Accountability and the Common Good

In 1975, while touring Asia with a popular band at the time, we experienced a two hour water outage in  the early afternoon at our hotel in the Ginza district of Tokyo. On the evening TV news he learned that the water commissioner for the Ginza district had committed harikari late that afternoon, for his failure to the Japanese people. I was horrified at the level of accountability expected by their culture at that time.

Today I read that a vice-president of Apple is being fired because he refused to sign a corporate letter to the American people, apologizing for the recent Apple Maps App failures. Once again I was taken back by the level of accountability within the Apple company. Perhaps being held responsible is a contributing factor  to the company's great success and superb quality in their products.

I look at the past three years of governance on Longboat Key. I see no one being held responsible for a dismal record of failed policies that have hobbled our real estate market, compared to likened communities such as Bird and Lido Keys. The property owners within the Islandside community have been denied full access to the real estate market, as a result of unlawful actions taken by the current town commission surrounding the now dead Key Club expansion application, that led to three legal actions, the last of which will be decided in late November. The first two judgments strongly rebuked the town government for violating their own laws and ordinances.

I do not see any of those responsible for the failed policies of the past three years willing to accept any responsibility for their actions.  Save for the unceremonious dismissal of the manager of the Key Club, no one else is taking responsibility for actions that have damaged the Longboat Key economy.

Then I wonder what would come to pass if the entire commission did commit political harikari. Are there any other residents willing to take their places?  The voting record of the current commission has been relatively monolithic when it comes to land use ordinances and changes to the town's Comprehensive Plan. This commission has devoted its energies almost exclusively to pro-development and pro-commercial tourism  legislation.

I know there is a great deal of concern and dissatisfaction with the present commission. People come up to me and express their apprehensions and their desire for a change in leadership. I always ask them if they are willing to serve as a town commissioner, or even willing to make the effort to write letters to the present commissioners. We all know their answers by the dearth of candidates and emails appearing in the News. 

I do not see how the current commission can justify their course of action over the past three years with anything but apologies to the residents for having bogged our community down in endless legal battles that so far have gone against the town government. Unfortunately these protracted litigation's have had a serious negative impact on the commerce of the island. 

It is sadly ironic that a pro-business commission has been singularly unsuccessful in attracting any new businesses to Longboat Key. To the contrary, there has been a steady decline in the number of retail businesses on the island along with a steady decline in property values during the past three years. Personally I do not attribute this decline to anything the commissioners have done, because they have done nothing to actually promote commerce. We hear a lot of talk. We do not see things getting better. Where this commission has focused their efforts on gutting our protective land use codes, they should have been working with the real estate community to create coordinated effective national and international marketing efforts to advertise our wonderful town's lifestyle. 

The retail stores on  Longboat Key never played apart in our meteoric development as an exclusive seasonal retirement destination. Likewise the commercial segment of the island's economy will never become a major influence on property values. The types of businesses being promoted by this commission are unneeded by the residential community. The primary concerns of today's Longboat seasonal resident center around restaurants and domestic services including furniture, house painters, appliance repair, Publix and CVS.

If Longboat Key somehow  finds itself on an irreversible course towards commercial tourism becoming the dominant business on the island, there will also be a painful period of transition, taking perhaps a decade or more, where our well-to-do residents will flee the congestion and the constantly changing unfamiliar faces of tourists, for communities just like what exists on Longboat Key right now. If our property owners wanted  to live in Bradenton Beach they certainly have the financial wear-with-all to do so.

If the commercial tourism proposals that have been entertained, and encouraged, by the current commission, come to fruition, the number of tourists on Longboat Key will almost double in a short period of time from current levels - Key Club expansion, Colony rebuild, Hilton expansion, north end motel. This is a huge expansion of tourism in an otherwise bucolic residential community. 

It is the obligation of people holding offices of public trust to act for the common good of their community. This has not been the case for the past three years. Property owner's interests have been ignored while a mostly appointed commission has been devoted to passing ordinances, overlays and codes that are exclusively for the benefit of commercial developers.

If the community at-large does not express their views, then we will continue to have a mostly appointed town government, with a narrow agenda that does little to nothing to promote real estate values over commercial development.

I advocate that the town redirect its energies to clearing the glut of for-sale properties on Longboat Key through a concerted national and international marketing program to attract home buyers. I would much rather see the town pay for effective marketing than architects for yet another plan for a costly, and most likely unneeded, expansion at Bayfront Park. 

This commission has been playing a zero-sum-game with the island's economy.

When a tourist developer wins some residents lose.

Year-to-year Property Values - Aug. 2011-2012

Longboat Key$472,4002.8%

Whitfield$151,40017.7%

Cortez$140,6003.9%

Bradenton Beach$230,8000.4%

Sarasota$130,60011.6%

North Sarasota$74,7008.6%

Note how poorly Bradenton Beach has performed. 

Perhaps tourism is not such a great asset.

We need to do a better job marketing our beautiful community.

now, here, and nowhere...E.E. Cummings

The notion of “what is happening” and “what ELSE could be happening” brought to mind the recent history of Longboat Key and what might have been our history. Not that this sort of musing has any bearing on where we are right now as a community. Perhaps just thinking constructively about how we got here may improve our vision going forward. 

