City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS' hey-boy (JOHN REGAN), right, with "pipe" that emitted semi-treated sewage effluent into our saltwater marsh for years without notifying the people, while HARRISS illegally briefed Commissioners, polling in violation of the Sunshine Law.
City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS has never had a performance evaluation in 11 years!
Photo credit: J.D. Pleasant
King and Riberia Streets
Photo credit: Marie Hardage
Riberia Street floods after short rains
Photo credit: Marie Hardage
Riberia Street floods after short rains
Photo credit: Marie Hardage
City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS has never had a performance evaluation in 11 years!
Photo credit: J.D. Pleasant (and Photoshop)
Dear Mr. Regan:
A. I travel on Riberia Street at least twice a day, five days a week, I have first-hand knowledge of the bad conditions of this street, which is the worst in St. Augustine. The condition of Riberia Street exemplifies the Environmental Racism of our Nation's Oldest (European-founded) City of St. Augustine.
B. Riberia Street is poorly maintained. It often floods with the slightest rain. There are no sidewalks. There is no law enforcement against speeding vehicles. Pedestrians, drivers and passengers risk our lives every time they travel this dangerous street.
C. City trucks dangerously speed down Riberia Street n violation of speed limits, with no law enforcement. Global Wrap CEO Mrs. Judith Seraphin and I were nearly killed here last May upon Global Wrap moving to 218 Riberia Street -- a city garbage truck was careening down the street at an excessive rate of speed and nearly murdered both Mrs. Seraphin and me. In response to concerns from Leonardi Street residents, our CIty Manager has erroneously opined that City trucks (not emergency vehicles) are free to exceed the speed limit.
D. Riberia Street needs to be fixed now, and not with "all deliberate speed." Otherwise, our City could be sued for civil rights violations. If sued for civil rights violations over unequal infrastructure, our City would likely lose, while wasting large sums on legal defense.
E. The City of St. Augustine's denial of equal services to the traditionally low-income and African-American community of Lincolnville is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, which is remediable under 42 U.S.C. 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1988.
F. I will be attending a fundraiser tonight and will be unable to attend your presentation on Riberia Street.
G. Would you and the City Manager kindly address the following questions tonight:
1. Why wouldn't the City start the resurfacing of Riberia Street at the most logical place -- the South end?
2. Wouldn't this be more convenient for staging construction equipment/trailers/personnel?
3. Isn't it a confession of Apartheid and Environmental Racism to do otherwise?
4. What engineering considerations/assumptions (if any) resulted in the plan to start at the North End of Riberia Street?
5. What political/developer/property owner considerations resulted in the ill-advised plan to start at the North End?
6. Where else in the City is there a street that bad?
7. How can City managers, year after year, spend our money on flubdubs (like a skate park, $25 million White Elephant Parking Garage, $1.2 million Financial Services (utility bill paying) building, Noche de Gala, annual trips to Spain) while neglecting the low-income and minority community of Lincolnville, an overt act of Environmental Racism consistent with the illegal dumping in Lincolnville and West Augustine of solid waste and sewage effluent (resulting in fines and consent orders twice in the last year)? How do you look in the mirror knowing that you are a part of outrageous, invidious discrimination?
8. Would the City of St. Augustine's National League of Cities insurance policy cover a substantial punitive damages award for negligence in the event of deaths or injuries due to speeding City trucks or a civil rights suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983? Or would the City be "bare," if there were a large judgment? That's how was when after Marshall Burns 42 U.S.C. 1983 settlement (police tackling man into quadriplegia), which required $1.5 million of tax money over the amount paid by insurance? How would our City respond if the Justice Department Civil Rights Division was forced to bring an action to remedy the City of St. Augustine's violations of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments (as it did in Memphis, Tennessee in 1989)? Would it have to declare bankruptcy if a civil judgment were big enough?
9. Isn't it less expensive (and less intrusive) to fix Riberia Street starting at the South end, avoiding civil rights litigation and ending the Apartheid and de facto segregation to which the City of St. Augustine has subjected the community of Lincolnville since 1866?
10. Wouldn't fixing Riberia Street commencing at the South end send a message of reconciliation to the community? Wouldn't it also keep federal funds for the 450th Anniversary from being deleted in a House-Senate Conference Committee based on the City's Environmental Racism, Apartheid and de facto segregation?
11. What principled reason (if any) exists for the backwards proposal to start at the North end and work south ("like pie in the sky in the sweet bye and bye" as the late John L. Lewis of UMWA would have called it)?.
12. What's the point of tonight's meeting if (as signaled by ex-Mayor Gardner's newletter, for which we pay $1250/month) the City's plans are a "done deal" and the meeting is only a PR exercise?
13. Why isn't this meeting being held in Lincolnville? You have several churches available that would have been happy to host the meeting, with a greater likelihood of informing the community.
14. Isn't the City of St. Augustine's discriminatory refusal to hold the meeting in Lincolnville for the convenience of the residents freighted with the confession of the City's continuing Environmental Racism?
15. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote (in his famous June 12, 1964 letter to Rabbi Israel S. Dresner of Springfield, NJ), that our City of St. Augustine is the "most lawless" city in America. What about the Riberia Street plans indicates any plans by the City of St. Augustine to change this perception?
Thank you in advance for answering each of my foregoing questions by tonight's meeting.
With kindest regards, I am,
Sincerely yours,
Ed
Ed Slavin
www.cleanupcityofstaugustine.blogspot.com
P.O. Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085
904-829-3877 (o)
904-819-5817 (o-fax)
904-471-9918 (h-fax)
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