tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67770242666620994452024-03-13T17:29:36.310-04:00Friends of Longboat Key (FOLK)A community oriented discussion area for residents of Longboat Key Florida. If you want to start a new subject send me an email at geneonlbk@gmail.com.
Please send this blog link to friends and neighbors.Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.comBlogger109125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-84486235600757116692015-12-19T15:37:00.000-05:002015-12-20T09:50:39.627-05:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">LBK Commission Advocates</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: large;">Tyranny by the Majority</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">If one was going to create a perfect example of a government creating Tyranny by the Majority, it would be the LBK commission's second underground power line <u>non-ad valorem</u> tax assessment methodology.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">Only the commission knows why they chose to abandon the long established <u>ad valorem</u> taxing methodology used to fund both ongoing beach maintenance and canal dredging. <u>Non-ad valorem</u> taxes are regressive and inherently unfair to a large segment of the community. </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">The illogical rationals being employed by the commission to support their two undergrounding projects, creates large economic disparities within the community, in some cases by over 1000%. </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #0b5394;">For the GMD undergrounding project, the commission reasoned, incorrectly, that since everyone eventually drives on GMD, depending on when they return to the island and how long they stay on island, so everyone should have to pay equally for the privilege of not seeing above ground power lines on GMD. <u>The commission's undergrounding initiative does not improve safety or quality of service, compared to what the community would have received for free from the FPL's scheduled improvements to the power grid along GMD</u>.</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>For the "neighborhoods" undergrounding project, the commission employs a totally different set of rationals to justify setting up a perfect instance to Tyranny by the Majority. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>The long standing taxing scheme for the two beach maintenance districts, divides the community into those properties directly benefiting from renourishing the beach immediately in front of their property, and a separate voting group who receive indirect benefit from having adequate beaches along the entire island. Unfortunately the commission has been remiss for the past six years and our beaches have been allowed to deteriorate in many places. The tax liability for the two groups is 80/20.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>This separation of both benefits and tax liability, into two voting groups, allows those most financially affected </b></span><b style="color: #0b5394;">by a referendum </b><b style="color: #0b5394;">(80% of the tax liability), to have protection from the large majority of property owners (voters) with only a small tax exposure (20% of the tax liability). This is both logical and fair.</b></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>For some strange reason, this commission has decided to lump the majority group of property owners, with a $500 tax liability (7000 properties), together with the 3000 property owners with overhead power lines and a maximum tax liability of $11,000. Obviously the voters with only a small tax liability can exercise their majority power over the minority group of voters with a very large tax liability. This is called Tyranny by the Majority. It is not fair and has no place in a <a href="http://www.conservapedia.com/Constitutional_Republic" target="_blank">constitutional republic</a> such as we have in America.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>In good conscience, every LBK voter should vote against the political excesses of this commission, to demonstrate that we still stand for fairness and a truly democratic society.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;"><b>Please ask yourself, if you are one of the majority, is the somewhat improved aesthetics of underground power lines in the "neighborhoods" worth straddling them with a $10,500 tax liability? Remember your vote affects thousands of property owners, many of whom have small homes and fixed incomes. For hundreds, perhaps thousands, of homeowners, the second referendum will increase their yearly property taxes from 30% to 60%. Do you really want to be part of the commission's unbalanced zeal to have virtual <u>mandatory undergrounding</u> throughout the island?</b></span></div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-80015300674099706302015-10-05T13:44:00.000-04:002015-10-05T13:44:57.806-04:00Unequal Taxation?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: Bookman Old Style;"><b>Unequal Taxation?</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"><span style="font-size: 19.2px;">Below is a Florida Public Service Commission paper on the deficiencies of burying power lines. It's worth a read to get a better understanding of what the Longboat commission is proposing. The commission is asking voters to agree to tax themselves 25 million dollars to bury power lines on just Gulf of Mexico Drive.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"><span style="font-size: 19.2px;">My two major complaints concern unfair and inequitable tax apportionment and the economic inefficiencies of the commission plan. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"><span style="font-size: 19.2px;">The commission's special tax assessment for undergrounding power lines along GMD, has the great majority of taxpayers paying an identical amount, no matter where your property is located.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"><span style="font-size: 19.2px;">The town's two special beach maintenance taxing districts acknowledges that those properties lying west of GMD receive greater benefit, from maintaining beaches, than those properties located east of GMD. This includes financial benefits in the form of property values. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"><span style="font-size: 19.2px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"><span style="font-size: 19.2px;">Under the current commission special assessment referendum, the commission ignores their own beach taxing rational and asserts that all properties on the island will enjoy identical benefits from undergrounding GMD. I do not believe that anyone, besides the commissioners, thinks that properties on GMD will not experience increased property values as a result of burying power lines in front of their homes.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Bookman Old Style;"><span style="font-size: 19.2px;">Likewise, I do not believe that many residents believe that the various neighborhoods will be able to facilitate undergrounding projects in individual areas where there are existing overhead power lines, after GMD is undergrounded. The commission's GMD or nothing plan will have negative impacts on future efforts to underground the entire island. Is is a bad plan!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><b style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION ANALYSES</b></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"><i><span style="color: blue;">Florida (2007-2008)</span></i></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="color: blue;">In 2006, the Florida Public Service Commission directed each investor-owned electric utility in the state to investigate the implications of converting their overhead electric distribution systems to underground. The primary focus of the project was the impact of undergrounding on the performance of the electric infrastructure during</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="color: blue;">hurricanes, i.e., the ability of the electric system to withstand high winds, storm surges, and other damage from hurricanes and to minimize the number and duration of customer interruptions</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">The project was divided into three phases. Phase 1, published in 2007, reviewed existing research, reports, methodologies, and case studies. The literature review identified a range of benefits and costs of undergrounding. The benefits include increased reliability, improved aesthetics, and decreased costs for vegetation management. On the other hand, the review found an average cost of $1 million per mile, although it noted that actual costs could vary widely depending on customer density, terrain, and other factors. The review found that the costs of undergrounding are “… far in excess of the quantifiable benefits presented in existing studies, except in rare cases where the facilities provide particularly high reliability gains or otherwise have a higher than average impact on community goals.” The literature indicated that the wholesale conversion of overhead distribution systems to underground would require electricity rates to approximately double. This phase of the report is available at</span><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"><u><a href="http://warrington.ufl.edu/purc/docs/initiatives_UndergroundingAssessment.