I am not sure there is really anything that needs changing by a small group of residents who have managed to concentrate power in a town government, that for the most part, is appointed rather than elected by the people. I feel this is the most unhealthy situation for any community. Behind the void of citizen participation in the community lies a resident base that inhabits seasonal houses as opposed to living in them as homes. Longboat Key is a town without any intrinsic energy. This is freezing our community between a vanishing past and an incalculable future. 

I predict that no one will challenge the current group of mostly appointed town officials this election cycle. This speaks volumes for the sort of community that has evolved on Longboat Key over the past five decades. The question in  my mind is, what does what we have become, say about our future as a town? If no one is interested in that happens, then someone will fill the vacuum and will ultimately determine future directions and town policies. Since almost no one is willing to participate in community affairs, the way is opened up for a sort of unintentional oligarchy. In essence that is what exists presently on Longboat Key. 

The flap over the Colony is just one example where our current oligarchy has created a new land use zone, not enumerated in our Comprehensive Plan, that constitutes a government supported private entity, immune form existing codes and ordinances. The rational of the commission is that tourism is good for the island at any cost. How do they know this? If they are correct, why have so many pieces of tourist zoned land been converted to luxury condominium use? The answer is they don't know, and they are not giving the taxpayers a voice. See what happens when we as a community do not participate in our own political process?

Unfortunately the aspirations of a few individuals can have little impact on the future course of the island, unless they are part of the small group of people in power. Once a political system is entrenched in a community, it is usually fairly difficult to control politically. Especially in a community of snow-birds and foreign property owners who are not allowed to participate in local government.

I believe it is impossible to predict how the emerging global economy will affect Longboat Key. If there is a global economic contraction, then the market for 2nd homes will mostly likely not fully recover, and Longboat Key will drift towards being a relic of a lifestyle that has, in general, been abandoned by home buyers.  If that in fact does occur, then our community needs to find a way of transforming itself into a place where people live as their primary residence. 

The idea that is being promoted by the town commission that the Key Club will somehow transform the fortunes of the entire island is ludicrous. All that will happen is a few additional hotel rooms will dilute an already struggling tourism market, and yet more condominiums will be for sale that do not even offer beach access. Since the Key Club is a private non-equity enterprise, that most Longboat residents find not worth the yearly costs, life for all but those living at Islandside will not notice anything different. Perhaps longer waits to get off the island during the height of season. 

The commission might better expend their energy working with the airport to reduce aircraft noise pollution that currently adversely affects the northern half of the island. If we are to attract quality home buyers we need to improve our image as a community. The commercial signage along GMD is spotty and often unattractive and even shoddy. The town's signs at each end of the island are "plastic looking" and uninviting. We even have trailers being used as billboards on GMD. This is stuff one expects to see on Tamiami  Trail and downtown Bradenton. We can have all the gated hotels and condominiums we want and still present an unattractive facade to anyone driving onto our island. 

Previously I have proposed using the commercial property at the north end of the island to build a high quality private school. Where I grew up, and it is still the case, people move to and pay top dollar for the Westchester County schools. If we offer a superior educational facility, I believe high quality families will be attracted to Longboat Key both for its beauty and for the opportunities it offers their children. 

If we are unable to become more attractive as a place where people live, rather than inhabit seasonal dwellings, then it is hard to see how more retail business will survive. A small increase in tourism will likewise have little beneficial impact on either the island's quality of life or the few remaining retail businesses. If people are not concerned about the real estate market on the island, then we are doing fine just the way we are, as a place where people spend a few months in the winter.

Most everyone agrees that Longboat Key is a special place. We are not alone in confronting changing times and the new economics, whatever that is. It is possible to make things a lot worse by making bad decisions. The lack of dialog on our current homogeneous political body has accomplished nothing in the past three years but divisiveness and making several attorneys richer. I am going to out on a limb and say I believe the courts will nullify the most recent changes the town commission created to legalize the Key Club expansion. If Ordinances 2012-6 and 2012-8 are struck down by the courts, the people of Longboat Key need to find new leaders who do not further impede any hope of economic recovery on our island.

As the trend on Longboat Key towards further absentee property ownership progresses, more owners merely inhabit their dwellings during the cold month up north, the less likely we will see any change in appointed government. There are four commission seats up for election this year. So far, with about a month left to file, no new candidates have applied. Under Florida law, unopposed candidates to not appear on the ballot. This year voters may well be presented with a blank piece of paper when they go to vote. This will be a carte blanche for the current, mostly appointed, town commission. Forgive my sad double entendre.

Inlet Sand Back Pass Redux

According to the State of Florida, 86% of all sand loss from beaches ends up in coastal inlets and is jetted out of the local sand system, lost forever. The inlets are the culprits. Once again according to the State of Florida, dredging inlets only makes matters worse and accelerates sand loss.

I am writing this particular column in response to the recent admonitions of a commissioner that in essence stated that any ideas that I bring before the town will be rejected by the present commission because of their enmity towards me personally. My response is that if this is true, those commissioners are not fit to hold offices of public trust and are possibly doing a huge disservice to the community they swore to protect. Being in public office constrains one to serving all the people, not just the business community, or the country club crowd.

This past week I attended the commission workshop where the town manager delivered a lengthy assessment of viable beach alternatives at the north end of Longboat Key. One of the presented options was for the town to take no actions. The town manager noted that the principle consequence of no action would be salt water encroachment on the mangroves on Greer Island, which belongs to Manatee County. One could ask why Longboat Key taxpayers would be interested in spending upwards of $8 million dollars to maintain a county park which Manatee County taxpayers already support with their current taxes. Why does Manatee County spend millions on Coquina Park and not a penny on its park-lands on the northern tip of an adjacent island?

