St. Augustine must have a national historical park, seashore and scenic coastal highway -- see www.staugustgreen.com
Guest Column: St. Augustine should have a national historical park
ED SLAVIN
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 03/26/07
Real estate speculators (some foreign-funded) continue to destroy our local wildlife, habitat, nature and history. Roads are clogged. Noise abounds. Our way of life is being destroyed. Unfeeling, uncaring Philistines are turning St. Johns County into an uglier, unreasonable facsimile of South Florida. Unjust county government stewards allowed an asphalt plant near homes. Another plant reportedly emits 50 tons/year of volatile organic compounds into residents' and workers' lungs and brains.
Speculators are even trying to build homes on top of unremediated septic tanks/fields, while vacationing boaters pollute our Bay front with untreated sewage (the only boat-pumpout-station is at Conch House Marina). Our Bay front (which lacks a harbormaster) had an oil spill Jan. 15. Developers demand to build docks over city-owned State Road 312 area marshes for boat-owners' pleasure. Enough.
Let's invite environmental tourism by preserving an "emerald necklace of parks," including the city-owned marsh.
Ask Congress to hold hearings to map our "St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore" (SANHPNS), using 1928-style trolleycars to save gasoline, uniting the Castillo and Fort Matanzas National Monuments, "slave market park," downtown streets, Government House, Red House Bluff indigenous village (next to historical society), marshes, forests, National Cemetery, GTM NERR, Anastasia State Park, Fort Mose and other city, county, state and St. Johns River Water Management District lands.
Let's cancel future shock/schlock/sprawl/ugliness/skyscrapers and eliminate temptations to abuse/neglect/misuse state parks and historic buildings for golf courses and rote, rube commercialism.
In December, State Sen. Jim King suggested Florida donate "deed and title" of state buildings to our city. I suggested that we deed them to the National Park Service (NPS), with St. George Street visitor center in restored buildings, saving millions (as in the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park).
St. Augustine needs a national civil rights and indigenous history museum, celebrating local residents and national leaders, whose courage helped win passage of 1964's Civil Rights Act. Why not put the museum in the old Woolworth's building, restored to its former glory, with wood floors, lunch-counter and exhibits on the civil rights struggles that changed history (well- documented in Jeremy Dean's documentary, "Dare Not Walk Alone"), with "footsoldiers monument" across the street ?
Why not (finally) implement the 2003 National Trust for Historic Preservation and Flagler College study on how to protect our history? Let's tax tourists more to fund historic preservation, as in Charleston/elsewhere.
Let's preserve/protect the quality of our lives and visitors' experience (and property values) by preserving forever what speculators haven't destroyed (yet).
Let's adopt a three-year moratorium on growth, while we work to adopt truly comprehensive plans worthy of the name.
Colonial National Historical Park (NHP), Philadelphia's Independence NHP and NHPs in Boston, New Bedford, Valley Forge, San Francisco and Saratoga.
There's a Martin Luther King historical site in Atlanta, NHPs for "Rosie the Riveter" (California) and the "War in the Pacific" (Guam), and new parks slated for ten Japanese internment camps.
Florida hosts Everglades, Dry Tortugas and Biscayne National Parks and Canaveral National Seashore. Let's add St. Augustine to the list.
From sea to shining sea, America's coastal areas enjoy national parks. Where's ours?
Let's make parts of State Road A1A a National Parkway and hiking/biking trail, like the Colonial National Historical Parkway and the Baltimore Washington, George Washington, Rock Creek and John D. Rockefeller (Wyoming) Parkways and the Appalachian Trial and C&O Canal.
Let's add St. Augustine to the list of our nation's most beloved national parks, joining Zion, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and the Great Smoky Mountains.
Florida's 500th and St. Augustine's 450th anniversaries are only six and eight years away (2013 and 2015). Enacting a national park and seashore will forever preserve the treasures that we love. It will halt the sprawl we hate, increase tourism and reduce local taxes, paying speculators to stop.
Mayor Joe Boles' mother graciously thanked me for speaking out on these issues after the Jan. 22 City Commission meeting -- issues that Mrs. Boles has been outspoken about for "30 years." Let's honor/heed Mrs. Boles' wisdom -- and those who proposed a national park before World War II. Let's save St. Augustine and our environment forever.
#
Ed Slavin lives in St. Augustine.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/032607/opinions_4479465.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Orlando Sentine: CONGRESSMAN JOHN LUIGI MICA'S "Sunrail" Deal is "Awful"
orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-asecdockery19042009apr20,0,1886846.story
OrlandoSentinel.com
Paula Dockery: SunRail is OK, but this deal is awful
Dan Tracy
Sentinel Staff Writer
April 20, 2009
TALLAHASSEE
Like it or not, and she says she doesn't, Lakeland Sen. Paula Dockery is the equivalent of a railroad crossing arm that has dropped in front of Central Florida's planned SunRail commuter train.
She stopped the $1.2 billion project in the Legislature last year — and she says she's on track to do it again.
The 47-year-old Republican lawmaker has recruited an unusual assortment of allies — labor unions and Democrats — to push SunRail into the last two weeks of the session, a perilous time when legislation can be lost in the crush of hundreds of bills.
Though the project has cleared two Senate committees and will likely pass a third today, Dockery is confident she will prevail. She estimates she has 26 votes to defeat the bill (SB 1212) if it comes to the floor of the 40-member Senate.
Dockery says she takes no joy in trying to deprive Central Florida of a train that would run 61 miles from DeLand through downtown Orlando to Poinciana by 2013. In fact, she said, she is a big mass-transit supporter and would like to see Central Florida get its train.
Her husband, after all, is C.C. "Doc" Dockery, the Lakeland multimillionaire and Republican fundraiser who has tried for decades to get a high-speed train built that would link Tampa with Miami and Orlando.
And it's that relationship that SunRail supporters privately grouse about. They say Dockery is motivated primarily by the supposed animus of her husband, whom they contend is angry that high-speed rail hasn't happened.
He spent $3 million of his own money on a statewide referendum in 2000 that amended the state constitution to create a high-speed-rail system. But then-Gov. Jeb Bush not only got that vote reversed in 2004, he then threw his backing to the Central Florida commuter-rail plan.
Dockery, critics say, is exacting her husband's revenge. "Absolutely not true," said Doc Dockery, who declined further comment.
Paula Dockery also scoffs at the notion. "I'm not against SunRail," she said during an interview in her third-floor Senate office.
The problem, she said, is the agreement between the state Department of Transportation and CSX, the railroad company that owns the tracks that the commuter train would use.
"This is not about me," Dockery said. "This is about a bad deal that needs to be improved."
A University of Florida graduate with a master's degree in mass communications, Dockery said her initial response to SunRail was ambivalent. But she started to pay more attention when she was told freight traffic could be rerouted through her hometown to make way for the commuter train.
SunRail is only a part of a plan that would have the state pay CSX $759 million; more than half will go for improvements to enable CSX to re-route its freight traffic to tracks running down the center of the state and into a new rail yard near Winter Haven. One consequence: the number of freight trains running through downtown Lakeland could increase from an average of 16 today to as many as 54 in coming years.
Dockery started asking FDOT officials questions, she said, and largely was ignored.
"They sort of patted me on the head and said, 'Don't worry. This is going to happen,'" she recalled.
FDOT officials say they cooperated with her. And indeed, Dockery has more than two dozen legal-sized boxes filled with documents about SunRail in her downtown Lakeland office.
Combing through the records with her staff, she said, she concluded that CSX was being paid too much and shifting virtually all of the risk related to any possible accidents onto the state.
A former State Farm insurance underwriter whose husband made his fortune in insurance, Dockery zeroed in on how liability would be split between CSX and the state. Under the current plan — the subject of the bill now in the Senate — the railroad and the state would buy a $200million liability policy that would cover virtually any accident, even one caused by CSX.
"Nothing is coming out of CSX's pockets," she said.
But the railroad is insisting on approval of the entire deal in return for selling its right to run on the tracks through Orlando. That right of way, says CSX spokesman Gary Sease, "has real and tangible value. That's pretty obvious."
A 15-year legislative veteran, including six years in the House, Dockery dug in to fight SunRail. Last year, she recruited trial lawyers — who normally ally with Democrats — and a powerful Miami Republican senator to win.
The lawyers were upset because SunRail was seeking "sovereign immunity," sharp limits on lawsuits.
And with the help of Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, who chaired the critical Judiciary Committee, she tied the train in parliamentary knots that kept it from coming to a floor vote.
This year, SunRail's sponsor, Sen. Lee Constantine, R- Altamonte Springs, dropped sovereign immunity to mollify the trial lawyers. He even got the support of Lakeland by promising in the bill to help reroute freight traffic away from that city.
Dockery responded by enlisting the AFL-CIO, which has strong influence with the Senate's 14 Democrats. The unions are concerned because eight unionized CSX workers could lose their jobs — and worse, the commuter train could be operated by a nonunion company.
Dockery has also insisted — despite DOT spreadsheets that say otherwise — that there are "hundreds of millions" of state dollars set aside for SunRail. Democrats, seeking more money for education, have jumped on that argument, prompting Senate Minority Leader Al Lawson of Tallahassee to call SunRail "a choo-choo train to nowhere."
Constantine says Dockery has "been very persuasive. She has the 15-second argument."
By that, he means she can say SunRail is a bad deal that could cost taxpayers millions. His response is more complicated, what he calls "the 15-minute argument" that goes into economic development, transportation philosophy and DOT funding. That's more difficult to sell.
Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, and a SunRail opponent, said Dockery has been so effective at thwarting the train through "sheer doggedness."
Storms said it is not uncommon to hear from Dockery two or three times a day as she passes along new arguments about the train. "She grabs hold. I would say Senator Dockery has not let an opportunity go by," Storms said.
Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel
OrlandoSentinel.com
Paula Dockery: SunRail is OK, but this deal is awful
Dan Tracy
Sentinel Staff Writer
April 20, 2009
TALLAHASSEE
Like it or not, and she says she doesn't, Lakeland Sen. Paula Dockery is the equivalent of a railroad crossing arm that has dropped in front of Central Florida's planned SunRail commuter train.
She stopped the $1.2 billion project in the Legislature last year — and she says she's on track to do it again.
The 47-year-old Republican lawmaker has recruited an unusual assortment of allies — labor unions and Democrats — to push SunRail into the last two weeks of the session, a perilous time when legislation can be lost in the crush of hundreds of bills.
Though the project has cleared two Senate committees and will likely pass a third today, Dockery is confident she will prevail. She estimates she has 26 votes to defeat the bill (SB 1212) if it comes to the floor of the 40-member Senate.
Dockery says she takes no joy in trying to deprive Central Florida of a train that would run 61 miles from DeLand through downtown Orlando to Poinciana by 2013. In fact, she said, she is a big mass-transit supporter and would like to see Central Florida get its train.
Her husband, after all, is C.C. "Doc" Dockery, the Lakeland multimillionaire and Republican fundraiser who has tried for decades to get a high-speed train built that would link Tampa with Miami and Orlando.
And it's that relationship that SunRail supporters privately grouse about. They say Dockery is motivated primarily by the supposed animus of her husband, whom they contend is angry that high-speed rail hasn't happened.
He spent $3 million of his own money on a statewide referendum in 2000 that amended the state constitution to create a high-speed-rail system. But then-Gov. Jeb Bush not only got that vote reversed in 2004, he then threw his backing to the Central Florida commuter-rail plan.
Dockery, critics say, is exacting her husband's revenge. "Absolutely not true," said Doc Dockery, who declined further comment.
Paula Dockery also scoffs at the notion. "I'm not against SunRail," she said during an interview in her third-floor Senate office.
The problem, she said, is the agreement between the state Department of Transportation and CSX, the railroad company that owns the tracks that the commuter train would use.
"This is not about me," Dockery said. "This is about a bad deal that needs to be improved."
A University of Florida graduate with a master's degree in mass communications, Dockery said her initial response to SunRail was ambivalent. But she started to pay more attention when she was told freight traffic could be rerouted through her hometown to make way for the commuter train.
SunRail is only a part of a plan that would have the state pay CSX $759 million; more than half will go for improvements to enable CSX to re-route its freight traffic to tracks running down the center of the state and into a new rail yard near Winter Haven. One consequence: the number of freight trains running through downtown Lakeland could increase from an average of 16 today to as many as 54 in coming years.
Dockery started asking FDOT officials questions, she said, and largely was ignored.
"They sort of patted me on the head and said, 'Don't worry. This is going to happen,'" she recalled.
FDOT officials say they cooperated with her. And indeed, Dockery has more than two dozen legal-sized boxes filled with documents about SunRail in her downtown Lakeland office.
Combing through the records with her staff, she said, she concluded that CSX was being paid too much and shifting virtually all of the risk related to any possible accidents onto the state.
A former State Farm insurance underwriter whose husband made his fortune in insurance, Dockery zeroed in on how liability would be split between CSX and the state. Under the current plan — the subject of the bill now in the Senate — the railroad and the state would buy a $200million liability policy that would cover virtually any accident, even one caused by CSX.
"Nothing is coming out of CSX's pockets," she said.
But the railroad is insisting on approval of the entire deal in return for selling its right to run on the tracks through Orlando. That right of way, says CSX spokesman Gary Sease, "has real and tangible value. That's pretty obvious."
A 15-year legislative veteran, including six years in the House, Dockery dug in to fight SunRail. Last year, she recruited trial lawyers — who normally ally with Democrats — and a powerful Miami Republican senator to win.
The lawyers were upset because SunRail was seeking "sovereign immunity," sharp limits on lawsuits.
And with the help of Sen. Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, who chaired the critical Judiciary Committee, she tied the train in parliamentary knots that kept it from coming to a floor vote.
This year, SunRail's sponsor, Sen. Lee Constantine, R- Altamonte Springs, dropped sovereign immunity to mollify the trial lawyers. He even got the support of Lakeland by promising in the bill to help reroute freight traffic away from that city.
Dockery responded by enlisting the AFL-CIO, which has strong influence with the Senate's 14 Democrats. The unions are concerned because eight unionized CSX workers could lose their jobs — and worse, the commuter train could be operated by a nonunion company.
Dockery has also insisted — despite DOT spreadsheets that say otherwise — that there are "hundreds of millions" of state dollars set aside for SunRail. Democrats, seeking more money for education, have jumped on that argument, prompting Senate Minority Leader Al Lawson of Tallahassee to call SunRail "a choo-choo train to nowhere."
Constantine says Dockery has "been very persuasive. She has the 15-second argument."
By that, he means she can say SunRail is a bad deal that could cost taxpayers millions. His response is more complicated, what he calls "the 15-minute argument" that goes into economic development, transportation philosophy and DOT funding. That's more difficult to sell.
Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico, and a SunRail opponent, said Dockery has been so effective at thwarting the train through "sheer doggedness."
Storms said it is not uncommon to hear from Dockery two or three times a day as she passes along new arguments about the train. "She grabs hold. I would say Senator Dockery has not let an opportunity go by," Storms said.
Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel
TIME FOR A NO-BRIBERY CAMPAIGN IN ST. JOHNS COUNTY
TIME FOR A NO-BRIBERY CAMPAIGN IN ST. JOHNS COUNTY
We need an anti-bribery campaign in St. Johns County and St. Augustine and the other government agencies here.
People who are offered bribes should turn in the bribepayer.
People who are asked to give bribes should turn in the public official.
A culture of corruption can be changed one day at a time, just as courageous citizens have done in Sicily.
Stand up to bribepayers and bribetakers, who destroy our democracy.
Interesting that there's never been one editorial in local newspapers against bribery, even though our former Republican County Commission Chair THOMAS MANUEL is under indictment for bribery,for accepting $60,000.
Oleaginous St. Augustine corporate lawyer GEORGE McCLURE, longtime developer lawyer who shows his open contempt for public particpation in govenment, is scheduled to be a witness against MANUEL. Did McCLURE get a deal from federal prosecutors? If not, why is McCLURE testifying? Is this a sudden pang of conscience after inflicting so many ugly, tree-killing, wetland-destroying projects on our community?
What do you reckon?
We need an anti-bribery campaign in St. Johns County and St. Augustine and the other government agencies here.
People who are offered bribes should turn in the bribepayer.
People who are asked to give bribes should turn in the public official.
A culture of corruption can be changed one day at a time, just as courageous citizens have done in Sicily.
Stand up to bribepayers and bribetakers, who destroy our democracy.
Interesting that there's never been one editorial in local newspapers against bribery, even though our former Republican County Commission Chair THOMAS MANUEL is under indictment for bribery,for accepting $60,000.
Oleaginous St. Augustine corporate lawyer GEORGE McCLURE, longtime developer lawyer who shows his open contempt for public particpation in govenment, is scheduled to be a witness against MANUEL. Did McCLURE get a deal from federal prosecutors? If not, why is McCLURE testifying? Is this a sudden pang of conscience after inflicting so many ugly, tree-killing, wetland-destroying projects on our community?
What do you reckon?
