Let Them Eat Cake

What will life be like on Longboat Key when Publix demolishes all the existing buildings at Avenue of the Flowers and replaces them with a new shopping center? A process that may take the better part of a year.

I hope our commissioners are going to tell us that they went to Lakeland and persuaded Publix to somehow maintain a food market and drug store on the island while the old structures are being replaced.

If the commissioners think that tourism, retail and restaurant businesses are suffering now, imagine Longboat Key with neither a food market nor a drug store for an extended period of time.

Ask yourself if you would recommend Longboat Key to friends if they have to travel over ten miles into Sarasota or Bradenton to obtain the basic necessities for vacationing on our island in a rental condominium unit or house. I suspect both Publix and CVS do a lot of business even with day visitors to our beaches.

I am told that there will soon be an anchor business in the Whitney Plaza market space, after two years of being unoccupied. If the commission had foreseen the problems that will arise when Avenue of the Flowers is torn down, perhaps they might have negotiated some sort of arrangement, where both Publix and CVS would renovate the Whitney Plaza buildings and open temporary services at the north end of the island. Such an arrangement could have gone a long way to alleviate the quality of life issues that will most likely result from not having basic services on Longboat Key for months and months. Of course, sales profits would be the motivation for Publix and CVS and would end up costing the chains little to nothing to make the temporary move.

Perhaps the town might have donated both legal and staff resources to assist Publix/CVS to make repairs to the Whitney Plaza buildings, which are somewhat in disrepair. The town is already donating legal and staff services in Mr. Loeb's efforts at the Key Club. If such an arrangement had been negotiated between Publix/CVS and Whitney Plaza, the island residents and tourists would have somewhere to buy food and medicines while Avenue of the Flowers is being rebuilt. Additionally, the owners of Whitney Plaza would at least have had some income for a year and be left with greatly repaired structures.  A win-win solution.

The commission has committee after committee and meeting after meeting presumably working on how to help developers expand their efforts on Longboat Key. It is unfortunate that the commissioners appear to have forgotten about we the people and our basic needs.

The commission's failure to help find an alternative solution to shopping for basic needs on Longboat while Publix is out of service may have a major impact on the reputation of Longboat Key, at a critical time in our community's efforts to improve property sales. Maintaining basic services is job one for any government.