Questioning the list of actions available to the town will probably make little difference to the town's decision-making process. However, I would not feel that I had done my best for my community if I did not make one last effort to implore the town manager to take more time and bring in town officials from a few of the many Florida communities that have instituted inlet sand bypass and back pass projects. Until we have answered the question of why these communities chose to manage their inlets and recycle the sand back onto their beaches, one could argue, we have not done a thorough exploration of options available to our community for managing a chronic  sand loss problem, that went unaddressed by our beach consultants for decades.

Florida passed numerous statutes in 2012 mandating that communities look to inlet management and sand bypass as a means of stabilizing both inlets and adjoining beaches, as a means of reducing escalating costs and mediating diminishing borrow area resources. Unfortunately the town manager's report made no mention of a comprehensive inlet management alternative for Longboat Pass, with accompanying cost analysis.  Doesn't it make sense that we look into an alternative that works so well for other communities for far less money in the long run than we're now anticipating spending on constant sand replacement? Jetties and groins do not diminish sand loss so renourishment costs will not be reduced by multi-million dollar groins at the north end.

The public official who confided his and his fellow commissioner's dislike for my activities told me that it really irked him that I kept pressing issues, and felt there was an overly aggressive attitude when writing about the town government. In this instance of alternative beach maintenance opportunities examined by the town, the absence of any mention of inlet management and sand redistribution, could not be ignored. I am not talking about the lip-service inlet management bone being put forth by the dredging engineers, where a pit is dug inside the pass and that is all. I am afraid very little sand will be conserved that way. Only an aggressive, constant recycling of sand will yield a constant and effective beach profile at the lowest cost to the community.

Here is a link from a university study of beach maintenance alternatives that is fairly complete. Please read to the end and their assessment of the most effective method for maintaining inlets and affected beaches.

http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/coastal/25yrConference/Beach-Stabilization.pdf

The commission needs to ask the town manager to consult with town officials and engineers involved in active inlet management programs to determine if  Longboat Pass is a viable site for a sand reclamation project that will end the need for periodic dredging on the north end.  The Olson Engineering study seems to indicate there is enough sand entering Longboat Pass both from the north and from the south to warrant further study and analysis.

Hillsboro Inlet installed inlet management and sand bypass operations in the mid 80's and has never had to renourish adjacent Deerfield Beach since that time. The average yearly cost to the taxpayers is less than $1 million annually to maintain both the inlet and the surrounding beaches.

There are dozens of communities that already have active inlet management and sand reclamation operations in place. That our town government is not even looking at sand recycling is perhaps less than an optimal approach to resolving a decades-old problem at both the north and south ends of the island.

Here are two citations of Florida Statues enacted in 2012 that mandate inlet management as a preferred approach to beach stabilization.

161.143 Inlet management; planning, prioritizing, funding, approving, and implementing projects.—

(1) Studies, projects, and activities for the purpose of mitigating the erosive effects of inlets and balancing the sediment budget of the inlet and adjacent beaches must be supported by separately approved inlet management plans or inlet components of the statewide comprehensive beach management plan. Such plans in support of individual inlet projects or activities must, pursuant to s. 161.161(1)(b), evaluate each inlet to determine the extent of the inlet’s erosive effect on adjacent beaches and, if significant, make recommendations to mitigate such ongoing erosive effects and provide estimated costs for such mitigation.

(2) The department shall establish annual funding priorities for studies, activities, or other projects concerning inlet management. Such inlet management projects include, but are not limited to, inlet sand bypassing, modifications to channel dredging, jetty redesign, jetty repair, disposal of spoil material, and the development, revision, adoption, or implementation of an inlet management plan. The funding priorities established by the department must be consistent with the requirements and legislative declaration in ss. 161.101(14), 161.142, and 161.161(1)(b). In establishing funding priorities under this subsection and before transmitting the annual inlet project list to the Legislature under subsection (5), the department shall seek formal input from local coastal governments, beach and general government associations and other coastal interest groups, and university experts concerning annual funding priorities for inlet management projects. In order to maximize the benefits of efforts to address the inlet-caused beach erosion problems of this state, the ranking criteria used by the department to establish funding priorities for studies, activities, or other projects concerning inlet management must include consideration of:

(a) An estimate of the annual quantity of beach-quality sand reaching the updrift boundary of the improved jetty or inlet channel.

(b) The severity of the erosion to the adjacent beaches caused by the inlet and the extent to which the proposed project mitigates the erosive effects of the inlet.

(c) The overall significance and anticipated success of the proposed project in balancing the sediment budget of the inlet and adjacent beaches and addressing the sand deficit along the inlet-affected shorelines.

(d) The extent to which existing bypassing activities at an inlet would benefit from modest, cost-effective improvements when considering the volumetric increases from the proposed project, the availability of beach-quality sand currently not being bypassed to adjacent eroding beaches, and the ease with which such beach-quality sand may be obtained.

(e) The interest and commitment of local governments as demonstrated by their willingness to coordinate the planning, design, construction, and maintenance of an inlet management project and their financial plan for funding the local cost-share for initial construction, ongoing sand bypassing, channel dredging, and maintenance.

(f) The previous completion or approval of a state-sponsored inlet management plan or local-government-sponsored inlet study concerning the inlet addressed by the proposed project, the ease of updating and revising any such plan or study, and the adequacy and specificity of the plan’s or study’s recommendations concerning the mitigation of an inlet’s erosive effects on adjacent beaches.

