"Ideas Have Consequences"

As my Georgetown University Political Theory Professor, Jose Sorzano said it best, "Ideas have consequences."  (He served as Deputy UN Ambassador under Jeanne Kirpatrick during the Reagan Admistration.)

Our St. Johns County Visitor and Convention Bureau and its monopolistic international tourism consultant, MMGY, have potentially run afoul of civil rights laws by publishing expensive Apartheid-style travel guides, with 199 identifiable white people and some four (4) identifiable Hispanic people (one is Ponce de Leon on the cover).

There are zero Native American Indians, despite the fact that St. Augustine is where the Columbian exchange began in North America, and we have 11,000 years of Native American history. 

There are only some eleven (11) African-Americans, most of whom appear to be happy slaves.

Fair Housing and Civil Rights cases forbid marketing materials that don't show African-Americans and other minorities. Yet local developers in St. Johns County had billboards and newspaper advertisements that did that for years. So now does our VCB. This is Jim Crow 1950s marketing, and it is not working. Despite always-rosy projections, we average only nearly 60% lodging occupancy.

Wonder why?

Under advice from MMDY, a conflicted travel industry consultant, VCB is refusing to advertise in Miami, potentially sabotaging our City's strategic plan for the 450th/500th celebrations, which is to attrack Hispanic tourists from South Florida.

One City official said, "That's crazy."  VCB and MMGY still offer no principled reason for not advertising in Miami. 

Our City officials were never informed of this possibly illegal redlining of advertising in the Miami market.  This frustrates the City's 450th strategic marketing plan.   As JFK said during the Cuban Missile Crisis, "There's always some poor SOB who doesn't get the word."

VCB has not been forthcoming with documents or answers -- not even its Antitrust and Civil Rights Compliance policies, if any.

VCB is not with the program. St. Augustine's future lies in historic and environmental tourism – VCB is still caught up in past mistakes

On June 11, 1964, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote rabbis, calling St. Augustine "the most lawless" city in America. A week later, the largest mass arrest of rabbis in America took place here.

Now that our City government is listening to the people, it is on the path to recovery.

Meanwhile, dominated by mossbacks, our County VCB needs to get with the program.  See below, including article about judgment and settlement involving illegal, racially exclusionary real estate ads in Washington, D.C.  (The plaintiff was Georgetown Law Professor Girardeau Spann and the defendant was a Mobil Oil real estate subsidiary in Northern Virginia, which had only white models in its ads).

Our VCB must not "redline" Miami, African-Americans, Hispanics, youth and GLBT people.

Our VCB must not provide a forum for price manipulation and pricefixing by competitors -- tourism is interstate commerce.  VCB is a government contractor and discussions of pricing (or recommendations to raise prices) raise eyebrows, hackles and concerns about possible antitrust violations and appearance of impropriety.

Knock if off.

Our VCB must honor its MMGY consultant's wisdom about the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore -- MMGY Vice Chairman Dr. Peter Yessawich, Ph.D. said May 14, 2013 that creating a St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore would boost our local economy, "without questiont" having a "positive effect."  www.staugustgreen.com

Dr. Yessawich is right.  www.staugustgreen.com

Sit up and listen:

VCB needs to endorse creation of a St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore.
www.staugustgreen.com

VCB must be the most stalwart advocate -- it must be all over it, "like a rat on a Cheeto(R) (a wonderful phrase I hereby borrow from Mayor Joseph L. Boles, Jr., a member of the federal St. Augustine 450th Commemoration Commission).

VCB must listen to our two local city governments about Fair Housing and diversity in marketing.
City of St. Augustine Ordinance 2012-15  (Fair Housing), bans sexual orientation discrimination.
City of St. Augustine Beach Ordinance 2013-1 & 2013-3 (Fair Housing and Employment), bans sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination.  These elected boards voted unanimously.  So did our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County (Employment, 2009).  Sheriff David Shoar told me that he banned sexual orientation by administrative order, sua sponte.

What about VCB?  Will VCB reach out to GLBT tourists now that all of these public officials are on record that our hearts are open, we're open for business, and we're NOT Jacksonville f/k/a "Cowford," (a provincial place with tall buildings and well-funded bigots, one whose City Council refuses to adopt any GLBT human rights ordinance of any kind, and whose allegedly Democratic Mayor refused to speak out for GLBT rights).

St. Augustine is a different "product" than the rest of Northeast Florida -- we must not hide our light under a bushel basket.  The product is tolerance and diversity, which is why Mumford & Sons is playing concerts here in September, and not in Jacksonville, f/k/a "Cowford."

VCB must respect Fair Housing, Open Records, Antitrust and Civil Rights Laws.  This is not Jacksonville.

VCB must welcome the Hispanic, African-American, Civil Rights, GLBT and Youth touirsm markets.  Advertising in bankrupt Reader's Digest hardly appeals to our strengths -- this is a cool hip place with wonderfully diverse history, nature and eco-tourism.  VCB seems loathe to "sell" this "product" (a metaphor MMGY and VCB repeatedly use, even calling the tourism business an "industry").

Tourism should be a profession or a business, not an "industry."  This is not a mining operation -- it is an effort to raise our quality of life by preserving and protecting St. Augustine and its rich diverse culture.

VCB's appreciation of our history is incomplete and unsophisticated, lacking nuance and thought.

St. Augustine tourism promotion must appeal to what is genuine, starting with respect for 11,000 years of Native American history, 500 years of  Roman Catholic, African-American, Hispanic and Jewish history, and many years of English Mincorcan, Greek, Civil War, Civil Rights and American history. 

VCB must lead, follow or get out of the way.