“A PEOPLE UNITED” COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION April 30, 2009 6:00 PM- 7:30 PM ST. PAUL AME CHURCH 85 MARTIN LUTHER KING AVENUE ST. AUGUSTINE, FL
“A PEOPLE UNITED”
COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
April 30, 2009
6:00 PM- 7:30 PM
ST. PAUL AME CHURCH
85 MARTIN LUTHER KING AVENUE
ST. AUGUSTINE, FL 32084
CONTACT REV. RON RAWLS FOR MORE INFORMATION
Pastor@SaintPaulFamily.com / 904 829-3918 office
COMMUNITY MOBILIZATION
April 30, 2009
6:00 PM- 7:30 PM
ST. PAUL AME CHURCH
85 MARTIN LUTHER KING AVENUE
ST. AUGUSTINE, FL 32084
CONTACT REV. RON RAWLS FOR MORE INFORMATION
Pastor@SaintPaulFamily.com / 904 829-3918 office
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
GROUND ZERO FOR UGLIFYING DEVELOPER DANNY SCHECTER's EFFORT TO DESTROY ST. AUGUSTINE'S HISTORIC CHARM
The most historic spot in the Nation's Oldest City is GROUND ZERO of uglifying developer DANNY SCHECTER et ux and their lawyer GEORGE McCLURE's effort to inflict a modern building where Spanish Colonial belongs. See below.
Speak May 21 at 2PM Meeting of Historic Architecture Review Board -- Does This Ugly, Palatka-Style Block Belong at Cathedral Place & St. George St?
Not one of the public hearing witnesses at the April 27, 2009 City Commission meeting thought so. What do you think? See below.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
THE MICA FAMILY: Is Bank of Montreal considering J. CLARK MICA, Congressman JOHN LUIGI MICA's Son, As Lobbyist?
Is the Bank of Montreal considering hiring CONGRESSMAN JOHN LUIGI MICA's son, J. CLARK MICA, as a lobbyist?
Formerly a $100,000/year HUD Schedule C Political Patronage employee under President G.W. Bush, J. CLARK MICA is looking for private sector opportunities that are his because of his surname.
16-year right-wing Congressman MICA's son J. CLARK MICA is scion of a father who was top aide to controversial homophobic U.S. Senator PAULA HAWKINS (JOHN LUIGI MICA).
J. CLARK MICA has two uncles who are lobbyists in Tallahassee (Republican DAVID MICA lobbies for Big Oil) and Washington, D.C. (Democrat DAN MICA lobbies for Credit Union National Association).
J. CLARK MICA's sister, D'ANNE MICA, lobbies for people who want influence with her father, including the SANFORD AIRPORT AUTHORITY, where she was introduced in sexist fashion as "CONGRESSMAN MICA's daughter," waltzing off with the first of a line of no-bid contracts.
For whom will J. CLARK MICA lobby next?
Some rich guys, no doubt. Stay tuned.
St. Augustine must have a national historical park, seashore and scenic coastal highway -- see www.staugustgreen.com
Guest Column: St. Augustine should have a national historical park
ED SLAVIN
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 03/26/07
Real estate speculators (some foreign-funded) continue to destroy our local wildlife, habitat, nature and history. Roads are clogged. Noise abounds. Our way of life is being destroyed. Unfeeling, uncaring Philistines are turning St. Johns County into an uglier, unreasonable facsimile of South Florida. Unjust county government stewards allowed an asphalt plant near homes. Another plant reportedly emits 50 tons/year of volatile organic compounds into residents' and workers' lungs and brains.
Speculators are even trying to build homes on top of unremediated septic tanks/fields, while vacationing boaters pollute our Bay front with untreated sewage (the only boat-pumpout-station is at Conch House Marina). Our Bay front (which lacks a harbormaster) had an oil spill Jan. 15. Developers demand to build docks over city-owned State Road 312 area marshes for boat-owners' pleasure. Enough.
Let's invite environmental tourism by preserving an "emerald necklace of parks," including the city-owned marsh.
Ask Congress to hold hearings to map our "St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore" (SANHPNS), using 1928-style trolleycars to save gasoline, uniting the Castillo and Fort Matanzas National Monuments, "slave market park," downtown streets, Government House, Red House Bluff indigenous village (next to historical society), marshes, forests, National Cemetery, GTM NERR, Anastasia State Park, Fort Mose and other city, county, state and St. Johns River Water Management District lands.
Let's cancel future shock/schlock/sprawl/ugliness/skyscrapers and eliminate temptations to abuse/neglect/misuse state parks and historic buildings for golf courses and rote, rube commercialism.
In December, State Sen. Jim King suggested Florida donate "deed and title" of state buildings to our city. I suggested that we deed them to the National Park Service (NPS), with St. George Street visitor center in restored buildings, saving millions (as in the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park).
St. Augustine needs a national civil rights and indigenous history museum, celebrating local residents and national leaders, whose courage helped win passage of 1964's Civil Rights Act. Why not put the museum in the old Woolworth's building, restored to its former glory, with wood floors, lunch-counter and exhibits on the civil rights struggles that changed history (well- documented in Jeremy Dean's documentary, "Dare Not Walk Alone"), with "footsoldiers monument" across the street ?
Why not (finally) implement the 2003 National Trust for Historic Preservation and Flagler College study on how to protect our history? Let's tax tourists more to fund historic preservation, as in Charleston/elsewhere.
Let's preserve/protect the quality of our lives and visitors' experience (and property values) by preserving forever what speculators haven't destroyed (yet).
Let's adopt a three-year moratorium on growth, while we work to adopt truly comprehensive plans worthy of the name.
Colonial National Historical Park (NHP), Philadelphia's Independence NHP and NHPs in Boston, New Bedford, Valley Forge, San Francisco and Saratoga.
There's a Martin Luther King historical site in Atlanta, NHPs for "Rosie the Riveter" (California) and the "War in the Pacific" (Guam), and new parks slated for ten Japanese internment camps.
Florida hosts Everglades, Dry Tortugas and Biscayne National Parks and Canaveral National Seashore. Let's add St. Augustine to the list.
From sea to shining sea, America's coastal areas enjoy national parks. Where's ours?
Let's make parts of State Road A1A a National Parkway and hiking/biking trail, like the Colonial National Historical Parkway and the Baltimore Washington, George Washington, Rock Creek and John D. Rockefeller (Wyoming) Parkways and the Appalachian Trial and C&O Canal.
Let's add St. Augustine to the list of our nation's most beloved national parks, joining Zion, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and the Great Smoky Mountains.
Florida's 500th and St. Augustine's 450th anniversaries are only six and eight years away (2013 and 2015). Enacting a national park and seashore will forever preserve the treasures that we love. It will halt the sprawl we hate, increase tourism and reduce local taxes, paying speculators to stop.
Mayor Joe Boles' mother graciously thanked me for speaking out on these issues after the Jan. 22 City Commission meeting -- issues that Mrs. Boles has been outspoken about for "30 years." Let's honor/heed Mrs. Boles' wisdom -- and those who proposed a national park before World War II. Let's save St. Augustine and our environment forever.
#
Ed Slavin lives in St. Augustine.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/032607/opinions_4479465.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
ED SLAVIN
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 03/26/07
Real estate speculators (some foreign-funded) continue to destroy our local wildlife, habitat, nature and history. Roads are clogged. Noise abounds. Our way of life is being destroyed. Unfeeling, uncaring Philistines are turning St. Johns County into an uglier, unreasonable facsimile of South Florida. Unjust county government stewards allowed an asphalt plant near homes. Another plant reportedly emits 50 tons/year of volatile organic compounds into residents' and workers' lungs and brains.
Speculators are even trying to build homes on top of unremediated septic tanks/fields, while vacationing boaters pollute our Bay front with untreated sewage (the only boat-pumpout-station is at Conch House Marina). Our Bay front (which lacks a harbormaster) had an oil spill Jan. 15. Developers demand to build docks over city-owned State Road 312 area marshes for boat-owners' pleasure. Enough.
Let's invite environmental tourism by preserving an "emerald necklace of parks," including the city-owned marsh.
Ask Congress to hold hearings to map our "St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore" (SANHPNS), using 1928-style trolleycars to save gasoline, uniting the Castillo and Fort Matanzas National Monuments, "slave market park," downtown streets, Government House, Red House Bluff indigenous village (next to historical society), marshes, forests, National Cemetery, GTM NERR, Anastasia State Park, Fort Mose and other city, county, state and St. Johns River Water Management District lands.
Let's cancel future shock/schlock/sprawl/ugliness/skyscrapers and eliminate temptations to abuse/neglect/misuse state parks and historic buildings for golf courses and rote, rube commercialism.
In December, State Sen. Jim King suggested Florida donate "deed and title" of state buildings to our city. I suggested that we deed them to the National Park Service (NPS), with St. George Street visitor center in restored buildings, saving millions (as in the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park).
St. Augustine needs a national civil rights and indigenous history museum, celebrating local residents and national leaders, whose courage helped win passage of 1964's Civil Rights Act. Why not put the museum in the old Woolworth's building, restored to its former glory, with wood floors, lunch-counter and exhibits on the civil rights struggles that changed history (well- documented in Jeremy Dean's documentary, "Dare Not Walk Alone"), with "footsoldiers monument" across the street ?
Why not (finally) implement the 2003 National Trust for Historic Preservation and Flagler College study on how to protect our history? Let's tax tourists more to fund historic preservation, as in Charleston/elsewhere.
Let's preserve/protect the quality of our lives and visitors' experience (and property values) by preserving forever what speculators haven't destroyed (yet).
Let's adopt a three-year moratorium on growth, while we work to adopt truly comprehensive plans worthy of the name.
Colonial National Historical Park (NHP), Philadelphia's Independence NHP and NHPs in Boston, New Bedford, Valley Forge, San Francisco and Saratoga.
There's a Martin Luther King historical site in Atlanta, NHPs for "Rosie the Riveter" (California) and the "War in the Pacific" (Guam), and new parks slated for ten Japanese internment camps.
Florida hosts Everglades, Dry Tortugas and Biscayne National Parks and Canaveral National Seashore. Let's add St. Augustine to the list.
From sea to shining sea, America's coastal areas enjoy national parks. Where's ours?
Let's make parts of State Road A1A a National Parkway and hiking/biking trail, like the Colonial National Historical Parkway and the Baltimore Washington, George Washington, Rock Creek and John D. Rockefeller (Wyoming) Parkways and the Appalachian Trial and C&O Canal.
Let's add St. Augustine to the list of our nation's most beloved national parks, joining Zion, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and the Great Smoky Mountains.
Florida's 500th and St. Augustine's 450th anniversaries are only six and eight years away (2013 and 2015). Enacting a national park and seashore will forever preserve the treasures that we love. It will halt the sprawl we hate, increase tourism and reduce local taxes, paying speculators to stop.
Mayor Joe Boles' mother graciously thanked me for speaking out on these issues after the Jan. 22 City Commission meeting -- issues that Mrs. Boles has been outspoken about for "30 years." Let's honor/heed Mrs. Boles' wisdom -- and those who proposed a national park before World War II. Let's save St. Augustine and our environment forever.
#
Ed Slavin lives in St. Augustine.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/032607/opinions_4479465.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Endangered St. Augustine visual artists to be featured at Democratic Headquarters for First Friday Art Walk
City of St. Augustine employee allegedly takes surveillance photos of visual artists legally selling art at City Hall Photo credit: Art in the Market
St. Augustine Democratic Headquarters (142B King Street, 825-2336) will be the site Friday evening, May 1st for endangered visual artists and musicians to share their talents during First Friday Art Walk (from 6-9 PM).
Portrait artist Kate Merrick, a plaintiff in the visual artist’s First Amendment lawsuit against the City of St. Augustine, will be featured, along with artist Greg Travous and musician Roger Jolley. St. Augustine visual artists are awaiting a federal court decision on a motion for a preliminary injunction, seeking to overturn enforcement against our local artists of St. Augustine Ordinance 22-6, which the artists say unconstitutionally lumps visual artists together with street vendors, banning artists and their art from city parks and streets, including the historic Plaza de la Constitucion, the oldest public market in America.
EPA Press Release: EPA Fines Eight P.R. Companies for Water Runoff
EPA Fines Construction Companies in Culebra, Puerto Rico for
Ignoring Federal Water Quality Laws
Contact: John Senn (212) 637-3667, senn.john@epa.gov or Brenda Reyes (787) 977-5869, reyes.brenda@epa.gov
(San Juan, P.R. – April 28, 2009) – In a move that shows its strong commitment to enforcing rules that protect water quality, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) levied fines against eight construction companies in Culebra, P.R. for their failure to follow federal regulations for handling stormwater run off from construction sites. The eight companies are Culebra Resorts Associates; Playa Clara, S. E.; Inversiones del Mercado; JOFA Contractors; Caribbean Properties Investments; VPI Construction Corp.; and VÃctor Morales all face fines for failing to obtain proper stormwater permits for construction sites in Culebra. Alfa & Omega was also fined for similar violations related to the installation of a sewer line. The companies face fines totaling $205,500.
“The failure to implement adequate stormwater and sewage controls at these construction sites was harming Culebra’s fragile coastal ecosystems” said EPA Acting Regional Administrator George Pavlou. “Stormwater runoff carries sediments and other pollutants that endanger sea grasses and coral ecosystems, which in turn can impact threatened and endangered sea turtles.”
The eight companies failed to obtain permits under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), a program under the federal Clean Water Act that regulates stormwater discharges associated with sewer systems, and industrial and construction activities. NPDES requires owners and operators of construction sites larger than one acre to obtain a permit and to develop and implement a storm water pollution prevention plan, including best management practices to minimize the amount of pollutants reaching waterways.
Breakdown of the fines:
Inversiones del Mercado/Jofa Contractors Corp. $60,050
Caribbean Properties Investment/VPI Construction Corp. $56,050
Culebra Resort Associates $32,500
VÃctor Morales $32,500
Playa Clara, S.E. $24,400
Two endangered species of sea turtles, the hawksbill turtle and the leatherback turtle, and one threatened species, the green turtle, inhabit Culebra’s coastal waters. Elkhorn and staghorn coral, both endangered species, are also found in these waters.
Sediment runoff rates from construction sites are typically 10 to 20 times greater than those from agricultural lands, and 1,000 to 2,000 times greater than those of forest lands. Sediment discharges from construction sites can cause physical and biological harm to waterways.
For more information on how stormwater is regulated, visit http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/swbasicinfo.cfm.
Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/useparegion2 and visit our new Facebook page.
09-061
Ignoring Federal Water Quality Laws
Contact: John Senn (212) 637-3667, senn.john@epa.gov or Brenda Reyes (787) 977-5869, reyes.brenda@epa.gov
(San Juan, P.R. – April 28, 2009) – In a move that shows its strong commitment to enforcing rules that protect water quality, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) levied fines against eight construction companies in Culebra, P.R. for their failure to follow federal regulations for handling stormwater run off from construction sites. The eight companies are Culebra Resorts Associates; Playa Clara, S. E.; Inversiones del Mercado; JOFA Contractors; Caribbean Properties Investments; VPI Construction Corp.; and VÃctor Morales all face fines for failing to obtain proper stormwater permits for construction sites in Culebra. Alfa & Omega was also fined for similar violations related to the installation of a sewer line. The companies face fines totaling $205,500.
“The failure to implement adequate stormwater and sewage controls at these construction sites was harming Culebra’s fragile coastal ecosystems” said EPA Acting Regional Administrator George Pavlou. “Stormwater runoff carries sediments and other pollutants that endanger sea grasses and coral ecosystems, which in turn can impact threatened and endangered sea turtles.”
The eight companies failed to obtain permits under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), a program under the federal Clean Water Act that regulates stormwater discharges associated with sewer systems, and industrial and construction activities. NPDES requires owners and operators of construction sites larger than one acre to obtain a permit and to develop and implement a storm water pollution prevention plan, including best management practices to minimize the amount of pollutants reaching waterways.
Breakdown of the fines:
Inversiones del Mercado/Jofa Contractors Corp. $60,050
Caribbean Properties Investment/VPI Construction Corp. $56,050
Culebra Resort Associates $32,500
VÃctor Morales $32,500
Playa Clara, S.E. $24,400
Two endangered species of sea turtles, the hawksbill turtle and the leatherback turtle, and one threatened species, the green turtle, inhabit Culebra’s coastal waters. Elkhorn and staghorn coral, both endangered species, are also found in these waters.
Sediment runoff rates from construction sites are typically 10 to 20 times greater than those from agricultural lands, and 1,000 to 2,000 times greater than those of forest lands. Sediment discharges from construction sites can cause physical and biological harm to waterways.
For more information on how stormwater is regulated, visit http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/swbasicinfo.cfm.
Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/useparegion2 and visit our new Facebook page.
09-061
Florida Republican-Controlled State House of Reprobates Rejects Stimulus Funding
The New York Times
April 28, 2009
Keeping Jobless Rules Intact, Florida Declines Stimulus Money
By GARY FINEOUT
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Days from the end of the legislative session, Florida lawmakers have refused to move a bill to expand unemployment eligibility in order to accept $444 million in federal stimulus aid.