(g) The degree to which the proposed project will enhance the performance and longevity of proximate beach nourishment projects, thereby reducing the frequency of such periodic nourishment projects.

(h) The project-ranking criteria in s. 161.101(14) to the extent such criteria are applicable to inlet management studies, projects, and activities.

(3) The department may, pursuant to s. 161.101 and notwithstanding s.161.101(15), pay from legislative appropriations provided for these purposes 75 percent of the total costs, or, if applicable, the nonfederal costs, of a study, activity, or other project concerning the management of an inlet. The balance must be paid by the local governments or special districts having jurisdiction over the property where the inlet is located.

(4) Using the legislative appropriation to the statewide beach-management-support category of the department’s fixed capital outlay funding request, the department may employ university-based or other contractual sources and pay 100 percent of the costs of studies that are consistent with the legislative declaration in s. 161.142and that:

(a) Determine, calculate, refine, and achieve general consensus regarding net annual sediment transport volumes to be used for the purpose of planning and prioritizing inlet management projects; and

(b) Appropriate, assign, and apportion responsibilities between inlet beneficiaries for the erosion caused by a particular inlet on adjacent beaches.

(5) The department shall annually provide an inlet management project list, in priority order, to the Legislature as part of the department’s budget request. The list must include studies, projects, or other activities that address the management of at least 10 separate inlets and that are ranked according to the criteria established under subsection (2).

(a) The department shall make available at least 10 percent of the total amount that the Legislature appropriates in each fiscal year for statewide beach management for the three highest-ranked projects on the current year’s inlet management project list.

(b) The department shall make available at least 50 percent of the funds appropriated for the feasibility and design category in the department’s fixed capital outlay funding request for projects on the current year’s inlet management project list which involve the study for, or design or development of, an inlet management project.

(c) The department shall make available all statewide beach management funds that remain unencumbered or are allocated to non-project-specific activities for projects on legislatively approved inlet management project lists. Funding for local-government-specific projects on annual project lists approved by the Legislature must remain available for such purposes for a period of 18 months pursuant to s.216.301(2)(a). Based on an assessment and the department’s determination that a project will not be ready to proceed during this 18-month period, such funds shall be used for inlet management projects on legislatively approved lists.

(d) The Legislature shall designate one of the three highest projects on the inlet management project list in any year as the Inlet of the Year. The department shall annually report to the Legislature concerning the extent to which each inlet project designated by the Legislature as Inlet of the Year has succeeded in balancing the sediment budget of the inlet and adjacent beaches, mitigating the inlet’s erosive effects on adjacent beaches, and transferring or otherwise placing beach-quality sand on adjacent eroding beaches.

(6) The department shall adopt rules under ss. 120.536(1) and 120.54 to administer this section.

I do not feel that the town has met the above requirements of Section (1).

Florida Statute 161.161 contains the following language that has not been adequately addressed by  the current town beach plan for the north end.

(j) Identify alternative management responses to preserve undeveloped beach and dune systems, to restore damaged beach and dune systems, and to prevent inappropriate development and redevelopment on migrating beaches, and consider beach restoration and nourishment, armoring, relocation and abandonment, dune and vegetation restoration, and acquisition.

(k) Establish criteria, including costs and specific implementation actions, for alternative management techniques.

http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2012/161.142

Perhaps we might enlist a non-local, non-dredging oriented engineering company to advise the town about the latest Florida statutes that save us time and money. Here are excerpts from 161.142

(3) Construction waterward of the coastal construction control line on downdrift coastal areas, on islands substantially created by the deposit of spoil, located within 1 mile of the centerline of navigation channels or inlets, providing access to ports listed in s. 403.021(9)(b), which suffers or has suffered erosion caused by such navigation channel maintenance or construction shall be exempt from the permitting requirements and prohibitions of s. 161.053(4) or (5); however, such construction shall comply with the applicable Florida Building Code adopted pursuant to s. 553.73. The timing and sequence of any construction activities associated with inlet management projects shall provide protection to nesting sea turtles and their hatchlings and habitats, to nesting shorebirds, and to native salt-resistant vegetation and endangered plant communities. Beach-quality sand placed on the beach as part of an inlet management project must be suitable for marine turtle nesting.

Getting outdated and inaccurate information from our current engineers may be impeding rather than assisting the town's efforts.

Born into a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Family

 

First, let's get one thing straight - I do not believe that any politician has my best interests at heart.

 

Second, I was born into an upper-middle class professional, Protestant, north-east Ivy League liberal non-politically aligned family. I was GIVEN the very best of what privilege bestows in the more fortunate in our society. I did not "deserve" my free ride. 

 

I do not particularly like our current President. But then that is true about how I feel about most politicians.

 

It should be clear to everyone by now that Congress dances to its own form of musical chairs. About half those strutting around the Capitol rotunda want the current president to remain President, while the rest of the time-wasters think they will get re-elected if "that man" is thrown out of office. The latter group - spelled GOP - is hoping there are still enough energised white Anglo-Saxon Caucasians to elect a candidate no one seems to like all that much. It is difficult enough to have a presidential slate devoid of true WASPS. A Mormon and a Catholic on the GOP slate and a black man, with his family and friends occupying the White House. What is America coming to?

