Column: Pigs fly!

I went to a St. Petersburg City Council meeting the other day, and the darnedest thing happened. A big developer practically got booted out of City Hall.

Holy condo tower, Batman! I swear it's true. The developers fumed. They blustered. They insulted. They threatened. In short, they did what usually works.

But the City Council voted 7-0 not to allow a 257-foot-tall, 23-story, 154-room hotel and condo project on the border between the downtown and the Old Northeast neighborhood.

It was the right call, if you ask me. Otherwise we'd have this Great Wall of Monstrosity lining the south side of Fifth Avenue N, towering over the neighborhoods to the north.

The tricky part of the decision was that the proposed Westin hotel met the technical requirements under the city's rules in effect at the time of application. The city's staff had recommended approval.

The developers made a big deal of that, saying that they had been "lured" to the city by the old rules, and that if the city ignored the staff recommendation, then they would See You In Court.

(Having spent the past 25 years watching developers' lawyers argue that staff recommendations aren't the last word and should be overruled, I thought that part was sort of funny.)

The developers also said:

* The neighbors shouldn't complain about the building's shadow, because they already sit beneath a lot of shade trees.
* The opponents (who had a pretty good lawyer who was making an effective argument) were just "emotional."
* The hotel wouldn't allow workers or patrons to park on the streets of the neighborhood, which is already jam-packed. (As to how to enforce that, maybe they had a magic parking wand.) [rest of column]

Comments

[Lance Lubin]

Howard, thank you for another "spot on" article. I'm the President of the Eagle Crest Civic Association, the neighborhood currently suing the City of St Petersburg and Sembler Development Company over the proposed development at 9th Ave N & 66th St. As you pointed out, a major difference between the two circumstances is the "Sembler factor". Sembler's influence locally and State wide is formidable. This should come as no surprise. During the 1988 Presidential campaign, Mel Sembler served on the National Steering Committee and the National Finance Committee for the George Bush for President Campaign. Additionally, he was Finance Co-Chairman for the state of Florida for the George Bush for President Campaign. In February 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed Sembler United States Ambassador to Australia.
He raised a record $21.3 million at a single dinner in April 2000 and was appointed by President Bush as Ambassador to Italy. Sembler served as Finance Chairman for the Republican National Committee from 1997 to 2000. He also served as Florida's National Committeeman to the Republican National Committee from Bush’s election in 1994 until 2000.
Betty Sembler co-chaired Jeb Bush's campaign committee and just recently, Brent Sembler (Mel’s son) was Finance Chairman for the gubernatorial campaign of Charlie Crist for Florida Governor.
Mayor Rick Baker was an outspoken supporter of Charlie Crist and was recently appointed by the Governor to head a Citizen Review Group dealing with growth and environment. Cozy, cozy,cozy.

You have referred to City Council as "Bobbleheads" implying that they are Mayor Baker's marionettes. It IS a Great Day in St Petersburg as Renee Flower’s term expires, but we must continue suffering through the rest of Ernest Williams term.
I saw you speak at a League of Women Voters event and you pointed out that part of the process of serving as an elected official is the ever increasing self delusion that their opinions are important and that they know what's "best" for everyone else. That is the basic premise of representational democracy, so we have no one to blame but ourselves. A cynical way of putting it is that people get the government they deserve.

In our development battle, there are the additional factors involving procedural irregularities, inexplicable policy changes, legal weasel tactics, and skullduggery on the part of numerous agencies. There are a number of explanations as to why we’ve been forced to battle our own government to protect our neighborhood.
Without a doubt, the number one factor in all of this is money. Who’s got it, who’s gotten it, who will get it. Money. money. money, is what makes St Pete go around.

As to various City, County, and State officials, can there be any doubt that some are totally corrupt and have been bought outright? There is no doubt that the relationship between government officials and “business” is much closer than the relationship of government officials with the people they “represent”. This leads many to believe that there is an ongoing conspiracy driven by power and greed.

