Busy corner to get busier

I am appalled but not surprised that this utterly careless Fort Lauderdale City Commission has given its blessing to the abhorrent project at the Searstown location. The U.S. 1-Sunrise Boulevard intersection is woefully overburdened, and adding 11,000 vehicles a day is unfathomable.

As usual, our representatives have no plans to widen roads. Future condo residents and hotel guests will be backed up to their penthouses, and as they inch onto clogged side streets there will be a mad, fruitless rush to get to one of those two arteries.

Commissioner Heather Moraitis says she plans to avoid the area. That’s not easy for someone in, say, Poinsettia Heights. No alternative exists to get to the airport or other locations in southeast Fort Lauderdale. Alternative routes like NE 13th Street or A1A have already been severely narrowed.

Commissioner Steve Glassman claims there’s no criticism of the project and that no one came to City Hall to protest it. Gee, I can’t understand why. You fight traffic, pay exorbitant parking rates and sit at City Hall for hours to be treated with disregard — and then your issue might be postponed.

If I wanted to fight every massive project approved by this commission, I would have more than a full-time job, and a frustrating one at that. Has anyone thought about the burden this project will add to our crumbling infrastructure?

Glassman’s webpage says he is serious about “fixing our infrastructure, real solutions for traffic … each and every neighborhood is protected.” He says his team spent months “getting buy-in from surrounding neighborhoods.” I never heard a peep from him and I’m one of those neighbors.

Patricia Geisler, Fort Lauderdale