Emergency!
Glad you picked up on the latest e-mail escapade of `Orlando city` commissioner `Vicki` Vargo `"Happytown," June 9`, but your story had one omission and one error: You neglected to point out that she, yet again, instructed her loyal readers to use 911 to alert the police to suspicious behavior, despite having been corrected by the Orlando Police Department in the past, when they correctly pointed out that concerned citizens should not clog emergency numbers with these types of calls. Including the non-emergency OPD number in her e-mail simply wouldn't have been dramatic enough, I suppose.
You erroneously referred to the neighborhood in question as "Rosewood" when it is actually "Rosemont." Rosewood was a historically black community destroyed by a lynch mob of concerned citizens many years ago. Rosemont, where Vargo lives, is an increasingly black community that has not had a lynch mob yet.
Given Vargo's history, as reported in a past edition of the Weekly, of harassing those who e-mail non-flattering things about her, I'd prefer if you not publish my name. She might join forces with Kevin Beary and "plant" a backpack in my house.
Name withheld by request
We got baked
Ten dollars and 57 cents. We're sad to report that's the pathetic amount raised at our recent bake sale to help Orlando Magic owner Rich DeVos pay for a new arena for his team.
Although our efforts mostly were greeted with peals of laughter from passersby, and we found their unwillingness to pay a measly 50 cents (or five for $2) for a delicious cookie or mini-muffin rather depressing, we are determined to persevere, inspired that "the compassion of a society can be measured by the way it treats its billionaires," as said (Ralph) Gandhi.
Orlandoans will have another chance to show Mr. DeVos their compassion when Orlando Direct Action holds its next bake sale on June 20, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at Orlando City Hall. We will offer "Luxury Cookies" for $50,000 each, "Magic Muffins" for $75,000 a piece, and "Rich Chocolate Brownies" for $100,000 each.
Some may scoff at these prices, such as the punks from Orlando Food Not Bombs, who came to our last bake sale to cruelly harangue us with gibes about "corporate welfare" for Mr. DeVos. But we implore locals not to prejudge a Christian fundamentalist GOP-donor just because he's worth $3 billion (according to Forbes magazine) and lives in Michigan (with a summer estate on Florida's southwest coast). Why should this preclude Mr. DeVos from getting help from the less affluent to make his private business more profitable?
Our goal of raising $300 million to provide Mr. DeVos with a new, state-of-the-art facility in which his employees can work to entertain corporate executives watching from the comfort of midlevel luxury suites is easily attainable. All that's required is that local residents dig deep and make a few sacrifices, then purchase some of ODA's scrumptious baked goods.
We suggest getting a second mortgage on the home, raiding the children's college accounts and forgoing medical/dental care. We also suggest that local residents tell mayors Buddy Dyer and Rich Crotty that they can think of no better use of our public tax dollars than a new arena for the Magic. Let them know that improving roads, schools and public transportation; cleaning up the local environment; funding the arts and public parks; and affordable child and health care all pale in significance to keeping Mr. DeVos happy and his business in Orlando.
Remind them that what's good for Mr. DeVos is good for Central Florida. Right?
— Ben Markeson and Andrew Mason, Orlando
Hates the site
So far I hate your new website. Very clunky and hard to maneuver and difficult to access past dining reviews. For instance, most of your restaurant reviews are double posted, which takes away space to post more current reviews and it makes the archives twice as difficult to navigate.
Just because the Sentinel reworked their site was no reason to do yours over. I liked it the way it was. However, at this point and on the whole, yours is a better makeover than theirs is.
— Bob Mervine, Orlando
