Many times each year, St. Augustine streets in low-income and minority become impassible due to flooding. Asked by Rep. JOHN LUIGI MICA for projects that could help with economic stimulus, City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS listed only one -- our seawall. He and Commissioner ERROL JONES (a/k/a ERRONEOUS JONES) did not mention anything for lincolnville.
These are prime examples of what we call "Environmental Racism." Not only do Lincolnville and West Augustine literally get dumped on -- it's worthy of a Scandals Tour -- but our Nation's Oldest City's racist City Manager has been unwilling and unable in 10.5 years on the job to do anything about the drainage problems here.
Not only that, but he's also failed and refused for almost eleven (11) years to get federal grants that would fix the crumbling seawall (below).
We have in St. Augustine "a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference," in the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (quoting Dante). Where else in the world would a City Manager still be in power (and smirking) after two major environmental violations -- dumping 40,000 cubic yards of solid waste in the Old City Reservoir (in West Augustine) and dumping sewage effluent in a saltwater marsh for years, failing to inform the people while commiting Sunshine violations to conceal it all?
City Commissioners refuse to discuss the City Manager's crimes against nature.
Who should we ask about this Environmental Racism? Who empowers this gang of thugs.
CONGRESSMAN JOHN LUIGI MICA, who got the City a $1.2 million grant for a giant parking garage we don't need.
FLAGLER COLLEGE CHANCELLOR WILLIAM L. PROCTOR, our State Representative for the 20th District. Thanks to PROCTOR, St. Augustine's in danger of resembling the dystopia in the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life," where one mean old man named Potter dominates a town through ruthless financial chicanery -- the angel shows the hero what the town would look like without him.
Thanks to PROCTOR, St. Augustine gets very little from FLAGLER COLLEGE (only $127,000to pay for two police officers, when other colleges and universities are much more generous -- Yale University pays New Haven, CT. 50% of what it would pay in property taxes.
Thanks to PROCTOR's bad influence -- a right-wing school with no tenure for faculty members founded by a fascist family descended from Standard Oil monopolist HENRY FLAGLER -- our City is deprived of what could be a first-rate educational institution with adult education programs at night. There are very few African-American students at FLAGLER COLLEGE.
Thanks to PROCTOR's and MICA's developer-driven refusal to support the St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Highway (proposed in 2006), our small businesses and employees are suffering from an economic downturn.
Thanks to PROCTOR and MICA, St. Augustine increasingly resembles the dystopia of Potterville in "It's a Wonderful Life."
FLAGLER COLLEGE started a food court in its new Ringhaver Building, resulting in coffee shops and other small businesses closing their doors.
Thanks to City Commissioners' ill-advised adult entertainment ordinance, we might look even more like POTTERVILLE soon due to the economic downturn.
And the obscene, hyseterical and ranting posts by those government officials, family members, toadies, and henchmen posting as Anonymice at Plazabum.com (and now shamefulpeople.com), we're scaring tourists away with hateful attacks on homeless people (commencing two days before Christmas, 2006).
It's a beautful town in a beautiful place.
We need a new City Manager, and a new direction in City Hall.
What do you reckon?
Alright, I've got two main beefs with this post.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, the adult entertainment ordinance seeks to restrict where and how adult businesses can operate. Until this ordinance was passed, a sex shop could have opened anywhere in the city.
Now, obviously, the city can't ban them outright. So instead, they tried to make it as unattractive as possible for somebody to open an adult entertainment business. I mean, let's think about it.
You can open a strip club, but there can't be any nudity in St. Augustine. Also, you can't serve alcohol.
So, off the bat, there is almost no way somebody's going to open a strip club. It'd be terrible, and receive almost no business. We used to have a strip club, Cafe Erotica, but that's been closed for some time. I imagine anybody thinking of opening a strip club would look at how well they did business and decide it's not worth it.
As far as sex shops goes, I'm not sure what the regulations are, but I know Adam and Eve on US1 darkens their windows and restricts patrons to 18 and over. I assume this is something enforced by the city. And as far as I'm concerned, that's the least sleazy kinda place there is. There's no "champagne room" or anything like that, it operates like a standard retail store.
I will say it here and now: St. Augustine will never, ever have a red light district. Period. The day St. Augustine has a red light district, I'll make some kind of public announcement, maybe take out an ad in the Record like "Well, guess I was wrong!"
Secondly, it's probably unfair to compare Flagler to Yale. I mean, they're in two completely different tiers. Sure, Yale gives 50% of what it's property taxes should be. But it's also freakin' Yale. Flagler has a population of, what, 1500 or 2000 students? Yale has something like 11,000 if I'm not mistaken. It's like comparing the New York Yankees to the Toledo Mud Hens.
What would be more interesting, and much more useful, is a listing of colleges and universities that are about Flagler's size (in terms of student population), and what they do about property taxes.
I'd also like to see what Flagler would be paying in property taxes, and what percentage of property taxes for the city that would be. That would also be interesting, and somewhat useful.