A great day, but only if we don't have to pay more

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© St. Petersburg Times
published May 6, 2002

A cast of civic and political leaders in St. Petersburg announced an intricate scheme on Friday to rearrange a block or so of the city's downtown. They congratulated each other and declared it to be "a great day for St. Petersburg."

It was a promising day for St. Petersburg, sure. But so many things over the past 15 years have been declared "great" on the front end that you will please forgive a slight degree of caution. Also, there is a downside that needs to be fleshed out more fully.

What was announced Friday was an ambitious chain reaction.

St. Petersburg College is making a deal with St. Petersburg, Russia, for a 10-year exchange of art and culture, tied to our two cities' anniversaries (100th for us, 300th for them). This could be a very cool thing, admittedly. I am likin' the idea of Vladimir Putin strolling down the Pier one day.

The college would take over the half-block of downtown just north of the existing Florida International Museum, where it would teach students, wage its Russian exchange program and work with the museum. You have to figure that college students studying in Williams Park and hitting the local stores and restaurants would be a good thing, too.

Florida International Museum would move out of its cavernous, abandoned department store, into cozier quarters nearby, and (one hopes) get stronger through a relationship with the college's curatorship curriculum and its Russian exchange program. I say, do more museum-y stuff, and less ticket-hawking sideshow (actual paper towel used by JFK!).

Lastly, the city of St. Petersburg would get back the land now occupied by the museum, which it hopes eventually to sell to somebody in the private sector for development.

Whew! It is an intricate deal. No wonder the stage had to be so crowded Friday -- U.S. Rep. C.W. Bill Young, who helped get federal money to the college; Mayor Rick Baker; museum officials; a couple of City Council members; and the finger-in-many-pies president of St. Petersburg College, Carl Kuttler. It probably took a week alone just to hammer out the seating chart.

A cynic might see, in all this hoopla, what is basically a graceful exit strategy for Florida International Museum. That private, nonprofit outfit, which was announced on another "great day" a decade or so ago, had a couple of blockbusters but also a lot of no-shows.

Between the city land it sat on, and piles of public and private cash money, the museum required several million in help over the years. What everybody said on Friday was, the museum was surely a catalyst for some of the good things that have happened downtown. Thank you, we love you, now go.

What other costs to the taxpayers lurk? St. Petersburg College already has money in the bank for the project. It is described as costing us nothing locally, but this money was originally paid by you and me and a couple hundred million other folks and now is labeled "state" and "federal" money.

As for "city" money -- there are leases to buy off, and maybe property condemnations. What if we have to tear down the existing building to sell the land? Maybe, too, we have to pay back state money given us for "cultural" purposes on that site. (Unless, say, we had a mayor who was good buddies with the governor and could work something out?)

Finally, at the end of this road, the city's hope is to sell the land -- and that opens a whole new worm-can. What should we allow there? At the moment, the only thing anybody wants to build in St. Petersburg is tall spires of condos, sitting on top of coffee shops and fancy retail stores. It is getting rather Palm Beachy around here.

Granted, the city's rules for these developments are good: plenty of open air, public access and green space. Otherwise nobody could see the bay anymore. But the question is, does this have to be the entire future face of the city? What about other mixed use? Public use? Something different?

This is not 10 or 15 years ago, when St. Petersburg was so desperate to kick-start its downtown that it would leap at any huckster who came to town. Plenty of "great days" happen now even without a big press conference, or taxpayer help.

-- You can reach Howard Troxler at (727) 893-8505 or at troxler@sptimes.com.

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