Tuesday column: Lie of omission? More like just a lie

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

No to the city of St. Petersburg.

No to its government. No to its mayor. No to its deputy mayors and assistant pooh-bahs.

They do not get to run the government like this. They just don't.

For much of 2007, the citizens of St. Petersburg, also known as taxpayers and voters, believed that they were taking part in actual democracy.

They thought they were taking part in a public process to decide the future of the city's waterfront.

They showed up, they signed up to speak, they testified, they pleaded. The city pretended to be listening.

We now know it was a sham. Since March 2007, the city had a signed confidentiality agreement with the Tampa Bay Rays concerning plans to use the waterfront for a 35,000-seat, $450-million baseball stadium. [rest of column]

Comments

[Gene Smith]

Howard:

There is no question that you are right about the voters being deprived of a chance to voice their views on this through their votes for City council earlier this month - all 11% of them who bothered to show up.

Let's remember one thing, though. We wouldn't even be having this discussion if spring training baseball was continuing on the Al Lang site. This only became relevant when the Rays decided to leave St. Pete for spring training. Let's also remember that we have had a ball PARK on this site for nearly 100 years now.

While this is not the way I would have handled this issue, hopefully the debate over what is the best move for the Al Lang site will not get lost in the debate over how it was handled.

[20/20]

Welcome back Howard, I hope you time off was enjoyable.

As usual, a great article. Very direct, very succinct, and very true. Our county and city leaders seem to have trouble with the concept of prioritizing. We have a foreclosure rate that is at an alarming level. Good, hard-working, tax paying citizens and losing their homes due to out of control insurance and taxation rates.

We should not be focused on getting the Rays a new home; we should be focused on helping our citizens keep theirs.

The “economic growth” and “jobs, jobs, jobs” tag is also a ruse. If the Trop is fully staffed during season, and the proposed new stadium is about 1/3rd the size of the Trop… how will this translate into “more” economic development and jobs? It seems more like some folks may actually be losing their jobs via the downsizing.

Stay on this Howard; the people need to know ALL the facts about this one.

[guy]

Howard ~ just how do we go about re-call.
What is the procedure?,

[Jane]

Can we recall all the idiots who re-elected Baker?

[Andy G]

Howard, Howard, Howard. I like you, so I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. But if you really didn't know what was going on with this deal before it broke, I'd bet you're the only poobah at The Times that didn't.

It's more than just Baker and the St. Pete Council. The County Commission is in this up to their necks as well.

Pay close attention to the developers involved. Remember the recent vote down of the high-rise condo in Northeast St. Pete?…

Can you say trade-off?

[guy]

It is difficult for people to make accusations on these open blogs, but going back to the last election Leslie Curran was re- elected.
She was one of the primary backers of the original Dome.
Well here we go again.
I smell a bunch of rats.

[Larry]

Howard, I can tell you right now that those bums in city hall will just do whatever they want. They won't consult the voters because there is already a ballpark there so no change in use. Once they've lined up the developer's pockets who will get lined from the deal, it will be done, without regard for the folks who have chosen to make downtown their home, or without regard for the voters who elect those clowns. And Tropicana Field, which we are still paying for, will face the wrecking ball in order to further lining the developer's pockets, bring in more people to use up the water we do not have now, and further expand the tax base from which the hogs feed. If anyone thinks that this city is not being held and controlled by a bunch of egomaniacal jackassess, they need look no further than the proposed stadium and how that was handled.

[Arlene Lindsay]

THANK YOU, HOWARD, for saying it right out in front of God and everybody!

This is the same routine that occurred when certain individuals thought we just HAD to have the Tropicana Dome built. It was cut and dried no matter how the voters/taxpayers voted.

White collar crime seems to thrive on the political scene.

I applaud your Nov.27th column and how I wish a recall could and would happen...not only in the City of St. Petersburg, but all the way up to the highest Federal government bodies.

Sincerely,

Arlene Lindsay

[Tom]

Well said Howard.

And I kind of like the proposal for the new stadium. Its just hard to trust what we are being told. What else could they be leaving out?

If only they trusted us enough to let us participate in our own government I think we could avoid some of these disastrous mistakes. Like buying an obsolete stadium that we now hear must be torn down.

Baseball seems to have brought out the worst in our city.

20/20 aka Norm - stop blogging and start campaigning. Will you ever learn?

