Voices from The Readers – November 26, 2021

Bike Path Opposition

Editor:

I would like to go on record as being 100% opposed to using the condo row easement for a projected bike path. My family has been owners on condo row since 1972 and Im sickened to think someone is even suggesting to alter this pristine landscape. My wife and I are both daily bike riders in ocean city and see absolutely no benefit to the community as a whole. We use the bus/bike lane without any issues heading both north and south on coastal hwy. The bike path will be an eyesore for the tens of thousands of owners and renters as well as a safety hazard for beach goers tying to cross over the path.

Beachgoers will now be at risk of getting run over by bikes, skate boards, scooters etc. Children will no longer to be able to safely walk down to the beach.

The path will also disrupt the wild life that lives in the dunes. In the dunes in front of our building we have had a fox den for years. They use that sandy path to navigate their environment.

I could go on and on with the negatives about this project. Trash from the users. Light pollution at night if lights are added. Noise pollution. Security issues. Safety issues for thousands of beachgoers. Impact on the environment. Tax dollars now going to build, maintain and cleanup. Adverse impact of property values along condo row.

We already have a bus/bike path in place on coastal highway. Let’s try enforcing the rules of the bike lane. Years ago if you drove more than one block in the bike lane and didn’t turn the driver was pulled over. This option actually cost nothing and could actually generate revenue in the form of tickets.

This path does nothing for the 50% of bike traffic that travels south on the bayside.

Tens of thousands of people own and rent on condo row for the environment it offers generating millions in revenue and taxes. There is not one person who I have talked to wants this path. Honestly most had no idea this was even being proposed and were outraged when I informed them.

Let’s not ruin a way of life because a few people thought a path was a good idea.

Stop the bike path.

Robert and Norma Claro

Ocean City

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OC Project Concerns

Editor:

As an owner at the Sea Mist community, located directly across Baltimore Avenue from the proposed Margaritaville development, I am writing to you to express my concerns for this massive project. Yes, it is an upgrade, but the scale and magnitude of this project does not fit in with the size and location of the site they want to build it on. A project similar to the Beach Plaza Hotel and surrounding properties would be a welcome upgrade to the block between 13th and 14th Street on the Boardwalk.

Our community is very concerned with the magnitude of this project and what negative impacts a project of this size will have on the surrounding communities and negative impact on this Boardwalk region of Ocean City. It simply doesn’t fit. I have many concerns:

  • night time light pollution
  • day time shadow pollution
  • noise pollution due to the increased size
  • concerns with lack of adequate parking within its footprint for the guests and workers
  • no plans for remote parking for the 80 +/- proposed number of workers per shift
  • large increase in the number of patrons and workers from the previous use
  • loss of the parking lot that was used for many daytime visitors and guests
  • street parking being taken from the longtime residents and guests that frequent this part of Ocean City
  • potential negative stormwater management impacts to an already stressed area
  • Ingress and more importantly egress of the guests and visitors onto Baltimore Avenue after events visiting the proposed use of the project
  • 265 proposed rooms, at least 80+ more rooms than the largest of the current hotels in the area
  • Height of the building, this project will dwarf the other building within a few blocks of the site

Ocean City is known for being a family-oriented vacation spot. The boardwalk has always been a big part of that family fun. In recent news, late night partying has become an issue in some areas of the boardwalk. In consideration of the size and intended use of Margaritaville as a large party venue, I worry about how that will affect night time on the boards near Sea Mist and potential pedestrian use of Sea Mist property as a cut through, and other unsavory uses which we already deal with.

Margaritaville’s size and intent of use, negatively and dramatically changes this part of Ocean City. We understand there are other proposed developments that better fit the use of this site, please pick one of those proposals for the sake of Ocean City and the surrounding areas. If Margaritaville wants to be in Ocean City, they should find a site appropriate for the intended use, not downtown in the historic district of this great vacation town.

Robert L. Moore

Ocean City

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NFL Vs. NIH

Editor:

It’s game time. Sunday night football — tailgating and screaming fans. It’s NFL vs. NIH. Wait. What? Who’s playing? The National Football League against the National Institute of Health. Well, at least in salaries.

More than 375,000 people died in 2020 due to COVID-19 in the United States alone according to the CDC. What this means is that it would take around five and a half NFL football stadiums at full capacity to hold this many dead people. That’s an astonishing number.

During the same year, this strange, complicated, and unpredictable virus swept the nation and brought stadiums and football games to a halt. We once thought almost nothing could stop a football game. Well, COVID-19 did stop football, but it didn’t stop the NIH scientists, so they put their game faces on and tackled this virus.

It typically takes between ten and fifteen years to develop a vaccine. Utilizing hard work and expertise, teams of researchers, scientists, and doctors across the world worked day and night to develop a vaccine to stop the deadly coronavirus. They accomplished the task in less than a year.

As written on their website, the NIH’s mission is “to seek fundamental knowledge about nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability.” NIH employees are thus crucial to our everyday lives, as they provide the necessary means for everyone in the nation to lead safe and healthy lives.

These clearly important members of society must be compensated greatly for all that they do, right? Well, research scientists employed by NIH are paid an average of $97,000 per year. This is a fine salary, and one that can lead to a comfortable life. It is interesting; however, to consider the salary difference between the average NIH employee with that of other professions that have a far lesser impact on public health. Let’s compare NIH to the NFL.

The NFL provides sports fans across the country with entertainment. Watching the tackles, touchdowns, and amazing plays provides entertainment for sports junkies and less enthusiastic fans alike. Watching NFL games is entertaining, exciting, and enjoyable for viewers and spectators whether the game is being watched in the family room or in the stadium seats. The NFL’s football players who provide this service are highly trained professionals and are paid accordingly— an average annual salary of $860,000.

A football player in the NFL makes more than ten times the amount of an NIH scientist. Something just doesn’t sit right with this picture. Clearly, there is a great entertainment value provided by the NFL. But is that value 10 times greater than the lifesaving value provided by the research scientists at the NIH?

Our society seems to think so. How is it that we put a higher value on family entertainment than on family health? When will society begin to see the value of The NIH’s goal is to save lives and without the employees of the NIH to do so, one may not even be alive to enjoy the football games provided by the NFL, so whose salary should be higher? Who should really win the final game?

Madison Denion

(The writer is a Communications major at McDaniel College).