To the Editor:

My personal congratulations on your preview edition of Vero Beach 32963! Any effort at expanding our local access to print journalism is both a worthy and noble cause.

I was however, disappointed with your editorial which proclaimed that “Residents of our island community tend to be older, better educated, more affluent, pay more in taxes, contribute more to candidates, churches and charities, than residents of the area at large.”

This just seemed like pandering to the beach crowd---together with your affirmation for why the island should continue to run Vero Beach like their own private star chamber.

The concept of a superior island community was originally invented by the Indian River Neighborhood Association (IRNA), and has never been proven or substantiated in any detail, beyond the self proclamation that a superior economic, cultural or benevolent class must exist on the barrier island simply because they live near a beach.

Mainland Vero Beach remains the historic, cultural, and economic hearth of not just Vero Beach, but all of Indian River County. Picked apart by the FEC Railroad, US One, The Twin Pairs, Mega Churches, a 750 acre municipal airport complete with mainland noise impacts, water front power and sewage treatment plants, non taxable federal, state and local governmental buildings, and the gas stations, grocery stores, storage facilities, auto and tire dealerships unwelcome on the barrier island---mainland Vero Beach has been both victim and benefactor of more than 60 years of a predictable social and economic power shift from here to there.

Your empowerment of the beach community, without so much as a gesture to a mainland which makes their lives possible, is an understandable, though highly misleading pass at a subject which I suspect will get more divisive with time.

Given your commitment to an open dialogue on all matters regarding the beach community, perhaps a ‘point / counter point’ piece on the evolution of these two ‘sister communities’ might be of value to the residents of both the beach and the mainland.

Though still joined at the hip, these ‘twin cities’ share remarkably different visions, wants, and needs. And I believe it’s time we finally recalibrate our public policies in order to better accommodate this simple fact.

Sincerely,

David Risinger
3013 Calcutta Drive
Vero Beach, FL 32960