Letters to the editor Wednesday

Generic apartments will create more stress

The Victorian District is indeed a neighborhood. As a long-time resident, I have watched it grow in the 30 years that I’ve lived on East Bolton Street. I hope we can hang onto our neighborhood.

Currently it is being buffeted by more and more vacation rentals and requests for new hotels.

Now, we are confronted with a proposed large, generic apartment complex which is too big for the requested site and will only add more stress and congestion to the area.

Is it not possible to develop projects that will enhance, not detract, from this historic district?

EDITH SCHMIDT

Resident

Victorian District

Savannah

Savannah entering post-renaissance period

Your Sunday article about Rousakis Riverfront Plaza brought back many memories. It’s hard to imagine what River Street looked like before the renovation. Fortunately for Savannah, a group of citizens, under the leadership of John P. Rousakis, saw our city’s rich history as her greatest asset.

This was our renaissance period, I believe, and the legacy of John Rousakis. The squares were renovated, (although some, unfortunately, were already lost due to short-sighted development) and Fort Pulaski was reborn. Victory Drive, under the scrutiny of Don Gardner, was maintained with precision.

Remember the House of Many Colors on Whitefield Square? The guy wanted to paint the windows of his Victorian mansion to resemble medieval stained glass, and the historic review board fought back in a famous battle that went on for years. Ironically, the developers had already been through the neighborhood, because the guy’s house was right next to the very modern, and now vacated, Red Cross building.

Well, that was then. Your same edition of Sunday’s paper featured Nick Palumbo’s rendering of a grotesque self-storage warehouse just off Victory Drive, as well as Leslie Larson’s column regarding the building of an apartment complex at Forsyth Park.

The residents are heartbroken and angry. Why does the mayor feel it necessary to house apartment dwellers? Why are the once-obsessive historic review boards silent? The short-sighted developers, once again, are unstoppable and all-powerful. But why?

Is there no other, more enhancing structure to occupy the Victory Drive property? Can an apartment building be placed somewhere else instead of an already crowded Drayton Street? Will this apartment building eventually meet the fate of the abandoned and crumbling Red Cross structure?

Our current mayor will not leave a legacy as grand as his predecessor. Sadly, I believe we are living in the post-renaissance Savannah. City Council, it’s in your best interest to have the interests of our citizens in mind when you make your decisions.

CLAIRE PETERSON BARSIC

Savannah

I’m sad for our children

I read with tears in my heart that the youth of our country must worry about whether their book bags can be mesh or solid so security can see if there are guns, bombs or drugs in their bag.

Where is this country going? Will the insanity ever stop?

There was a time when school was meant to educate. if we have lost that vision and purpose, then I fear there is not much of a future as we move forward (or perhaps I fear as we digress backward).

DR. GLENN BALL

Savannah

Is there a better way to provide after hours medical care?

I am responding to the Aug. 10 guest column by Dr. John Sy, “Doctors alarmed by Blue Cross’ ER policy.”

I am not a physician. I am a consumer. My doctor is in a Memorial practice. (There are many doctors in the practice). I make no pretense to be an expert in medical care.

Dr. Sy states that “More than 70 percent of the physicians who completed a recent survey that the Medical Association of Georgia conducted said that they do not believe the average patient is knowledgeable enough to make judgments about what qualifies as a medical emergency.”

That would include me, I assume.

Now, I have a medical provider. If I call the doctor’s office after hours, they have a “’medical triage” that will answer any questions/concerns I have.

They will direct me.

If someone does not have a primary care doctor, as I do, that service is not available.

I suspect there are many medical practices that do not offer after hours consultations. Could this be contributing to the overuse of emergency rooms?

So, what is the solution?

How about this: Create a Triage Center connected to the ER.

Staff it with appropriate medical staff: doctor, PA, NP, nurse,and assistant.

If someone comes in and it is not a gunshot, a potential heart attack, a potential stroke, (or some other medical conditions that I am not aware of), then that person would go to the Triage Center to be evaluated.

For example, say that a mother brings the baby in with a cough and fever. (If it is an upper respiratory infection, the child is treated and sent home. If it is pneumonia, the child is sent over to E.R. I saw this happen recently.)

If it is determined, in the Triage Center, that you need more extensive care, you are referred to the Emergency Department.

If not you are treated, and you go home.

It seems to me this would be much more cost effective than having everyone seen in the Emergency Room.

No one gets turned away. Everyone gets seen. The cost is reduced.

The only remaining questions are:

Dr. Sy, can you support this?

Blue Cross/Blue Shield, will you pay for this?

RANDY RUDD

Savannah