Time to Expand the National Park Service Presence in St. Augustine, Florida to a National Historical Park?

New Bedford, Massachusetts has the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park: it embraces thirteen (13) blocks of New Bedford, some 32 acres.

http://www.nps.gov/nebe/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Bedford_Whaling_National_Historical_Park

St. Augustine has been neglected for decades under a rampantly mismanaged city and state government, our Nation's Oldest City, St. Augustine, Florida needs the same treatment that New Bedford has had for the last decade, since 1996.

Currently, St. Augustine's federal presence is limited to the Castillo de San Marco National Monument, from which pieces have been carved out for park offices and parking. South of us is the Fort Matanzas National Monument.

Our region is being "smeared, bleared and teared with trade," in the words of Rev. Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., the great Jesuit poet. Our history and beauty are being destroyed by the likes of the speculators who have all five City Commissioners in their pockets like so much loose change.

St. Augustine's historic streets and buildings are literally falling apart and leaking under City of State Augustine and State of Florida management.

Time to discuss a coherent plan for National Park Service takeover of the city and state properties, St. George Street, Cuna Street, Red House Bluff and other local properties?

Time to let tourists see the history and beauty of St. Augustine with one ticket, thereby letting them see more (and stay longer)?

Or do we let greedy bulldoze beautiful sites into condominiums, from Red House Bluff (3000-4000 year old indigenous Native American village and sacred site next to St. Augustine High School) and perhaps even the Fountain of Youth Park?

A Department of the Interior National Park Service St. Augustine National Historic Park site could embrace the historic downtown, preserving it, just as in New Bedford and Colonial Williamsburg.

NPS would honor not just Spanish and British Colonial history, but also the rich 11,000 year indigenous Native American, African-American, Civil War, women's and Gay and Lesbian history of our Nation's Oldest City, protecting our City from the tacky t-shirt shops that are ruining our town and from the retaliatory City Manager, WILLIAM B. HARRISS, who does not know any more about history than he does about environmental protection or economy in government.

With an increased NPS presence, St. Augustine would be taken more seriously as an historic tourism destination, increasing the length of tourist stays from the typical half-day trip by local area residents.

Increasing the length of tourist stays and the quality of the historic tourism experience would increase job and small business oportunities, making St. Augustine a better place to live, with more good jobs at good wages.

As JFK said, "a rising tide lifts all boats."

Historic re-enactors would become NPS employees, free of the vagaries of the likes of WILLIAM B. HARRISS and those responsible for making our Nation's Oldest City an environmental criminal, polluting the Old City Reservoir with the entire contents of the old illegal city dump on Riberia Street. (see below).

What do you reckon?