 

Has the time when WASPs ruled America come to an end? The US census bureau sets 2042 as the year that whites become a minority in America. American politics have always been based on pressure groups to speak for the little-man. I suspect that will continue. What will the new pressure groups look like. What will they represent and what sorts of coalitions will form to shape American society in the next decade?

 

I suspect that the current election may be the Last Hurrah for the WASPs in America. Unfortunately the best candidates money could buy for the GOP are not all that appealing to an over-worked, under-payed, endebted and embittered working class, struggling in an economic war that is unfairly manipulated by the federal and state governments, which are controlled by the monied-class who are the economic enemies of everyone else.

 

This election may be a wake-up call for the WASPs that they have lost power. Soon coalitions will form to combat the corruption of money in the political system and the WASPs will become a relic of the past. This may happen faster that the political pundits predict.

 

The GOP candidates are dancing a thankless jig where the monied class is shooting at their feet and no one in the audience is clapping. The Mormon and the Catholic are stuck between being vague and losing the working class vote. They want less government in the boardroom and more government in the bedroom. All the while the working folks can see the economic strings controlling the moves of all the candidates from both parties. Its enough to turn one's stomach and make a good WASP's skin crawl.

 

The America of the WASPs is broken and dying. All the rich men's bankers will not be able to resurrect a now bankrupt and corrupted system, that no longer makes sense in the modern world.

 

The American voter is faced with casting a vote, perhaps one last last time, for classism and racism or voting to accept the new world and embrace change. The change will happen. The former assures four more years of stagnation both at federal and state levels of government. If this happens we will lose more ground against the rest of the globe and our economy will suffer the consequences. We will soon see if the American WASP voter will try to get "that man" out of the White House.

 



Fool Me Once

 

Today a 3-judge appeals tribunal handed the Longboat Key commission a stunning defeat. The town lawyer's land use litigation losing streak remains intact. The town might finally look elsewhere for legal advice. The primary duty of a municipal attorney is to keep that municipality out of expensive court proceedings; especially if the municipality will lose. 

 

The latest appeals court loss may expose the town to law suits and costly litigation from property owners who have been denied unfettered access to the real estate markets due the the town's ill-advised legal gambits against its own residents.

 

Judge Roberts, and now the Florida appeals court, have ruled that the LBK commissioners broke the law when they zealously advanced the interests of the Key Club. Bob White and the members of IPOC are to be congratulated for their unflinching conviction that the town commission had violated the property owner's legal rights.

 

Those on the commission and the town's previous planning director, who opposed the Key Club expansion as being inappropriate and needlessly dense, have been vindicated. It has been stated before, I was always in favor of improvements at the Key Club, but not at the expense of surrounding property owners.

 

While on the commission, I requested that the commissioners retain an outside, disinterested land use attorney to advise the commission concerning the Key Club proposal. I had lost faith in the two lawyers retained by the town. At that time I expressed my doubts that the town was on firm legal footing if they approved the KC expansion. Unfortunately, there was no support for this proposal, most especially from the town lawyer. If the commission had insisted that the Key Club proposal be adjusted to the point where the surrounding community was comfortable, the Key Club expansion would already be in its 3rd year and close to being completed. Instead we have had a paralysed real estate market on the south end. Who in their right mind would not be cautious about investing while there was a lawsuit pending on the property.

 

Unfortunately for our residents, this commission will try to get around this resounding slam by the Florida courts by shamelessly gutting our comprehensive plan and those building codes specifically needing change to specifically address the Key Club expansion. If the commissioners once again look to the town lawyer's advice, they should also look at his win/loss record in land use litigation he has managed on behalf of our community.

 

If the new Key Club owners really want to add value for themselves and for our community, they should work with the affected property owners and the commission to create a win-win design that is more appropriate for Longboat Key, keeps the process out of the courts, and hastens the completion of the entire process.

 

The town could now retain an expert land use attorney to advise the town how to avoid another court defeat that could be even more destructive to our property owners than the most recent rout. There is that old saying - Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.

 

This commission, and sadly Longboat Key, will now be immortalized in the law journals and legal precedents citations as a Goat Rodeo. We can do better than that. We need some changes and we need them before more damage is done.

The Power Of Community In Marketing

Previously I have written several articles encouraging the town government to refocus its efforts away from commercial tourism development and towards improved and increased marketing of what is obviously an already popular exclusive seasonal community. For certain politicians to suggest that we are not like The Hamptons, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard or Cape Cod is both unproductive and denying the obvious.

Longboat Key has become, over three decades, a winter playground for the well-to-do from many countries. One has only to observe the current mega-home building trend on the island to realize the momentum towards affluency is slowly gobbling up more and more prime properties. To me this is a good thing. One thing is for sure, homeowners on Longboat Key did not come here on a tourist bus.

The same politicians who preach commercial tourism, as the salvation for aging properties on our island, fail to look at the average age of structures in all the other exclusive communities I referenced earlier in the article.

There are two ways we can grow. One is tasteful the other is not.







Panama City Beach tourist hotel

tourist hotel on Martha's Vineyard

Which would you prefer for our community?

Which one will attract desirable visitors?

We recently were visited by an Indian couple from Ft. Lauderdale. The husband is a Motorola executive. We had them stay in one of the "Old Florida" motels on the north end. We kayaked around Sister's Keys and along the northern gulf-side beach. We dined in local restaurants and we went to our beautiful beaches. We partied with local friends and neighbors. They loved Longboat Key. They are exactly the sort of forty-year-old couple we want to attract to our community.

