Thursday, May 2, 2013
Opened in 1973, the St. Petersburg Pier will close May 31 and be demolished by the end of the year.
Walking up to the St. Petersburg Pier this week and you'll find men and women casting reels off the pier approach and the pelicans staked outside the Pier Bait House waiting for the next person to feed them. Outside of the pier, not much seems out of place ahead of the May 31 closure. Inside, however, signs of the pending closure are very real and are starting to sink for pier tenants. Multiple shops inside the pier now have "closing," "moving", or "going out of business sale," signs in the windows ... along with their Stop the Lens signs. For pier tenants, the end of the fight to save the pier is not a relief; just a sad ending to a process that they say failed them. "At this point, I think I just have to take a break because I’ve …
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
On April 5, Jude Jack Day sided with St. Petersburg in Ford's lawsuit. The city is now trying to recover costs from the lawsuit.
The city of St. Petersburg is seeking $16,152 from local attorney and mayoral candidate Kathleen Ford for court costs relating to the VoteOnThePier lawsuit. The motion, filed by assistant city attorney Joseph Patner, said because Ford brought the suit against the city and lost, "the defendant is entitled to the recovery costs as the prevailing party. Wherefore, the defendant city of St. Petersburg moves for costs against the plaintiff." Ford filed suit in August 2012 on behalf of VoteOnThePier petition signees after city council voted not to go forward with a public referendum regarding the future of the St. Petersburg Pier. After a failed mediation process, Judge Jack Day sided with the city in the lawsuit in April. "This lack of …
Friday, November 9, 2012
The petitioner’s lawsuit against the city and City Council will be held Dec. 5 from 10:15 - 11:30 a.m. at the courthouse in downtown St. Petersburg.
In early December, the city has a scheduled court hearing regarding council's vote not to proceed with a public referendum on the future of the St. Petersburg Pier. According to Tom Lambdon, chairman of VoteOnThePier.com, this suit falls squarely on the back of city council who voted against the referendum in August. On Aug. 22, local attorney and former mayor candidate Kathleen Ford filed suit against city and council for taking that action. According to county court documents, the city asked for a dismissal. The first hearing on the suit is set for Dec. 5 from 10:15 - 11:30 a.m. at the downtown St. Petersburg courthouse. Lambdon released a statement Thursday regarding the Dec. 5 hearing. "We are hopeful that the Pinellas County Judge…
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
StPetePolls released results of its new survey, which touches on the St. Pete Pier, Cit Council, Mayor Bil Foster and Red Light Cameras.
According to the local polling outfit, StPetePolls, City Council's approval rating took a dive this month after nearly a year of steady ratings. The survey, taken by 2,422 registered city voters on Aug. 4, shows Council's approval rating at 42.7 percent. Prior to that rating, Council never had an approval rating lower than 49 percent. Just days before the survey, council voted 6-2 to deny the public the opportunity to vote on the future of the St. Petersburg Pier. More than 23,000 petitions were signed to try and force a vote on the pier. StPetePolls also asked respondents, if the costs were the same, would you rather renovate the inverted pyramid pier or build the new Lens pier. By more than two-thirds, 68 percent, the public said it …
Thursday, August 2, 2012
The City Council voted 6-2 to reject a proposal for a citywide vote on the future of the Pier. The process to build a replacement called the 'Lens' will continue.
The public will not get a chance to vote on whether to keep the St. Petersburg Pier. By a 6-2 vote Thursday, the City Council rejected a plan to place a Pier petition on the November ballot. The Council agreed to continue with the $50 million proposal to develop a futuristic-looking pier titled the "Lens" to replace the existing inverted pyramid. Council members Charlie Gerdes, Leslie Curran, Steve Kornell, Bill Dudley, Jeff Danner and Jim Kennedy voted against taking the Pier's future to a citywide vote. Gerdes, who voted two weeks ago and on Monday to explore putting a question on the ballot, said he could not support rebuilding the Pier or saving it, because of the high subsidies the city pays for the current operation. "When I look at …
Monday, July 30, 2012
The City Council voted 5-3 Monday at a workshop to put the original Pier Petition question on the Nov. 6 ballot. The public hearing to officially vote for a referendum is Thursday.