While the Republican-controlled Legislature plans to use as much as $5 billion from the stimulus package to balance the budget, lawmakers balked at moving the unemployment insurance bill out of committee.
Senator Anthony C. Hill Sr., Democrat of Jacksonville, conceded that the bill was dead for the annual session, which is supposed to end on Friday, although a budget stalemate may force legislators to extend the session by a few days.
Republican legislators say that they do not want to increase the burden on Florida’s unemployment trust fund when it is running out of money. Some statewide business groups, already bracing for an expected increase in unemployment taxes, also objected to the changes.
“The strings attached to the $444 million are going to potentially make a bad problem worse,” said Representative Adam Hasner, the House majority leader from Boca Raton.
Other Southern Republicans have raised protests about the unemployment benefits, saying that expansion could eventually require them to raise taxes. But Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida said he supported changing the law to draw the extra federal money.
“I think taking it is important,” Mr. Crist said. “I know the people need it, especially those who may be facing unemployment. I wish it would be reviewed again.”
Democrats have accused Republican lawmakers of leaving money on the table.
“The unemployed in Florida are being denied their share of the economic stimulus pie,” said United States Representative Kendrick B. Meek, Democrat of Miami, who accused the Legislature of putting “ideology over the people of Florida in their time of need.”
Florida has been hammered by the recession and the collapse of the real estate market and has an unemployment rate of 9.7 percent. The state is eligible for about $1.5 billion in additional unemployment aid in the stimulus package.
The state’s unemployment trust fund is expected to run out of money in August. State officials plan to ask for a federal loan for the fund, and the Legislature is moving ahead with a bill that would increase unemployment taxes on businesses.
Lawmakers are expected to pass a measure that would allow them to use $700 million in stimulus money to extend unemployment benefits for the rest of the year to 250,000 people whose benefits would otherwise expire. But they have been unwilling to make more changes, like offering benefits to those who left work because of domestic violence or the relocation of a spouse.
April 28, 2009
Keeping Jobless Rules Intact, Florida Declines Stimulus Money
By GARY FINEOUT
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Days from the end of the legislative session, Florida lawmakers have refused to move a bill to expand unemployment eligibility in order to accept $444 million in federal stimulus aid.
While the Republican-controlled Legislature plans to use as much as $5 billion from the stimulus package to balance the budget, lawmakers balked at moving the unemployment insurance bill out of committee.
Senator Anthony C. Hill Sr., Democrat of Jacksonville, conceded that the bill was dead for the annual session, which is supposed to end on Friday, although a budget stalemate may force legislators to extend the session by a few days.
Republican legislators say that they do not want to increase the burden on Florida’s unemployment trust fund when it is running out of money. Some statewide business groups, already bracing for an expected increase in unemployment taxes, also objected to the changes.
“The strings attached to the $444 million are going to potentially make a bad problem worse,” said Representative Adam Hasner, the House majority leader from Boca Raton.
Other Southern Republicans have raised protests about the unemployment benefits, saying that expansion could eventually require them to raise taxes. But Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida said he supported changing the law to draw the extra federal money.
“I think taking it is important,” Mr. Crist said. “I know the people need it, especially those who may be facing unemployment. I wish it would be reviewed again.”
Democrats have accused Republican lawmakers of leaving money on the table.
“The unemployed in Florida are being denied their share of the economic stimulus pie,” said United States Representative Kendrick B. Meek, Democrat of Miami, who accused the Legislature of putting “ideology over the people of Florida in their time of need.”
Florida has been hammered by the recession and the collapse of the real estate market and has an unemployment rate of 9.7 percent. The state is eligible for about $1.5 billion in additional unemployment aid in the stimulus package.
The state’s unemployment trust fund is expected to run out of money in August. State officials plan to ask for a federal loan for the fund, and the Legislature is moving ahead with a bill that would increase unemployment taxes on businesses.
Lawmakers are expected to pass a measure that would allow them to use $700 million in stimulus money to extend unemployment benefits for the rest of the year to 250,000 people whose benefits would otherwise expire. But they have been unwilling to make more changes, like offering benefits to those who left work because of domestic violence or the relocation of a spouse.
Florida's Crooked, Mendacious Republican-Controlled State House of Reprobates Supports Offshore Oil Drilling
VAN ZANT
House passes bill to allow offshore drilling
By BRENDAN FARRINGTON
Associated Press Writer
Publication Date: 04/28/09
TALLAHASSEE -- The promise of money and jobs and the desire to reduce dependence on foreign oil beat out arguments that offshore drilling could harm the environment and hurt tourism as the House passed a bill Monday that could allow wells three miles off Florida's coast.
The governor and three-member Cabinet would be able to approve drilling leases in state waters between three and 10.5 miles from shore under the plan.
Rep. Charles Van Zant, the bill's sponsor, said the proposal could attract a new industry to Florida while helping free the U.S. from relying on unfriendly OPEC countries. He said drilling could reap more than $6 billion annually for the state and create more than 16,000 jobs.
"No one in this chamber rode a bicycle here today," Van Zant, R-Keystone Heights, said before the vote, capping two hours of debate on the bill (HB 1219).
Democrats countered that spills would devastate tourism, the state's top industry.
"This is something serious, a dagger in the heart of the economy in my district and the districts of other coastal communities," said Rep. Keith Fitzgerald, a Sarasota Democrat. "Just the smallest of spills will send people elsewhere."
He and other Democrats questioned whether the amount of oil off the state's coast wouldn't even supply the nation for half a year.
"History will judge us on this vote, whether it be 10 years or 20 years," said Rep. Richard Steinberg, D-Miami Beach. "We are gambling with the future of Florida."
The bill next goes to the Senate, which has no similar legislation and has shown little interest in the proposal.
"I'm not receptive to it," said Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach. "That is a really significantly important issue and one that I think would, frankly at our end, would take some serious review."
Atwater said there isn't time to thoroughly examine the idea with the 60-day regular legisative session scheduled to end Friday, nor was he sure it could be adquately done during a special session later this year.
The largely party line vote in the House was 70-43. Only two Democrats voted for the bill and just three Republicans voted against it.
Supporters argued that drilling technology has advanced to the point where spills are highly unlikely, and that pumps can be put on the sea floor unseen from shore.
And many Republicans argued that it's better to drill in American waters than to hand money over to Middle East nations that hate the United States.
"A vote for this bill is a vote for America. It is a vote for our way of life," said Greg Evers, a Republican from Baker in the western Florida Panhandle. "And a vote against this bill is a vote for OPEC."
Gov. Charlie Crist said last week that he was "open minded" about the bill, but before the vote he expressed some caution, saying he was concerned that the idea wasn't discussed until late in the two-month session that ends Friday and that drilling would be close to shore.
But he didn't express opposition.
"It may have some promise. What I mean by that is if the technology can be proven, if it can be shown to be safe, I'm sympathetic to the notion we might be able to be more independent in terms of weaning off our dependence on foreign oil," Crist said.
He said he hopes the issue doesn't get tied to his push to require power companies to use more renewable energy.
The bill has upset members of the state's delegation in Washington who have fought to keep drilling out of federal waters in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
"This bill jeopardizes Florida's $65 billion-a-year tourism economy and thousands of jobs in the middle of a serious economic downturn for our state," said U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz. "I urge Governor Crist to veto this short-sighted legislation should it pass."
She added: "Instead of pandering to Big Oil, the Florida Legislature should be leading the way to alternative sources of energy."
Former Gov. Bob Graham, a Democrat who also served in the U.S. Senate for three terms, said the state action could hurt Florida's efforts on the federal level.
"This will undermine them like a tsunami hitting off the Gulf coast," Graham said.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042809/state_042809_024.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Making a Pig's Breakfast of Florida's Coast, Refusing Stimulus Money, Florida Republican Legislators Stink On Ice
Voting to allow our sea coasts to be destroyed in the name of greed, Florida's plug-uglies (other-directed Republican legislators) know no ethical boundaries. See above.
These clowns have also rejected any federal economic stimulus funds tied to extending unemployment compensation funds. See above.
These ignortant ideologues badly need to be replaced with compassionate people.
See below for more on their shameless ideological perversions.
These clowns have also rejected any federal economic stimulus funds tied to extending unemployment compensation funds. See above.
These ignortant ideologues badly need to be replaced with compassionate people.
See below for more on their shameless ideological perversions.
GEORGE McCLURE (a/k/a SNIDELY WHIPLASH) ON A LOSING STREAK IN ST. AUGUSTINE AND ST. JOHNS COUNTY
SNIDELY WHIPLASH
Occupation: Stereotypical cartoon villain
GEORGE McCLURE
Species: Slobbus Americanus Vulgaris
Occupation: Stereotypical Villain (Northeast Florida Real Estate Speculator Mouthpiece)
The fight to preserve our Nation's Oldest City moved to a new level last night. See below. St. Augustinians and St. Johns Countians are winning the fight against wily GEORGE McCLURE and his clients, foreign-funded developers who have unlimited funds and what H.L. Mencken called "a libido for the ugly."
Last night, every single one of the many witnesses who testified on a monstrous building planned for the corner of Cathedral Place and St. George Street was against it. Not even hiring controversial developer mouthpiece GEORGE McCLURE as its lawyer -- and hiring sitting St. Augustine Commissioner DONALD CRICHLOW as its architect helped an out-of-town developer to have its way with our historic City's downtown.
What a difference four years makes. Where once GeORGE McCLURE was invincible -- and citizens didn't bother to speak when he appeared, knowing he would always get his way -- last night diverse citizens beat McCLURE, again.
GEORGE McCLURE kept cloyingly invoking DONALD CRICHLOW's name, as if it were a shibboleth that would get him past the opposition of respected community leaders.
GEORGE McCLURE is a privileged character -- someone who felt comfortable blathering on for hours about a project that would have been a non-starter but for the Philistine City Manager, WILLIAM B. HARRISS.
GEORGE McCLURE was given unlimited time by his buddy (Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR.).
GEORGE McCLURE used the time to get all gushy about the project, repeatedly using the words "I," "me" and "my" and the royal "we." Mayor BOLES never bothered to swear in McCLURE or any of the public hearing witnesses, but it didn't matter.
In St. Augustine, GEORGE McCLURE met his Waterloo last night in active, informed citizens, including a number of passionately concerned, good and decent people, among them former City Commissioner Raymond Connor (who modestly didn't mention his having served as a Comissioner. Others speaking against McCLURE's effort to trash the Plaza de la Constitucion with ugliness were architect Gerald Dixon, Charles Pellicer, Sandra Goode, Belinda Reconce, Hillary Bosza, William Smith, et al.
Every single one of the public hearing speakers said that the planned building is out of character with the downtown of our Ancient City, founded in 1565. McCLURE's usual disrespectful remarks about dissenting citizens did not carry the day.
Despite McCLURE's unlimited time and self-indulgent use of the words "I," "me" and "my," Commissioners asked good questions and were unconvinced by his plan to turn the historic intersection of St. George Street and Cathedral Place into an unreasonable fascimile of downtown Palatka (or any old South Georgia town).
Controversial corporate lawyer GEORGE McCLURE's influence in St. Augustine and St. Johns County is waning. See article and letter below.
Only our Republican public officials on the City Commission and County Commission are such timid lickspittles for this former ROGERS TOWERS lawyer that they save him from embarrassment by postponing decisions, instead of rejecting his projects.
But the next thing you know, we'll have a vibrant two-party system in St. Johns County again, and actual Democrats who will just say "no" to MCCLURE and his clients.
Last night, has-been lawyer GEORGE McCLURE was so incensed that he stuck his finger in my face outside the meeting, showing as little class or panache as GEORGE McCLURE did when he first tried this tired old provocation with me in May 2005. (The definition of insanity is doing the same old things and expecting different results, GEORGE McCLURE).
Give it up, GEORGE McCLURE -- especially in this saturated real estate market, your stable of developers are no match for today's St. Augustinians, who are no longer bossed and bullied by the likes of you and your pals.
You and your clients can just go to Palatka (or South Georgia) to build your ugly monstrosities.
Our Nation's Oldest City of St. Augustine is for beauty, not for beastly bullies and plug-ugly tactics (attempts to intimidate citizens by lawyers like McCLURE and City officials like HARRISS).
A pox on GEORGE McCLURE and his uglifying clients.
GEORGE McCLURE (and the corporate lawyer "Smirky Turkey Society" of which he is the Dean) may as well disband. We've got your number, GEORGE McCLURE.
We're looking forward to learning more about GEORGE McCLURE's having taped Republican County Commission Chairman THOMAS MANUEL in alleged bribe transactions.
We're especially looking forward to Federal Court cross-examination of McCLURE as to what led him to tape MANUEL, and whether GEORGE MCCLURE has ever provided any money or thing of value to any politicians in exchange for development "favors" of the sort his clients have inflicted on St. Augustine and St. Johns County for too long.
Cynical, sinister, slippery, supercilious, shallow, vacuous spellbinder GEORGE McCLURE is guilty, guilty, guilty of inflicting tree-killing and ugliness on our town and county.
Influence-peddling former ROGERS TOWERS lawyer GEORGE McCLURE has seen his influence decline. Is it the result of his bad karma? Even McCLURe's kids hate him for what he's done to our environment here in St. Johns County.
Examples of unsound, ill-advised GEORGE McCLURE projects abound, like the evisceration of Cooksey's Campground (in St. Augustine Beach) and of Red House Bluff (next to St. Augustine High School), where GEORGE McCLURE helped ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD destroy a 3000-4000 year old indigenous Native American village without proper investigation of possible human burials, as was suggested by the UF Acting Anthropology Chair in January 2006).
It's time for GEORGE McCLURE to come clean and tell the truth before a federal grand jury investigating St. Johns County corruption --- all of it (not just a dinky little piece of it).
What do you reckon?
City tables St. George Street hotel
City tables St. George Street hotel
Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 12:21 am by Shaun Ryan
By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
St. Augustine City Commissioners on Monday tabled an application to build a 16-room hotel and seven retail shops at Cathedral Place and St. George Street because they couldn’t decide if the building’s turn-of-the-century architectural style was appropriate in a city marked by many Spanish Colonial Period structures.
St. Augustine attorney George McClure, speaking for developers Danny and Kaspit Schechter of Jacksonville, said the proposed building was designed to duplicate the original Bishop’s Building, constructed on that site in 1897 and demolished in the early 1960s.
“We’ll make an effort to ensure that the building does not look new,” McClure said. “We’ll use distressed brick, which has the appearance of age. Here we have the opportunity not to imitate history but to restore it.”
The 11,000 square foot building at 180 St. George St. would cover half the Bank of America parking lot. The Cathedral Place side would feature the hotel entrance and one retail door, with the St. George St. side having seven retail doors.
Its second story would contain 15 or 16 hotel rooms, each with its own cast iron balcony.
However, every speaker at the public hearing opposed the project.
Charles Pellicer, son of the late X.L. Pellicer Sr., said his father was a historian and would have opposed this application.
“If I had to pick a center of town, this corner would be it,” he said, adding that Palatka, Gainesville and Tallahassee all had many buildings in the turn-of-the-century style. “If you’re ever going to hold the line on the (historic) districts, this is the time.”
St. Augustine architect Jerry Dixon said this application isn’t just for one building.
“It could set the precedent for a whole lot more. You open up a can of worms when you go there,” he said. “Everyone’s got that style of architecture. We’re the only ones with Colonial Spanish. It’s very important that we stick with the original concept.”
Mayor Joe Boles said, “I want a Second Spanish Colonial city.”
But he recognized that city codes allow a property owner to pick any architectural style that is within view. And most of St. George Street is in the turn-of-the-century style.
Vice Mayor Errol Jones said, “I don’t want (the city) to be a Palatka.”
Seeing the four-member commission — Don Crichlow, an architect, designed the new building and recused himself — in a quandary, McClure requested the item be tabled until a review by the Historic Architectural Review Board for historical appropriateness. That was passed 4-0.
HARB tabled a request for a certificate of appropriateness on April 16 because of some design issues, according to Mark Knight, director of city planning and building.
Commissioner Leanna Freeman posed the crucial question, saying, “Is there some value to replicating what was there? Or do we want colonial?”
Letter: Article missed points on SR 206/I-95 plan
Letter: Article missed points on SR 206/I-95 plan
Bill Hamilton
Crescent Beach
Publication Date: 04/28/09
Editor: The April 22 article, "Development Vote Delayed," left out some critical points regarding developer Paul Fletcher's attempt to rezone 83 acres of open rural land on State Road 206 and Interstate 95 to Industrial Warehouse through a Planned Unit Development (PUD).
1. As much as George McClure, Fletcher's attorney, would like for the County Commission to ignore the rule regarding the required residential or retail component of a PUD because "there doesn't seem to be any demand," the law is very clear. McClure suggested the county overlook that part of the Comprehensive Plan and hopefully, in 3 years, that inconvenient requirement would be changed.
