Editorial: News flash!
From Staff
Publication Date: 12/02/06
News flash!
You heard it here first! George Gardner, who won a two-year term last month on the St. Augustine Commission, will not run again in two years.
Here's what he said in a confidential e-mail to 29 of his closest advisors, three of whom forwarded it to us, explaining why he decided not to run for mayor and instead went for the two-year commission seat:
"Bowing out, satisfied with what progress we've made this past four years, was a sensible decision. Turning it over to Joe (Boles, the mayor-elect), who's been active in our community, who's easy going, who's promised to bring everyone to the table, was sensible. Staying on the commission two more years, just to make sure, was sensible."
He then went on to urge people who want to run that they should start getting active now. He pointed that his seat and those now held by Susan Burk and Errol Jones will be up for election in 2008.
We like George even though we don't always agree with him, and wish him the best in his last two years on the City Commission.
Congrats to our Pee Wee champs Two First Coast teams will be representing the state of Florida in National Championships.
One is the Ponte Vedra Pee Wees, who won the SE Region Championship in Orlando on Thanksgiving weekend.
The other is the Junior Pee Wee Flagler PAL, which won the SE Region Championship in its division.
They have both advanced to the national Pop Warner Superbowl at Disney's Wide World of Sports.
That's great! Congratulations to both teams. We're proud of you.
Hizzoner is off and running!
We were sitting around the newsroom recently not doing much of anything when over the police scanner came a breaking news report that led us to the conclusion that Mayor-elect Joe Boles is off to a running start.
The cop on the squawk box said the mayor was running after some kids who had been throwing glass onto the street.
At first, we thought it was Mayor Gardner doing the running, one of his last acts as mayor.
We checked it out to discover it was Boles who was running after some vandals.
Needless to say the vandals, who were kids, ran faster than the soon-to-be hizzoner.
We guess the message here is that Boles' legs are not as fast as his tongue.
Doing good for the city
A seedy-looking man was sitting in the first row at a town meeting, heckling the mayor as he delivered a lengthy speech.
Finally the mayor pointed to the heckler and said, "Will that gentleman who differs with me please stand up and tell the audience what he has ever done for the good of the city?"
"Well, Mr. Mayor," the man said in a firm voice. "I voted against you in the last election."
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/120206/opinions_4247366.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
View Podcast on St. Augustine's Environmental Crisis
Watch two brief podcasts on St. Augustine's environmental crisis and sequelae:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWh7u-RA-_4
Video Description
Discussion with Ed Slavin about Mayor's remarks.
YouTube™ – Broadcast Yourself
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOrSClOTgCM
Video Description
Discussion with Ed Slavin about Brownfield Project
AND ON GOOGLE VIDEOS:
TALKIN' ABOUT St. Augustine 1-
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6280495555555604086&pr=goog-sl
TALKIN" ABOUT St. Augustine 2 -
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6098661160160693860
Thanks for looking,
jdp
=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWh7u-RA-_4
Video Description
Discussion with Ed Slavin about Mayor's remarks.
YouTube™ – Broadcast Yourself
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOrSClOTgCM
Video Description
Discussion with Ed Slavin about Brownfield Project
AND ON GOOGLE VIDEOS:
TALKIN' ABOUT St. Augustine 1-
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6280495555555604086&pr=goog-sl
TALKIN" ABOUT St. Augustine 2 -
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6098661160160693860
Thanks for looking,
jdp
=
Sunday, November 26, 2006
HELP CHANGE HISTORY -- REPORT ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION OF LAND, AIR, WATER, WETLANDS and PEOPLE to National Response Center 1-800-424-8802 --
Help change history in the Nation's Oldest (European-founded) City of St. Augustine and in St. Johns County, Florida.
If you see a "developer," factory, government agency, or other organization or individual polluting, clearcutting, filling in wetlands, exposing workers and residents to toxic chemicals, destroying our homeland, then do something about it.
Call toll-free to report it to the National Response Center 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every single day of the year. You will speak to a young Coast Guard petty officer (or civilian employee), part of an organization that works with federal and state law enforcement. The Coast Guard petty officer or civilian will take your information and give you a report number. Save that report number -- follow up on your report. Don't take no for an answer.
