The real question is, do you want Highland Beach to become a link in the 3,000-mile, walking/bicycling/backpacking trail called the East Coast Greenway, with hundreds of migrants passing through or hunkering down in our town on a daily basis? Because if you vote yes [on the walking path ballot question], that is what you are going to get.
Forget the flood and wider bike lanes for safety. The flooding can be taken care of much easier than installing filters and noisy engine-driven pumps that put the water into the Intracoastal, instead of the ground where it belongs.
The state planners do not have Highland Beach residents in mind when they install small parks with watering stations for people and animals, but rather the soon-to-be well-advertised Maine to Key West route for hikers, bikers and backpackers. The town/state brochures that you see do not have the port-a-potties that these watering holes will require.
The Greenway’s plan is for a 10-foot-wide paved walkway — 5 feet for hikers and 5 for bikers — from Maine to Key West. The west side of A1A will be blessed with this straight 10-foot path, requiring the removal of many beautiful state-owned trees.
We do not need a wider roadway for more bicycles, which is sold as safety. Safety? How about stopping hordes of competitive bikers racing through our town?
This is really going to be much worse than I can say in a few words, but one last item is the idea that having an advertised Greenway passing through our town will increase property values — that is a real stretch.
No one has mentioned whether crime in our little town might spike up. Will this change the walking safety of our town?
There is hope — as I noticed that Gulf Stream and Ocean Ridge have been bypassed by the Greenway.
We have one state representative and a senator who can move it around Highland Beach — if they think we can vote them out.
Go online and check out the East Coast Greenway before you vote!
— Fred Taubert
Highland Beach
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