"Our Community Sounds Like a Warzone:" MetroWest Residents

It is no secret that Orlando, like most cities in the United States, has a fair share of lower end real estate, caused in part by criminal activity in those areas.

This sad predicament many such residents face is to be pitied. Our leaders and law-enforcement officials should constantly be working to thwart crime. But it seems in recent months and years such activity has been picking up at an alarming rate.

Anyone subscribed to the Ring Doorbell App's community feature can see this plain as day. No criminal statistics need to be reported by any official government agency. Constant reports of gunfire and robberies permeate the app forums.

What is more alarming is the expansion of this treacherous criminality into formerly tranquil working class, middle-class and affluent communities alike, most prominently into Dr. Phillips' neighboring village, MetroWest.

From first inception, developers aimed to make MetroWest a family community, further expanding suburbia‘s reach into southwest Orlando. The MetroWest Golf Club brought a promise of luxury and middle class sophistication But with the advent of cheaply fabricated, section-8 grade apartment complexes, the tide of this placid community began to change rapidly toward criminality and poverty.

Just a short bike ride or drive from Arnold Palmer's Bayhill and Isleworth's great mansions, the metro west community may be on the verge of further degradation— leaving many residents to question whether Dr. Phillips will be next.

Our leaders must bolster law enforcement patrols and policing of these areas to secure not only their benefit but the safety of all citizens within the city and county. Defunding the police, as many in the Black Lives Matter movement suggest, will only serve to further undermine the safety of the community as a whole.

It is no surprise that the movement, with the full support of both Mayor's, has diminished police authority and emboldened criminals. If you doubt the level of complicity our city and county leaders share with this venal behavior, look no further than the "Black Lives Matter" street grafiti allowed to be smeared along Lake Eola's segment of E Rosalind Ave.

Instead of bolstering criminals and building bridges to nowhere, Mayor Dyer, and all municipal officials, should be focused on preserving order and peace in the our city and county.