Our friends from Ft. Lauderdale saw Longboat Key differently than someone who stays at the Key Club. Our friends experienced a warm, friendly, inviting Longboat Key. Longboat Key does not have a social/cultural center where visitors can meet and mingle with residents. For the most part Longboat Key is made up of self-contained and gated condominiums. Additionally the town never opened our twelve miles of breathtaking beaches to it's own residents, much less any perspective home buyers. The Key Club doesn't have any beachfront and relies on the private owners of the Inn to offer any sort of beach experience to newcomers to our island community.

Being a beach community that offers little to no access to the beach is perhaps the greatest obstacle to attracting people to our island. The town commission needs to find a way of offering visitors a greater beach experience. When I was on the commission I spoke to numerous visitors about their experience on our island. A prevalent comment was that Longboat Key appeared to be unfriendly with its gates and lack of a city center. Visitors wanted greater access to what the community has to offer. Our friends from Ft. Lauderdale saw a far different and more inviting community than the average visitor. We may want to look at how we can improve our image.

Presently the town commission is spending most if its time eliminating land use protections while doing absolutely nothing to encourage tasteful development. One wonders if they have any foresight whatsoever. Of the two tourist facilities pictured above, which do you believe is the most attractive to a profit-driven developer? Which would be more desirable for our community? Which one would you stay in?

Meanwhile our beaches are a mess. There does not appear to be any plan in place to protect property from storms. There is little money in the beach fund to repair storm-damaged segments of our coastline. The town manager has informed north-end waterfront property owners that the can "eat cake" as Marie Antoinette said. This is a disheartening message to north end taxpayers after paying taxes for decades into a beach fund that took care of certain properties, while apparently now abandoning other property owners. The town has been caught with its pants down. Did it not occur to the town government that there might be a storm or hurricane over the summer?

There are many things that only the town can do effectively to market our community. Having distressed beaches, threatened waterfront properties, fluctuating land use policies, community strife, the Colony, the stalled Key Club litigation and an appointed town government only harm our image to the outside world of possible future residents.

Longboat Key has spent more money on our beaches over the past three decades than any other part of our infrastructure. Yet our beaches have restricted access both for most residents and visitors. We are a beach community with a virtually unavailable beach.

I have one last plea. Not a very expensive plea. Can't the town do what was done at the new CVS site and hide the ghastly gas station and abandoned Market at the north end? After all we are talking about a few shrubs and trees.



Of Time and Technology

Despite much-hyped fears of low wage workers around the world taking American jobs, the real culprit is increasingly intelligent machinery.

I have been one of the culprits who has been running around for the past 40 years replacing humans with computer-driven machines. I have never met a businessperson who was not willing to trade workers for increased profits in our capitalist society. A futurist named Toffler  projected the advance of technology as being exponential. So far Mr. Toffler has been right-on-the-money. I guess it is good politics to blame "them" for our problems, but the truth of the matter is that it is your friendly businessperson who is at the root of high unemployment. It does not really matter whether the companies "off-shore" jobs or replace workers with intelligent machines. The end result is the same - unemployable workers with only a lifetime of television  to put on their resumes. The average aging American worker is facing competition from increasingly sophisticated intelligent systems at increasingly lower costs. I estimate that the average forty-year-old unemployed American worker needs to acquire the equivalent of a Masters Degree in a high-tech field to become once again employable. Technology will eventually encroach on the careers of even the highly educated. Foxconn, the company that assembles Apple devices, plans to install over 1 million robots in the next 3 years.



Where does all of this end? Have we reached the dawn of some sort of new age, where people no longer need to work? The "industrial revolution" only began in the late 18th century and has been accelerating ever since. You may well have to choose between hiring someone to clean your home or a one-time purchase of a domestic robot. The socio-economic implications of your decision will be amplified around the globe.



I recently had the eye-opening pleasure of spending 3 days with a few of the top theorists at Intel in Portland, Oregon. It seems we are only a few years away from producing computers that are slightly more capable than humans. A few years later the same compute power will be available on your hot new IPad. Your home and office, if you still go to an office, or even have a job, will be inhabited by robots of all sizes and descriptions. You will be amazed by technology as you are already.




I have written about the plight of the modern worker before. I see two paths that lay ahead for humanity. One continues to embrace Capitalism and corporate profits above all other social values. The other path involves re-thinking the role of human beings in a modern global society. Perhaps we have reached a time when human effort is no longer an essential ingredient in survival. If so, then we will need to re-engineer our social mores that require work as a validation of being alive. What will we all do with our lives if we no longer get to work? Will everyone be on "welfare"? Who will repair the robots that repair the robots? Will we as a species be able to fashion a new lifestyle where free time is all the time?


The "lost jobs" are most likely not coming back. These jobs will be replaced with menial tasks, not worth the economic investment to engineer a replacement intelligent system. I suspect unemployment will slowly increase as technology permiates into more and more areas of our everyday world. If I can make millions in a week on KickStarter, why do I need a career that may soon be cannibalized by a robot?


I am one of the "old people". I am a techie so I manage to keep up with technology trends. My grandchildren, who only "text", recently taught me a few bits of texting jargon so I do not appear as a complete dolt when I communicate with them in "their" world. One of the acronyms is "IKR" - I know, right?!!! My grandchildren have an innate sense of their future. It does not include a cubical or a boss or even a bank account.


