The Pier – Are You New to the Argument?

People just picking up on The Pier issue must be confused as to how a City finds itself in such a predicament.

It all began with a study that said the current Pier approach was deteriorating rapidly and would need replacement in the next few years. Then Mayor Rick Baker set up a project to replace the Pier approach and established a $50 million funding mechanism using Tax Increment Funding (TIF) to pay for The Pier approach project.

Somewhere along the way, I'm not sure anyone knows exactly where or how, a group of people decided that maybe what should be done is replace the whole thing because they thought the inverted pyramid had outlived its time.

This group managed through some "artful" politics to change the TIF Funding agreement, broadening the use of funds definitions.

The original TIF funding never anticipated replacing the entire structure, so the City began working on some concepts, such as shortening the approach and making it smaller, which would allow for enough money to replace the entire Pier.

The Pier Task Force was set up to determine what the public would like to see as a replacement, and through a series of carefully managed public meetings a final Visioning Report was produced.

Unfortunately, during the Pier Task Force project the arts community and an elite core of downtown movers and shakers began to hijack the process and the Pier Visioning Report was put on pretty much "permanent ignore."

This group of elitists, aided by a core group of City Council members (Curran, Danner, Kennedy Kornell, Dudley) began to develop a process that would all but eliminate true public input: They created an "international" design competition  and a jury of people from outside the City with no feel for St. Petersburg or how its citizens felt to select the final design, which reflects none of the average citizen's ideas or desires for the new Pier.

It was all about "art."

Right about here things started to go off track, as the people began to cry foul about the selected design and the process that got them to the "LENS."

The City administration refused to back up and the public, becoming more incensed about being ignored, began a petition drive to get a vote on the LENS project.

The City offered those wishing to petition against its now pet project no help in the petition process and publically spit in their face by refusing to work out ballot language during the petition process and court ordered mediation.

The petition appears to have been flawed as determined by the court. The wishes of 20,000-plus signers were ignored.  An appeal is pending.

As it became clear that the original petition was likely to fail, a second group,Stop The Lens, began a new petition drive with new language that the City says meets the requirements, but time will tell.

An obstinate City Council, declaring its right as a representative democracy, has continued to be supportive of the arts community, downtown Beach Drive business interests and the Chamber of Commerce, in its attempt to build a structure that 67% of the public does not want, that has strayed from the concept and that exceeds the budget to build.

Here is more of my coverage of The Pier and the City's plans for it:

Kennedy-Curious or Politically Correct?

Concerned Citizens of St. Pete - Letter to Mayor Foster

Bill Foster Still Firmly Straddling the Pier

The New Columbia - Great Idea-Bad Process

e-mail Doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net, or send me a Facebook Friend request.