The only reason that our City of St. Augustine is about to be fined over for its "serious" violations and "lack of good faith" in dumping in our Old City Reservoir is that a call was made on February 17, 2006 to National Response Center 1-800-424-8802. This report (report number 788280) deprived government officials of plausible deniability.
If you see pollution, take action, take pictures, take the time to care and call National Response Center 1-800-424-8802.
One call to 1-800-424-8802 (and followups) was all it took to expose our City's serious, toxic illegal pollution of the Old City Reservoir, with pollution continuing even after criminal investigators arrived and Mayor GEORGE GARDNER promised "answers."
Don't expect government agencies guilty of desuetude (nonenforcement) to do thier jobs without your help. Don't expect developers, their lawyers or City or County officials to do their job without your help -- report pollution.
Don't "let George do it" -- you make the call. Don't expect the FDEP, SJRWMD, EPA, City, County or other government agency to enforce the law if you don't report pollution when you see it.
Be prepared to answer a few pertinent questions about what you saw, including date, time, location, owner, air temperature, wind speed/direction, weather conditions. You can give your name or remain anaonymous. The most important thing is to make the call and get the report number, so that you and others can follow up.
Don't hang up without getting a report number -- it's essential and it is the job of the National Response Center to take the information and convey it to those who can do something about it, promptly, courteously and efficiently.
No more coverups.
Call the National Response Center and help change history and protect our environment. You will be glad you did.
Our beautiful City of St. Augustine and St. Johns County are worthy preserving, protecting and defending from greed and corruption and prejudice (see below).
If you see a "developer," factory, government agency, or other organization or individual polluting, clearcutting, filling in wetlands, exposing workers and residents to toxic chemicals, destroying our homeland, then do something about it.
Call toll-free to report it to the National Response Center 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every single day of the year. You will speak to a young Coast Guard petty officer (or civilian employee), part of an organization that works with federal and state law enforcement. The Coast Guard petty officer or civilian will take your information and give you a report number. Save that report number -- follow up on your report. Don't take no for an answer.
The only reason that our City of St. Augustine is about to be fined over for its "serious" violations and "lack of good faith" in dumping in our Old City Reservoir is that a call was made on February 17, 2006 to National Response Center 1-800-424-8802. This report (report number 788280) deprived government officials of plausible deniability.
If you see pollution, take action, take pictures, take the time to care and call National Response Center 1-800-424-8802.
One call to 1-800-424-8802 (and followups) was all it took to expose our City's serious, toxic illegal pollution of the Old City Reservoir, with pollution continuing even after criminal investigators arrived and Mayor GEORGE GARDNER promised "answers."
Don't expect government agencies guilty of desuetude (nonenforcement) to do thier jobs without your help. Don't expect developers, their lawyers or City or County officials to do their job without your help -- report pollution.
Don't "let George do it" -- you make the call. Don't expect the FDEP, SJRWMD, EPA, City, County or other government agency to enforce the law if you don't report pollution when you see it.
Be prepared to answer a few pertinent questions about what you saw, including date, time, location, owner, air temperature, wind speed/direction, weather conditions. You can give your name or remain anaonymous. The most important thing is to make the call and get the report number, so that you and others can follow up.
Don't hang up without getting a report number -- it's essential and it is the job of the National Response Center to take the information and convey it to those who can do something about it, promptly, courteously and efficiently.
No more coverups.
Call the National Response Center and help change history and protect our environment. You will be glad you did.
Our beautiful City of St. Augustine and St. Johns County are worthy preserving, protecting and defending from greed and corruption and prejudice (see below).
