False Destiny

We have been getting in some reports from last week's Kissimmee Chamber of Commerce Hob Nob and we are almost sorry that we decided not to part with our $20.00 for the side show after all. As campaign supporters filled the room and voted for their own candidates in the straw poll, people milled about trying to get one of the dainty portions of food that they were promised. While many will focus on the candidates in the room for the evening, we have heard about a surprise exhibitor that was in attendance. The representatives from the housing project know as Destiny have finally come out from under their rock to start making their pitch to the public. We know they have already made their pitch to their selected candidates because of the campaign contributions we continue to see funnel into some candidates pockets, but we were shocked to hear they showed up to greet the public. After the e-mails we have received, we now know why.

It is often said that you cannot polish a turd. It is also said that you know how bad a used car is by the excellence of the used car salesman it takes to sell it. The housing project known as Destiny is no different. We were very surprised to find out that Randy Johnson was there as the organ grinder's monkey doing his little dance in hopes the visitors to the hob knob would be mystified by his cute performance. Randy Johnson is after all an ex-State Representative who was the former chairman of the Growth Management Committee and co-author of the Growth Management Act of 2005 which is sited again and again as the reason local communities are held hostage by developers. The Growth Management Act of 2005 was written as a "how-to" document for developers on how to build anything, anywhere, and at anytime. Thus, the continued build out on housing as the rest of the country wisely pulls back because of the housing and credit crisis. In this area of course we hear our politicians say, growth is going to come anyway, and I am really not interested in protecting your property values, because that would be in conflict with what our developer friends want. Hence, horrible growth legislation from people who are now the Chief Operating Officers (Organ Grinder's Monkey) to projects like Destiny.

The second surprise on the Destiny project is the new sales pitch they are using to confuse our local politicos into going along with it. Now billed as "America's First Eco-Sustainable City", the Destiny marketing people are pulling out all the stops on finding ways to use "Green-Guilt" to make you think their project is good for the environment. With a slick brochure printed on recycled paper, the Pugliese Company would lead you to believe that they are going to help the environment by digging it up and plopping a bunch of homes down on it. We won't even go into the discussion on the number of cars added to the roads, pollution created by those cars, or the pollution created to provided power to a housing project of this magnitude. Looks like our destiny is one of congested roads, smog and no drinkable water.

What we find sad about all of this is the sales pitch being used to sell us this project that current residents of Osceola County are going to get stuck paying for. If the Destiny Project is so great, tell us how it is going to improve the quality of life of those of us who already live here. Tell us how this is going to be good for our community over just being good for Commissioners like Bill Lane who has racked in the campaign contributions from the Destiny group. Tell us how lowering our property values is somehow going to be a benefit to us. If nothing else, the WayneWho staff would request that you keep the monkey dancing so we are distracted from the reality of the destiny you have in store for us.