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://warrington.ufl.edu/<wbr></wbr>purc/docs/initiatives_<wbr></wbr>UndergroundingAssessment.pdf</a></u></span><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">Phase 2, also published in 2007, examined four undergrounding projects in Florida, two of which were done in conjunction with road widening. In two, the underground lines were substantially longer than the overhead lines they replaced (by 100% in one case and by 143% in the other). The increased length in these cases was due to an underground loop that was built to provide flexibility in responding to outages. Preliminary data indicated that undergrounding did not significantly affect the reliability of the affected circuit outside of storms. It found that the high initial costs of undergrounding were not fully justified by such things as reduced hurricane damage and reduced operations and management costs. The phase 2 report is available at </span><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"><u><a href="http://warrington.ufl.edu/purc/docs/initiatives_UndergroundingAssessment2.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://warrington.ufl.edu/<wbr></wbr>purc/docs/initiatives_<wbr></wbr>UndergroundingAssessment2.pdf</a></u></span><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="15038f0806aa6e1e_P82_9401" style="color: #222222;"></a>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="color: blue;">Phase 3 was published in 2008. It developed and tested a methodology for analyzing the costs and benefits of specific undergrounding proposals. The methodology has two components: a normal weather assessment and a hurricane assessment. The model used in the normal weather assessment includes the basic cost of utility capital and operations. It also includes reliability information that allows for the calculation of customer interruption rates and interruption-related costs. The hurricane model determines infrastructure damage and related costs associated with tropical storms of hurricane strength that make landfall in Florida.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="color: blue;">The report notes that the methodology is specific to Florida, but the general approach is valid wherever extreme weather events have the potential to wreak havoc on electricity infrastructure. It also states that the model requires specification of many parameters and makes many assumptions. For many of these parameters and assumptions, there is little basis in historical data. The tool should be viewed as a “calculator” and the user must make appropriate decisions about the parameters and assumptions.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"><span style="color: blue;">The report notes that there are several intangible benefits and costs to undergrounding. These include aesthetic benefits such as elimination of overhead facilities, improved landscaping, and </span><u><b><span style="color: red;">the potential positive impact on property values</span></b></u><span style="color: blue;">. The intangible costs include reduced flexibility for both utility operations and system expansion. Undergrounding can have an adverse environmental impact including erosion and disruption of ecologically sensitive habitats.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">The report notes that underground equipment is prone to damage by storm surges in hurricanes and by excavations near the lines. The time needed to repair underground lines is often longer than for overhead lines and the specialized crews needed for underground repairs are often scarce during restoration. The report concludes that “it is quite possible that undergrounding an existing overhead system in a coastal area may result in </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT;"><i>more </i></span><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">hurricane damage and </span><span style="font-family: TimesNewRomanPS-ItalicMT;"><i>longer</i></span><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">restoration times for customers” (emphasis in original). The phase 3 report is available at </span><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';"><u><a href="http://warrington.ufl.edu/purc/docs/initiatives_UndergroundingAssessment3.pdf" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">http://warrington.ufl.edu/<wbr></wbr>purc/docs/initiatives_<wbr></wbr>UndergroundingAssessment3.pdf</a></u></span><span style="font-family: 'Bookman Old Style';">.<wbr></wbr> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Bookman Old Style'; font-size: 19.2px;"><b>Source: </b></span><span style="color: blue; font-family: Bookman Old Style; font-size: 19.2px;"><b><a href="https://www.cga.ct.gov/2011/rpt/2011-R-0338.htm" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.cga.ct.<wbr></wbr>gov/2011/rpt/2011-R-0338.htm</a></b></span></div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-59846236932979068322015-10-03T19:12:00.000-04:002015-10-04T11:39:31.312-04:00A Better Buried Power Lines Plan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Come November, Longboat Key voters will be asked to approve a referendum ballot, championed by the town commission, to approve a $25,000,000 bond to bury power lines the length of Gulf of Mexico Drive. The referendum does not contain provisions to underground power lines in the "neighborhoods" presently with above ground power lines.<br />
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At the beginning of the commission's efforts to underground GMD, and only GMD, while taxing every property owner, I asked that the town spend $5,000 to contact every property owner / real estate taxpayer to measure the sentiments of those who will end up paying the bill to have properties along GMD receive a major property value increase as a result of placing their overhead power lines underground.<br />
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Unfortunately the commission was not interested in what the bill-payers wanted. The commission forged ahead with what has become a divisive internecine struggle between those who want everyone to pay for their personal property improvements, while excluding the rest of the island, and those of us who seek an optimal solution, with maximum benefits for the entire community, not just those along GMD and those who already live in developments with underground utilities. <br />
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Commissioner Zunz, among others, has proposed an alternative funding scheme that has the entire island undergrounded, for not much more than the commission's limited underground deployment just on GMD.<br />
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The Zunz plan has every property owner pay $4,000 to underground the entire island, instead of $2,500 to underground only GMD. With proper 10 year bond management, the bond + interest total is almost the same amount as the town's proposed 30 year bond for undergrounding just GMD. The voters are voting based in great part on special assessment information appearing on the town's web site. It would be questionable if the commission attempted to alter published property tax liabilities after the election.<br />
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The commission has effectively resisted having those who already have underground power lines from paying a penny more than what it costs to do just GMD. Sadly , their unwillingness to listen to alternative views, such as that of Ms. Zunz, most likely will doom further deployment of underground power lines into the neighborhoods, due to inefficient project scale, the volunteer resources required to form a local neighborhood taxing district and sell a small scale bond into an already skittish bond market.<br />
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The commissioner's strong opposition to community-wide funding of an island-wide underground project, ignores the current way we fund both beach and canal maintenance.<br />
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The really unfortunate aspect of what the commission has been doing is to stifle meaningful community discussion and to limit the voter's choices to their single proposal. The illegal removal of vital taxing information from the town web site is another example of the commission's attempts to control the voting process and prevent the taxpayers from having a complete understanding of the commission's referendum proposal.<br />
