Ghetto Dreamz
Walk the walk: Hadley Park is beautiful, and the street leading up to the Overtown Youth Center is one of the prettiest places in the county ("Luke's Gospel," Luther Campbell, March 18). You have four community gardens that together are a couple of blocks long. Here I am in Allapattah with no CRA (Community Redevelopment Agency), no DDA (Downtown Development Authority), and no BID (Business Improvement District). All we got is our neighbors. So please leave the "poor me's" at the door. Overtown has gotten a ton of help. Look within yourself: Pick up a shovel. Mentor a kid. Start a neighborhood crime watch.
Joe
Allapatah
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Preach!: There are too many politicians politicking and not doing anything for their communities. More parks and more schools need to be built in these parts of town. Make it a place to live and not a place to be condemned to. Way to go, Uncle Luke.
Esa
Via web commentary
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Robin in the hood: Suspended Miami Commissioner Michelle Spence-Jones has multiple charges against her. She's a thief, and people should be outraged. Steal from the rich and give to the poor, not the other way around. On a positive note, last night I played flag football in Gibson Park, at NW Third Ave and 14th Street. I felt pretty safe, and the local refs were fun.
Anonymous
Via web commentary
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Artful Dodger
Bad deal: I think the project to build a new Miami Art Museum should just be abandoned altogether ("An Artful Mess," Erik Maza, March 18). For one thing, Bicentennial Park has raked in lots of money through the Ultra Music Festival and Warped Tour. If this project is allowed to proceed, there will be negative economic effects.
George Leyva
Hialeah
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Legal High
Mellow high: Let's just legalize regular weed already, for Christ's sake ("Synthetic Reefer Madness," Tim Elfrink, March 18). Prescriptions are abused daily, but we can't smoke a little weed to wind down from a shitty day?
Anonymous
Via web commentary
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Locked up: There's too much money in the prison industry for us to ever see full legalization of pot. You want to legalize it? Find a new reason to jail huge percentages of the population.
Dave
Via web commentary
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Up in Smoke
Free to roll: Make no mistake — marijuana is not the problem. Marijuana prohibition is the problem ("Chronic Condition," Gail Shepherd, March 18). Marijuana prohibition is what makes pot so valuable; it's a weed and very easy to grow. Whether you use marijuana or not, everyone is harmed by its prohibition, just like everyone was harmed by alcohol prohibition. Prohibition brings crime, corruption, and the loss of constitutional rights, among many other harmful effects.
J. Sknow
Jacksonville
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Smoke this: I'm dismayed once again. After years of lobbying your publication, to no avail, for any coverage whatsoever of the Florida medical marijuana movement, you go and put this sensationalist garbage on the cover. I didn't even read it, but I got the gist. Is it news that grow operations are a "deadly business"? We all know ludicrous and antiquated marijuana laws have made it a truly dangerous drug and that prohibition profits none but the criminal justice system and the real criminals (sometimes one and the same).
While a large number of states have enacted laws to decriminalize marijuana and 15 to legalize its use by legitimate patients, Florida is not one of them. There is a statewide campaign to gather signatures to put a medical marijuana referendum on the 2010 Florida ballot, but it is doomed to failure because the voters of this state don't even know about it! Why don't you write about that?
Glenn Allen
Coconut Grove