As a famous person once said, "looking into the future, I think I know if you do not ask me to explain".

Ballad of the Lost Hotel

"Down at the lost hotel
Where there’s battles to be won
But the silence overwhelms you
Whoa and you come undone
You lose all your good sense
You go way over the edge
There’s no turning back
Once you’ve checked into the lost hotel"

This sad song refrain reflects on the lost opportunities and squandered resources suffered by the residents of Longboat Key over the past 3 years. For all their focused efforts to legislate a motel/hotel at the north end and the south end of the island, the result has been economically disappointing for the community as a whole. We were all told that the commission was involved in community-changing legislation that would be the salvation of Longboat Key. Instead we stand here, after three wasted years, somewhat behind where we were before this commission took power in their single-minded quest to create a "happy hunting ground" for developers.

If the commission had instead put its efforts into promoting the paradise that is already here, we might already be in the middle of a community renaissance and healthy housing recovery. Instead we have litigation, property owner unrest and falling demographics. We are no further along than when a now commissioner made his famous "penthouse edict" that he was going to take back the commission. The commissioner has been overwhelmingly successful at that, but sadly ineffectual at implementing anything he promised that promotes the well being and prosperity of Longboat Key.

The news that the north end bank building is in receivership with the Securities and Exchange Commission, prompted a developer to call me and say he was no longer interested in looking at a motel/hotel on the north end. Once again we discover that another member of the much touted member of the local business community is a scoundrel, and I am not referring to the developer who has been a "good guy". As a result much of the north end commercial property is likely to remain in a state of decay. This in turn has a negative effect on surrounding property values and community moral. There has been too much "shuck & jive" surrounding the north end motel. Some prominent citizens should hang their heads in shame.


The most recent actions by the town commission may actually be hindering what remains of any opportunity to re-mediate the north end commercial blight. I speak of the 30% residential restriction in the 2012-6 town ordinance. The commissioners tried to legislate a motel/hotel by employing the 30% residential restriction. Now their efforts have done more harm than good.

Hundreds of north end residents attended 3 commission meeting to protest any legislation that permitted inappropriate commercial tourism in a uniquely residential community. The commissioners totally ignored the people and passed legislation that favored a motel/hotel, while making it impossible to develop a residential solution.  The commission has now made a mess of things.

The first action of the commission in the fall should be to undo the restriction on residential development on north end commercial land. There will be no motel/hotel in the foreseeable future. The north end cannot wait another decade for a new commission to take effective, instead of pro-tourism, action to restore the beautiful ambiance that was once the jewel of the north end of Longboat Key.

As it turns out, the actions of the current commission have not furthered the great island revival promised by the Key Club. Just the opposite has occurred. The land use reforms sought by this commission have destabilised the real estate market on Longboat Key. Perspective property owners are faced with the spectre of uncertainty in town land use policies. Whereas in previous decades, Longboat offered home buyers a stable economic future, the current commission has demonstrated its willingness to allow unbridled commercial tourism by removing all safeguards that had guaranteed that investments in our community were stable and secure.

In a previous election I was helping a candidate put out campaign signs. I noticed that one of my signs had been removed soon after I had placed it on a commercial property that had always allowed signs to be posted from all candidates. When I inquired, the person in charge informed me that my candidate's sign would not be allowed. When I asked why, I was told that there were promises of a 5 story hotel at the north end. That was the day I became opposed to strong arm politics on Longboat Key. Promises, promises, lots of smoke and no fire. That is what happens when a communitity allows a few people to run the show.

Increasingly over the past three years, Longboat Key politics have deteriorated. As if that was not bad enough, the people who are responsible for this have failed to deliver on any of  their election promises. We have no new motels/hotels. I am told the Key Club is being allowed to deterioriate further. Retail business continues to deteriorate in spite of increased tourism figures. Perhaps that is because tourists only require food and tee shirts. Residents long ago found that going off-island was cheaper and more efficient, since much of the local retail business was directed at tourists anyway. It seems we cannot have it both ways. Either we are a residential community or we are a tourist destination. One way is good for the residents. The other way is good for the business community. The struggle continues.

Town government has become bare-knuckled power-brokering and fractured public interests.

The past three years have not been good for our community. When we should have been accelerating into the technology age as a community, we squandered our time and efforts on useless campaigns to promote cell towers and large motels in residential neighborhoods and community centers we cannot afford. We have allowed special interests to take control of the town government agenda. Worst of all, the town has accomplished nothing that furthers the community as a whole. The current regime has failed to produce any meaningful actions for three years.

We have lost more than a couple of motels/hotels and a few years where we could have been moving forward as a community. We, as a community, have lost our way politically.

The tragedy of commons

"The tragedy of commons is a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource, even when it is clear that it is not in any one's long-term interest for this to happen."

The town commission, who gained overwhelming control of power three years ago, and has been augmenting their control through appointments to the commission, the planning and zoning board and a town manager on a short leash, have completed their appointed duties and altered both the comprehensive plan and the building codes. What the commission has done is pave the way for developers to do to us, what they have done to many other Florida coastal communities.

During the past three years, if one examines the commission meeting records and legislation, the words resident, property owner and taxpayer are seldom seen. Words and actions centering around tourism, business and development abound. The evidence is clear, no matter how some commissioners try to spin it otherwise.

