Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

First take the jump, then check parachute

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published January 17, 2008

Honest, swear to goodness, I am not against a new baseball stadium in St. Petersburg. It is a beautiful idea. Here's hoping it all works out.

But - good grief!

You would think that embarking on the most important redevelopment in the city's history would be a deliberative process.

But you would be wrong. The City Council will meet today for the first time - and the only time - before rubber-stamping the first step.

Today, the City Council will approve an invitation to developers. The city will ask for plans to redevelop the site of the existing stadium, Tropicana Field.

That's the key part of this deal. Money from the redeveloped Tropicana Field has to pay for most of a new, waterfront stadium.

The council will say today that it must act to get this on the November 2008 ballot.

But just remember, about that "deadline":

The city knew about this idea for most of 2007. And the city kept it secret from the public, during important decisions and public hearings, and even during the city elections.

Next issue:

When the City Council meets today, there is no public comment scheduled.

The morning session at City Hall is just a workshop. And as for the 3 p.m. session, and the official vote -

Well, this is not the day for regularly scheduled citizen comments, you see. That's every other Thursday.

Next, as for the document:

Remember that Tropicana Field's redevelopment has to pay for the new stadium. It has to generate, I dunno, $250-million, $300-million.

Is there one word of that in the documents? There is not. There is only a general invitation that translates to: "Hey, what neat ideas do y'all have?"

And, believe it or not, there is language asking developers to say how much of their proposals will be a "trade secret" to be kept from the public.

Next issue:

There was a story in Wednesday's newspaper by my colleague Cristina Silva. It said the City Council is breaking a commitment it has made to citizens since August.

That's when the council approved a sweeping new land use map for the entire city. In that process, the citizens overwhelmingly said they wanted a parkland protection for Al Lang Field, the old minor-league park.

(Little did the citizens know at the time that Al Lang was the proposed stadium site.)

Since then, the council has promised, again and again, to pass a followup action that protects Al Lang as a park.

A member of the council at the time, Bill Foster, point-blank promised me he would shave his head if the council did not keep its word.

Yet now, the council has decided not to protect Al Lang as a park, at least not for several more months. This will make no difference if the city builds a new stadium, obviously. But if it doesn't...

Today, the City Council will say, over and over, that it is not really making any decision.

But this is how these things work. There will be no decision, no decision, no decision - until we arrive at a day much like today, and everybody says, "Gosh, we've come too far to turn back now."

As I said, the stadium idea is attractive. I hope it works. But this is not the way to instill faith among the voters, who, thank the heavens and the city charter, still get the final say.

What the heck! Jump first, check the parachute later. Geronimo.

[Last modified January 17, 2008, 00:55:45]