"It's A Dump, But We're Going to Turn It Around"
Like the line from the TV series, "St. Elsewhere," "it's a dump but we're goijgn to turn it around." New and longtime residents make this a "small but cosmopolitan city," in the words of St. Augustine Record reporter Peter Guinta in Editor and Publisher Magazine earlier this year. Our decidedly unhip City Hall, with its racist, ethnocentric, homophobic, anti-arts, anti-music, anti-iibertarian, andi-envirnmental animus has been caught illegally dumping and is fixing to be fined by the State of Florida for its "serious" envoronmental violations. It's been blasted by federal courts for violating the First Amendment. It's been blasted by the st. Augustine Record newspaper for trying to chill First Amendment rights. See below. Come on along, we're going to have lots of fun making this City better.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Andrew Young Incarcerated in St. Augustine, Florida, June 1964 -- From Dr. Bronson's History Tours
Our City of St. Augustine, Florida must apologize for its uncivil wrongs, as one individual and one church did in the movie, "Dare Not Walk Alone." Ten suggestions appear in the article below this one. Photo courtesy of Dr. Bronson's History Tours website. http://www.drbronsontours.com/bronsonkingcivilrights.html
http://www.drbronsontours.com
http://www.drbronsontours.com
"A SEAT AT THE TABLE" FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS TRIBAL PEOPLE IN ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA (AFTER 441 YEARS)
"A SEAT AT THE TABLE" FOR AFRICAN-AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS TRIBAL PEOPLE IN ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA (AFTER 441 YEARS)
The new Mayor, JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. can do a lot to bring about healing ancient wounds in our Ancient City by proposing the following:
1. Canceling all future junkets/trips to Aviles, Spain, NYC, Germany and elsewhere and canceling all future government subsidies to fancy masqued balls and using the monies saved to erect a Civil Rights Monument in the Slave Market Square (instead of forcing Civil Rights Heroes to raise funds to pay for a public monument).
2. Enacting a Human Rights Ordinance (HRO)(see below) and using it and moral suasion to end de facto segregation by City Hall, St. George Street merchants, Realtors (R) and other local employers and to remove vestiges of racist stereotypes (visible from the Castillo);
3. Ending the de facto segregation in the St. Augustine Police Department (59 of 59 white officers) and Fire Department (28 of 28 white firemen).
4. National recruitment of the next City Manager, City Attorney, City Police Chief and other Department heads, ending all-white, all-male, all-political mismanagement structures that were so insensitive to our people and environment that they unlawfully deposited the contents of the old illegal city dump into the Old City Reservoir -- one of the most obnoxious acts of environmental racism ever seen.
5. Making preservation of the African-American community and ending poverty goals of our City government, with efforts to assure equity and fairness in providing City services (including restoring 1928 trolleys).
6. Establishing a Reconciliation Commission for the purpose of encouraging the sort of apologies and understanding seen in the documentary, "Dare Not Walk Alone," including a resolution of the St. Augustine City Commission apologizing to local and national victims of Civil Rights violations, inviting Rev. Andrew Young and other surviving victims to a celebration of diversity and brotherhood. This Reconciliation must necessarily include full, candid historical apprciation for indigenous tribal and Africa-American history, including a "St. Augustine National Historical Park" embracing our City and an "emerald necklace of parks," including Fort Mose.
7. Making preservation of African-American and other minority-owned businesses a priority, with efforts to develop talents and skills for true economic development.
8. Annexing the rest of West Augustine and providing full City services.
9. Providing for seven City Commissioners to be elected by districts, assuring every community is represented in City Hall;
10. Ending what soon-to-be-ex-Mayor GEORGE GARDNER admits is "rampant corruption" in City Hall, a hidden tax on every resident and visitor..
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said St. Augustine was the "most lawless" city in America. Time to take action for reconciliation and brotherhood, to help recover
our city's tarnished reputation?
If we're going to attract and retain talented young people and become a world-class City, racism must be extirpated (just like homophobia). Cities are competing to attract and retain talented young people by being "hip."
Jim Crow and Apartheid never were hip and all vestiges of racial discrimination must be extirpated in St. Augustine, Florida.
What do you think?
The new Mayor, JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. can do a lot to bring about healing ancient wounds in our Ancient City by proposing the following:
1. Canceling all future junkets/trips to Aviles, Spain, NYC, Germany and elsewhere and canceling all future government subsidies to fancy masqued balls and using the monies saved to erect a Civil Rights Monument in the Slave Market Square (instead of forcing Civil Rights Heroes to raise funds to pay for a public monument).
2. Enacting a Human Rights Ordinance (HRO)(see below) and using it and moral suasion to end de facto segregation by City Hall, St. George Street merchants, Realtors (R) and other local employers and to remove vestiges of racist stereotypes (visible from the Castillo);
3. Ending the de facto segregation in the St. Augustine Police Department (59 of 59 white officers) and Fire Department (28 of 28 white firemen).
4. National recruitment of the next City Manager, City Attorney, City Police Chief and other Department heads, ending all-white, all-male, all-political mismanagement structures that were so insensitive to our people and environment that they unlawfully deposited the contents of the old illegal city dump into the Old City Reservoir -- one of the most obnoxious acts of environmental racism ever seen.
