Progress!

This morning's Record brings cheerful news of two positive trends.


First, El Galeon, the 650 ton Spanish replica of Pedro Menendez' galleon, may stay in St. Augustine as its home port through the 450th anniversary of St. Augustine in 2015. Good news for those who love our history, and want to preserve amd protect it forever, making St. Augustine a shining beacon for showing off 11,000 years of history, including a St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore. www.staugustgreen.com

Saturday night, I spoke to Tourist Development Council Executive Director Glenn Hastings, this year's chair of of Visit Florida, as he was photographing the 1586 Francis Drake Raid re-enactment in the Plaza de la Constitucion. We taked about El Galeon, and I said I wished there would always be a Spanish ship in our St. Augustine Harbor. He smiled knowingly -- turns out he and the City staff were already working on it! Good work.

Second, the "developer" who got our Florida legislature to carve a sleazy, last-minute exception for one 607 acre parcel in northwest St. Johns County -- and saw the legislature revoke the loophole unanimously repealed last month -- has dropped the oyster and left the wharf. The lawsuit is dropped. The project is defeated, dead as a doornail.

Good news for local environmental activists, who once again scored a major victory in halting sprawl and ugliness by tree-killing, wetland-filling "developers" and their foreign-funded monstrosity "developments."

This time, every single Florida legislator, in both houses, was on the side of St. Johns County and its residents. We were all duped in 2012 by Tallahassee trickery and legerdemain (which dupery included support for the loophole by the League of Cities and Association of Counties, who should be carefully scrutinized).

Our County Commission and County Attorney were prepared to file a lawsuit challenging the 2012 loophole as unconstitutional -- they issued a press release upon the developer dropping its lawsuit.

This is a new day, in a town and county that is in the process of throwing off the shackles of corruption and protecting our environmental and historic heritage.

Where once there were only a few "lone voices in the wilderness" -- Diane Mills, David Thundershield Queen, Louise Thrower, Robin Nadeau, Gina Burrell, Ellen Whittmer, Don Beattie, later joined by Nancy Sikes-Kline (now Vice Mayor, who valiantly helped to save the Bridge of Lions), et al. -- today, environmental and historic preservationists enjoy majority support, both here in St. Augustine and St. Johns County. We are being heard and heeded from City Hall to the County Administration Taj Mahal Palace to Tallahassee. It's a beautiful day. Enjoy!

Yes we can!