It’s not possible, howver, that ALL of them are corrupt. They’re not. They are just horribly misguided and out of step with “the people”. Those who are “running” this City envision St Pete as a teeming metropolis that’s higher, bigger, busier, “better”. They are not interested in St Pete as it was, or is; they want St Pete to be something else. It’s not like any of this is being kept a secret. There are articles in the Times that reveal the belief of those in power that single family residential neighborhoods are outmoded. The big buzz words now are “mixed use developments where people live, work and play.”
In the end, however, the “Golden Rule” prevails. He who has the gold makes the rules. So much so that it’s a “front page story” when a neighborhood actually “wins” one.

Lance Lubin
President. Eagle Crest Civic Association

[Jackson Bowman]

I was very surprised that no one, including the city legal staff, mentioned the Bert J. Harris, Jr. Act.
If you Google it you will get a lot of information on what ammounts to an inverse taking ubder the law and will learn that the process has proven costly to several communities in the state. There is a legal opinion posted by then Attorney General Christ, which spells it all out very clealy. You can bet that the developers have good representation and that they are very familiar with the Bert Harris Act.

[Tom]

It was strange to see my council member voice his support the development and then vote no.

This time two years ago the council seemed very responsive to public opinion. This changed quite a bit immediately after the election. In June '05 council refused to close a mobile home park only to see it in a new light after the election. They also went for a big pay raise right after the election.

I like the proposed building but agree that parking is not adequate.

[Jane]

It's not just the Sembler factor, although that is a biggie. It's also a neighborhood factor. Lance, your neighborhood just doesn't have the clout of old Northeast. Mine doesn't either. Witness the ongoing fiasco in Pinellas Point with the Westiminster building plans and the bait-and-switch Nautico pulled. That project is now "on hold"--now there's a surprise! I am overjoyed to see that the Westin hotel got torpedoed and proud of my council member for not giving the developers "extra time" to make their case. They've had plenty of time. Way to go Jaimie! But I have to agree with Howard, if this hotel had been proposed for anywhere else in St. Pete it would have been a done deal by now.

Pinellas County looks like a catastrophe. A plague has afflicted this land and very nearly destroyed every living thing. A single victory doesn't compensate for the horrendous desolate mess the developers have made of this land.

Has anyone bothered to count how many plastic bottles are floating in Tampa Bay? Based upon my own very unscientific methods I would say that between 10,000 - 100,000 plastic bottles are floating. It is a disgusting mess.

How many gallons of gasoline did the residents of Pinellas county burn today? Americans don't care so much about the future and for that reason they are going to lose everything. The ice is melting globally. The oceans are rising. St. Petersburg will be under water.

The shoppers are shopping. Christmas is coming soon. Here and there you hear Americans expressing the most profound sacrament of consumerism: "I Want!" Jesus died on the cross so that you should shop, America!

Christianity is dead. Consumerism killed Christianity.

But at least Jesus has given Americans an occasion to engage in the orgy of consumerism which has made America the "great" nation that it is today!

I couldn't help but notice all of the obese people. Americans are morbidly obese and happy. They don't want to move. They can barely walk. Every breathe requires extreme effort.

This is what capitalism, technology and the air conditioner does to a human. Isn't it a terrible tragedy?

What does capitalism do to a planet? Pollute the air, the land and the water. Melt the ice caps and change the chemistry of the oceans. Destroy entire ecosystems and replace them with desolate lifeless expanses of asphalt. Drive so many species extinct as to generate the Sixth Great Extinction.

Have you ever read the book of Revelation? What humans have done to the Earth is an apocalypse much worse than anything St. John imagined.

How will the human story end? Evidently in an apocalypse. The human population is following a standard boom-and-bust cycle:

"Favorable environmental conditions that produce abundant supplies of food and stimulate population booms appear to set the stage for population crashes that occur when several "good years" in a row are followed by a bad year. "It's almost paradoxical, because you'd think a large population would be better off, but it turns out they're more vulnerable to a drop in resources," says Wilmers."
( http://www.physorg.com/printnews.php?newsid=95960477 )

No one should imagine that a human population numbering 6+ billion guarantees the future survival of Homo sapiens. Extinction is a distinct possibility.

In our handling of the Earth, humankind is behaving very much like a person burning down his own home while remaining inside. This is a course of action which can only lead to tragedy.

But at least a developer lost one battle. Trivial victories are still victories.