5. Making preservation of the African-American community and ending poverty goals of our City government, with efforts to assure equity and fairness in providing City services (including restoring 1928 trolleys).
6. Establishing a Reconciliation Commission for the purpose of encouraging the sort of apologies and understanding seen in the documentary, "Dare Not Walk Alone," including a resolution of the St. Augustine City Commission apologizing to local and national victims of Civil Rights violations, inviting Rev. Andrew Young and other surviving victims to a celebration of diversity and brotherhood. This Reconciliation must necessarily include full, candid historical apprciation for indigenous tribal and Africa-American history, including a "St. Augustine National Historical Park" embracing our City and an "emerald necklace of parks," including Fort Mose.
7. Making preservation of African-American and other minority-owned businesses a priority, with efforts to develop talents and skills for true economic development.
8. Annexing the rest of West Augustine and providing full City services.
9. Providing for seven City Commissioners to be elected by districts, assuring every community is represented in City Hall;
10. Ending what soon-to-be-ex-Mayor GEORGE GARDNER admits is "rampant corruption" in City Hall, a hidden tax on every resident and visitor..
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said St. Augustine was the "most lawless" city in America. Time to take action for reconciliation and brotherhood, to help recover
our city's tarnished reputation?
If we're going to attract and retain talented young people and become a world-class City, racism must be extirpated (just like homophobia). Cities are competing to attract and retain talented young people by being "hip."
Jim Crow and Apartheid never were hip and all vestiges of racial discrimination must be extirpated in St. Augustine, Florida.
What do you think?
"A SEAT AT THE TABLE" FOR GAY AND LESBIAN PEOPLE IN ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA (AFTER 441 YEARS)
City of St. Augustine Mayor-Elect JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. has stated that everyone should have a "seat at the table."
Based on that commitment, we expect Mr. BOLES to work to repeal the City's invidiously retaliatory, discriminatory June 13, 2005 policy banning all but government flags from being flown on the Bridge of Lions (BOL). He will also want to work to adopt a Human Rights Ordinance (HRO), as in some seven other Florida jurisdictions.
Mr. BOLES was the only St. Augustine Commissioner who had the courage to vote against Mayor GEORGE GARDNER's rude government-flags-only-Bridge of Lions (BOL) flag rule on June 13, 2005.
We salute Mayor-elect Boles for that vote and for joining VICE MAYOR SUSAN BURK, who voted with Mr. BOLES to support Rainbow flags at the May 23, 2005 meeting (but missed the June 13, 2005 meeting).
These two Commissioners, both lawyers, are the only consistent votes on our City Commission in favor of respecting the First Amendment
The government-flags-only policy abolished what a federal judge found was a public forum for freedom of expression. This is only one more outrage wrought by soon-to-be-ex-mayor GEORGE GARDNER, who brags of attending 36 churches but has seemingly learned nothing in any of them.
The government-flags-only policy is insulting to everyone who lives in this 441-year-old-city, which is saddled with a government still lacking decent respect for human rights in a place where the Declaration of Independence was burned in 1776, and where John Adams and John Hancock were burned in effigy in 1776 in our Slave Market Square).
Only one more vote is required to erase soon-to-be-ex-Mayor GARDNER's angry June 13, 2005 government-flag-flying only policy, as insulting a vote as ever held by any segregationist government anywhere in the world. Only because a federal court ruled that our Bridge of Lions was a public forum under the First Amendment did MAYOR GARDNER, COMMISSIONER ERROL JONES and Commissioner DONALD CRICHLOW determine that they would end the public forum. Bigger homophobes have never before greased a chair in any City Hall -- the BOL flagflying vote is part of what Mayor GARDNER admits to be "rampant corruption" in City Hall..
Like GARDNER, his government-flags-only policy is an embarrassment to a great city, which St. Augustine Record's Peter Guinta calls this "small but cosmopolitan city (see below).
City Commissioners must adopt a Human Rights Ordinance, banning discrimination in housing, public accommodations, employment and education, extirpating discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, and sexual orientation from the Nation's Oldest City.
Our City of St. Augustine has an existing housing anti-discrimination ordinance on the books dating to 1964. It's time to update it, provide real remedies, cover more people, and add employment, education and public accommodations.