2. While McClure repeated claims of "shovel ready" and "450 new jobs" The Record didn't mention that Fletcher admitted he has no intention of actually building the project himself, rather hoping to sell it to someone else, and that the residents of Hastings and Armstrong, who McClure claimed to have consulted, would not be eligible for those jobs.
Commissioners Mark Minor and Phil Mays, both proponents of this rezoning, owe the voters of St. Johns County an explanation. Why does Fletcher deserve to be exempt from the rule of law? And why do they "not have a problem with this project at all?"
We all have a shared interest in the protection of this area. It is the headwaters of the Matanzas River, a critical wetland and water recharge area, a bear habitat and wildlife corridor, and an integral part of the agricultural and silvaculture sector of the St. Johns County economy.
Those of us concerned with the sustainable future of St. Johns County need to continue to encourage Commissioners Ken Bryan, Ron Sanchez and Cyndi Stevenson. And to thank them for their leadership.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042809/opinions_042809_015.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Bill Hamilton
Crescent Beach
Publication Date: 04/28/09
Editor: The April 22 article, "Development Vote Delayed," left out some critical points regarding developer Paul Fletcher's attempt to rezone 83 acres of open rural land on State Road 206 and Interstate 95 to Industrial Warehouse through a Planned Unit Development (PUD).
1. As much as George McClure, Fletcher's attorney, would like for the County Commission to ignore the rule regarding the required residential or retail component of a PUD because "there doesn't seem to be any demand," the law is very clear. McClure suggested the county overlook that part of the Comprehensive Plan and hopefully, in 3 years, that inconvenient requirement would be changed.
2. While McClure repeated claims of "shovel ready" and "450 new jobs" The Record didn't mention that Fletcher admitted he has no intention of actually building the project himself, rather hoping to sell it to someone else, and that the residents of Hastings and Armstrong, who McClure claimed to have consulted, would not be eligible for those jobs.
Commissioners Mark Minor and Phil Mays, both proponents of this rezoning, owe the voters of St. Johns County an explanation. Why does Fletcher deserve to be exempt from the rule of law? And why do they "not have a problem with this project at all?"
We all have a shared interest in the protection of this area. It is the headwaters of the Matanzas River, a critical wetland and water recharge area, a bear habitat and wildlife corridor, and an integral part of the agricultural and silvaculture sector of the St. Johns County economy.
Those of us concerned with the sustainable future of St. Johns County need to continue to encourage Commissioners Ken Bryan, Ron Sanchez and Cyndi Stevenson. And to thank them for their leadership.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042809/opinions_042809_015.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
St. Augustine City Attorney RONALD WAYNE BROWN Still Prattles on About "Vendors"
Visual artists have sued the City of St. Augustine and are waiting on a federal court to rule.
City Attorney RONALD WAYNE BROWN, who could not follow the judge's simple instructions (see below) persisted last night in referring to the visual artists as if they were "vendors." WILLIAM B. HARRISS' overpaid political hack of a City Attorney knows not that he knows not.
He knows no more about the First Amendment than he does about the Fourteenth (or the Fifteenth).
WILLIAM B. HARRISS' overpaid lackey is a wsste of $126,000/year (plus fringes). Color him colorless, no more capable of standing up to HARRISS than anyone else in City Hall.
For those who missed it (and the St. Augustine WRecKord didn't bother sending a reporter), here's what actually happened in Federal Court on April 13th:
COURT ASKED TO VINDICATE RIGHTS OF VISUAL ARTISTS:
isual art is protected by the First Amendment -- that includes art sales on public property. Our City of St. Augustine has repeatedly violated visual artists' rights by arresting them.
As a result of its anti-artist wars (announced in a series of repressive laws directed against visual artists), St. Augustine's city government may soon be ordered by a federal court to stop arresting and harassing visual artists for selling their original art. The court has been asked to order the City of St. Augustine to stop enforcing an "overbroad" city ordinance (Ordinance 22-6) against the visual artists.
Arrests of visual artists have plagued life in St. Augustine for at least eleven years, since controversial William B. Harriss was named City Manager.
Visual artists were first hounded, harassed and driven off four pedestrian blocks of St. George Street, the oldest street in America, with then-patrolman Barry Fox of the St. Augustine Police (SAPD) once arresting a 78-year old artist and frogmarching her down St. George Street.. (For a good time, go to Loose Screws and buy or rent J.D. Pleasant's documentary, "St. George Street Saga – The Story of the Artists and Performers Banned from St. George Street In the ‘Nation's Oldest City – what they did and what happened to them.")
City officials promised the artists in 2000 that they could continue to sell art in America's oldest public market (Slave Market Square or Plaza de la Constitución). Then the City Manager and City Commissioners broke their word. They banned the use of the Plaza (and all city's parks, streets and sidewalks in its two large Historic Preservation zones, effectively preventing artists from showing and selling their work outdoors since 2007.
Four visual artists sued the City, contending that their First Amendment rights to sell art have been violated.. The artists are Bruce Bates, Richard Childs, Elena Hecht and Kate Merrick. The four were represented in an April 13, 2009 federal court hearing by Jacksonville attorneys D. Gray Thomas, William Sheppard, Bryan Everett DeMaggio and St. Augustine attorney Thomas Elijah Cushman.
Artist attorney Gray Thomas cited federal cases, including one from St. Augustine (won by Warren Celli over distributing the "St. Aug. Dog" newspaper). Thomas argued that the City's ordinance "overswept" and was "overbroad," based upon artist and bookselling precedents from federal appeals courts. As a result, Thomas asked District Judge Marcia Morales Howard to grant a preliminary injunction, which will stop the City from arresting any more artists until after the trial.
In the lengthy oral argument, which spanned two hours and six minutes, attorney Gray Thomas and Judge Howard noted that the scope of the ban affects most of the historic tourism area -- the only Historic Preservation (HP) district not covered is the residential area (HP-1). The City's total ban in Historic Preservation Districts HP-2 & HP-3 of street and park commercial activity exempts newspaper sales, Thomas said, arguing that the City's ordinance 22-6 should have exempted visual artists on First Amendment grounds. In the language of First Amendment law, it was not "narrowly tailored."
The artists' lawyers used an ELMO projector to show their exhibits on a 30 foot screen to the entire courtroom, peopled with some 30 visual artists and their supporters.
In order to win a preliminary injunction the artists first had to convince Judge Howard that they had a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits and are continuing to suffer irreparable harm. Thomas quoted the Supreme Court as stating that even if a person's First Amendment rights are violated for a brief moment, she suffers irreparable harm.
Opposing the preliminary injunction were the city's high-priced Melbourne defense attorney Michael Kahn (who said it was a privilege to argue First Amendment issues in federal court). The City hired Kahn to write anti-artist ordinances he is now defending, but this was not called to the attention of Judge Howard. Kahn is a Republican who advertises on a website for Republican lawyers. Kahn was accompanied by St. Augustine's City Attorney Ronald Wayne Brown and City Planning and by Zoning Director Mark Alan Knight (who sat in the audience).
Former City Attorney Geoffrey B. Dobson's former law partner, Ronald Wayne Brown, notarized Dobson's rather emotional affidavit, which began with a history lesson and ended angrily with ranting cant opinions, including his assertion that venders "trashed the plaza," producing a "flea market" atmosphere. Judge Howard discounted Dobson's opinions but the artists' counsel noted ironically that the Dobson affidavit's historical narrative establishes longstanding use of the Plaza as a public market..
The City's hired gun, Michael Kahn, also tried to rely upon sworn affidavits of Planning and Zoning Director Mark Knight and SAPD Commander Barry E. Fox and Sgt. Anthony Cuthbert, alleging misbehavior by "street venders."
Judge Howard suggested that the City's affidavits did not support the conclusions in the City's filings. None of the conclusory affidavits gave any dates and times of supposed incidents and set forth unreliable double and triple hearsay. None of the City's affidavits offered any facts critical of the behavior of artists, erroneously attempting to lump them together with "street venders."
The City's affidavits were strongly rebutted by the affidavit of visual artist Gregory Travous, who said none of the incidents involved visual artists, but non-artist venders (including people selling sunglasses, hair-wrapping and toy bears).
In the visual artists' civil rights case, Judge Howard previously declined to allow live testimony, having rejected the City's claim that there were hotly contested facts.
In frustration, Kahn called the supposedly "more expert" Brown to an easel to show Judge Howard locations from which artists are banned and supposed alternative places where artists could sell their art (including a median strip on Castillo Drive, in Francis Field and in the parking lot behind the Lightner Museum and City Hall).
These locations are impractical, artist attorney Thomas argued, and there are few tourists there compared to the Plaza. Attorney Thomas, Judge Howard and the audience found it telling that Knight's photos of supposed alternative locations for the artists showed almost no pedestrians/tourists.
In fact, Judge Howard asked rather pointedly why the City provided photos taken early in the morning, with no people in most of them. She said if the city's point was to show places where artists could market to tourists, its failure to show people there in those places cut against the City's case.
Artist counsel Gray Thomas objected when the supposedly "expert" Brown repeatedly made comments that were "laced with what would be his testimony," rather than pointing out places mentioned in the affidavits. Judge Howard warned, "Limit yourself to what's in the affidavits," stating "I'm going to disregard" Brown's statements about the number of tour buses at the City's $22 million parking garage
Repeatedly disregarding Judge Howard's orders and without ever having been sworn as a witness, Brown continued speaking about matters outside the affidavit. Judge Howard said, "I tried to remind Mr. Brown" not to speak of anything outside the affidavits, noting "he's providing information beyond them," stating "I don't intend to rely upon it."
At one stage, Judge Howard stepped down from the bench in courtroom 10B, followed by her court reporter and law clerk, to scrutinize at one of two maps on the easel.
Judge Morales asked Kahn why newspapers were excluded from ordinance 22-6. Kahn fumbled, "that's a good question," responding elliptically if not coherently.
Throughout the hearing, City Planning and Zoning Director Mark Knight couldn't contain his angst and couldn't stop fidgeting, crossing his legs, wiggling his foot and shaking (no doubt with fear of City Manager Harriss).
Visual artists were previously charged illegally permit fees by the city, which were refunded when artist Scott Raimondo pointed out that this was unconstitutional.
Ironically, the day that the City proposed for the hearing (April 13, 2009) happened to be the eleventh anniversary of the City of St. Augustine violating Sunshine laws to hire William B. Harriss as City Manager (April 13, 1998). Harriss, who has never had a performance evaluation in eleven years, has spearheaded downtown commercial landlords' fight to rid the City of buskers – artists and entertainers – people who draw tourists and acclaim at home and abroad.
On the eleventh anniversary of a date that (like Pearl Harbor) "will live in infamy," the City of St. Augustine was once again in federal court, once again defending against the indefensible – First Amendment violations.
City Manager Harriss was hired without either a proper search or compliance with the Sunshine law. J.D. Pleasant spoke eloquently at the April 13, 1998 City Commission meeting about Commissioners' lawbreaking in hiring Harriss. While then-Commissioner John Reardon wanted annual performance appraisals, Commissioners rejected the idea. While Reardon wanted a national search, then-Commissioner Susan Burk said this would result in hiring an outsider, who might use his experience here as a "stepping stone" to work elsewhere (something that is empirically assumed about any job outside organized crime).
City Manager Harriss' unctuous police abuses -- an "Unwelcome Wagon" directed against visual artists -- is but the tip of the iceberg in the history of government-sponsored bigotry in "the Nation's Oldest City." On June 12, 1964 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed St. Augustine America's "most lawless city" in a letter to rabbis -- the ugliness of SAPD and County Sheriff police riots helped convince Congress to break a filibuster and enact the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the landmark law that bans discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, and gender.
The City of St. Augustine has previously lost several big First Amendment cases, including one to Warren Celli ("St. Aug. Dog" newspaper) and another to the St. Augustine Gay Pride Committee (with Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. ordering Rainbow flags on the Bridge of Lions June 7-13, 2005 in honor of 11,000 years of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual history here in Northeast Florida).
Observers in the federal courtroom believed that Judge Howard was likely to rule against the city and for the artists. Such a ruling would vindicate the rights of visual artists to be left unmolested by the likes of Messrs. Harriss, Knight, Fox and Cuthbert, free to sell their art to tourists without fearing arrests (and criminal records of arrests and convictions) as the price for being an artist in the Nation's Oldest City.
Observers also believed that the City Commissioners might finally change their discredited course -- fawningly supporting Harriss' eleven-year reign of ruin, including his anti-artist, anti-environmental, pro-developer, pro-speculator right-wing agenda (which includes spending tens of thousands of dollars on designing repressive laws). Why stop now?
St. Augustine wants tens of millions of dollars in federal funding for its celebration of its 450th birthday, and the 500th anniversary of Florida (2015 and 2013, respectively), it will have to conform its behavior to the reasonable expectations of our Bill of Rights. Just as Dr. King wrote to the rabbis in 1964 (before the City's 400th birthday), the City's desire for funding gives leverage to those who seek to protect our rights,
President Clinton once said, "the definition of insanity is doing the same old things and expecting different results." Arresting artists is contrary to the peace and dignity of the people of our town.
City Attorney RONALD WAYNE BROWN, who could not follow the judge's simple instructions (see below) persisted last night in referring to the visual artists as if they were "vendors." WILLIAM B. HARRISS' overpaid political hack of a City Attorney knows not that he knows not.
He knows no more about the First Amendment than he does about the Fourteenth (or the Fifteenth).
WILLIAM B. HARRISS' overpaid lackey is a wsste of $126,000/year (plus fringes). Color him colorless, no more capable of standing up to HARRISS than anyone else in City Hall.
For those who missed it (and the St. Augustine WRecKord didn't bother sending a reporter), here's what actually happened in Federal Court on April 13th:
COURT ASKED TO VINDICATE RIGHTS OF VISUAL ARTISTS:
isual art is protected by the First Amendment -- that includes art sales on public property. Our City of St. Augustine has repeatedly violated visual artists' rights by arresting them.
As a result of its anti-artist wars (announced in a series of repressive laws directed against visual artists), St. Augustine's city government may soon be ordered by a federal court to stop arresting and harassing visual artists for selling their original art. The court has been asked to order the City of St. Augustine to stop enforcing an "overbroad" city ordinance (Ordinance 22-6) against the visual artists.
Arrests of visual artists have plagued life in St. Augustine for at least eleven years, since controversial William B. Harriss was named City Manager.
Visual artists were first hounded, harassed and driven off four pedestrian blocks of St. George Street, the oldest street in America, with then-patrolman Barry Fox of the St. Augustine Police (SAPD) once arresting a 78-year old artist and frogmarching her down St. George Street.. (For a good time, go to Loose Screws and buy or rent J.D. Pleasant's documentary, "St. George Street Saga – The Story of the Artists and Performers Banned from St. George Street In the ‘Nation's Oldest City – what they did and what happened to them.")
City officials promised the artists in 2000 that they could continue to sell art in America's oldest public market (Slave Market Square or Plaza de la Constitución). Then the City Manager and City Commissioners broke their word. They banned the use of the Plaza (and all city's parks, streets and sidewalks in its two large Historic Preservation zones, effectively preventing artists from showing and selling their work outdoors since 2007.
Four visual artists sued the City, contending that their First Amendment rights to sell art have been violated.. The artists are Bruce Bates, Richard Childs, Elena Hecht and Kate Merrick. The four were represented in an April 13, 2009 federal court hearing by Jacksonville attorneys D. Gray Thomas, William Sheppard, Bryan Everett DeMaggio and St. Augustine attorney Thomas Elijah Cushman.
Artist attorney Gray Thomas cited federal cases, including one from St. Augustine (won by Warren Celli over distributing the "St. Aug. Dog" newspaper). Thomas argued that the City's ordinance "overswept" and was "overbroad," based upon artist and bookselling precedents from federal appeals courts. As a result, Thomas asked District Judge Marcia Morales Howard to grant a preliminary injunction, which will stop the City from arresting any more artists until after the trial.
In the lengthy oral argument, which spanned two hours and six minutes, attorney Gray Thomas and Judge Howard noted that the scope of the ban affects most of the historic tourism area -- the only Historic Preservation (HP) district not covered is the residential area (HP-1). The City's total ban in Historic Preservation Districts HP-2 & HP-3 of street and park commercial activity exempts newspaper sales, Thomas said, arguing that the City's ordinance 22-6 should have exempted visual artists on First Amendment grounds. In the language of First Amendment law, it was not "narrowly tailored."
The artists' lawyers used an ELMO projector to show their exhibits on a 30 foot screen to the entire courtroom, peopled with some 30 visual artists and their supporters.
In order to win a preliminary injunction the artists first had to convince Judge Howard that they had a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits and are continuing to suffer irreparable harm. Thomas quoted the Supreme Court as stating that even if a person's First Amendment rights are violated for a brief moment, she suffers irreparable harm.
