Stop Lake Meade Park from Making Family Homeless

Hi. My name is Alex, and i’ve lived all 19 years of my life in the city Cape Coral, Florida. When I was born, my dad drew some blueprints, got a crew together and built a brand new house for us to start our new family. The saying is that we leave every single bad thing outside the door because
here there is only love, happiness, and relaxation. That was always the case, until recently. Towards the end of my junior year, my dad sat my brother and I down at the table and gave us some bad news. He told us that the city of Cape Coral wanted to take away our home. That was a hard blow. Hearing that made every single important memory of my life flash before me and it felt like all of that was going to disappear. My dad told us not to worry because he would work something out if it’s possible and if not we would have to move away. I would’ve had to finish my senior year somewhere new and my brother would’ve had to start high school in a brand new place. Well eventually, my dad worked his magic and for the moment the house was still ours. Unfortunately that didn’t last long. Here I am not even two years later and on the road to turn onto my street there is a huge sign for the new home of Lake Meade Park. The new home. Well, that didn’t make sense to me because the home that i’ve known and loved my entire life was smack in the middle of their pretty little picture. Again, I knew we were faced with this situation and it was far more serious this time. It was on billboards and in the paper, suddenly it all felt too real. I found myself asking how in the world this is legal. The answer? The fifth amendment. Plainly stated, it says the government has the right to seize private property nearly without restriction. Does nobody else see a problem with that? The City of Cape Coral was going to make my family homeless. You’re telling me that for $98 million you get the right to take away my home for the new home to a park in a city that already has 39 parks? How about you use that money for street lights and safe places for children at bus stops so no more innocent kids die. How about you fix the roads that are closed off and under construction and just abandoned impacting so many lives across the city for far too long. How about you put it towards a solution to the problems affecting our beaches caused by the releasing of the caloosahatchee river that damages our economy greatly. My father does nothing but work for this city and does his best to help others through his work and the nonprofit charity he runs. This city is where I went through every grade of school, volunteered, attended and worked at churches, and worked jobs as a member of the community. This home I sit in right now is the home that I took my first steps, I said my first words, where I became a sister, grew into a person, and these walls hold every good memory and trace of my childhood all the way into my adult years which have just begun. I’m begging for the help of anyone who sees this. I am not ready to give this house up and I am looking for any chance to give this a fighting chance. On the behalf of my family and the others that the City of Cape Coral plans to put on the streets by police escort five days before Christmas, any help is enough. Spreading awareness, getting options, anything. We don’t want money or a new home or anything crazy. We just want what is ours. We want to feel safe in our home without the threat of homelessness in the name for a playground and some park benches. Thank you in advance for whatever support and help you could give and I truly hope that sometime in the near future that our battle will be over, preferably with us still having our home. Thank you.