Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Today's Letters: A new wrong turn on street design

This is a nearly completed section of the renovated Cleveland Street, near Osceola Avenue in Clearwater. Not everyone is thrilled with the new design concept.
	[Joseph Garnett, Jr. | Times]

Where is the City of Clearwater hiring the drunks who design its streets?

Seriously, if you haven't driven the newly opened Cleveland Street through downtown, go! But, go sober, because, (a) you won't believe anyone designed, approved or built something so stupid and, (b) you will probably have an accident if you are not in full control of your vehicle. The road is that dumb-looking and that hazardous.

The street curves dangerously around two decorative circles. The decorations are (I am not lying) four giant cement balls. We suffered through all of this inconvenience for this?

Then again, this is the same city that built that moronic beach roundabout and put that ill-fated, accident-causing fountain in the middle of it.

Only in Clearwater.

Fawn Germer, Clearwater

Re: Boaters fear rent increase story, Oct. 28

City's same old duck and dodge

Clearwater's leaders have been passing the buck and dodging the tough issues for decades. Many of the city's most pressing issues can be traced to the "head-in-the-sand" leadership style of previous administrations. The lack of private parking for the beach motels, the aging of the beach lodging inventory and the deterioration of the underground utility infrastructure are examples.

A few years ago, the city finally took action, coming up with The Big Plan: Beach Walk. Unfortunately, Clearwater's pooh-bahs didn't know much about Big Plans, so they didn't know what to do when The Big Plan was panned as a poorly conceived mess. Besides, they had already congratulated themselves for their visionary work, so they couldn't turn back now.

Then along came a once-in-a-generation real estate boom - the economic high tide that would raise all boats and cure any flaws in The Big Plan. The tax coffers overflowed, developers appeared out of nowhere, and speculators (and a few buyers) lined up to join the party.

So sure were Clearwater's leaders that they were sitting on a gold mine, they churned out Big Plan 2: a downtown streetscaping project marred with the same "progress by legislation, not free enterprise" flaws as The Big Plan.

Then came Big Plan Jr., a boat slip referendum wrought with irony. Here was the first well-planned project to come out of Clearwater in years, but it had the misfortune of being rolled out in front of the state-mandated tax cut train.

Then the party abruptly ended. What many thought was a new golden age of real estate went from boom to bust overnight. As the economic tide went out, the flaws in the Big Plans were exposed for all to see. Stranded on the rocks were the misguided expectations of Clearwater's leaders and the hopes and dreams of those who believed them.

So now Clearwater trudges on, the terrible scheduling of the Big Plans continuing to pick daily at the open wound that is the redevelopment nightmare. The public wants and needs to believe that city leaders have learned from their mistakes.

But then we read about the city hesitating on the marina enterprise fund issue. The City Council is uncertain as to how to resolve the deficit, hemming and hawing about "fairness" in light of the hardship they themselves have foisted on beach merchants and concession operators. A little late for that.

Read between the lines, and it sounds like the City Council is again trying to avoid having to address a lingering issue. It's as if it thinks it can just bob and weave until the matter gets handed off to some future City Council.

Old habits are hard to break.

Dave Spath, Clearwater

Your voice counts

You can submit a letter to the editor for possible publication through our Web site at www.tampabay.com/letters, or by faxing it to (727) 445-4119, or by mailing it to Letters, 710 Court St., Clearwater, FL 33756. You must include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity, taste and length.

[Last modified November 8, 2007, 21:52:42]