Opposing the preliminary injunction were the city's high-priced Melbourne defense attorney Michael Kahn (who said it was a privilege to argue First Amendment issues in federal court). The City hired Kahn to write anti-artist ordinances he is now defending, but this was not called to the attention of Judge Howard. Kahn is a Republican who advertises on a website for Republican lawyers. Kahn was accompanied by St. Augustine's City Attorney Ronald Wayne Brown and City Planning and by Zoning Director Mark Alan Knight (who sat in the audience).
Former City Attorney Geoffrey B. Dobson's former law partner, Ronald Wayne Brown, notarized Dobson's rather emotional affidavit, which began with a history lesson and ended angrily with ranting cant opinions, including his assertion that venders "trashed the plaza," producing a "flea market" atmosphere. Judge Howard discounted Dobson's opinions but the artists' counsel noted ironically that the Dobson affidavit's historical narrative establishes longstanding use of the Plaza as a public market..
The City's hired gun, Michael Kahn, also tried to rely upon sworn affidavits of Planning and Zoning Director Mark Knight and SAPD Commander Barry E. Fox and Sgt. Anthony Cuthbert, alleging misbehavior by "street venders."
Judge Howard suggested that the City's affidavits did not support the conclusions in the City's filings. None of the conclusory affidavits gave any dates and times of supposed incidents and set forth unreliable double and triple hearsay. None of the City's affidavits offered any facts critical of the behavior of artists, erroneously attempting to lump them together with "street venders."
The City's affidavits were strongly rebutted by the affidavit of visual artist Gregory Travous, who said none of the incidents involved visual artists, but non-artist venders (including people selling sunglasses, hair-wrapping and toy bears).
In the visual artists' civil rights case, Judge Howard previously declined to allow live testimony, having rejected the City's claim that there were hotly contested facts.
In frustration, Kahn called the supposedly "more expert" Brown to an easel to show Judge Howard locations from which artists are banned and supposed alternative places where artists could sell their art (including a median strip on Castillo Drive, in Francis Field and in the parking lot behind the Lightner Museum and City Hall).
These locations are impractical, artist attorney Thomas argued, and there are few tourists there compared to the Plaza. Attorney Thomas, Judge Howard and the audience found it telling that Knight's photos of supposed alternative locations for the artists showed almost no pedestrians/tourists.
In fact, Judge Howard asked rather pointedly why the City provided photos taken early in the morning, with no people in most of them. She said if the city's point was to show places where artists could market to tourists, its failure to show people there in those places cut against the City's case.
Artist counsel Gray Thomas objected when the supposedly "expert" Brown repeatedly made comments that were "laced with what would be his testimony," rather than pointing out places mentioned in the affidavits. Judge Howard warned, "Limit yourself to what's in the affidavits," stating "I'm going to disregard" Brown's statements about the number of tour buses at the City's $22 million parking garage
Repeatedly disregarding Judge Howard's orders and without ever having been sworn as a witness, Brown continued speaking about matters outside the affidavit. Judge Howard said, "I tried to remind Mr. Brown" not to speak of anything outside the affidavits, noting "he's providing information beyond them," stating "I don't intend to rely upon it."
At one stage, Judge Howard stepped down from the bench in courtroom 10B, followed by her court reporter and law clerk, to scrutinize at one of two maps on the easel.
Judge Morales asked Kahn why newspapers were excluded from ordinance 22-6. Kahn fumbled, "that's a good question," responding elliptically if not coherently.
Throughout the hearing, City Planning and Zoning Director Mark Knight couldn't contain his angst and couldn't stop fidgeting, crossing his legs, wiggling his foot and shaking (no doubt with fear of City Manager Harriss).
Visual artists were previously charged illegally permit fees by the city, which were refunded when artist Scott Raimondo pointed out that this was unconstitutional.
Ironically, the day that the City proposed for the hearing (April 13, 2009) happened to be the eleventh anniversary of the City of St. Augustine violating Sunshine laws to hire William B. Harriss as City Manager (April 13, 1998). Harriss, who has never had a performance evaluation in eleven years, has spearheaded downtown commercial landlords' fight to rid the City of buskers – artists and entertainers – people who draw tourists and acclaim at home and abroad.
On the eleventh anniversary of a date that (like Pearl Harbor) "will live in infamy," the City of St. Augustine was once again in federal court, once again defending against the indefensible – First Amendment violations.
City Manager Harriss was hired without either a proper search or compliance with the Sunshine law. J.D. Pleasant spoke eloquently at the April 13, 1998 City Commission meeting about Commissioners' lawbreaking in hiring Harriss. While then-Commissioner John Reardon wanted annual performance appraisals, Commissioners rejected the idea. While Reardon wanted a national search, then-Commissioner Susan Burk said this would result in hiring an outsider, who might use his experience here as a "stepping stone" to work elsewhere (something that is empirically assumed about any job outside organized crime).
City Manager Harriss' unctuous police abuses -- an "Unwelcome Wagon" directed against visual artists -- is but the tip of the iceberg in the history of government-sponsored bigotry in "the Nation's Oldest City." On June 12, 1964 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed St. Augustine America's "most lawless city" in a letter to rabbis -- the ugliness of SAPD and County Sheriff police riots helped convince Congress to break a filibuster and enact the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the landmark law that bans discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, and gender.
The City of St. Augustine has previously lost several big First Amendment cases, including one to Warren Celli ("St. Aug. Dog" newspaper) and another to the St. Augustine Gay Pride Committee (with Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr. ordering Rainbow flags on the Bridge of Lions June 7-13, 2005 in honor of 11,000 years of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual history here in Northeast Florida).
Observers in the federal courtroom believed that Judge Howard was likely to rule against the city and for the artists. Such a ruling would vindicate the rights of visual artists to be left unmolested by the likes of Messrs. Harriss, Knight, Fox and Cuthbert, free to sell their art to tourists without fearing arrests (and criminal records of arrests and convictions) as the price for being an artist in the Nation's Oldest City.
Observers also believed that the City Commissioners might finally change their discredited course -- fawningly supporting Harriss' eleven-year reign of ruin, including his anti-artist, anti-environmental, pro-developer, pro-speculator right-wing agenda (which includes spending tens of thousands of dollars on designing repressive laws). Why stop now?
St. Augustine wants tens of millions of dollars in federal funding for its celebration of its 450th birthday, and the 500th anniversary of Florida (2015 and 2013, respectively), it will have to conform its behavior to the reasonable expectations of our Bill of Rights. Just as Dr. King wrote to the rabbis in 1964 (before the City's 400th birthday), the City's desire for funding gives leverage to those who seek to protect our rights,
President Clinton once said, "the definition of insanity is doing the same old things and expecting different results." Arresting artists is contrary to the peace and dignity of the people of our town.
Record apparently erred on meeting with Senators
The first time I ever saw Kati Bexley at a St. Augustine City Commission meeting, one of the Commissioners, Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR> had his arm around her during a recess, apparently reflecting his sexism or status as an old family friend.
Kati Bexley has never shaken off the stigma of being BOLES' friend. Most recently, she wrote an article that states that City Chief Operating Officer JOHN REGAN and Vice Mayor ERROL JONES met with two U.S. Senators Nelson and Martinez. Listening to the report of REGAN and JONES last night, I realized Bexley was wrong, again. REGAN and JONES met with Senatorial staffers, not the Senators -- their account had no mention of any meeting with either Senator Nelson or Senator Martinez. Ooops.
That's the kind of detail Bexley constantly misses. She's intelligent, but too easily influenced by government officials (including her father's friend, Mayor BOLES).
Last year, Kati Bexley gathered information for an article about E coli in rivers near St. Augustine, but never printed a word in the Record.
The size of the proverbial "spike" in the St. Augustine newsroom is big enough to encompass many suppressed news stories, such as the story of how crooked Philistine developers almost succeeded in destroying our Nation's Oldest City and the surrounding county with their ugly, foreign-funded monstrosities (almost all of them represented by mendacious GEORGE McCLURE, formerly of ROGERS TOWERS).
There Tennessee Valley Authority eventually hires the reporters who do its bidding in Tennessee (what Ralph Nader would call the "deferred bribe.")
Here in St. Augustine, all the little WILLIAM B. HARRISS political machine frontmen (like Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR.) have to do to win fawning obeisance from putative "reporters" is smile and put their proverbial arms around them. They own you, Kati.
Sorry Kati, but your latest biased story (below) is journalistic malpractice and a breach of the standard of care. You can do better. How about a correction?
How about writing about Riberia Street based on your own investigative skills, instead of acting like one more of HARRISS' shills? You'll be glad you did.
Kati Bexley has never shaken off the stigma of being BOLES' friend. Most recently, she wrote an article that states that City Chief Operating Officer JOHN REGAN and Vice Mayor ERROL JONES met with two U.S. Senators Nelson and Martinez. Listening to the report of REGAN and JONES last night, I realized Bexley was wrong, again. REGAN and JONES met with Senatorial staffers, not the Senators -- their account had no mention of any meeting with either Senator Nelson or Senator Martinez. Ooops.
That's the kind of detail Bexley constantly misses. She's intelligent, but too easily influenced by government officials (including her father's friend, Mayor BOLES).
Last year, Kati Bexley gathered information for an article about E coli in rivers near St. Augustine, but never printed a word in the Record.
The size of the proverbial "spike" in the St. Augustine newsroom is big enough to encompass many suppressed news stories, such as the story of how crooked Philistine developers almost succeeded in destroying our Nation's Oldest City and the surrounding county with their ugly, foreign-funded monstrosities (almost all of them represented by mendacious GEORGE McCLURE, formerly of ROGERS TOWERS).
There Tennessee Valley Authority eventually hires the reporters who do its bidding in Tennessee (what Ralph Nader would call the "deferred bribe.")
Here in St. Augustine, all the little WILLIAM B. HARRISS political machine frontmen (like Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR.) have to do to win fawning obeisance from putative "reporters" is smile and put their proverbial arms around them. They own you, Kati.
Sorry Kati, but your latest biased story (below) is journalistic malpractice and a breach of the standard of care. You can do better. How about a correction?
How about writing about Riberia Street based on your own investigative skills, instead of acting like one more of HARRISS' shills? You'll be glad you did.
City plans 4 projects
City plans 4 projects
By KATI BEXLEY
kati.bexley@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 04/27/09
With plans under way for St. Augustine's 450th birthday celebration and a flattened economy, city staff traveled to Washington, D.C., in hopes of grasping several million dollars for four infrastructure projects.
John Regan, city chief operations officer, and City Commissioner Errol Jones met with United States senators, members of Congress and the Department of Transportation to get a piece of Florida's $13 billion in federal stimulus funds. Regan and Jones made the trip a few weeks ago, but they will give their official report to the City Commission today.
The four projects the two pitched were improving West Augustine's sewage system, redoing the St. Augustine Seawall, repaving Riberia Street and redesigning the bayfront from the Castillo de San Marcos to the Bridge of Lions.
St. Augustine will celebrate its 450th birthday celebration in 2015. The City Commission wants it to be similar to Virgina's Jamestown's 400th anniversary, which garnered national and international attention.
"With the economic times, we have to put in as much as we can to get things done for our community," Regan said Sunday. "Everything (all the projects) ultimately ties into the 450th."
Here are more details on the four projects the city is pursuing:
* Department of Transportation Grant: The city has a grant proposal for $250,000 and with the city giving $50,000 to redesign the St. Augustine bayfront between the Castillo de San Marcos and the Bridge of Lions.
* The major redesign would include dedicating a lane of traffic for horse and carriages and building an orientation center for the Castillo de San Marcos.
* The grant would also include money for three subsequent years to build the project. The total amount would be $9 million.
* It is an competitive grant and Regan and Jones met with U.S. senators Mel Martinez, Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep, John Mica to gain their support. They also met the Department of Transportation. Regan said they are waiting to hear if they won the grant.
* West Augustine sewage: The city made a federal appropriations request to improve sewage in West Augustine.
* The city is asking for $7 million for the project.
* City staff is meeting with St. Johns County staff to create a master plan for West Augustine's sewage system.
* Rebuild seawall: Regan said the St. Augustine seawall is a shovel-ready project that could be started tomorrow if the city had the money.
* The project would cost $6 million to $8 million.
* Regan said he is following up with FEMA -- Federal Emergency Management Agency -- to fund the project.
* Rebuild Riberia Street: Riberia Street would be repaved from King Street down to the Willie Galimore Center. The street's drainage system would also be improved.
* The project would cost roughly $6 million.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042709/news_042709_004.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
By KATI BEXLEY
kati.bexley@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 04/27/09
With plans under way for St. Augustine's 450th birthday celebration and a flattened economy, city staff traveled to Washington, D.C., in hopes of grasping several million dollars for four infrastructure projects.
John Regan, city chief operations officer, and City Commissioner Errol Jones met with United States senators, members of Congress and the Department of Transportation to get a piece of Florida's $13 billion in federal stimulus funds. Regan and Jones made the trip a few weeks ago, but they will give their official report to the City Commission today.
The four projects the two pitched were improving West Augustine's sewage system, redoing the St. Augustine Seawall, repaving Riberia Street and redesigning the bayfront from the Castillo de San Marcos to the Bridge of Lions.
St. Augustine will celebrate its 450th birthday celebration in 2015. The City Commission wants it to be similar to Virgina's Jamestown's 400th anniversary, which garnered national and international attention.
"With the economic times, we have to put in as much as we can to get things done for our community," Regan said Sunday. "Everything (all the projects) ultimately ties into the 450th."
Here are more details on the four projects the city is pursuing:
* Department of Transportation Grant: The city has a grant proposal for $250,000 and with the city giving $50,000 to redesign the St. Augustine bayfront between the Castillo de San Marcos and the Bridge of Lions.
* The major redesign would include dedicating a lane of traffic for horse and carriages and building an orientation center for the Castillo de San Marcos.
* The grant would also include money for three subsequent years to build the project. The total amount would be $9 million.
* It is an competitive grant and Regan and Jones met with U.S. senators Mel Martinez, Bill Nelson and U.S. Rep, John Mica to gain their support. They also met the Department of Transportation. Regan said they are waiting to hear if they won the grant.
* West Augustine sewage: The city made a federal appropriations request to improve sewage in West Augustine.
* The city is asking for $7 million for the project.
* City staff is meeting with St. Johns County staff to create a master plan for West Augustine's sewage system.
* Rebuild seawall: Regan said the St. Augustine seawall is a shovel-ready project that could be started tomorrow if the city had the money.
* The project would cost $6 million to $8 million.
* Regan said he is following up with FEMA -- Federal Emergency Management Agency -- to fund the project.
* Rebuild Riberia Street: Riberia Street would be repaved from King Street down to the Willie Galimore Center. The street's drainage system would also be improved.
* The project would cost roughly $6 million.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042709/news_042709_004.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Imitating King Canute (the Pork Barrel Polka)
The legend of KING CANUTE, who reputedly taught his courtiers he could not make the sea recede, a lesson that modern Florida needs to learn.
Like the legend of King Canute, our local governments act as if we can make the ocean recede, perpetually dumping sand on turtle nesting habitats, enriching the companies that own the dredging equipment that pumps sand on our beaches.
This makes for reliable political contributions to the likes of icky, angry, right-wing 16-year Republican Congressworm JOHN LUIGI MICA.
But what does this unending round of of "beach renourishment" say about our dedication to protecting nature? What does it say about our hubris?
We need a St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Parkway, a place where these beachy decisions will be based on sound science and reasonable planning -- instead of Republican rhetoric, sung to the tune of the Pork Barrel Polka.
Beach project set for '10 But money for renourishment may fall short; possible stimulus funds unknown
Beach project set for '10
But money for renourishment may fall short; possible stimulus funds unknown
By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 04/27/09
ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH -- Before you ask St. Augustine fisherman Alexander Steiner what he thinks about putting tons of renourishment sand on St. Augustine Beach, you'd better pack a lunch.
He'll warm up to the subject quickly, remembering the exact day, month and year of the last renourishment: Aug. 8, 2005.
"We (fishermen) hate it," Steiner said while fishing for pompano, sea trout and drum near the end of the County Pier.
When the beach is renourished, fishermen on the pier wouldn't be able to reach the water, he said.
But local officials have glorious visions of sand -- the more the better -- protecting city homes and infrastructure, drawing tourists here and providing a strong buffer for storms.
Experts have said the pier area is a "hot spot" that loses sand faster than the rest of the beach.
Last week the city learned that its 50-year beach renourishment project is on schedule and that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractors will begin pumping millions of yards of sand around County Pier next year.
"It's ill-sited," Steiner grumbled at the news. "They're putting sand where it's never going to stay."
However, given Florida's tight financial condition, this renourishment might not be as complete as in past years, when times were better. Department of Environmental Protection officials in Tallahassee have privately said the state's bare bones budget may not be able to afford $500,000 in required matching funds.
St. Johns County Engineer Press Tompkins said, "They told me, 'This (matching money) could be at risk.' They said to be prepared for the worst."
But, Tompkins added, the $7 million in federal money came from an appropriation after Tropical Storm Faye.
"(Renourishment) creates a lot more tourism," Tompkins said.
Doug Tobin, press secretary for the DEP, had no specific information about that money.
