The Future of the St. Augustine Beach Pier, Park and Seashore

The St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore was proposed 75 years ago, in 1939, by St. Augustine Mayor Walter Fraser, then-Senators Claude Pepper and Charles Andrews and then-Representative Joseph Hendricks.
It was during the 76th Congress.
Sheriff DAVID SHOAR told me in 2011 that the idea of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore is a "no-brainer." Other elected officials are coming around to our point of view.
It takes a village.
Today, the hope still lives that we can preserve our history and nature forever inviolate, protected from developer designs and giveaways.
The St. Augustine Beach Pier needs replacement.
To do it properly could cost $20 million.
It needs to be a longer pier, long enough to where people can still fish after beach renourishment.
The pier was too short when built.
Every beach renourishment makes the pier look ridiculous, without the ability of fishermen to fish, defeating the entire point of having a pier.
Neither the Beach nor the County has that kind of money.
The answer lies in:
(a) a public-private partnership, with restaurants on the pier, as in Orange County, California; and
(b) the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore, with a civil rights museum commeorating the desegregation of St. Augustine Beach in 1964, under guidance and leadership of Dr. Robert Hayling, D.D.S., of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (who won the Nobel Peace Prize later that year), and of Rev, Andrew Young (our future United Nations Ambassador, Congressman and Atlanta Mayor).
www.staugustgreen.com.
A public-private partnership is desirable, but not giveaways negotiated in secret. Let the new Pier be a centerpiece of the St. Augustine National Historical Park and National Seashore -- safely kept from developer giveaways and encroachments.
Let the new pier be big, long, enjoyable, and fun (instead of the small and outmoded pier that is there now).
At the Seal Beach Pier in Orange County, California, there's a statue of a seal (his name is "Slick").
At the St. Augustine Beach Pier, I forsee a statue of the Anastasia Island Beach Mouse, an endangered species.
Let his name be "Ponce de Raton."
www.staugustgreen.com
Yes we can!