They are also looking for "more authenticity" and "disappointed" by "excessive commercialism," Tourist Development Council Executive Director Glenn Hastings told the City Visioning committee meeting yesterday. Hastings was speaking of 2013 survey data, made public on the web.
Hastings' presentation is consistent with the 1989 book by University of Florida Geography Professor Ari Lamme, America's Historic Landscapes, which limned why some historic cities got national park protections and funding, while St. Augustine just got tackier (it was inept local leadership here, he concludes).
Excessive commercialism and de minimis authenticity hurt our image, hurt our branding, and don't give tourists a reason to stay. The 2004 report of the National Trust for Historic Preservation found that historic and environmental tourists spend twice as long and spend twice as much. We now see kayaks and surfboards in pickup trucks, where only a few years ago we would see Confederate flags. Our tourists are younger, hipper, smarter and more educated, and they want to enjoy our history and nature.
We need a St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore. www.staugustgreen.com Both St. Johns County Sheriff DAVID BERNARD SHOAR and I agree on this one -- who among us could disagree?
St. George Street is a disgrace, with our artists and entertainers forcibly removed by former City Commissioners other-directed by formidable fascist forces (commercial landlords who know not that they know not). As Cathy Brown said May 22, "St. George Street is a t-shirt shop" and need to "clean it up."
Why is St. George Street a disgrace? Because the Whetstones and other bossy capitalists got their way. They won the battle, but they lost the public trust, when tourists walk down St. George Street, not buying anything (ever see a shopping bag?) They don't buy because they don't enjoy being exploited. They miss the artists and entertainers. Henry Whetstone's aesthetic is no longer law. The KKK and commercial landlords are no longer bossing around our City Manager.
"St. Augustine is a working class own, not fancy," Cathy Brown said, and "not fancy." We need to be "true to who we are." Buskers are working people, and deserve respect.
In Tacitus' words, bully commercial landlords like Henry and Virginia Whetstsone and their terribly tacky toadies "created a desert and they called it peace."
Take a walk down St. George Street this weekend.
Compared to what it was only 15-20 years ago, St. George Street is hideous, unadorned by art, music and culture and almost destroyed by the rot of crappy t-shirt shops selling obscene and alcohol-related t-shirts to youngsters.
Former Mayor Leonard Weeks and others who attacked artists and musicians know that they did wrong. We forgive them. We need to move quickly to overcome what they did.
We need our artists and musicians back, we need outdoor restaurants and cafes, we need places that stay open past 6 PM, and most importantly we need to continue the young, cool hip vibe.
Our artists and musicians are the soul of our City. They were attacked by KKK-style Jim Crow laws, as arrogant an exercise as Virginia Whetstone's spite fence.
By Ed-ict, the KKK is hereby banished to rural places in the interior of Florida, where they can simmer in the sickness of their own intolerance.
Meanwhile, I predict that the cool people will continue to enjoy, live in and move to St. Augustine.
Thank you, Glenn Hastings and TDC for your candor! Keep speaking out!
As LBJ said after Selma, "We SHALL overcome!"
Ed Slavin
www.staugustgreen.com
Box 3084
St. Augustine, Florida 32085-3084
EASlavin@aol.com
904-377-4998
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