"We're still looking at funding based on the Legislature's 2009 and 2010 budget," he said.
To meet St. Johns County's matching fund requirement, the Tourist Development Council saved roughly $200,000 in bed tax dollars for beach renourishment. So even if the DEP money magically appears, the total matching amount from county and city is $700,000 -- only half the $1.36 million that's needed.
One local official, who didn't not want to be quoted, said, "They'll still do the project (without all the matching money), just maybe not the whole thing."
Right now, stimulus money doesn't appear to be in the picture.
The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association of Caswell, N.C., a lobbying group which says it has defended beach preservation since 1926, issued a statement claiming that the federal Office of Management and Budget "pulled funding for every beach renourishment project from the stimulus list prepared by the Corps of Engineers."
Harry Simmons, the association's president, said renourishment projects on the stimulus list have gone "back and forth. We don't know how it will turn out."
The final list will be released to the public next week, he said.
U.S. Rep. John Mica (R, Winter Park) said the stimulus list "really doesn't affect our project. It will be under way. We'll just have to rely on regular apportionments. (But) if we could get the extra money, it would help."
An April 15 Philadelphia Inquirer story by Anthony R. Wood and Jacqueline L. Urgo about renourishment of the New Jersey shore said Congress and some state delegations had pressed the OMB to release renourishment money, saying beaches "are important to tourism and critical for flood protection."
Steiner knows the benefits of renourishment but is still skeptical.
"Millions and millions of dollars will be gone," he said. "It's money better spent elsewhere."
#
Beach Notes:
* Two billion people visit America's beaches every year.
* In 2007, beaches contributed $322 billion to the nation's economy.
* For every dollar the federal government spends on preservation, it gets $320 in taxes back.
Source: The American Shore & Beach Preservation Association
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042709/news_042709_002.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
But money for renourishment may fall short; possible stimulus funds unknown
By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 04/27/09
ST. AUGUSTINE BEACH -- Before you ask St. Augustine fisherman Alexander Steiner what he thinks about putting tons of renourishment sand on St. Augustine Beach, you'd better pack a lunch.
He'll warm up to the subject quickly, remembering the exact day, month and year of the last renourishment: Aug. 8, 2005.
"We (fishermen) hate it," Steiner said while fishing for pompano, sea trout and drum near the end of the County Pier.
When the beach is renourished, fishermen on the pier wouldn't be able to reach the water, he said.
But local officials have glorious visions of sand -- the more the better -- protecting city homes and infrastructure, drawing tourists here and providing a strong buffer for storms.
Experts have said the pier area is a "hot spot" that loses sand faster than the rest of the beach.
Last week the city learned that its 50-year beach renourishment project is on schedule and that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractors will begin pumping millions of yards of sand around County Pier next year.
"It's ill-sited," Steiner grumbled at the news. "They're putting sand where it's never going to stay."
However, given Florida's tight financial condition, this renourishment might not be as complete as in past years, when times were better. Department of Environmental Protection officials in Tallahassee have privately said the state's bare bones budget may not be able to afford $500,000 in required matching funds.
St. Johns County Engineer Press Tompkins said, "They told me, 'This (matching money) could be at risk.' They said to be prepared for the worst."
But, Tompkins added, the $7 million in federal money came from an appropriation after Tropical Storm Faye.
"(Renourishment) creates a lot more tourism," Tompkins said.
Doug Tobin, press secretary for the DEP, had no specific information about that money.
"We're still looking at funding based on the Legislature's 2009 and 2010 budget," he said.
To meet St. Johns County's matching fund requirement, the Tourist Development Council saved roughly $200,000 in bed tax dollars for beach renourishment. So even if the DEP money magically appears, the total matching amount from county and city is $700,000 -- only half the $1.36 million that's needed.
One local official, who didn't not want to be quoted, said, "They'll still do the project (without all the matching money), just maybe not the whole thing."
Right now, stimulus money doesn't appear to be in the picture.
The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association of Caswell, N.C., a lobbying group which says it has defended beach preservation since 1926, issued a statement claiming that the federal Office of Management and Budget "pulled funding for every beach renourishment project from the stimulus list prepared by the Corps of Engineers."
Harry Simmons, the association's president, said renourishment projects on the stimulus list have gone "back and forth. We don't know how it will turn out."
The final list will be released to the public next week, he said.
U.S. Rep. John Mica (R, Winter Park) said the stimulus list "really doesn't affect our project. It will be under way. We'll just have to rely on regular apportionments. (But) if we could get the extra money, it would help."
An April 15 Philadelphia Inquirer story by Anthony R. Wood and Jacqueline L. Urgo about renourishment of the New Jersey shore said Congress and some state delegations had pressed the OMB to release renourishment money, saying beaches "are important to tourism and critical for flood protection."
Steiner knows the benefits of renourishment but is still skeptical.
"Millions and millions of dollars will be gone," he said. "It's money better spent elsewhere."
#
Beach Notes:
* Two billion people visit America's beaches every year.
* In 2007, beaches contributed $322 billion to the nation's economy.
* For every dollar the federal government spends on preservation, it gets $320 in taxes back.
Source: The American Shore & Beach Preservation Association
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© The St. Augustine Record
Monday, April 27, 2009
Record , County Commissioners Right on Tourism Master Plan
The St. Augustine Record and County Commissioner J. Kenneth Bryan are spot on about the Tourism Master Plan study.
When the consultants finish their job, we're confident they will want to endorse the St. Augustine National HIstorical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Highway Act of 2009 (see adjacent links to StAugustGreen.com)
When the consultants finish their job, we're confident they will want to endorse the St. Augustine National HIstorical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Highway Act of 2009 (see adjacent links to StAugustGreen.com)
Editorial: Tourism assessment lacks broad views
Publication Date: 04/26/09
The roadmap to tourism's economic future, the St. Johns County Destination Master Plan, is off track. The assessment phase report was expected to ignite excitement on its release last Tuesday. It did, for the wrong reasons.
The picture of tourism today was supposed to be based on views of recent visitors, future visitors and local stakeholders. It also was to give a preliminary look at what tourism needs to enhance its image and draw and how the bed tax should be used to fund it.
It fell flat. It was not what anyone, County Commissioners included, expected in the first phase of a $300,000 study by PGAV Destination Consulting, St. Louis, Mo.
The 54-page report is based on limited stakeholder viewpoints: arts and culture, major hotels, a focus group in Atlanta of travelers to the area, and online responses from visitor inquiries to the Visitor and Convention Bureau and general online visitor responses.
Missing are specific stakeholder assessments, from for example, local attractions, smaller lodging establishments, restaurants, recreation/leisure interests, shopping, from malls to small downtown shops. Businesses that support the tourism industry such as product suppliers, banks, grocery stores were not asked their views and neither were local governments.
A sampling of questions from public speakers at Tuesday's County Commission meeting pointed out flaws:
How do you overlook St. Augustine Beach and its 75 annual events?
Where is an acknowledgement of the African -American story, especially of Fort Mose, the first free black town in what is now the United States?
Why is St. Augustine's position as the nation's oldest city founded in 1565, considered a backdrop for tourism rather than a draw itself?
Where's the consideration of cultural events like a Spoleto Festival that enhanced tourism in Charleston, S.C.?
To their credit, the consultants admitted they did not talk to enough people but insisted they were not led by any one group's views. They promised to do more interviews this summer when they come back for Phase II, the time to develop strategies and ways to enhance tourism.
How can the consultant move on without an assessment encompassing broader views?
The County Commission must demand the assessment be revised based on broader interviews and that it be reviewed again before Phase II starts.
If the deadline for the final report has to be extended, so be it.
The county is investing $300,000 for this report. So far, we haven't gotten our money's worth.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042609/opinions_042609_030.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
The roadmap to tourism's economic future, the St. Johns County Destination Master Plan, is off track. The assessment phase report was expected to ignite excitement on its release last Tuesday. It did, for the wrong reasons.
The picture of tourism today was supposed to be based on views of recent visitors, future visitors and local stakeholders. It also was to give a preliminary look at what tourism needs to enhance its image and draw and how the bed tax should be used to fund it.
It fell flat. It was not what anyone, County Commissioners included, expected in the first phase of a $300,000 study by PGAV Destination Consulting, St. Louis, Mo.
The 54-page report is based on limited stakeholder viewpoints: arts and culture, major hotels, a focus group in Atlanta of travelers to the area, and online responses from visitor inquiries to the Visitor and Convention Bureau and general online visitor responses.
Missing are specific stakeholder assessments, from for example, local attractions, smaller lodging establishments, restaurants, recreation/leisure interests, shopping, from malls to small downtown shops. Businesses that support the tourism industry such as product suppliers, banks, grocery stores were not asked their views and neither were local governments.
A sampling of questions from public speakers at Tuesday's County Commission meeting pointed out flaws:
How do you overlook St. Augustine Beach and its 75 annual events?
Where is an acknowledgement of the African -American story, especially of Fort Mose, the first free black town in what is now the United States?
Why is St. Augustine's position as the nation's oldest city founded in 1565, considered a backdrop for tourism rather than a draw itself?
Where's the consideration of cultural events like a Spoleto Festival that enhanced tourism in Charleston, S.C.?
To their credit, the consultants admitted they did not talk to enough people but insisted they were not led by any one group's views. They promised to do more interviews this summer when they come back for Phase II, the time to develop strategies and ways to enhance tourism.
How can the consultant move on without an assessment encompassing broader views?
The County Commission must demand the assessment be revised based on broader interviews and that it be reviewed again before Phase II starts.
If the deadline for the final report has to be extended, so be it.
The county is investing $300,000 for this report. So far, we haven't gotten our money's worth.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042609/opinions_042609_030.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
City's archaeology law is too weak
Contrary to the Record's latest wimpy, limp editorial (below), the City of St. Augustine's archaeology law is too weak. It doesn't allow the city to stop anything. On Red House Bluff, ROBERT MICHAEL GRAUBARD destroyed a 3000-4000 year old Indian village with impunity, allowed to do so by the city and state. Never again!
That's why we need a St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Parkway. Anything less is just whistlin' Dixie.
That's why we need a St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Parkway. Anything less is just whistlin' Dixie.
Doll skeleton another reason to love city's archaeology law
Publication Date: 04/25/09
It's well known that St. Augustine 's valued place in history rests on documents of earlier eras and what comes out of the ground.
Without the maps and interpretations of the Spanish and their arrival here in 1565, we would be hard-pressed to call ourselves the nation's oldest permanently occupied European settlement in today's United States .
What keeps coming out of the ground solidifies our place in history.
Coins, animal skeletons, broken glass, almost intact pottery, buttons, bits of fabrics, religious medals, rosaries, crosses, cooking, sewing and every life utensils, for example, have fascinated us and our visitors for years as they have been carefully lifted from dirt coverings centuries old. Actual foundations of buildings have validated properties listed on maps, too.
But this past week, a new artifact surfaced, literally: a hinged jawbone from a 19th-century doll skeleton was found in a city dig at Spanish and Cuna streets. It reminds us of the importance of the city's 22-year-old archaeological ordinance. The ordinance requires a dig in certain parts of St. Augustine on public and private property before construction is done. Without it, we'd be losing history every day.
St. Augustine City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt and his volunteers certify our history every day they're on a job. He's been the city's official historical dirt digger since 1990. The St. Augustine Archaeological Association, founded in 1985, is composed mostly of volunteers focused on preserving our history. State-sponsored and privately funded archaeological digs as well, have been around for more than 70 years.
Without the archaeology ordinance, we hate to think what would happen to a lot of our city's tangible past.
*
If you want to get involved or have a school tour of an archaeological dig in St. Augustine , call Halbirt at 825-1088.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042509/opinions_042509_059.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
It's well known that St. Augustine 's valued place in history rests on documents of earlier eras and what comes out of the ground.
Without the maps and interpretations of the Spanish and their arrival here in 1565, we would be hard-pressed to call ourselves the nation's oldest permanently occupied European settlement in today's United States .
What keeps coming out of the ground solidifies our place in history.
Coins, animal skeletons, broken glass, almost intact pottery, buttons, bits of fabrics, religious medals, rosaries, crosses, cooking, sewing and every life utensils, for example, have fascinated us and our visitors for years as they have been carefully lifted from dirt coverings centuries old. Actual foundations of buildings have validated properties listed on maps, too.
But this past week, a new artifact surfaced, literally: a hinged jawbone from a 19th-century doll skeleton was found in a city dig at Spanish and Cuna streets. It reminds us of the importance of the city's 22-year-old archaeological ordinance. The ordinance requires a dig in certain parts of St. Augustine on public and private property before construction is done. Without it, we'd be losing history every day.
St. Augustine City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt and his volunteers certify our history every day they're on a job. He's been the city's official historical dirt digger since 1990. The St. Augustine Archaeological Association, founded in 1985, is composed mostly of volunteers focused on preserving our history. State-sponsored and privately funded archaeological digs as well, have been around for more than 70 years.
Without the archaeology ordinance, we hate to think what would happen to a lot of our city's tangible past.
*
If you want to get involved or have a school tour of an archaeological dig in St. Augustine , call Halbirt at 825-1088.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042509/opinions_042509_059.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Column: Teachers should be trained in gov't laws
Column: Teachers should be trained in gov't laws
H. Douglas McLeod
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 04/26/09
This is in response to the guest column of April 19 "Court's ruling on song case a wake-up call on belief" which the writer addressed the human dynamics involved in the controversy over the song, "In God We Still Trust."
I was dismayed by the lack of understanding by teachers and school administrators who could not fathom the "overtly specific religious viewpoint" espoused by the song. Did the teachers and administrators agree with this viewpoint? Were they blind to the possible objections this selection would surely produce? Are school personnel, especially teachers, trained regarding constitutional issues that might arise in the educational process?
Maybe it's time that teacher training include familiarity with our U.S. Constitution. Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor asserted that, "generally speaking, today's students do not receive the educational foundation to become good citizens." People who understand the meaning of religion, the meaning of freedom and the nature of democracy are more likely to actively protect religious liberty.
One of the obstacles to achieving an informed citizenry is the fact that some people intentionally spread harmful myths that bend the truth to advance sectarian-oriented politics. Mythology posing as history is dangerous. A good example of this mythology is the notion that "America is a Christian nation" myth found in the song "In God We Still Trust."
Supporters of this theory cherry-pick quotations from various founders of the nation. Most of the founders (Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Paine, Madison and Washington) were far from the kind of avid believers in the lordship of Jesus Christ and devotion to the trinitarian God. The notion that the colonists were devout, God-fearing people is false. Only 10-15 percent of the people at the time of the American Revolution belonged to any church. The truth is that the government of the United States is secular in nature. That is by intent and design. It is interesting to note that most intense advocates for a secular nature of the U.S. government have been people who are most respectful of religion and devoted to preserving its integrity.
Space does not allow consideration of several other myths. They include the notion that the constitution guarantees freedom for religion but not freedom from religion. Another myth suggests that support for church-state separation is somehow an expression of hostility toward religion. And finally, the myth that there is a war on Christianity under way in the United States. These fallacious assertions are the product of either brainwashing of the American public as a political strategy, or an ignorance born of deficiency in the basic lessons of civics. Even well-intentioned people fall victim to the power of deceitful messages. Democracy functions best with an informed citizenry.
I believe St. Johns County has a good education system with many dedicated teachers and staff. I just hope this "song" issue really does become a wake up call for our community to put more effort into providing the educational foundation that leads to good citizenship.
*H. Douglas McLeod is a member of the Interfaith Alliance and of the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042609/opinions_042609_025.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
H. Douglas McLeod
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 04/26/09
This is in response to the guest column of April 19 "Court's ruling on song case a wake-up call on belief" which the writer addressed the human dynamics involved in the controversy over the song, "In God We Still Trust."
I was dismayed by the lack of understanding by teachers and school administrators who could not fathom the "overtly specific religious viewpoint" espoused by the song. Did the teachers and administrators agree with this viewpoint? Were they blind to the possible objections this selection would surely produce? Are school personnel, especially teachers, trained regarding constitutional issues that might arise in the educational process?
Maybe it's time that teacher training include familiarity with our U.S. Constitution. Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor asserted that, "generally speaking, today's students do not receive the educational foundation to become good citizens." People who understand the meaning of religion, the meaning of freedom and the nature of democracy are more likely to actively protect religious liberty.
One of the obstacles to achieving an informed citizenry is the fact that some people intentionally spread harmful myths that bend the truth to advance sectarian-oriented politics. Mythology posing as history is dangerous. A good example of this mythology is the notion that "America is a Christian nation" myth found in the song "In God We Still Trust."
Supporters of this theory cherry-pick quotations from various founders of the nation. Most of the founders (Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Paine, Madison and Washington) were far from the kind of avid believers in the lordship of Jesus Christ and devotion to the trinitarian God. The notion that the colonists were devout, God-fearing people is false. Only 10-15 percent of the people at the time of the American Revolution belonged to any church. The truth is that the government of the United States is secular in nature. That is by intent and design. It is interesting to note that most intense advocates for a secular nature of the U.S. government have been people who are most respectful of religion and devoted to preserving its integrity.
