Kudos & Kicks: Reviewing the good, bad and questionable
Kudos
As red tide, blue-green algae and other water-fouling blooms continue surfacing in Southwest Florida, workers in the area’s linchpin hospitality industry feel the financial strain of declining tourism.
For those who work in the tourism and service industry, it’s been a triple threat. First came the extended recovery from Hurricane Irma’s landfall in September 2017, with some hotels and restaurants closed. Secondly, there was the typical summer economic slowdown.
Thirdly, there are persistent water quality problems. On the plus side, red tide test results at five coastal Collier locations earlier this week showed it wasn’t present. However, instead there was discolored water from a nontoxic bloom detected from Barefoot Beach to Naples Pier.
As this workforce critical to our economy copes, thankfully some of the area’s nonprofits have focused on helping fill the gaps for working households. The Harry Chapin Food Bank, which assists 150 agencies in Collier, Lee and three other counties, and the Community Foundation of Collier County are two examples.
“For people working in tourism and hospitality, the summer off-season is always a challenging time,” Richard LeBer, food bank president and CEO, said in a recent statement. “This year, water quality issues have devastated business, employment and wages in our coastal communities.”
The food bank has deployed special mobile pantries into affected coastal Lee communities. A news release states each mobile unit can serve 250 households, with 35 to 40 pounds of food for each recipient. The food bank also operates 23 mobile pantries monthly, visiting various agencies.
Last weekend a “Let’s Feed Lee” special drive by the food bank, 35 Publix stores and United Way collected more than 40,000 pounds of food and several thousand dollars in donations, the food bank reported.
More information on donating to help: harrychapinfoodbank.org.
In Collier the Community Foundation six weeks ago created the Care for Collier Fund, designed to assist water-based small businesses in making it through hard times. The foundation’s board started the fund with $50,000 to provide immediate relief.
For information on donating to Care for Collier or other charitable funds administered through the foundation, go to www.cfcollier.org.
Kudos
Two Collier County district schools were among 300 public schools in the nation recently recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a “National Blue Ribbon School” for this year. Only 12 Florida schools earned this honor, and impressively two are in Collier.
Kudos to award-winning Sea Gate Elementary and Lorenzo Walker Technical High School.
The awards go to schools based on their total academic performance or for making great progress in closing the achievement gap among various groups of students.
Kicks
Are you a bicyclist?
If so, keep this in mind whenever you travel on two wheels in Florida.
The most dangerous state in the nation to ride a bicycle is Florida, according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal. There were 6.2 bicyclist deaths per 100,000 people from 2007-16 in Florida — the highest rate in the nation — based on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.
“Florida’s numbers are bad even when compared with other warm-weather states,” the Wall Street Journal stated. “Its recent 10-year cyclist fatality rate was 6.2 deaths per 100,000 residents; that is 59 percent higher than the rate in Louisiana, the state with the second-highest level.”
The four most dangerous metro areas in the nation are in Florida: 1) Tampa-St. Petersburg (7.0 deaths per 100,000), 2) Jacksonville (6.0 deaths per 100,000), Orlando (5.8 deaths per 100,000) and 4) Miami (5.4 deaths per 100,000).
Be careful out there.
— Treasure Coast Newspapers Editorial Board