about 60 years old. They were Sable Palm trees, and our state tree and they are native. Their roots are not invasive.
One more, good thing about them, they are edible. Have you ever heard of a delicacy called ‘Heart of Palm’? I think this is why you don’t see many growing out in the wild. When times got tough, they harvested every last Sabal Palm. When I was in South Florida about ten years ago, I saw guys on the side of the road selling Heart of Palm. They were selling a cross-section about three or four inches thick and were getting one hundred dollars each. Those palms in our median were probably worth thousands. My husband tells me the road was more than likely re-landscaped because someone’s relative or friend needed some work. I wonder if there was that reason, and even a more sinister, greedy reason.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Letter to Editor: Liquor store bad idea, as was cutting palm trees