My professional career has included being a broadcast journalist and producer, a Federal bureaucrat and a bookstore manager. But most of my time was spent as a writer and media relations consultant, mostly to entrepreneurial technology firms. I am now retired, but can’t stop writing, though not nearly as much as I want to.
In 2013, I moved from Virginia where I spent 24 years to Florida. I still am deeply interested in the institution of journalism and the role it plays in shaping who we are. That role is minimized by many, but I don’t. Broadly speaking, journalism includes non-professionals, including those who blog in their pajamas and those who yammer on cable TV. We need to keep them accountable. It was crucial in my professional life to see that journalists were fair and well informed.
But I now have the luxury to care about other things, my passion for cycling and my love of music, my renewed interest in cooking and my lifelong interest in politics, among other things.
I started blogging in 2004, had a year or so break and then resumed until a few years ago. But this latest effort, which began shortly before my move to the Sunshine State, has foundered. I’m hoping to rekindle it.
I read your editorial in the Tampa Bay Times today. My family has been in its modest ranch home since 2001 and pays $2,507 for flood insurance annually. Our 1969 home has never flooded and has never even had water in the street. I see that you are enjoying our waterfront amenities. Companies on the beach and downtown will not be able to stay in business with such an increase in premiums. People like you want to retire to this beautiful city, but you are saying you want people to pay astronomical premiums for an insurance they have never used. Our home’s owners have paid for 45 years of flood insurance. We are not able to pay another $1,000 for flood insurance per month. Floridians pay much, much more into the system and take out very little. We, like 40,000 others in Pinellas County will likely lose our home and quite a bit of equity if the law is enforced. If Florida pulls out of FEMA, the other states will truly miss our dollars. So, before you make casual observations about our community and state, you may want to take a look at the families who have lived here for decades and help provide the tax dollars which make our waterfronts so beautiful.
Diane Nicola
Reference your bicycle article today in the Tampa Bay Times, 3/21/2015..
Are you recommending that a bicycle control the lane if there is a bicycle lane marked inside the lane, or should the bike just stay in the bike lane?
Hello Robert, I just read your post about anonymous commenters. I couldn’t agree with you more about how different people post when there are a photo and a name attached to the comment compared to when there isn’t anything. I don’t think it should be allowed. I also think the same about anonymous reviews. Happy holidays!