TWO WAYS OF LIFE

TWO WAYS OF LIFE:
ST. AUGUSTINE MUST REJECT TALL BUILDINGS AND PROLIFERATING "ADULT ENTERTAINMENT" ZONES
When many of us were in junior high school, we had a textbook called "Two Ways of Life," comparing and contrasting democracy and communism. Democracy won.
Today, there are two ways of life in Florida - - urban sprawl or small towns. We choose small towns. That's why we live here.
Unfortunately, foreign- funded landscalpers and speculators want to turn St. Augustine and St. Johns County into an unreasonable facsimile of South Florida, with its heat and concrete, grime and crime, lack of tree cover and government corruption.
In 1972, during a national political convention, NBC News' brilliant commentator/co-anchor David Brinkley reported that Miami Beach was a place with "hibiscus, high fences and high prices.
People treasure St. Augustine for its hibiscus. But let foreign-funded real estate speculators take their tall buildings, tall tales and Apartheid- style notion of city planning elsewhere.
The notion of allowing peculator-speculator- developers everything they want is passe.
It's time to "just say no."
Just say no to greed.
Just say no to bad government.
Just say no to Sunshine violations.
Just say no to City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS.
Just say no to ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD and his pals.
The tower for the Sebastian Inland Harbor is a bad precedent and should be rejected. I've stayed and attended American Bar Association meetings at Westins and enjoy their towering John Portman style architecture. We don't need more tall buildings in St. Augustine.
If we need an "adult entertainment zone," let there be but one -- the Sebastian Inland Harbor project, next door to the St. Augustine Police Station. The zone would be open to easy access to business travelers and conventioneers, who attend such places in cities like NYC (where $8100 was spent by City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS, five Commissioners -- a total party of twelve -- in 2005 to meet with Standard and Poors and three bonding companies.
Putting the adult entertainment zone next to the SAPD HQ makes perfect sense. It will save gas and deter crimes. Thattaway, if the police need to make arrests for prostitution or public lewdness, our City's police are right next door.
We don't need an "adult entertainment zone" on U.S. 312 or on West King Street, both of which are entrance corridors to our Nation's Oldest City.
Last month, our City held a "workshop" on the proposed adult entertainment zone.
City Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. forbade the public to comment, even though some twelve people wanted to talk, falsely claiming that people aren't allowed to talk in workshops, only politicians. In fact, I attended a lovely workshop in 2006 on city history issues, and the people were allowed to speak, making contributions that even City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS appreciated.
Increasingly, authoritarian, hierarchical, censorious tendencies are shown by our City government to public comment, by controversial St. Augustine Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. Color him overbearing. Last year, on the campaign trail, Mayor BOLES claimed that our Mayor only has a "ceremonial" role. Perhaps BOLES does not appreciate democracy.
Tell Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. and our City Commissioners what you think of tall buildings, tall tales and adult entertainment zones in entrance corridors.
Our next St. Augustine City Commission meeting is tonight at 5 PM at 75 King Street, Alcazar Room, 1st Floor.
You too can "fight City Hall and win. The Rainbow flags on our Bridge of Lions in 2005 proved it. It only took two weeks for a federal court to find our City violated the First Amendment.
This is our Town. Make your thoughts known. St. Augustine, Florida is worth saving from lowlifes.