Want to Save Crumbling Buildings? Support the St. Augustine National Historical Park, Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway

Photo credit: Maureen Ortagus www.maureen-ortagus.com

The excellent article in the Record today by Peter Guinta lacks a matching headline.

No, there is no progress, just double-talk.

St. Augustine and St. Johns County deserve a St. Augustine National Historical Park, Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway Act.

Not "earmarks."

Our City of St. Augustine is an unjust steward and the federal government won't -- and should not -- give it economic stimulus money.

Putting solid waste in the Old City Reservoir? Arresting visual artists?

Dumping semi-treated sewage in our saltwater marsh for years, in secret (with CITY MANAGER WILLIAM HARRISS illegally polling Commissioners about it, in violation of the Sunshine law, but never telling St. Augustine residents or the news media)?

And these lawbreakers dare ask the federal government for funds to the City's coffers? No way.

A Title VI civil rights complaint is pending with EPA against the City of St. Augustine, which could cut off all federal funds due to its environmental racism.

Not one federal dime for environmental polluters, lawbreakers and racists in the government of the City of St. Augustine.

We don't need more foolishness from Congressman JOHN LUIGI MICA.

We don't need pie in the sky in the sweet bye and bye.

What we do need is a St. Augustine National Historical Park, Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway Act. Let the National Park Service do what it does best. When it comes to preserving and interpreting history and nature, NPS is the best.

For the 450th anniversry of the City (2015) and the 500th anniversary of Florida (2013) and the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights movement here -- which led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act -- we don't need Amateur Hour.

Congress and the Administration should continue to just say "no" to the City of St. Augustine City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS and all his works and pomps (and his minions, toadies, heyboys and developer pals).



JOHN REGAN, City of St. Augustine Chief Operations Officer, and a portion of the infamous, world-famous sewage "pipe" that our City of St. Augustine City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS and other city managers knew was leaking for years (several hundred feet were missing). But City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS didn't bother telling the people or the press ("polling" Commissioners illegally in violation of the Sunshine law and taking no action to fix it for years). This is an environmental crime that was never prosecuted as such by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection or "DEP" (which my late friend David Thundershield Queen said really stands for "Don't Expect Protection").




WILLIAM B. HARRISS
Photo credit: J.D. Pleasant


If you were an ethical Senator or Congressperson, would you breach your fiduciary duty by giving money to a corrupt City government under investigation by EPA for environmental racism? (Nope. No earmarks for recidivist polluters and wily wastrels, thank you.)

Or would you support the St. Augustine National Historical Park, Seashore and Scenic Coastal Parkway Act? I reckon.