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That the commission is preventing Longboat taxpayers the right to choose between several plans flies in the face of fair and open government. All the taxpayers have already spent tens of thousands of dollars to have consultants study various funding models for just GMD and/or the entire island. Now that the commission has withdrawn any consideration for an island-wide project, voters are left with an all or nothing choice for only GMD. It is my opinion that we can to a lot better as a community, just as we do when it comes to beach and canal improvements. Voters can reject the current offering by the commission. That will trigger a more comprehensive plan that includes underground power lines for the entire island at a slightly higher cost to taxpayers than the current flawed commission plan.</div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-32522167555665553902015-10-03T19:05:00.002-04:002015-10-06T11:37:30.187-04:00To Underground or Not Underground<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I believe almost every property owner on Longboat Key is in favor of under-grounding our power lines. That unanimity begins to break down over who pays for what. </div>
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Under the town commission's project, everyone pays for GMD, no matter what cost/benefit is actually enjoyed by different property owners, in various parts of the island. For instance, how far away a land parcel lies from GMD. It seems logical that those properties directly on GMD will increase in property value from under-grounding the power lines.</div>
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One problem with the town's assessment formulation is that the Key Club Islandside only pays the same $2,476 that most every other property owner will pay. The Islandside property has 1.3 miles of frontage on GMD. I believe the approximate per mile cost for burying the power lines on GMD is $2,000,000. We all have to pay for the 1.3 miles of the Islandside property. I believe residents have a bonafide concern surrounding the taxing model published by the commission.</div>
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That the town commission refused to allow the residents to vote to pay to either bury power lines on just Gulf of Mexico Drive or throughout the entire community, has now divided the community and may well be the primary reason that voters reject the commission's funding plan.</div>
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At this point the commissioners have completely withdrawn any consideration of an island-wide under-grounding project. The commission has acknowledged that their assessment model for the neighborhoods is so faulty and unpopular that they chose to no longer consider an island-wide project. There is no assurance that the commission will reinstate an island-wide project even if their current referendum passes. Certainly there will be far fewer residents who are affected by overhead power lines once GMD is under-grounded, making further under-grounding efforts less likely.</div>
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If the commission's GMD referendum is approved, I cannot see an effective resident-based initiative to underground other neighborhoods being likely. The legal and political challenges are daunting and the cost of doing the island peace-meal can only translate into higher costs compared to a large island-wide project that will attract more contractors with more competitive bids.</div>
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I believe the voters would be better off rejecting the commission's GMD project and have the town formulate a better, more encompassing and cost effective under-grounding plan. </div>
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Commissioner Zunz has presented an alternative funding initiative that might be accepted by the voters for the same reasons that voters approved both the beach and canal management taxing formulas.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO-xNIbVv2dINrfCF6OiV1L_Ec-m3SbjGSAHy6OXycSLQbK4Puhg97bK3DnP1y3QhKtHRXqRwsNqw72ZcwrFmzYyH6PKe7E29nKOKBMBQ7gV5mo8h6CQNb-Yn4deeTvYLHsUJ6YWr-TTD_/s1600/Underground5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO-xNIbVv2dINrfCF6OiV1L_Ec-m3SbjGSAHy6OXycSLQbK4Puhg97bK3DnP1y3QhKtHRXqRwsNqw72ZcwrFmzYyH6PKe7E29nKOKBMBQ7gV5mo8h6CQNb-Yn4deeTvYLHsUJ6YWr-TTD_/s400/Underground5.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Finally, here is a link to a study on undergrounding siting advantages and disadvantages.</div>
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: x-small;"><b>http://www.entergy.com/2008_hurricanes/Underground-lines.pdf</b></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-22094209377542518122015-10-03T17:45:00.000-04:002015-10-04T11:41:10.435-04:00Power Poles in Paradise<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ZzgU2vxfrYMJbqMcyqqj6NJOKxaaP5gC1KfztEiwBZmz0dYNeXT_Mr-sVKsJ92kuFHMrDqnheEWaUfQDK3lPIQBjTH5UQG_uWocYjdK3ZvRbfdWKqzQmlidnJskMvXMm2wcWgFrlgUdV/s1600/lighting2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="161" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ZzgU2vxfrYMJbqMcyqqj6NJOKxaaP5gC1KfztEiwBZmz0dYNeXT_Mr-sVKsJ92kuFHMrDqnheEWaUfQDK3lPIQBjTH5UQG_uWocYjdK3ZvRbfdWKqzQmlidnJskMvXMm2wcWgFrlgUdV/s400/lighting2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I just finished counting, on Google maps, the number of streets on LBK, intersecting with GMD that are gateways to neighborhoods with overhead power lines.</span><br />
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I counted 75 intersections that will require a power pole on or very close to GMD. This count could be off by a few streets where there are no houses with overhead power lines and thus not requiring a power pole on GMD.</div>
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In addition to the larger power poles at most intersections on GMD, the town's plan calls for the addition of between 300 to 600 new street light poles at a height of 30 feet. Currently street lights are mounted on existing power poles. </div>
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Residents should not be lead to believe that undergrounding GMD will eradicate the visual blight of utility poles on GMD. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qvcl78IYdmCuIgB_iiCHBRbQym7DVxvfmy4bhLZ4HBoX5Xmk7poYqrSGAO0si3yk4EG-YVq5yJnsQV2A44NUj5ZVoahj18_Tn9IMKtuk8pvR87Un0PhFeNmebanrY_lgJIcw9424pRgC/s1600/lighting3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qvcl78IYdmCuIgB_iiCHBRbQym7DVxvfmy4bhLZ4HBoX5Xmk7poYqrSGAO0si3yk4EG-YVq5yJnsQV2A44NUj5ZVoahj18_Tn9IMKtuk8pvR87Un0PhFeNmebanrY_lgJIcw9424pRgC/s400/lighting3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-84294120595000822122014-10-03T19:10:00.001-04:002015-10-03T19:12:52.940-04:00Times they are a-changing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;"><span style="color: #0c343d;">Come senators, congressmen</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c343d; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;">Please heed the call</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c343d; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 12px;">Don't stand in the doorway</span></span></div>
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Don't block up the hall</div>
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For he that gets hurt</div>
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Will be he who has stalled</div>
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There's a battle outside</div>
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And it is ragin'</div>
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It'll soon shake your windows</div>
