We recently organized the Fruitville 210 Community Alliance in response to a big box retailer's attempt to build a massive project in our own back yards. Something that would bring massive amounts of new traffic on an already over-burdened roadway infrastructure. You can visit who we are at fruitville210.org. Contrary to popular belief we are not fascists or anarachists. We are mothers and fathers, Democrats and Republicans, grandmothers and grandfathers, Christians and Jews (and others), daughters and sons, taxpaying voters, home owners, immigrants and descendants of immigrants, blue collar and white collar, etc. In fact, we are residents from 20 or so distinct socio-economic neighborhoods. We are concerned with saving the character of our community from the "low" development taking place without proper roadway infrastructure being constructed. My family has been in Sarasota since 1964 and since that time we have seen firsthand that roadway infrastructure is always playing catch up to Sarasota's "low" growth rate. It may be true that that growth rate appears low on the surface when compared to that of other neighboring counties. However, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the current roadway infrastructure in Sarasota County is seriously jeopardizing the public safety. Just ask the Mennonite bicyclist who earned a free helicopter trip to the hospital last week because of an accident that occured as a result of the massive amounts of new traffic that "low" development brings. The unfortunate accident occured on Beneva Road--a road that cannot safely handle the current amount of "low" growth traffic. Big box and residential developments that are being built without proper infrastructure in place endangers us all. I am a business person who realizes that growth and development can be a good thing...but, not if it jeopardizes public safety. Richardson Road, a road that I travel daily by bicycle to work, has become a speedway for motorists who are trying to avoid the "low" growth new traffic. The amendments to the charter are an attempt to level the playing field for tax paying voters. We should have a say on what is being built. Most times these projects ruin the character of an existing neighborhood and cause serious traffic issues. With, the Fruitville 210 Community Alliance, we hope to have a voice that resonates our concerns. The dis-infranchised Sarasota residents who feel that government and big land developers always get their way might finally restore some faith in a system that unfortunately helps a few and disrupts and endangers many. I don't think our concerns and motivations are fascist ones at all. Quite the contrary, they are all American. Has anybody seen the destructive expansion road project on Bahia Vista? Oh, that's another topic. John Krotec Chair, Fruitville 210 Community Alliance