Nearly two weeks ago, the City Council voted 5-3 to explore putting multiple questions about the future of the St. Petersburg Pier up for a vote on the Nov. 6 ballot. Placing only one question on the ballot, members said, did not provide the city enough clarity on what the public wants. On Monday, after nearly four hours on the topic, the Council reversed itself. The Council decided to put only one question on the Nov. 6 ballot: the original Pier petition question. The question reads: Shall the City of St. Petersburg, Florida preserve and refurbish the existing iconic inverted pyramid structure currently located on Second Avenue NE in the Waterfront Park commonly known as "The Pier"? Council members Jeff Danner, Charlie Gerdes, Karl …
Thursday, July 19, 2012
There is growing pressure on the St. Petersburg Council to let voters decide the fate of the Pier. City Council will discuss the referendum on Thursday.
On Thursday, City Council will consider two new business items that could be the next steps to getting the future of the St. Petersburg Pier up for a public vote. Council member Karl Nurse placed an item on the agenda to get an official report on the status of the pier petitions from the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections. Council member Wengay Newton is requesting the city's legal department to draft an emergency ordinance to place VoteOnThePier.com's question regarding the pier on the Nov. 6 presidential ballot. The city has until Aug. 3 to get any potential ballot questions to the Supervisor of Elections. In an interview with Patch, Nurse said it may be time to slow the process down to build the new pier, called the "Lens", and …
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
The petitions were sent out last week in an effort to obtain the nearly 16,000 signed petitions the group is seeking.
Despite the passing of what Vote on the Pier calls an "arbitrary deadline" for the pier petitions, VoteOnThePier.com has sent out 40,000 petitions to registered voters in St. Petersburg. Tom Lambdon, organizer of Vote on the Pier, said he used the list from the Supervisor of Elections to send out the petitions in hopes to make sure only registered voters are signing petitions. "We used the database we received from the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections so these will only be going to current registered City voters," Lambdon told Patch. "This directly eliminates the fallout rate we have experienced from the beginning; with many people filling out petitions just because they are passionate for the cause and would like to see the Pier …
Sunday, June 24, 2012
The Pier needs to be saved and a water taxi could help save it.
- GOVERNMENT
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Sunday, June 24, 2012
Here's how we see the "facts" regarding the Pier as it relates to other community issues and situations: 1) The mayor and virtually everyone in city government have shown no interest, whatsoever, in the idea of a municipal water taxi on Tampa Bay. 2) The mayor and city government reps have shown no interest in the idea of a legitimate streetcar to connect downtown St Pete (and Tampa, via the water taxi) to the Gulf beaches. 3) There has been no interest in federal Tiger Grants that have been bestowed to other communities in the hundreds of millions of dollars for streetcar projects. 4) There is no recognition, whatsoever, that the future of St Pete is integrally connected to our evolution as part of the Tampa Bay region, not as a …
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
The June 11 deadline set by Mayor Bill Foster is not stopping VoteOnThePier.com from continuing its petition drive to collect nearly 16,000 signatures.
June 11 came and went and for the future of the existing Pier, nothing has changed. VoteOnThePier.com is still collecting petitions to try and force a referendum on the future of the inverted pyramid and the city is still under contract with Michael Maltzan Architecture to build the "Lens." Less than two weeks ago, Mayor Bill Foster set the June 11 deadline for Vote on the Pier to submit nearly 16,000 petitions to have residents vote on the pier. Monday, Tom Lambdon, chairman for Vote on the Pier, said the deadline passed without a word from the city. "Nothing from the city, but the sound of crickets," said Lambdon in an interview with Patch. "We continue to move forward to obtain the balance of signatures required to force the referendum…
Wendy T Christy
9:37 pm on Saturday, May 4, 2013
Any person with at least a high school diploma, understands that any object standing in salt water needs to be reinforced every few years, that is a no brainer, that is what the money was appropriated for. If it was unsafe, they would not allow anyone to go out there. The stupid propaganda I hear everyday is laughable, and I do laugh and tell people that city government is corrupt and hungry land… more ›