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And rattle your walls</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c343d;">For the times they are a-changin'.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #0c343d; font-size: xx-small;">Bob Dylan</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">Wow! What a week. Loeb Partners, who own the Key Club, are leaving town, along with the general manager. On top of that, the president of the Chamber of Commerce is leaving at the same time. Is this a coincidence? Perhaps it is best if the new owners of the Key Club are able to work with the surrounding affected property owners and find a common-sense design for a new and reasonable Key Club expansion. </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">The town is still facing a court decision towards the end of November that will decide if land use on Longboat Key will remain under the purview of our Comprehensive Plan and town ordinances, or become a political weapon totally in the hands of a commission that is presently mostly appointed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">I hope that the prospective owners of the KC and IPOC can reach an understanding. But I also hope that IPOC allows the courts to rule on the legality of two recently passed town ordinances, passed by the town commission - 2012-6 and 2012-8. I believe both ordinances will discourage people from investing in residential properties on Longboat. No one wants to invest in a community where anything is possible depending on who is on the town commission at the time. Both these ordinances destabilize our community and undermine trust that land use will be managed in a steady and predictable fashion. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: 12px;">This commission fails to understand that "highest and best use" of commercial property extends well beyond the confines of the commercial development and impacts surrounding property owners and to a lesser degree the entire community.</span></span></div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-58707412205954715982014-10-03T19:10:00.000-04:002015-10-03T19:12:22.892-04:00The Servant of Two Masters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: #f9fdff; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #0b5394;">"No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other"...Matthew 6:24</span></b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgbX0NDDkAUmdUfcojOr8Kg6rm0uLMH0q7x1q2y0bmVg2ajgY-xXKQ-ucYLcNo2QJdPCnRVJAYMqmxo80Bjmz5e09-FymNtldv31qbYSbHQM9q34t8CNjgN36wnMFCgeO7W_RwCvxcUiDz/s1600/justice_cartoon.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgbX0NDDkAUmdUfcojOr8Kg6rm0uLMH0q7x1q2y0bmVg2ajgY-xXKQ-ucYLcNo2QJdPCnRVJAYMqmxo80Bjmz5e09-FymNtldv31qbYSbHQM9q34t8CNjgN36wnMFCgeO7W_RwCvxcUiDz/s320/justice_cartoon.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Several people have asked me to explain the perhaps unusual relationship between the town lawyer representing Loeb Partners, while at the same time getting paid by Longboat Key taxpayers. My explanation that this three-way relationship does in fact exist has been greeted with laughter and dismay. So far, and the sample size is arguably small, everyone I have talked to has had difficulty understanding exactly what is happening. How can the town lawyer be the town's legal adviser and also be employed by a developer at the same time? When I tell them that it's legal, that does not seem to alter how they feel about the town lawyer being the servant of two masters.</div>
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What does "being legal" have to do with what is right? It is legal to ride on a motorcycle without wearing a protective helmet. It is also legal to have a minor on the motorcycle equally unprotected. In many cases, the uninsured cost of treating serious motorcycle accident injuries are paid by the Florida taxpayer. "Special interests" have always influenced our laws. The motorcycle lobby has been able to control the motorcycle safety issue for many years. However, every taxpayer in Florida is subsidizing the motorcycle industry to some degree, through higher public sector medical costs. From my perspective the motorcycle law is not a just law.</div>
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Longboat Key has become a community mired in special interests. </div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-27639519552217836842014-10-03T19:08:00.000-04:002015-10-03T19:08:54.446-04:00Are you better off?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="color: red;">Are You Better Off Than When</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: red;">This Commission Took Office 3 Years Ago?</span></b></div>
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I resigned from the commission 3 years ago in the midst of a divisive community struggle between the Key Club developers and those in our community who felt the Key Club expansion was too massive, and would be unfair to people who had already invested in property at Islandside. Four of the seven commissioners decided to back the developers, passing Ordinance 2010-16. I was so opposed to the intervention into community affairs by the town commission that I could no longer countenance being part of what I, and later two different Florida courts, believed to be an over-extension of political power. At that time I expressed my concerns that what the commission was doing was in violation of our own codes and ordinances. I was not willing to be party to the commission's inappropriate activities concerning the Key Club expansion. </div>
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I have always expressed publicly, in print, my belief that the town should have leaned on the two sides to create a compromise. Instead, the commission voted unanimously to approve the KC application. I still believe a compromise is the only way to avoid still more years of court battles that have so far been a stunning refutation of all the actions taken by the commission on behalf of Mr. Lesser. I find it curious that the town commission is taking the opposite position in their dealings with the various factions involved in the Colony fight, calling for compromise. Unfortunately, the commission has, at the same time, created a new extra-legal zoning district in violation of the town's codes and land use ordinances. I expect law suites by those who are adversely affected by the commission's decisions. I also expect that the town will fare no better, legally, than they have fared with their efforts at the Key Club. </div>
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I have decided to run against Commissioner Younger in the upcoming town election. I realize that I may be a single voice of opposition at times, however, there needs to be some sort of voice for the residents on the town commission. Someone needs to be able to represent the taxpayers and non-resident property owners to balance the current business-biased, mostly appointed, commission. I am also aware that I face unified opposition from the business interests on the island that have been effective in shaping the current commission. This is a strange opposition since I am very pro-business. I am simply opposed to uninformed government driven by special interests.</div>
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This is why I am running:</div>
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1) For the past three years the commission has done literally nothing to further the economy of Longboat Key. There has been much posturing and attending off-island small business promotion luncheons, but nothing else. There has been no concrete action on the part of the town commission to improve the town's image or to actively market our community. That is Job One for any local government.</div>
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2) The current commission continues to take actions based on legal advice that time and time again has been insufficient. If I am elected I will work to find new legal representation for the town. The most recent example is the hedge cutting ordinance vote now supported by the town lawyer. The ordinance should have failed if the commission voting process had been conducted properly. Once again the commission has received advice that most likely will not hold up in court.</div>
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3) The current commission has adopted a beach management, or I should say non-management, policy that has exposed too many properties to damage and even destruction. The record will show that Commissioner Younger is willing to gamble private property against a balanced budget. I believe that if a single waterfront property is lost as a result of a lack of preventive action by the town, it will have disastrous effects on the town's reputation. If elected I will be active in protecting valuable property from storm damage resulting from uninformed beach policies.</div>
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4) Another three years has passed since the current group of people gained political control of the town commission, and the $30 million pension system beast is still on the loose. This is another example of the type of inaction that has plagued Longboat Key for the past three years. Who knows how much the commission's indecisiveness has cost the taxpayers. One fact is known and that is the number of new-hires that have been allowed to enter our retirement plan during that time. If I am elected I will make sure the taxpayers are foremost in the actions of the town commission. The pension system debacle simply cannot be allowed to be kicked down the road for another three or four years. For the past five years I have advocated that the town transfer all workers to the Florida Retirement System as the best way to resolve a situation that has not been confronted by the current town commission. How long must we wait?</div>