[Paul]

Here's something for further consideration... doesn't the city own the property that the little waterfront restaurant on the pier approach is? You know, the restuarant that keeps getting complaints about live music? Come on, a couple of guys playing guitar is enough for noise violations and the city considering revoking the place's lease, BUT a major league baseball stadium isn't going to create a noise problem?! Every time I read or think this whole stinking deal over, it just gets more and more bizarre and makes me feel cheated by my St Pete government.

[Susan]

The stadium is the most insane thing I have ever seen since I've been here...it's been about ten years that the "Rays" have had the franchise here, and it's been all downhill since the first two or three. Ten years should be long enough to declare this experiment a definite failure...St Petersburg needs to face the fact that it is a minor league city (not that there's anything wrong with that--it's just trying to be something it's not that's the problem).

The people of St Petersburg will have to vote on this, and it is possible to defeat the St Pete Times if there is the will...as was demonstrated by the lopsided vote against the proposal to close Albert Whitted Airport.

One more thing...when I first saw the Rays' new logo, I thought it looked like something that belonged on the brochure of a funeral home...actually, I think that is appropriate. This team doesn't need to plan for a new park, it needs to plan for a decent burial once it's contract with the city is up.

Why isn't the city looking for a proper minor league team, instead of one that plays in the majors and loses?

[Dan]

Howard, you apparently didnt get the memo. As long as the SPT Editorial Board has their adolescent man crush on The Great Rick Baker, he knows his secret deals will get little criticism in the media. (I think this article by you is about all there will be.) They dont even keep their infatuation on the op-ed pages. 11,000 voters turning out to vote is reported as a record low turnout because it put members on the council who had been critical of Baker. In the last mayorial election 14,000 voters resulted in headlines of A CITY UNITED. The Times seems to have abdicated its journalistic oversight function when it comes to the city government.

... and then there's that...

[Andy G]

Heyyyyyy....now here's a thought. Maybe we SHOULD let the Rays move over to Al Lang and sell the Trop property to developers! Just keep Al Lang as it is now...no new stadium.

Yeah… like we need another 1000 empty, un-taxed, and un-affordable condo’s in this county. The again, all those folks who will get the new hotdog vendor jobs this will bring can buy them. So, what’s a hotdog vendor make a year… 98K?

[Heidi H. Sumner]

Dear Mr. Troxler, thank you sincerely for your column yesterday and your demand that our mayor and council step down and allow a fair open election to take place with no more “behind closed doors” operations in St. Petersburg. I have wept with incredible frustration over the past two years while my neighborhood (Eaglecrest) fought long and hard, a good fight, bringing fact after fact after fact to the table, only to be shot down time and time again against the CitySembler Co. (please note this is meant to be one word, not two…) and their need, their want and their greed, their vision for West St. Petersburg, so horribly different than our need our want and our desperate, futile, attempt to save a vanishing quality of life. I’m a native, I used to love my City but have been so naïve to think that our City leaders would really have our best interests at heart! Now, I can’t wait to leave! So here we are again, once again having HUGE decisions made for us without our knowledge, without our vote – same old story, same players, same motivators – greed and want – and who cares about the LDR’s! They never mattered anyway.

I suggest that this City leadership not waste any more of our time, turn over every single deed for commercial property, all vacant property (no matter what it’s zoned) and give the whole kit and caboodle to Sembler and save us lots of tears and aggravation. Change the name of the town to Semblerville and be done with it.

And for the rest of them, they can go to heck in a handcart, along with this City which they are destroying.

Keep writing Mr. Troxler! We are paying attention.

Heidi Hagedorn Sumner

Heidi - the decision isn't "made for you". Voters will have the final say when the matter is put on the 2008 ballot.

Yes Heidi, listen to 3:27... cause that's esactly what happend the voters said no to the Tropicana.

The decision has already been made.

[Dale Fleishman]

Your column is RIGHT ON!!
The mayor's secret agreement is an insult to the local taxpayers, AND the proposal for the new ball park to grab the tax revenues from the redevelopment of the Tropicana site assures that there will be NO benefit to the community from the redevelopment, AND charts and facts and figures notwithstanding, building this new ball park without including thousands of adjacent parking spaces is unrealistic and stupid. I can not, at this point, imagine the voters approving this thing. The campaign to support it should be interesting.