It's time and it's right. We must make amends for our City Founder's anti-Gay animus, which ended in murder in 1566.
It is fitting that such an ordinance be adopted here because St. Augustine was founded by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, perpetrator of what is North America's first recorded anti-Gay hate crime, in 1566.
We spend public funds to "honor" Menendez, who is guilty of what may be the first, recorded anti-Gay hate crime in North American history: he admitted having a Gay man killed (the story was written down by Menendez's brother-in-law).
Are we "honoring" the first in a long line of dictatorial government officials?
Does that honor empower soon-to-be-ex-Mayor GEORGE GARDNER to insult anyone who asks them questions?
Where does our City "honor" and celebrate the history of the people who did most of the working in its history?
In 1566, Florida's first Governor had a Gay man killed because he was a "Sodomite and a Lutheran." Florida's first Governor Pedro Menendez de Aviles is "honored" with a statue in front of City Hall, an oil painting in the Commissioner's secret inner sanctum (a gift of the Spanish government), Commissioners' annual visits to Spain (at public expense), festivals for his birthday and landing/invasion, streets and a high school.
That's rather like celebrating Cain, the first murderer in the Bible, by spending public funds and erecting statues, paintings, holidays and high schools in Cain's honor.
Meanwhile, our City does virtually nothing to honor the Native Americans and African Americans who did the work and paid the price for government abuses of power, 1566-2006. This is due to Mayor GEORGE GARDNER's Philistine concept of "positive" and "negative" history -- one that is not taught by scholars at any university -- yet another of GARDNER's open-mouth, insert-foot statements that will not be missed when he ceases to be Mayor of St. Augustine, Florida
Let freedom ring and diversity reign in the Nation's Oldest City.
We need to abolish the Bridge of Lions (BOL) government-flagflying-only policy aimed at discriminating against GLBT people and we need a Human Rights Ordinance (HRO).
By their votes on the BOL and HRO, Commissioners can help heal history's wounds and build a better City -- he sort of place that is attractive to young residents, who will help determine our Citys future. (See below)
Homophobia is decidedly unhip and is bad for business.
What do you think?
Based on that commitment, we expect Mr. BOLES to work to repeal the City's invidiously retaliatory, discriminatory June 13, 2005 policy banning all but government flags from being flown on the Bridge of Lions (BOL). He will also want to work to adopt a Human Rights Ordinance (HRO), as in some seven other Florida jurisdictions.
Mr. BOLES was the only St. Augustine Commissioner who had the courage to vote against Mayor GEORGE GARDNER's rude government-flags-only-Bridge of Lions (BOL) flag rule on June 13, 2005.
We salute Mayor-elect Boles for that vote and for joining VICE MAYOR SUSAN BURK, who voted with Mr. BOLES to support Rainbow flags at the May 23, 2005 meeting (but missed the June 13, 2005 meeting).
These two Commissioners, both lawyers, are the only consistent votes on our City Commission in favor of respecting the First Amendment
The government-flags-only policy abolished what a federal judge found was a public forum for freedom of expression. This is only one more outrage wrought by soon-to-be-ex-mayor GEORGE GARDNER, who brags of attending 36 churches but has seemingly learned nothing in any of them.
The government-flags-only policy is insulting to everyone who lives in this 441-year-old-city, which is saddled with a government still lacking decent respect for human rights in a place where the Declaration of Independence was burned in 1776, and where John Adams and John Hancock were burned in effigy in 1776 in our Slave Market Square).
Only one more vote is required to erase soon-to-be-ex-Mayor GARDNER's angry June 13, 2005 government-flag-flying only policy, as insulting a vote as ever held by any segregationist government anywhere in the world. Only because a federal court ruled that our Bridge of Lions was a public forum under the First Amendment did MAYOR GARDNER, COMMISSIONER ERROL JONES and Commissioner DONALD CRICHLOW determine that they would end the public forum. Bigger homophobes have never before greased a chair in any City Hall -- the BOL flagflying vote is part of what Mayor GARDNER admits to be "rampant corruption" in City Hall..
Like GARDNER, his government-flags-only policy is an embarrassment to a great city, which St. Augustine Record's Peter Guinta calls this "small but cosmopolitan city (see below).
City Commissioners must adopt a Human Rights Ordinance, banning discrimination in housing, public accommodations, employment and education, extirpating discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, and sexual orientation from the Nation's Oldest City.