Space does not allow consideration of several other myths. They include the notion that the constitution guarantees freedom for religion but not freedom from religion. Another myth suggests that support for church-state separation is somehow an expression of hostility toward religion. And finally, the myth that there is a war on Christianity under way in the United States. These fallacious assertions are the product of either brainwashing of the American public as a political strategy, or an ignorance born of deficiency in the basic lessons of civics. Even well-intentioned people fall victim to the power of deceitful messages. Democracy functions best with an informed citizenry.
I believe St. Johns County has a good education system with many dedicated teachers and staff. I just hope this "song" issue really does become a wake up call for our community to put more effort into providing the educational foundation that leads to good citizenship.
*H. Douglas McLeod is a member of the Interfaith Alliance and of the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042609/opinions_042609_025.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Guest Column: St. Augustine should have a national park
Guest Column: St. Augustine should have a national historical park
ED SLAVIN
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 03/26/07
Real estate speculators (some foreign-funded) continue to destroy our local wildlife, habitat, nature and history. Roads are clogged. Noise abounds. Our way of life is being destroyed. Unfeeling, uncaring Philistines are turning St. Johns County into an uglier, unreasonable facsimile of South Florida. Unjust county government stewards allowed an asphalt plant near homes. Another plant reportedly emits 50 tons/year of volatile organic compounds into residents' and workers' lungs and brains.
Speculators are even trying to build homes on top of unremediated septic tanks/fields, while vacationing boaters pollute our Bay front with untreated sewage (the only boat-pumpout-station is at Conch House Marina). Our Bay front (which lacks a harbormaster) had an oil spill Jan. 15. Developers demand to build docks over city-owned State Road 312 area marshes for boat-owners' pleasure. Enough.
Let's invite environmental tourism by preserving an "emerald necklace of parks," including the city-owned marsh.
Ask Congress to hold hearings to map our "St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore" (SANHPNS), using 1928-style trolleycars to save gasoline, uniting the Castillo and Fort Matanzas National Monuments, "slave market park," downtown streets, Government House, Red House Bluff indigenous village (next to historical society), marshes, forests, National Cemetery, GTM NERR, Anastasia State Park, Fort Mose and other city, county, state and St. Johns River Water Management District lands.
Let's cancel future shock/schlock/sprawl/ugliness/skyscrapers and eliminate temptations to abuse/neglect/misuse state parks and historic buildings for golf courses and rote, rube commercialism.
In December, State Sen. Jim King suggested Florida donate "deed and title" of state buildings to our city. I suggested that we deed them to the National Park Service (NPS), with St. George Street visitor center in restored buildings, saving millions (as in the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park).
St. Augustine needs a national civil rights and indigenous history museum, celebrating local residents and national leaders, whose courage helped win passage of 1964's Civil Rights Act. Why not put the museum in the old Woolworth's building, restored to its former glory, with wood floors, lunch-counter and exhibits on the civil rights struggles that changed history (well- documented in Jeremy Dean's documentary, "Dare Not Walk Alone"), with "footsoldiers monument" across the street ?
Why not (finally) implement the 2003 National Trust for Historic Preservation and Flagler College study on how to protect our history? Let's tax tourists more to fund historic preservation, as in Charleston/elsewhere.
Let's preserve/protect the quality of our lives and visitors' experience (and property values) by preserving forever what speculators haven't destroyed (yet).
Let's adopt a three-year moratorium on growth, while we work to adopt truly comprehensive plans worthy of the name.
Colonial National Historical Park (NHP), Philadelphia's Independence NHP and NHPs in Boston, New Bedford, Valley Forge, San Francisco and Saratoga.
There's a Martin Luther King historical site in Atlanta, NHPs for "Rosie the Riveter" (California) and the "War in the Pacific" (Guam), and new parks slated for ten Japanese internment camps.
Florida hosts Everglades, Dry Tortugas and Biscayne National Parks and Canaveral National Seashore. Let's add St. Augustine to the list.
From sea to shining sea, America's coastal areas enjoy national parks. Where's ours?
Let's make parts of State Road A1A a National Parkway and hiking/biking trail, like the Colonial National Historical Parkway and the Baltimore Washington, George Washington, Rock Creek and John D. Rockefeller (Wyoming) Parkways and the Appalachian Trial and C&O Canal.
Let's add St. Augustine to the list of our nation's most beloved national parks, joining Zion, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and the Great Smoky Mountains.
Florida's 500th and St. Augustine's 450th anniversaries are only six and eight years away (2013 and 2015). Enacting a national park and seashore will forever preserve the treasures that we love. It will halt the sprawl we hate, increase tourism and reduce local taxes, paying speculators to stop.
Mayor Joe Boles' mother graciously thanked me for speaking out on these issues after the Jan. 22 City Commission meeting -- issues that Mrs. Boles has been outspoken about for "30 years." Let's honor/heed Mrs. Boles' wisdom -- and those who proposed a national park before World War II. Let's save St. Augustine and our environment forever.
#
Ed Slavin lives in St. Augustine.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/032607/opinions_4479465.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
ED SLAVIN
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 03/26/07
Real estate speculators (some foreign-funded) continue to destroy our local wildlife, habitat, nature and history. Roads are clogged. Noise abounds. Our way of life is being destroyed. Unfeeling, uncaring Philistines are turning St. Johns County into an uglier, unreasonable facsimile of South Florida. Unjust county government stewards allowed an asphalt plant near homes. Another plant reportedly emits 50 tons/year of volatile organic compounds into residents' and workers' lungs and brains.
Speculators are even trying to build homes on top of unremediated septic tanks/fields, while vacationing boaters pollute our Bay front with untreated sewage (the only boat-pumpout-station is at Conch House Marina). Our Bay front (which lacks a harbormaster) had an oil spill Jan. 15. Developers demand to build docks over city-owned State Road 312 area marshes for boat-owners' pleasure. Enough.
Let's invite environmental tourism by preserving an "emerald necklace of parks," including the city-owned marsh.
Ask Congress to hold hearings to map our "St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore" (SANHPNS), using 1928-style trolleycars to save gasoline, uniting the Castillo and Fort Matanzas National Monuments, "slave market park," downtown streets, Government House, Red House Bluff indigenous village (next to historical society), marshes, forests, National Cemetery, GTM NERR, Anastasia State Park, Fort Mose and other city, county, state and St. Johns River Water Management District lands.
Let's cancel future shock/schlock/sprawl/ugliness/skyscrapers and eliminate temptations to abuse/neglect/misuse state parks and historic buildings for golf courses and rote, rube commercialism.
In December, State Sen. Jim King suggested Florida donate "deed and title" of state buildings to our city. I suggested that we deed them to the National Park Service (NPS), with St. George Street visitor center in restored buildings, saving millions (as in the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park).
St. Augustine needs a national civil rights and indigenous history museum, celebrating local residents and national leaders, whose courage helped win passage of 1964's Civil Rights Act. Why not put the museum in the old Woolworth's building, restored to its former glory, with wood floors, lunch-counter and exhibits on the civil rights struggles that changed history (well- documented in Jeremy Dean's documentary, "Dare Not Walk Alone"), with "footsoldiers monument" across the street ?
Why not (finally) implement the 2003 National Trust for Historic Preservation and Flagler College study on how to protect our history? Let's tax tourists more to fund historic preservation, as in Charleston/elsewhere.
Let's preserve/protect the quality of our lives and visitors' experience (and property values) by preserving forever what speculators haven't destroyed (yet).
Let's adopt a three-year moratorium on growth, while we work to adopt truly comprehensive plans worthy of the name.
Colonial National Historical Park (NHP), Philadelphia's Independence NHP and NHPs in Boston, New Bedford, Valley Forge, San Francisco and Saratoga.
There's a Martin Luther King historical site in Atlanta, NHPs for "Rosie the Riveter" (California) and the "War in the Pacific" (Guam), and new parks slated for ten Japanese internment camps.
Florida hosts Everglades, Dry Tortugas and Biscayne National Parks and Canaveral National Seashore. Let's add St. Augustine to the list.
From sea to shining sea, America's coastal areas enjoy national parks. Where's ours?
Let's make parts of State Road A1A a National Parkway and hiking/biking trail, like the Colonial National Historical Parkway and the Baltimore Washington, George Washington, Rock Creek and John D. Rockefeller (Wyoming) Parkways and the Appalachian Trial and C&O Canal.
Let's add St. Augustine to the list of our nation's most beloved national parks, joining Zion, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and the Great Smoky Mountains.
Florida's 500th and St. Augustine's 450th anniversaries are only six and eight years away (2013 and 2015). Enacting a national park and seashore will forever preserve the treasures that we love. It will halt the sprawl we hate, increase tourism and reduce local taxes, paying speculators to stop.
Mayor Joe Boles' mother graciously thanked me for speaking out on these issues after the Jan. 22 City Commission meeting -- issues that Mrs. Boles has been outspoken about for "30 years." Let's honor/heed Mrs. Boles' wisdom -- and those who proposed a national park before World War II. Let's save St. Augustine and our environment forever.
#
Ed Slavin lives in St. Augustine.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/032607/opinions_4479465.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
Reject the wrong hotel in the wrong place, with a conflicted Commissioner as the architect
Conflicted City Commissioner DONALD CRICHLOW is at it again -- he's the architect for a project that Commissioners are being asked to vote on tonight.
The project would obstruct the view of the Cathedral from Flagler College (and of Flagler College from the Cathedral. It would obstruct downtown streets, which already have too much traffic.
The project is too big, in the wrong place at the wrong time -- it should be rejected.
DONALD CRICHLOW is an other-directed voice for developers -- color him deeply conflicted, a pawn of City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS.
The project would obstruct the view of the Cathedral from Flagler College (and of Flagler College from the Cathedral. It would obstruct downtown streets, which already have too much traffic.
The project is too big, in the wrong place at the wrong time -- it should be rejected.
DONALD CRICHLOW is an other-directed voice for developers -- color him deeply conflicted, a pawn of City Manager WILLIAM B. HARRISS.
Hotel decision today
GHotel decision today
Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 1:03 am by Beth Romanik
St. Augustine City Commissioners will decide today whether to approve a 21,000-square-foot hotel that would be built on the corner of St. George Street.
The project’s developer is asking the commission to grant him a planned unit development for a boutique hotel that would also include retail shops. It would be built at the corner of St. George Street and Cathedral Place, which is across from the Cathedral-Basilica.
The project has caused some friction with the Cathedral because it would take up half of Bank of America’s parking lot, or roughly 25 spaces. The lot is used by Cathedral parishioners who buy $1 decals from the church and park there on Sunday mornings.
The hotel is also in an historic district must have design approval from the city’s Historica Architectural Review Board. The board had some minor issues with project and tabled it. If the commission approves the hotel, it will still have to go before the Historic Architectural Review Board, Mark Knight, city planning and building department director has said.
Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 1:03 am by Beth Romanik
St. Augustine City Commissioners will decide today whether to approve a 21,000-square-foot hotel that would be built on the corner of St. George Street.
The project’s developer is asking the commission to grant him a planned unit development for a boutique hotel that would also include retail shops. It would be built at the corner of St. George Street and Cathedral Place, which is across from the Cathedral-Basilica.
The project has caused some friction with the Cathedral because it would take up half of Bank of America’s parking lot, or roughly 25 spaces. The lot is used by Cathedral parishioners who buy $1 decals from the church and park there on Sunday mornings.
The hotel is also in an historic district must have design approval from the city’s Historica Architectural Review Board. The board had some minor issues with project and tabled it. If the commission approves the hotel, it will still have to go before the Historic Architectural Review Board, Mark Knight, city planning and building department director has said.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Earth, America, people and turtles (among others) deserve a St. Augustine National Seashore to return to
Every year, like clockwork, turtles return to St. Augustine and St. Johns County. See Wikipedia article and St. Augustine Record article, below. The leatherback turtle is critically endangered.
With your help, soon the leatherback turtles will be returning to a St. Augustine National Seashore, part of a St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Parkway. There they will be protected forever.
How can you look a leatherback turtle in the eye and refuse to protect her?
Let's support the St. Augustine National Historical Park, National Seashore and National Scenic Coastal Parkway Act of 2009.
From Wikipedia:
The leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) is the largest of all living sea turtles and the fourth largest modern reptile behind three crocodilians.[1][2] It is the only living species in the genus Dermochelys. It can easily be differentiated from other modern sea turtles by its lack of a bony shell. Instead, its carapace is covered by skin and oily flesh. Dermochelys coriacea is the only extant member of the family Dermochelyidae. Instead of teeth the Leatherback turtle has points on the tomium of its upper lip. It also has backwards spines in its throat to help it swallow food. Leatherback turtles can dive to depths as great as 4,200 feet (1,280 meters).[3]
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Anatomy and morphology
o 1.1 Physiology
* 2 Distribution
o 2.1 Atlantic subpopulation
o 2.2 Pacific subpopulation
o 2.3 Indian Ocean subpopulation
* 3 Ecology and life history
o 3.1 Habitat
o 3.2 Trophic ecology
o 3.3 Life history
* 4 Evolutionary history
* 5 Etymology and taxonomic history
* 6 Importance to humans
* 7 Conservation
o 7.1 Global conservation initiatives
o 7.2 Country-specific conservation initiatives
* 8 See also
* 9 References
* 10 Bibliography
* 11 External links
[edit] Anatomy and morphology
Leatherback turtles follow the general sea turtle body plan of having a large, dorsoventrally flattened, round body with two pairs of very large flippers and a short tail. Like other sea turtles, the leatherback's flattened forelimbs are specially adapted for swimming in the open ocean. Claws are noticeably absent from both pair of flippers. The leatherback's flippers are the largest in proportion to its body among the extant sea turtles. Leatherback front flippers can grow up to 2.7 meters in large specimens, the largest flippers (even in comparison to its body) of any sea turtle. As the last surviving member of its family, the leatherback turtle has several distinguishing characteristics that differentiate it from other sea turtles. Its most notable feature is that it lacks the bony carapace of the other extant sea turtles. Instead of scutes, the leatherback's carapace is covered by its thick, leathery skin with embedded minuscule bony plates. Seven distinct ridges arise from the carapace, running from the anterior-to-posterior margin of the turtle's back. The entire turtle's dorsal surface is colored dark grey to black with a sporadic scattering of white blotches and spots. In a show of countershading, the turtle's underside is lightly colored.[4][5]
Dermochelys coriacea adults average at around one to two meters long and weigh from around 250 to 700 kilograms.[4] The largest ever found however was over three meters from head to tail and weighed 916 kilograms. That particular specimen was found on a beach on the west coast of Wales in the North Atlantic.
[edit] Physiology
The metabolic rate of the leatherback is about four times higher than one would expect for a reptile of its size; this, coupled with counter-current heat exchangers, the insulation provided by its oily flesh and large body size, allow it to maintain a body temperature as much as 18°C (64°F) above that of the surrounding water. Its large size also gives the leatherback more capacity to maintain its body temperature than smaller, more ectothermic reptiles.[1]
Leatherbacks are also the reptile world's deepest-divers. Individuals have been discovered to be able to descend deeper than 1,200 meters (3,937 feet).[1]
They are also the fastest reptiles on record. The 1992 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records has the leatherback turtle listed as having achieved the speed of 9.8 meters per second (35.28 kilometers per hour) in the water.[6][7]
[edit] Distribution
The leatherback turtle is a species with a cosmopolitan global range. Of all the extant sea turtle species, D. coriacea has the widest distribution, reaching as far north as Alaska and Norway and as far south as the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and the southernmost tip of New Zealand.[4] The leatherback is found in all tropical and subtropical oceans, and its range has been known to extend well into the Arctic Circle.[8] Globally, there are three major, genetically-distinct populations. The Atlantic Dermochelys population is separate from the ones in the Eastern and Western Pacific, which are also distinct from each other.[1][9] A third possible Pacific subpopulation has been proposed, specifically the leatherback turtles nesting in Malaysia. This subpopulation however, has almost been eradicated. The beach of Rantau Abang in Terengganu , Malaysia, had once had the largest nesting population in the world with 10,000 nests per year. However in 2008 only 2 leatherback turtles nested at Rantau Abang and unfortunately the eggs where infertile. The major cause for the decline in the leatherback turtles is the practice of egg collection in Malaysia. While specific nesting beaches have been identified in the region, leatherback populations in the Indian Ocean remain generally unassessed and unevaluated.[10]
D. coriacea distribution. Yellow circles represent minor nesting locations. Red circles are known major nesting sites.
Recent estimates of global nesting populations indicate 26,000 to 43,000 nesting females annually, which is a dramatic decline from the 115,000 estimated in 1980.[11] These declining numbers have contributed to conservation efforts to stabilize the leatherback sea turtles and move their species away from the current status of critically endangered [11]
[edit] Atlantic subpopulation
The leatherback turtle population in the Atlantic Ocean ranges almost all over the entire region. Their regional range spreads as far north as the North Sea and south to the Cape of Good Hope. Unlike other sea turtles, leatherbacks' feeding areas are colder waters where there is an abundance of their jellyfish prey which accounts for their more widespread range. However, only a few select beaches on both sides of the Atlantic are utilized by the turtles as nesting sites[12].