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5) The commission has not been successful in their public relations with town workers. One of the reasons I was previously able to defeat an incumbent, who had strong support from various interests in the community, was his part in alienating the police employees to the point where they formed a union. The same sad spectacle is taking place again, this time with the regular employees. Because of perceived inequities, which are too blatant to be ignored, Longboat Key has yet another union on its hands. If I am elected I will get rid of our highly paid labor attorney and find someone who can work one-on-one with the employees to reach some sort of solution. Dragging things on year after year accomplishes nothing. When employees, who have been loyal workers, feel abused, they form unions. This did not need to happen, just as the police union did not have to happen. This commission has had a part in unionizing the town government. Taxpayers will now pay even more to deal with three unions, where a few years ago there was but one.</div>
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6) The current commissioners would like you to believe they did great things at the north end where unsightly blight is allowed to drag down the entire community, year after year. Instead of working with commercial property owners and surrounding residents to effectively solve the problems, they instead allowed a small group of business people to run the town. As a result this commission passed an ordinance that actually restricts possible solutions at the north end. If elected I will find a way to rid Longboat Key of commercial blight. There are Florida statutes that allow the town to insist commercial property owners maintain their property or face very serious consequences. Instead this commission made things more difficult to resolve. Doing nothing does not cut it.</div>
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7) Perhaps the greatest failure of the town commission over the past three years has been its inability to stem the steady loss of business on Longboat Key. I say this because this commission has devoted most of its time talking about how the town needs to promote tourism and business, yet they have not done so. There is an old saying "planning does not make government". That certainly has been the case for the previous three years. If anything the commission has been instrumental in halting progress at the Key Club by enacting unreasonable land use codes and ordinances that have been thrown out in court. This commission has the worse record in my memory for failing to attract and retain businesses on the island. For a commission that has focused on the business community and tourism, while ignoring residential problems, their actions have been insufficient and Longboat Key is losing ground.</div>
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8) Finally, people say nothing is more attractive than a pretty face. Gulf of Mexico needs to put on some makeup, get rid of the shabby signage and create a really attractive <u>unified</u> commercial presentation to those visiting our community. The present commission seems unwilling to confront the business community to improve their appearance. If I am elected I will work with shopping center and business owners to improve our image. It is in everyone's best interest that we put on a happy face. This commission talks the talk but has been insufficient in improving the appearance of GMD.</div>
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<b>That is why I am once again seeking public office</b>. There is a pressing need to find a new direction for our town. Clearly what the current commission has been doing has been ineffective. Property owners have a clear choice. They can have a few more years of a floundering community, with leadership so focused on tourism that they have failed to improve anything. Or the taxpayers can elect new leadership with new ideas and a new sense of creative solutions for Longboat Key. </div>
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Let's get stuff done for a change!</div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-53913426114353668662014-10-03T19:07:00.000-04:002015-10-03T19:08:03.901-04:00Why Whitney Won't Work<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfT_CW3uavqIdEXxlPDRnKY923uPmbz-fidxJmC5qbMOxrjNBOniOvVh3IfdV_ADtKAI6Xesky-QRLMuxXgF1rd8WuddmBveD4QfzajTegP-fcb80FNMgnvfnnTldZdCmoQyVTBVJCVVW2/s1600/DesertedTown2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfT_CW3uavqIdEXxlPDRnKY923uPmbz-fidxJmC5qbMOxrjNBOniOvVh3IfdV_ADtKAI6Xesky-QRLMuxXgF1rd8WuddmBveD4QfzajTegP-fcb80FNMgnvfnnTldZdCmoQyVTBVJCVVW2/s400/DesertedTown2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I am one of the few year-round residents on the north end of Longboat Key. A am one of a few thousand people who live on the island more than a few months during the winter. In the off-season we can pick and choose where we shop from a fairly select group of local businesses located in three good sized shopping centers that are all located either mid-key or on the north end of Longboat Key. Many of my neighbors are Canadean or European and are limited to a six month visa. For the majority of property owners and seasonal renters, Longboat Key is the winter playground for those affluent enough to be able to spent time away from their primary residences.</div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-5368966223796316552013-10-22T08:20:00.000-04:002020-06-26T09:18:20.145-04:00Longboat's Hidden Tourist Industry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEzKJ3vYQ-VCMiLzUU8WTG6GuO2OekeFpu6V5GZ9jkr0aujqXpCgSF16En4CqkzWbA3mbfHY0ATgzuhoSVgXbxEb0onV1vqME-5CS_UxZHIah3A551XdiEYmZx7BWvD-p3TxkZNqTVEP1l/s1600/rental.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEzKJ3vYQ-VCMiLzUU8WTG6GuO2OekeFpu6V5GZ9jkr0aujqXpCgSF16En4CqkzWbA3mbfHY0ATgzuhoSVgXbxEb0onV1vqME-5CS_UxZHIah3A551XdiEYmZx7BWvD-p3TxkZNqTVEP1l/s1600/rental.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">While the town commissioners go about their self-appointed crusade to build high-density lower-middle-class tourist hotels on our exclusive island, they have failed to look at their own community and realize that Longboat Key already has an extensive and burgeoning tourist accommodation industry. Perhaps ten to fifteen percent of all properties on Longboat Key are already on the vacation rental market. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">One has only to go on-line and Google "for rent by owner Longboat" and there are dozens and dozens of websites advertising vacation rental homes on our island. Typically one finds headlines such as "</span></div>
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Longboat Key - 527 vacation rentals - VRBO</span></h2>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The above website alone lists over 5% of the total properties on Longboat Key as rental properties I recently attended a party in a home in Bay Isles. Talking to the occupant, who herself was seasonal renter, I was told that approximately half the homes on her street were rentals. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Everyone, except the current town commission, has known for years that there is a steady, and now accelerating, economic transformation occurring on Longboat Key. More and more of Longboat is becoming increasing wealthy. Property costs continue to go up. Over the past four years, the island has witnessed a McMansion building boom. Gone are the days of modest homes being built on the island. Now we see 10,000 square foot beachfront cottages and $4 million+ homes being torn down to make way for even more opulent abodes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Many of us remember a simpler community where people spent a majority of their year. We now see the </span><span style="font-size: large;">profile</span><span style="font-size: large;"> of a new wealthy, highly seasonal, </span><span style="font-size: large;">property owner. The new Longboater spends two or three months a year on-island.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> They are vacationing and do not require neighborhood services such as hardware stores or clothing shops. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Many of the houses owned by people who are seldom here become rentals. Since the town has made no attempt to understand the island private home rental market, there are no substantiated figures, other than what one is able to see on the internet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Looking on-line it is readily apparent that the Longboat Key visitor market is alive and well, and also highly promoted. Given the seemingly large rental inventory already available, one has to wonder why the town commission is driven to increase tourism still more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It should be noted that all local restaurants have been experiencing record business in recent years. The commission might look into where all these customers are coming from.