Preserving and Protecting St. Augustine, Florida

It's up to us to preserve and protect what we love here in St. Augustine.

Let's finally honor this special place with a “St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore,” first proposed in 1939 (making for better, clearer, more succinct “branding” than sesquipedalianisms like “Guana-Tolomato-Matanazas-National-Estuarine-Research-Reserve,” “Anastasia State Park,” etc.)

Visitors love National Parks (“America's Best Idea”). St. Augustine deserves more NPS stewardship, for our 11,000 years of history and incomparable endangered vistas/nature. www.staugustgreen.com

Let's not wait for Congress – let us act now to preserve and protect St. Augustine's Historic Preservation (HP) Districts. Let's ban HP-unsuitable activities. Here are 20 activities to consider banning permanently from HP Districts:

“Adult” bookstores.

Antitrust violtions, price-fixing and fraud conspiracies.

Automobile, motorcycle and motor vehicle sales, rentals, repair, service and junkyards.

Balloon and helicopter/aircraft landings/takeoffs.

Casinos/gambling.

Chain-restaurants and chain-stores.

Chemical plants/refineries/storage-depots.

Classrooms.

Crematoria/funeral homes.

Dormitories.

Fortune-tellers.

Fuel-burning powerplants.

Manufacturing plants/warehouses.

Pawnshops.

Routine daytime eighteen-wheeler truck deliveries.

Sewage treatment-plants.

Slaughterhouses.

Tattoo-parlors.

Toxic/nuclear materials/wastes/weapons.

Zoos.

Our Ancient City;s patron Saint, Saint Augustine wrote, “an unjust law is no law at all.” St. Augustine City Commissioners: please repeal/amend dysfunctional “unjust laws” that purport to criminalize singing, painting, acting, music or dancing. Several successive anti-artist, Nuremberg-style laws were ruled unconstitutional -- a blot on the escutcheon of Our Nation's Oldest European-founded City.

Barbaric, Obsolete, Negative, Anti-Busker Ordinances (BONABO) wasted millions of dollars oppressing artists. A few commercial landlords (campaign contributors) demanded police enforce their prejudices, rolling out the “Unwelcome Wagon” with hundreds of artist, musician and entertainer arrests, in our name. These “Jim Crow” style arrests hurt talented tourism workers and our image – self-inflicted wounds, bringing shame upon our City, making St. George Street much less intriguing. Enough.

Everyone misses buskers – let's welcome them, with rational, fair regulations developed with mutual respect and understanding. Diversity, healing ancient wounds and respecting human rights are vital 450th legacies.

Finally, St. Augustine Police Chief Loren Lueders and former SAPD Chief (and current County Sheriff) David B. Shoar were both right to reject red-light cameras several years ago, as "tourist-unfriendly."  We don't need to privatize law enforcement to oligopolists. damaging our reputation (potential $500 fines for running a red light, while taking appeals away from judges).

Please “nip it in the bud,” St. Augustine Beach Commissioners.

To be continued....