Off the Atlantic coast of Canada, leatherback turtles can be found feeding as far north as Newfoundland and Labrador. They have been sighted as far north as the Gulf of St. Lawrence near Quebec.[13] The most significant nesting sites in the Atlantic are in Suriname, French Guiana and Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean and Gabon in Central Africa. The beaches of Mayumba National Park in Mayumba, Gabon are home to the largest nesting population of leatherback turtles on the African continent.[9][14] Off the northeastern coast of the South American continent, a few select beaches between French Guiana and Suriname are primary nesting sites of several species of sea turtles, the majority being leatherbacks.[15] A few hundred nest annually on the eastern coast of Florida.[2] In Costa Rica, the beaches of Parismina are known nesting grounds of leatherback turtles.[16][10]
[edit] Pacific subpopulation
Leatherback turtles in the Pacific Ocean have been determined to belong to two distinct populations. One population is known to nest on beaches in Papua, Indonesia and the Solomon Islands while their foraging grounds are across the Pacific in the northern hemisphere along the coast of Oregon in North America. The Eastern Pacific population forages in the southern hemisphere, in waters along the western coast of the South American continent while they nest in beaches on the Pacific side of Central America, specific nesting grounds being in Mexico and Costa Rica.[17][9] The Malaysian nesting population, reduced to less than a hundred individuals as of 2006, has been proposed as a third major Pacific subpopulation.[10]
There are two major leatherback feeding areas in the continental United States. One well-studied area is just off the northwestern coast of the United States near the mouth of the Columbia River. These waters are excellent feeding grounds for the turtles, where they are believed to be foraging in the nutrient-rich waters of the North Pacific. The other American foraging area for the turtles is located in the state of California.[17] Further north, off the Pacific coast of Canada, leatherbacks have been seen on the beaches of British Columbia.[13]
[edit] Indian Ocean subpopulation
While there are few researches that have been done on Dermochelys populations in the Indian Ocean, nesting populations are known from Sri Lanka and the Nicobar Islands. It is proposed that these turtles form a separate, genetically distinct Indian Ocean subpopulation.[10]
[edit] Ecology and life history
[edit] Habitat
Leatherback turtles can be found primarily in the open ocean. Scientists tracked a leatherback turtle that swam from Indonesia to the U.S. in an epic 20,000-kilometer (13,000-mile) journey over a period of 647 days as it searched for food.[4][18] The turtles prefer deep water but are most often seen within sight of land. Feeding grounds have been determined to be closer to land, in waters barely offshore. Unusually for a reptile, leatherbacks can survive and actively swim in colder waters; individual turtles have been found in waters as cold as 4.5° Celsius.[4][19]
The favoured breeding beaches of the leatherback turtle are mainland sites facing deep water and they seem to avoid those sites protected by coral reefs.[20]
[edit] Trophic ecology
Adult Dermochelys coriacea subsist on a diet almost entirely composed of jellyfish.[4] Due to its obligate feeding nature, it has been hypothesized that leatherback turtles play a role in the control of jellyfish populations.[1] Leatherbacks are also known to feed on other soft-bodied marine organisms such as tunicates and cephalopods.[19]
Dead leatherbacks that wash ashore have been studied to be veritable microecosystems on their own while in the process of decomposition. A drowned leatherback carcass observed in 1996 was observed to have been host to sarcophagid and calliphorid flies after being picked open by a pair of Coragyps atratus vultures. Infestation by known carrion-eating beetles of the Scarabaeidae, Carabidae and Tenebrionidae families soon followed suit. After days of decomposition, beetles from the families Histeridae and Staphylinidae and anthomyiid flies invaded the corpse as well. All in all, organisms from more than a dozen families took part in decomposition of the leatherback carcass.[21]
[edit] Life history
Baby leatherback turtle at Gumbo Limbo Environmental Complex in Boca Raton, Florida.
Like all sea turtles, leatherback turtles start their lives as hatchlings bursting out from the sands of their nesting beaches. Right after they hatch, the baby turtles are already in danger of predation. Many are eaten by birds, crustaceans, other reptiles and also people before they reach the water. Once they reach the ocean they are generally not seen again until maturity. Very few turtles survive this mysterious period to become adults. It is known that juvenile Dermochelys spend a majority of their particular life stage in more tropical waters than the adults.[19]
Adult Dermochelys are prone to long-distance bouts of migration. Migration in leatherback turtles occurs between the cold waters in which mature leatherbacks cruise in to feed on the abundant masses of jellyfish that occur in those waters, to the tropical and subtropical beaches in the regions where they were hatched from. In the Atlantic, individual females tagged in French Guiana off the coast of South America have been recaptured on the other side of the ocean in Morocco and Spain.[15]
Mating takes place at sea. Leatherback males never leave the water once they enter it unlike females which crawl onto land to nest. After encountering a female (who possibly exudes a pheromone to signal her reproductive status) a leatherback male uses head movements, nuzzling, biting or flipper movements to determine her receptiveness. Females are known to mate every two to three years. However, leatherbacks have been found to be capable of breeding and nesting annually. Fertilization is internal, and multiple males usually mate with a single female. However, studies have shown that this process of polyandry in sea turtles does not provide the offspring with any special advantages.[22]
While the other species of sea turtles almost-always return to the same beaches they hatched from, female leatherback turtles have been found to be capable of switching to another beach within the same general region of their "home" beach. Chosen nesting beaches are made of soft sand since their shells and plastrons are softer and easily damaged by hard rocks. Nesting beaches also have shallower approach angles from the sea. This is a source of vulnerability for the turtles because such beaches are easily eroded. Females excavate a nest above the high-tide line with their flippers. One female may lay as many as nine clutches in one breeding season. About nine days pass between nesting events. The average clutch size of this particular species is around 110 eggs per nest, 85% of which are viable.[4] The female carefully back-fills the nest after, disguising it from predators with a scattering of sand.[19][23]
The female back-fills the nest
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Cleavage of the cell begins within hours of fertilization, but development is suspended during the gastrulation period of movements and infoldings of embryonic cells, while the eggs are being laid. Development soon resumes, but the embryos remain extremely susceptible to movement-induced mortality in their nests until the membranes fully develop through the first 20 to 25 days of incubation, when the structural differentiation of body and organs (organogenesis) soon follows. The eggs hatch in about sixty to seventy days. As with other reptiles, the ambient temperature of the nest determines the sex of the hatchlings. After nightfall, the hatchlings dig their way to the surface and make their way to the sea.[24][25]
As a global species with a range spanning both hemispheres, leatherback nesting seasons vary from place-to-place. Nesting occurs in February to July in Parismina, Costa Rica.[16] Farther east in French Guiana, Dermochelys populations nest from March to August.[15] Atlantic leatherback turtles nest between February and July from South Carolina in the United States to the U.S. Virgin Islands in the Caribbean and to Suriname and Guyana.[citation needed] With nearly 30,000 turtles visiting its beaches each year to April, Mayumba National Park is the most important leatherback turtle nesting beach in Africa, and possibly worldwide.[14]
[edit] Evolutionary history
Leatherback turtles have been around in some form since the first true sea turtles evolved over 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous. The dermochelyids, as represented by the single living species D. coriacea, are close relatives of the family Cheloniidae which contain the other species of extant sea turtles. However, phylogenetic analysis has determined their sister taxon to be the extinct family Protostegidae which also included species with no hard carapace.[26][27]
[edit] Etymology and taxonomic history
Dermochelys coriacea is the only species in its genus Dermochelys. The genus in turn, contains the only extant members of the leatherback turtle family Dermochelyidae.[28]
The species was first described in 1761 by Domenico Vandelli as Testudo coriacea.[29] In 1816, the genus Dermochelys was coined by the French zoologist Henri Blainville. The leatherback was then reclassified under this own genus as Dermochelys coriacea.[30] Later on, the species was classified in its own family of Dermochelyidae in 1843 by the zoologist Leopold Fitzinger.[31] In 1884, the American naturalist Samuel Garman described members of the species as Sphargis coriacea schlegelii.[32] The two described leatherback species were then united in D. coriacea with each given subspecies status as D. coriacea coriacea and D. coriacea schlegelii. The two subspecies were later rendered invalid synonyms of the species Dermochelys coriacea.[33][34]
The turtle's common name comes from the leathery texture and appearance of its carapace. Aside from "leatherback" turtle, it has been called the "leathery turtle" in the past.[2] The turtle was also once referred to as the "trunk" turtle, though the name is now in disuse.[35]
[edit] Importance to humans
The harvesting of sea turtle eggs is still practiced by people around the world. Asian exploitation of the turtle's nests have been cited as the most significant factor for the species' global population decline. In Southeast Asia, the collection of leatherback eggs has led to a near-total collapse of local nesting populations in specific countries like Thailand and Malaysia.[36] Specifically in Malaysia, where the turtle is practically locally extinct, the eggs are considered a delicacy.[37] In the Caribbean, some cultures consider the eggs of sea turtles to be aphrodisiacs.[36]
[edit] Conservation
Adult leatherback turtles are large animals that have few natural predators. The most vulnerable stages in a leatherback's life are their early life stages at which point they are most vulnerable to predation of all kinds. Birds, small mammals and other opportunists are known to dig up nests and consume eggs. New hatchlings are also vulnerable on their journey from nest to sea. Shorebirds and crustaceans are known to prey on the turtles scrambling for the sea. Once they enter the water they become prey to a whole new host of predators such as predatory fishes and cephalopods. Very few survive to adulthood.
Leatherback turtles have slightly fewer human-related threats than the other sea turtle species. As their flesh contains higher oil and fat content than other species', there is not much demand for their flesh. However, human activity still significantly endangers leatherback turtles in direct and indirect ways. Directly, a small amount of leatherback turtles are caught for their meat by subsistence fisheries. Nests are raided for eggs by humans in a few places around the world, such as Southeast Asia.[36]
Aside from targeted efforts at catching adults and collecting their eggs, there are many human activities that indirectly harm Dermochelys populations worldwide. As a pelagic species, D. coriacea individuals are occasionally caught as by-catch by commercial fishing vessels. As they are the largest sea turtles alive today, turtle excluder devices can be ineffective with adult leatherbacks of a particular size range. It is reported that an average of 1,500 mature females were accidentally caught annually in the 1990s.[36] Pollution, both chemical and physical, can also be fatal to leatherback turtles. With their main diet consisting of jellyfish, many turtles die from malabsorption and intestinal blockage following the ingestion of balloons and plastic bags which resemble their prey.[4] Chemical pollution has also had an adverse effect of the Dermochelys population. A high level of phthalates has been measured in the yolk of D. coriacea eggs.[36]
[edit] Global conservation initiatives
It is also listed on Appendix 1 of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). This makes it illegal to harm or kill the turtles.
Conservation of the Pacific and Eastern Atlantic leatherback populations was included among the top ten issues in turtle conservation in the first State of the World's Sea Turtles report published in 2006. Specifically noted were the significant population declines in the Mexican, Costa Rican and Malaysian populations. The Eastern Atlantic nesting population was noted for being threatened by increased fishing pressures from Eastern South American countries in whose waters the leatherbacks forage.[38]
The Leatherback Trust is an organization that was founded specifically towards the aim of the conservation of all marine turtles, specifically their namesake. The foundation was responsible for the establishment of a sanctuary in Costa Rica, the Parque Marino Las Baulas.[39]
[edit] Country-specific conservation initiatives
As a species with a range encompassing dozens of coastal countries around the world, the leatherback turtle has been subject to differing country-specific laws regarding its conservation.
The United States has listed the leatherback turtle as an endangered species since June 2, 1970. The protected status of the species (in United States waters) was ratified with the passing of the U.S. Endangered Species Act three years after.[40] Farther north in Canada, where the leatherback turtle can also be found, the Species Risk Act was established to make it illegal to exploit the species in Canadian waters. It has been classified endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada.[13] Ireland and Wales have initiated a joint leatherback conservation effort between the University of Wales Swansea and University College Cork. Funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the Irish Sea Leatherback Turtle Project as the project is called, focuses on serious research programs such as tagging and satellite tracking of individual leatherback turtles.[41]
Several Caribbean countries have started conservation programs focused on using eco-tourism to bring attention to the plight of the leatherback. On the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica, the village of Parismina has one such initiative. Since 1998, the village has been assisting turtles with a hatchery program.[42] Mayumba National Park in Gabon, Central Africa was created to protect the most important leatherback turtle nesting beach in Africa. More than 30,000 turtles come to nest on Mayumba's beaches between September and April each year.[14]
A more drastic measure that is being studied by the Malaysian Fisheries Department is cloning. In mid-2007, the Fisheries Department expressed a plan to clone leatherback turtles to replenish the country's rapidly-declining Dermochelys population. Some conservation biologists however, are skeptical of the proposed plan as cloning has been done only on mammals such as dogs, sheep, cats and cows, and uncertainties persist about cloned animals' health and life spans.[43] Leatherbacks used to nest in the thousands on many of Malaysia's beaches, including those at Terengganu where more than 3,000 nesting females were counted in the late 1960s.[44] The last official count of nesting leatherback females on that beach was recorded to be a mere two females in 1993.[9]
In Brazil, reproduction of the leatherback turtle is being assisted by the IBAMA's "projeto TAMAR" (TAMAR project), which aims to protect all sea turtles in the Brazilian coast, by assisting their nests and preventing accidental kills by fishing boats. The last official count of nesting leatherback females in Brazil was recorded to be only seven females.[45]
It is listed as Vulnerable under Australia's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, and as Endangered under Queensland's Nature Conservation Act 1992.
[edit] See also
* Chelonioidea. The sea turtle superfamily.
* Caretta caretta. The loggerhead turtle.
* Chelonia mydas. The green turtle.
* Eretmochelys imbricata. The hawksbill turtle.
* Lepidochelys kempii. The Kemp's Ridley turtle.
* Lepidochelys olivacea. The olive ridley turtle.
* Natator depressus. The flatback turtle.
[edit] References
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29. ^ Testudo coriacea (TSN 208671)
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30. ^ Dermochelys (TSN 173842)
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31. ^ Dermochelyidae (TSN 173841)
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32. ^ Sphargis coriacea schlegelii (TSN 208673)
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. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
40. ^ "The Leatherback Turtle (Dermochelys coriacea)"
. The Oceanic Resource Foundation. 2005. http://www.orf.org/turtles_leatherback.htm
. Retrieved on 2007-09-17.
41. ^ Doyle, Tom; Jonathan Houghton (2007). "Irish Sea Leatherback Turtle Project"
. Irish Sea Leatherback Turtle Project. http://www.turtle.ie/
. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
42. ^ Cruz (December 2006). "History of the Sea Turtle Project in Parismina"
. Village of Parismina, Costa Rica - Turtle Project. Parismina Social Club. http://www.parismina.com/turtle2.htm
. Retrieved on 2007-09-13.
43. ^ Zappei, Julia (2007-07-12). "Malaysia mulls cloning rare turtles
" (in English). Yahoo! News (Yahoo!). http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070712/ap_on_sc/malaysia_cloning_turtles_1
. Retrieved on 2007-07-12.
44. ^ "Experts meet to help save world's largest turtles
" (in English). Yahoo! News (Yahoo!). 2007-07-17. http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070717/sc_afp/malaysiausindonesia_070717180328
. Retrieved on 2007-07-18.
45. ^ "Tamar's Bulletin"
(in Portuguese). Projeto Tamar's official website. 2007-12. http://www.projetotamar.org.br/publi.asp
. Retrieved on 2007-12-26.
[edit] Bibliography
* Sarti Martinez (2000). Dermochelys coriacea
. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is critically endangered
* Wood R.C., Johnson-Gove J., Gaffney E.S. & Maley K.F. (1996) - Evolution and phylogeny of leatherback turtles (Dermochelyidae), with descriptions of new fossil taxa. Chel. Cons. Biol., 2(2): 266-286, Lunenburg.
[edit] External links
Sister project Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dermochelys coriacea
* Mayumba National Park Turtles Online
Information about and photos of sea turtles and the world's most important leatherback nesting beach.
* ARKive
Photographs, Video
* The Oceanic Resource Foundation
* NOAA Office of Protected Resources
* Leatherback Sea Turtle at CRESLI
* eatturtlerace.com/ The Great Turtle Race
, a conservation group that monitors Leatherbacks as the swim from Costa Rica, where they've just laid their eggs, back to their natural territory of the Galapagos Islands.
* Tagging Of Pacific Predators
, a contributor to The Great Turtle Race, this research group continues to tag and monitor Leatherbacks around the world, including the turtles from the race.
* Video of a leatherback turtle laying eggs
Filmed in Tamarindo, Costa Rica
* Leatherback turtle research at Juno Beach, Florida
* Leatherback Turtle in Bocas Del Toro
* NPWS
Leatherback Turtle in Irish waters.
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