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The current commission's tourism dreams may have already been fulfilled. They just have not noticed in their zeal to promote commercial development in an exclusive, residential community, where it is doubtful that property owners of luxury homes even want more tourists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A new form of tourism may in fact be evolving on Longboat Key. This new form of visitor accommodation is softer and lower profile than the high-rise hotel-like structures of the past two decades. Along with residential tourism comes a transformation of island neighborhoods into assemblages of private and rental houses.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It is of interest that many of the rentals on Longboat lie "behind the gates". The American economic landscape is changing, As wealth disparity increases, exclusive communities such as Longboat Key, with abundant upscale home rentals, will continue to attract the discriminating vacationer, who now prefers the comforts of a house to the limits of a hotel room. Personally I always rent flats or condos, as opposed to hotel rooms, when I travel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There is no lack of advertising and promotion of Longboat Key as a vacation destination on the internet, where all promotion now takes place. What has changed is that increasingly wealthy travelers and seasonal visitors are choosing larger more commodious accommodations. Why stay in a 500 square foot noisy crowded box when you can stay in a beautiful home for not much more?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The town commission may be a day late and a dime short when it comes to accommodation trends on Longboat Key. Their baseless rational that a high level of commercial tourism is necessary to promote home ownership is outmoded in today's new vacation rental world. Increasingly the owner promoted residential rental market is displacing the older hotel room model. The internet is displacing the travel agent. Longboat is unique as there is such a high percentage of wealthy seasonal absentee property owners, coupled with an attractive island ambiance that makes home rentals attractive to travelers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This is the new reality and the town commission needs to get on board.</span></div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-16231832244350548502013-07-21T19:11:00.000-04:002013-07-21T21:10:28.190-04:00Poineers!, Oh Pioneers!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNg5HZ7B6Qr7izsX64mVBG5qwlpvqTuGnwphO5OEQ18LG5XEmNr7ivtJgXHbSyJvABG6EYKU9_-grMQ5mW-jQKsW6MyvMfiGVfqDW4hlsv4dWdCAMC-nTe5uSAssFoHx-urR4wtg7tqxnl/s1600/blindfold.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNg5HZ7B6Qr7izsX64mVBG5qwlpvqTuGnwphO5OEQ18LG5XEmNr7ivtJgXHbSyJvABG6EYKU9_-grMQ5mW-jQKsW6MyvMfiGVfqDW4hlsv4dWdCAMC-nTe5uSAssFoHx-urR4wtg7tqxnl/s320/blindfold.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">To paraphrase a Walt Whitman poem:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: large; line-height: 19.1875px;"><b>Come my tan-faced children,</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: large;"><b>Follow well in order, get your lawyers ready,<br />Have you your agenda? have you your sharp-edged tongues?<br />Pioneers! O pioneers!</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Once again this town commission is already girding up its loins to do legal battle with all those who would criticize yet another uninformed venture by a failed group of people who speak with a single tongue it seems. <u>It should be noted that this commission has so far lost every single legal squabble they have precipitated.</u></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">This time it will be very expensive and actually create more problems for future generations of taxpayers than the commission's north end beach plan might help.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Below are images of every inlet in the state of Florida. I include them so taxpayers can clearly understand that building two groins at the north end is unique. No other county or municipality has chosen to build groins near an inlet. <b>Why?</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I want to use images to try to inform residents just how ill- advised it is to spend tens of millions to construct unneeded groins that will severely and quickly erode Beer-can Island which is county property. Manatee County will surely take issue with their beach being ravaged as the result of two groins adjacent to the island and demand that the beaches not only be restored, but also maintained on a yearly basis. This will be extremely expensive for Longboat taxpayers, year after year. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">If you look at the various inlets you will notice that <u>every single one has two jetties, one on either side of the inlet, and not a single inlet has groins</u>. Does that make you wonder why it is that the town commission has decided to become pioneers in inlet management? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Do you know that the commission is ready to spend $25 million dollars of your tax dollars on a scheme proposed by people who stand to make millions on the project, without asking for advice from a single outside independent qualified engineering company? Would you be so trusting?</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">Even though Florida created statutes to encourage investigation of alternative ways of maintaining our beaches, this commission has chosen to proceed in complete ignorance of what is being done in other communities around the world.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">Below are two pictures of the proposed groins at the north end. The second shows how the beach will fare if no groins are erected. There is not enough difference to merit spending tens of millions of tax dollars. Additionally, the town manager has repeatedly cautioned the commission that groins require more sand replenishment than leaving the beach in its natural state. </span></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9iQ-9svuBKRfFdn3avCGZZAfcj5a27pOa91we0zevPq5TPUQ827iQ81xSP_rTV_96y_DzGKYmtyFvtz14ANMYLlrSuapGtM1FLYjvi5EVgdeQ2n-aoBEx2e1KiEZcl7VVvAjE8loeEwlB/s1600/Northendgroin403.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9iQ-9svuBKRfFdn3avCGZZAfcj5a27pOa91we0zevPq5TPUQ827iQ81xSP_rTV_96y_DzGKYmtyFvtz14ANMYLlrSuapGtM1FLYjvi5EVgdeQ2n-aoBEx2e1KiEZcl7VVvAjE8loeEwlB/s320/Northendgroin403.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Groins and erosion down-drift.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Looking at the Islander, it will</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">much more severe.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwEPA0EPf5en0mLZ0uxwqRRLA-sVOXjHjVZZnqVhtVEKhnGtPsPVH_PvPyUxz6aRyoFx6WqhCYrWJl6dRicwsomMBDz3uO0tnrGRO29p2F7tiLbhY2GbPvhQA2fMPSEu7RmaOtMt9qm7Iz/s1600/GreerNoGroin+407.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwEPA0EPf5en0mLZ0uxwqRRLA-sVOXjHjVZZnqVhtVEKhnGtPsPVH_PvPyUxz6aRyoFx6WqhCYrWJl6dRicwsomMBDz3uO0tnrGRO29p2F7tiLbhY2GbPvhQA2fMPSEu7RmaOtMt9qm7Iz/s320/GreerNoGroin+407.jpg" width="230" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Natural beach with projected erosion</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Because this commission refuses to ask for input from other communities that have successful inlet management programs, we taxpayers may end up spending much more money than we need to. Ignorance seldom produces good results. It is important to email the commissioners and demand that they act prudently and in our best interests.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The rational approach to managing our beaches adjacent to our two inlets would be to seek input from communities with successful programs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then there is the issue of spending our money to maintain Beer-can Island which belongs to the county to which we send eighty percent of our Manatee county taxes. Why is this commission asking taxpayers to pay and pay and pay, when we should be demanding the county control their inlet that is responsible for gobbling up 86% of the sand lost off the north end beaches - 86%!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Here are images of every other inlet in Florida - notice NO GROINS.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0OB7-fX7UZRyYtQ4QCQOkUZZ6U3m732Szl8qwNMtNo47obvoyzemkRd8Qw1Q9lkfK02seNBJeMjZ52MwVuPd113171YEsRTp0PQpxHwgIPzaJsyjlUO327fF_MidUcsvclJaQUA70c5RU/s1600/Bal+Harbor+Inlet+12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0OB7-fX7UZRyYtQ4QCQOkUZZ6U3m732Szl8qwNMtNo47obvoyzemkRd8Qw1Q9lkfK02seNBJeMjZ52MwVuPd113171YEsRTp0PQpxHwgIPzaJsyjlUO327fF_MidUcsvclJaQUA70c5RU/s320/Bal+Harbor+Inlet+12.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-56010194853623235392012-10-31T14:20:00.002-04:002012-10-31T14:20:59.766-04:00Accountability and the Common Good<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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. </div>
