BILL LEARY
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 07/05/09
U.S. News and World report is the latest to declare St. Augustine a great place to live. They found us to be affordable, with a strong economy, a highly educated workforce, and fun things to do. While some may quibble with those conclusions, most people I talk to love living here. Yet, many others remain dissatisfied.
In earlier columns we've talked about two sources of dissatisfaction: parking and absence of beauty. Based upon my e-mail traffic, beauty trumps parking, but just by a meter. Cha-ching.
I probably have a conversation a week with people who have just returned from a place like Charleston, Savannah or Asheville, N.C., and lament, "Why can't we be more like them?" I'm told Asheville is clean, has colorful flowers everywhere downtown, outdoor café tables, strolling musicians and sellers of art. The shops mostly sell antiques, art, and nice clothing, instead of tacky tourist merchandise.
Years ago the St. George Street merchants convinced city leaders to ban street entertainers because they clogged up the street, interfered with their busi-nesses and allegedly annoyed tourists and locals. Artists and others were also banned from selling their goods in the historic districts, including the Plaza de Constitution, to avoid unfair competition with shops that pay rent and insurance, and the unsightly appearance of a flea market on historically important grounds.
The city now finds itself caught between conflicting court opinions regarding the sale of art. A federal judge recently ruled the city must allow "visual artists" to sell their work in the historic districts though a county judge earlier told the city it could not distinguish between the sale of art and other stuff. The county court ruling led the city to ban everything rather than allow everything. Presumably the city wants one of the courts, or the court of public opinion, to give it some guidance or help it define "art."
Art is too personal to define. It's like the modern art exhibit visitor who said, "This is not art to me, all these squares and things. Real art has, you know, like a madonna in it."
It's time to stop trying, given that the city might have repaired several of the 33 state-owned historic buildings in need of restoration with what it has spent on costs and attorneys fees on this issue.
The city doesn't want to revisit banning street entertainment on St. George Street, or café tables for that matter, in part, because that ban has been upheld in court.
But many locals miss the entertainers and the fun they generated and question the wisdom of that policy in this economy.
Given that these same merchants also did not want the responsibility of maintaining flowers in the past, I find myself wondering if we shouldn't direct more attention to improving other downtown commercial areas.
Several merchants on San Marco Avenue, King Street and the area south of the Plaza correctly remind me that they are not chopped liver and deserve more of the city's attention.
Perhaps the city should work with those merchants to encourage development, street entertainment, outdoor café tables, flowers, trees, colorful banners, better lighting and parking.
Speaking of encouraging improvements, the city should build upon the restoration of the Flagler-era fountains by several resourceful and generous citizens.
I'm pleased the city may soon act on the recommendation to publish a list of other specific large and small improvement projects and their individual cost. People and groups could adopt them and contribute to their completion. Checking even small ones off the list would feel good and encourage more success.
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Next time, let's talk about what to do with vacant and abandoned properties.
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Bill Leary is a member of the Planning and Zoning Board of the City of St. Augustine. He is writing these Conversations with St. Augustine at the request of The St. Augustine Record. He invites your thoughts and comments to the Record at letters@staugustine.com or at bill.leary4@yahoo.com.
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