SIGN UP before 5pm to SPEAK at following day task force webinar to oppose miles of new toll highways thru our western/ central Everglades. ATTEND this SW-Central M-CORES Task Force webinar!

Sign up for the webinar!  Then, make sure to follow Step 2 to provide public comment.  

April 28. SW-Central Florida Corridor Connector: https://floridamcores.com/event/southwest-central-florida-corridor-webinar/

Spread the word via our Facebook event page too:

https://www.facebook.com/events/601832470540323/ 

To oppose the other Roads to Ruin, attend also the other 2 webinars this week. To speak up you must sign up by 5p the day BEFORE the webinar.

April 29: Northern Turnpike Corridor Connector

https://floridamcores.com/event/northern-turnpike-corridor-webinar/

https://www.facebook.com/events/894147774332049/ 

April 30: Suncoast Corridor Connector:

https://floridamcores.com/event/suncoast-corridor-webinar/

https://www.facebook.com/events/834162987066390/ 

 

Tips and Suggested Talking Points

Public comments will be audio only (you will not be on camera).

State your name, city of residence, and if applicable, your organization

Keep comments short (30-60 seconds). 

Add something personal, if possible, like how you live in the path of a corridor, your connection to agriculture or the natural environment, etc.

Talking points: 

• COVID-19 is a global pandemic impacting people’s lives and our economy. Resources should be spent on addressing our public health emergency or our devastated economy, not on toll roads that nobody wants.
• The task forces have been meeting since August and there is no data establishing the need for three new toll roads. What we really need now is relief from Covid-19 impacts.
• Our current state emergency shows that we have critical needs to be met.  Call off M-CORES and redirect the tax dollars.
• FDOT has never been able to show that these roads will pay for themselves. The state should be investing in existing infrastructure and helping Floridians where they live now.
• Agriculture is our state’s #2 industry. It is vital to our state and national food security. Agricultural lands need to be protected, not paved over.
• You don’t need new roads to get broadband service.
• No Build is the only option.  Exit Now from this boondoggle.

Want to do more?  Try one or more of these: 

• Use the Facebook frame to update your Facebook profile with the coalition logo
• Share photos of you “virtually” attending a Task Force webinar on  https://www.facebook.com/NoRoadsToRuin/
• Use these hashtags -- #RoadstoRuin #NoBuild #NoRoadstoRuin #ExitNow – on social media as often as possible

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Recent News articles Call "Time Out" on Highway Boondoggles (a national perspective) By Tony Dutzik StrongTowns.org Sports seasons are suspended. Concerts and public gatherings are canceled. Millions of us are cooped up at home trying to stay healthy and stay sane.

Opinion columns, editorials and letters to the editor

Celebrate the Earth By Nancy Long, South Daytona Daytona Beach News-Journal Excerpt: Contact Gov. DeSantis and thank him for his leadership in this virus crisis, but then ask that he veto the “roads to nowhere” bill which creates three unnecessary toll roads cutting through rural communities and severing critical wildlife corridors; the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on these roads to benefit a few landowners and developers would be better spent helping Florida recover from the “Virus Crisis.”

Lesson to be learned from failed canal By Mike Rado, Sarasota The Ledger Building roads across environmentally sensitive land in Florida should raise red flags that remind us of the Cross Florida Barge Canal. This Florida boondoggle, which began as an economic recovery program in the 1930s, burned through $75 million by the time the project was abandoned, in 1971. It was never economically viable, caused significant environmental damage and survives today, with locks and dams and dredging that ruined a wild Florida river.