Our City of St. Augustine has an existing housing anti-discrimination ordinance on the books dating to 1964. It's time to update it, provide real remedies, cover more people, and add employment, education and public accommodations.
It's time and it's right. We must make amends for our City Founder's anti-Gay animus, which ended in murder in 1566.
It is fitting that such an ordinance be adopted here because St. Augustine was founded by Pedro Menendez de Aviles, perpetrator of what is North America's first recorded anti-Gay hate crime, in 1566.
We spend public funds to "honor" Menendez, who is guilty of what may be the first, recorded anti-Gay hate crime in North American history: he admitted having a Gay man killed (the story was written down by Menendez's brother-in-law).
Are we "honoring" the first in a long line of dictatorial government officials?
Does that honor empower soon-to-be-ex-Mayor GEORGE GARDNER to insult anyone who asks them questions?
Where does our City "honor" and celebrate the history of the people who did most of the working in its history?
In 1566, Florida's first Governor had a Gay man killed because he was a "Sodomite and a Lutheran." Florida's first Governor Pedro Menendez de Aviles is "honored" with a statue in front of City Hall, an oil painting in the Commissioner's secret inner sanctum (a gift of the Spanish government), Commissioners' annual visits to Spain (at public expense), festivals for his birthday and landing/invasion, streets and a high school.
That's rather like celebrating Cain, the first murderer in the Bible, by spending public funds and erecting statues, paintings, holidays and high schools in Cain's honor.
Meanwhile, our City does virtually nothing to honor the Native Americans and African Americans who did the work and paid the price for government abuses of power, 1566-2006. This is due to Mayor GEORGE GARDNER's Philistine concept of "positive" and "negative" history -- one that is not taught by scholars at any university -- yet another of GARDNER's open-mouth, insert-foot statements that will not be missed when he ceases to be Mayor of St. Augustine, Florida
Let freedom ring and diversity reign in the Nation's Oldest City.
We need to abolish the Bridge of Lions (BOL) government-flagflying-only policy aimed at discriminating against GLBT people and we need a Human Rights Ordinance (HRO).
By their votes on the BOL and HRO, Commissioners can help heal history's wounds and build a better City -- he sort of place that is attractive to young residents, who will help determine our Citys future. (See below)
Homophobia is decidedly unhip and is bad for business.
What do you think?
Cities compete in hipness battle to attract young
In "Cities compete in hipness battle to attract young," reporter
Shaila Dewan wrote in the November 25 New York Times that the future of our economy and culture is being determined by cities determined to make young people 25-34 yars old comfortable. It appears that St. Augustine, Florida City Hall is doing everything else, including it decidedly unhip hostility to artists, musicians, entertainers, African-Americans, women, Gays, Lesbians, workers, and persons who veneate the First Amendment. Young people leave St. Augustine after college because there are not enough good jobs. Employers are not encouraaged to start new businesses that would attract and keep young people in St. Augustine.
Instead, we have a "rush to the bottom" -- who can construct the tackiets t-shirt shop with the most obnoxoius storefront in a historic building, with the fewest good jobs? My vote goes for the old F. W. Woolworth store on King Street, which instead of being used by the church that owns it for wholesome activities (like the old Toy Store and lunch counter) is now a venue for tawdry t-shirts.
We need the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service to help save our City of St. Augustine with a "St. Augustine National Historical Park/." See below.
Shaila Dewan wrote in the November 25 New York Times that the future of our economy and culture is being determined by cities determined to make young people 25-34 yars old comfortable. It appears that St. Augustine, Florida City Hall is doing everything else, including it decidedly unhip hostility to artists, musicians, entertainers, African-Americans, women, Gays, Lesbians, workers, and persons who veneate the First Amendment. Young people leave St. Augustine after college because there are not enough good jobs. Employers are not encouraaged to start new businesses that would attract and keep young people in St. Augustine.
Instead, we have a "rush to the bottom" -- who can construct the tackiets t-shirt shop with the most obnoxoius storefront in a historic building, with the fewest good jobs? My vote goes for the old F. W. Woolworth store on King Street, which instead of being used by the church that owns it for wholesome activities (like the old Toy Store and lunch counter) is now a venue for tawdry t-shirts.
We need the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service to help save our City of St. Augustine with a "St. Augustine National Historical Park/." See below.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)