STEVE REID
Editor Publisher
sreid@lbknews.com
Somebody, a commissioner, called me “negative” the other day.
So I will add to my bad traits by being the only label that could be worse — defensive.
Perhaps I come from one of those families where we debated intensely at the dinner table but all kissed each other good night. OK, not my brother and I, but you get the idea.
The reality is I am a lover of ideas, debate and language. So to put the word negative in another context is my nature.
I call it critical; it means I come out strongly for and against what does not seem right for a situation. And in the case of this commissioner, I do not favor the over-commercialization of the Key and the dumbing down of our island’s beauty and standards to simply draw more tourists.
Tourists come to beautiful places and interesting places and places of renown. They do not make these places though, and they are a byproduct that is positive if only they do not destroy the very reason they came in the first place.
Everyone knows the old travel guide phenomenon when in Europe. If the Let’s Go guide or Fodor’s says it’s a unique and precious and undiscovered gem, by next year it will be over. The place will be full of fat tee-shirted Americans who destroy the very reason you came to travel in the first place.
I am for four and five-star resorts on the Key. I am for a redeveloped Colony that does not have to compete with overnight rentals in the residential community. I am for pristine parks and tight property and building codes that encourage all the things that every upscale community in the United States shares — differentiation.
And on that note I want to be very positive about a few things I heard at the Urban Land Institute discussion last Monday in the Commission Chambers.
First, the Town Manager laid out how the Town can proceed with some of the recommendations and suggestions.
And I was excited to hear our Town leaders support — at least in principal — some of the most significant opportunities we have as a community.
First, as the poet Yeats said, “Longboat’s center cannot hold, things fall apart …The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.”
That poem “The Second Coming” really is about Longboat Key even if the poet was unaware.
Staying centered
The Urban Land Institute gets it. It is apparent everywhere. We have no literal center as community. Sure we love to get together at Fish Frys and the Key Club and Harry’s and in Town Hall, but there is no Main Street, no Community Center and in a world that has and continues to grow apart and call each other friends on Facebook and text instead of speak, we need to take every conceivable opportunity to create places where we interact as humans and learn once again to enjoy and cherish each other’s company.
On that note I believe the idea that this Town and this Commission figure out how to develop the land around Publix, the banks and the Town Hall and the old, vacant property behind the banks into a cohesive place to gather, walk and meet and hold events would create something perhaps even the naysayers could embrace.
Just look at the tennis center — imagine if that was connected in a more meaningful way to all the other uses surrounding it?
We should talk and bike more and we should park our cars and walk to the bank, post office and Town Hall and tennis.
And there should be a Town Square of sorts.
I hope the non-visionary types who say like a knee jumping in the air when whacked, “Who is going to pay for it?” can realize everything significant — art, music, parks, novels, film, spirituality — has a value that goes far beyond the monetary constraints.
If we can visualize this center and hold onto the dream the implementers in the Town will help and raise money and will make it a reality. I hope Mayor Brown continues his push and Commissioners such as Jack Duncan will help take his unique skill set to drive a process and bring to fruition something we can all be proud to be part of.
Continuous and lush
The Commission said it wants to pursue these plans and at the same time it said it wants to try and implement some of the other suggestions the ULI made such as cohesive landscaping and beautification plan along Gulf of Mexico Drive.
Let’s face it: GMD is the entrance and exit. The first and final impression. We all fall in love going over the bridge and we are sad to leave the Key. That feeling is universal. We are fortunate to share in this experience daily. Mary Lou Johnson shows it in her pictures and I believe any investments made to make the GMD corridor as lush and staggeringly beautiful as possible pays dividends in property values and the desire others will have to come and visit and stay here.
Specifically, the ULI said to create a continuous landscaping experience between the bike and walking path along the entire 10-mile stretch. They also said we need to embrace some creative thinking and strategies to get Whitney Beach Plaza to its most exciting and best use whether it be as mixed use facility or a Ringling Retreat for artists. I would add to that that the former gas station on the north-end is a depressor of our Key in a very significant way. It is as if you drive into paradise and a warm turd is thrown across your eyes. These things must be rectified in a planned strategic manner.
No nightly flophouses
Also, the Commission was extremely encouraging in putting to rest the idea of relaxing rental rules. Yes, the ULI recommended that idea as a way to bring tourists and spur commercial activity, but it is an island destroyer on its face.
Those who would want to relax the rental rules either have a vested interest to do so or do not grasp the serenity, the joy and the desire for a peaceful paradise that most property owners have bought here want to protect.
Just go to Anna Maria Island this winter and see the effect of opening up the rules for rentals. They are losing their neighborhoods and longstanding residents are hopeless to fix the issue.
Thanks God our Commission took no interest in going down that path. And think how detrimental to the Key Club, the future Colony and the Hilton allowing every small condo and home to be rented by the night.
Do you really think $300 a night rates coexist next to nightly flophouses?
So on that note our Commission is taking positive forward steps.
But I almost forgot to be negative: just watch how this Commission, while it reins in trailer parking at its next meeting, will then undermine and destroy a cell tower policy that has proteced this Key for about a decade.
And guess what? I can make that argument via my cell phone from every inch of every street on Longboat Key. But no matter, if politics were pure, Macbeth, his wife and Brutus would all be cavorting in heaven.
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