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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. </div>
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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. </div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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 - <b><u><span style="color: #134f5c;">Key Club expansion, Colony rebuild, Hilton expansion, north end motel</span></u>.</b> <b>This is a huge expansion of tourism in an otherwise bucolic residential community.</b> </div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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. </div>
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<b><span style="color: #45818e;">This commission has been playing a zero-sum-game with the island's economy.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #45818e;">When a tourist developer wins some residents lose.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; text-align: start;"><b><span style="color: #134f5c;">Year-to-year Property Values - Aug. 2011-2012</span></b></span></div>
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Longboat Key$472,400<span class="up" style="background-image: url(http://www.zillowstatic.com/static/images/up_trending.gif); background-position: 4px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #669922; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; white-space: nowrap; width: 44px;">2.8%</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.zillow.com/compare/longboat-key-fl-vs-whitfield-fl/" style="color: #4f519e; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Whitfield</a>$151,400<span class="up" style="background-image: url(http://www.zillowstatic.com/static/images/up_trending.gif); background-position: 4px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #669922; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; white-space: nowrap; width: 44px;">17.7%</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.zillow.com/compare/cortez-fl-vs-longboat-key-fl/" style="color: #4f519e; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Cortez</a>$140,600<span class="up" style="background-image: url(http://www.zillowstatic.com/static/images/up_trending.gif); background-position: 4px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #669922; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; white-space: nowrap; width: 44px;">3.9%</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.zillow.com/compare/bradenton-beach-fl-vs-longboat-key-fl/" style="color: #4f519e; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Bradenton Beach</a>$230,800<span class="up" style="background-image: url(http://www.zillowstatic.com/static/images/up_trending.gif); background-position: 4px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #669922; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; white-space: nowrap; width: 44px;">0.4%</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.zillow.com/compare/longboat-key-fl-vs-sarasota-fl/" style="color: #4f519e; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Sarasota</a>$130,600<span class="up" style="background-image: url(http://www.zillowstatic.com/static/images/up_trending.gif); background-position: 4px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #669922; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; white-space: nowrap; width: 44px;">11.6%</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.zillow.com/compare/longboat-key-fl-vs-north-sarasota-fl/" style="color: #4f519e; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">North Sarasota</a>$74,700<span class="up" style="background-image: url(http://www.zillowstatic.com/static/images/up_trending.gif); background-position: 4px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; color: #669922; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; white-space: nowrap; width: 44px;">8.6%</span></div>
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<span class="up" style="background-image: url(http://www.zillowstatic.com/static/images/up_trending.gif); background-position: 4px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; white-space: nowrap; width: 44px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="up" style="background-image: url(http://www.zillowstatic.com/static/images/up_trending.gif); background-position: 4px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; white-space: nowrap; width: 44px;">Note how poorly Bradenton Beach has performed. </span></div>
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<span class="up" style="background-image: url(http://www.zillowstatic.com/static/images/up_trending.gif); background-position: 4px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; white-space: nowrap; width: 44px;">Perhaps tourism is not such a great asset.</span></div>
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<span class="up" style="background-image: url(http://www.zillowstatic.com/static/images/up_trending.gif); background-position: 4px 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 16px; white-space: nowrap; width: 44px;">We need to do a better job marketing our beautiful community.</span></div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-70799129252186642122012-10-05T11:54:00.000-04:002012-10-05T11:54:28.900-04:00now, here, and nowhere...E.E. Cummings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia, serif;"><i><span style="line-height: 18px;">The notion of “what is happening” and “what ELSE could be happening” brought to mind the recent </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">history of Longboat Key</span><span style="line-height: 18px;"> 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 </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">constructively</span><span style="line-height: 18px;"> about how we got here may improve our vision going </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">forward</span><span style="line-height: 18px;">. </span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">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 </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">government,</span><span style="line-height: 18px;"> 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. </span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I predict that no one will </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">challenge</span><span style="line-height: 18px;"> 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</span><span style="line-height: 18px;"> 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. </span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; line-height: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: georgia, serif;"><i><span style="line-height: 18px;">The flap over the Colony is just one example where our current </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">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?</span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">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.</span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">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. </span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">The idea that is being promoted by the town commission that the Key Club will somehow transform the fortunes of the entire island is </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">ludicrous</span><span style="line-height: 18px;">. All that will happen is a few additional hotel rooms will dilute an already </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">struggling</span><span style="line-height: 18px;"> 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 </span><span style="line-height: 18px;">height of season. </span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">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. </span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">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. </span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">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.</span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i><span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">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.</span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; line-height: 18px;"><i>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.</i></span></span><br />