This commission has completed its self-proclaimed duties. Now it is time for property owners to unite to protect what is ours. We need not become victims of the developers, who will most assuredly descend on Longboat Key, now that the commissioners have removed long-standing protections and barriers. We are already in the litigation phase of this process as evidenced by the IPOC/Key Club legal struggle. Anyone who has had any dealings with the town realizes that the property owner has become meaningless to the current town government. Lawyers, not residents, are the people who have the town government's attention.

We are in the midst of an island-wide "tragedy of commons". Individually we are sitting ducks for exploitation. If it is not you, it may very well be your neighbor. It is only through coordinated actions and pooled resources that we will be able to counter the recent commission activities surrounding our comprehensive plan and building codes. Very few residents or resident groups have the resources or the dedicated leadership of IPOC. The Longboat Key property owners may require a legal fund that is well-organized and funded by hundreds and perhaps thousands of property owners with the single shared interest of preserving the low density, low profile tranquility that has made Longboat Key a premier community for the past 30 years.

There are certain residents who accuse others of conspiracy theories and doomsday scenarios. It is the very people they are accusing who most want their projections to be found baseless. Unfortunately, there are too many sad tales of developer exploitation, in too many other unsuspecting communities, for many of us to be comfortable that what this commission has done will not profoundly affect our community.

We may soon have the words Blackpoint and Bay Isles become a large part of the Longboat Key dialog - now that they have rights to 1600 residential units at Bay Isles. We may discover that the Key Club expansion was only a "red herring" after all.

http://www.blackpt.com/portfolio_LongboatKeyClub.html

There are some property owners who will welcome anything that is a new development. There may be many others who will flee the island. Given the recent history of resident activism, I doubt there will be many who will do much, if anything, to protect what is theirs.

We may have already become a community where form comes before function, and the flow of community wealth into the hands of a few developers is tacitly accepted as being the easier path. After all tomorrow is another tee-time.

Perhaps a community leader or property-owner group will emerge to become the new and truly representative PIC on Longboat Key.

We Need a Global Currency

They say that in the financial markets everything is a Zero-Sum-Game. If one understands that the money supply is finite, then every time someone profits from a currency trade, somebody loses. Few people understand the significance of currency trading compared to the puny DOW average we are all fed on the evening news and in the WSJ.

Here is just one example how global currency trading impacts your wallet on a daily basis.

In 1987, Andy Krieger, a 32-year-old currency trader at Bankers Trust, was carefully watching the currencies that were rallying against the dollar following the Black Monday crash. As investors and companies rushed out of the American dollar and into other currencies that had suffered less damage in the market crash, there were bound to be some currencies that would become fundamentally overvalued, creating a good opportunity for arbitrage. The currency Krieger targeted was the New Zealand dollar, also known as the kiwi. 

Using the relatively new techniques afforded by options, Krieger took up a short position against the kiwi worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In fact, his sell orders were said to exceed the 

money supply of New Zealand. The selling pressure combined with the lack of currency in circulation caused the kiwi to drop sharply. It yo-yoed between a 3 and 5% loss while Krieger made millions for his employers... 

Perhaps the increasingly global economy has reached a juncture where a single currency may be more stabilizing and efficient that the world's current system of local currencies and the daily transfer of vast amounts of value from everyman to the enrichment of a few banks and billionaires. Yes your friendly bank bets against your good fortune every day. The ensuing LIBOR scandal will only illuminate a fraction of the financial shenanigans perpetrated on the general global population by the banking industry, while they, at the same time, snivel about the need to gouge  depositors for every escalating fees and charges, and always in small print.


Besides all the complicated reasons why a global currency might help to stabilize the global economy, there is the daily drain of common resource into the hands of a few speculators, that far exceeds the sum of all stock trading, that would be eliminated with a single currency.


The same TVM metrics apply to your pocketbook and currency trading, as apply to the onerous fees and charges imposed on your 401K or mutual funds. Little by little these costs mount up. Over decades currency trading really matters to the average world citizen. When one takes out a 30 year mortgage the interest  paid over the duration of the mortgage, exceeds the amount borrowed. Likewise, currency trading most likely decreases your net worth to a significant degree just as inflation and deflation have a negative effect over time.

There is a saying that "misfortune" is the type of fortune that never misses. It seems that when it comes to the global financial zero-sum-game, the financial misfortunes of the little-man are never passed over.


The media recently pointed out that if a food stamp recipient (49 million Americans now receive SNAP) is found to have lied on any form, they are denied assistance forever. Meanwhile the banking industry is now experiencing their 6th or 7th major criminal disclosure (LIBOR manipulation) in so many years and still no one is punished.


Woody Guthrie once wrote that some people rob you with a gun, and some people rob you with a fountain pen. He also said an outlaw never drove anyone from their home. His words ring too true 70 years later. It seems the bankers are still the ones driving people from their homes.

A global currency would eliminate the needless and enormous profits of the currency trading industry that directly affect everyone. Likewise a global currency will stabilize commerce between areas of the globe. A single currency would greatly simplify financial and commercial planning and transactions. Allowing a few banks and trading groups to manipulate national currencies in a totally unregulated market only adds to our current global financial instability.

Currency trading is another form of the Chinese water torture. Drip by drip, value is transferred from everyman to the rich man over lifetimes. If  no one has the money to buy things, how do we create jobs? For those who celebrate the rich and famous, who now use our money to purchase national and local elections, are you better off than your parents?

Perhaps it is time to put nationalism aside and get down to the business of improving global financial conditions. It seems we are now all on the same globe financially.