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-27738921562380633632012-09-27T11:57:00.001-04:002012-09-27T22:43:12.086-04:00Inlet Sand Back Pass Redux<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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?<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<a href="http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/coastal/25yrConference/Beach-Stabilization.pdf">http://intraweb.stockton.edu/eyos/coastal/25yrConference/Beach-Stabilization.pdf</a>
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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Here are two citations of Florida Statues enacted in 2012 that mandate inlet management as a preferred approach to beach stabilization.<br />
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<span class="SectionNumber" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;">161.143 </span><span class="Catchline" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span class="CatchlineText" style="font-size: 1em; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" xml:space="preserve">Inlet management; planning, prioritizing, funding, approving, and implementing projects.</span><span class="EmDash">—</span></span><span class="SectionBody" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"></span><br />
<div class="Subsection" style="font-size: 1em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.7em;">
<span class="Number">(1) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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. <a href="http://www.criminallawyerjacksonville.co/0161.161.html">161.161</a>(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.</span></div>
<div class="Subsection" style="font-size: 1em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.7em;">
<span class="Number">(2) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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. <a href="http://www.criminallawyerjacksonville.co/0161.101.html">161.101</a>(14), <a href="http://www.criminallawyerjacksonville.co/0161.142.html">161.142</a>, and <a href="http://www.criminallawyerjacksonville.co/0161.161.html">161.161</a>(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:</span><br />
<div class="Paragraph" style="font-size: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.6em;">
<span class="Number">(a) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">An estimate of the annual quantity of beach-quality sand reaching the updrift boundary of the improved jetty or inlet channel.</span></div>
<div class="Paragraph" style="font-size: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.6em;">
<span class="Number">(b) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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.</span></div>
<div class="Paragraph" style="font-size: 1em; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.6em;">
<span class="Number">(c) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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.</span></div>
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<span class="Number">(d) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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.</span></div>
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<span class="Number">(e) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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.</span></div>
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<span class="Number">(f) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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.</span></div>
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<span class="Number">(g) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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.</span></div>
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<span class="Number">(h) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">The project-ranking criteria in s. <a href="http://www.criminallawyerjacksonville.co/0161.101.html">161.101</a>(14) to the extent such criteria are applicable to inlet management studies, projects, and activities.</span></div>
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<div class="Subsection" style="font-size: 1em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: 0.7em;">
<span class="Number">(3) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">The department may, pursuant to s. <a href="http://www.criminallawyerjacksonville.co/0161.101.html">161.101</a> and notwithstanding s.<a href="http://www.criminallawyerjacksonville.co/0161.101.html">161.101</a>(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.</span></div>
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<span class="Number">(4) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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. <a href="http://www.criminallawyerjacksonville.co/0161.142.html">161.142</a>and that:</span><br />
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<span class="Number">(a) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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</span></div>
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<span class="Number">(b) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">Appropriate, assign, and apportion responsibilities between inlet beneficiaries for the erosion caused by a particular inlet on adjacent beaches.</span></div>
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<span class="Number">(5) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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).</span><br />
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<span class="Number">(a) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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.</span></div>
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<span class="Number">(b) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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.</span></div>
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<span class="Number">(c) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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.<a href="http://www.criminallawyerjacksonville.co/0216.301.html">216.301</a>(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.</span></div>
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<span class="Number">(d) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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.</span></div>
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<span class="Number">(6) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">The department shall adopt rules under ss. <a href="http://www.criminallawyerjacksonville.co/0120.536.html">120.536</a>(1) and <a href="http://www.criminallawyerjacksonville.co/0120.54.html">120.54</a> to administer this section.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;"><b>I do not feel that the town has met the above requirements of Section (1).</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;"><b>Florida Statute 161.161 contains the following language that has not been adequately addressed by the current town beach plan for the north end.</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;"><span class="Number">(j) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">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.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #20124d; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 1.5em; text-align: justify; text-indent: 1em;"><span class="Number">(k) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" xml:space="preserve">Establish criteria, including costs and specific implementation actions, for alternative management techniques.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2012/161.142">http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2012/161.142</a>
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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</div>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span class="Number" style="border: 0px; font-size: 13.142857551574707px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">(3) </span><span class="Text Intro Justify" style="border: 0px; display: inline; font-size: 13.142857551574707px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.1em; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:space="preserve">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. <a href="http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2012/403.021" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.142857551574707px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">403.021</a>(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. <a href="http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2012/161.053" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.142857551574707px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">161.053</a>(4) or (5); however, such construction shall comply with the applicable Florida Building Code adopted pursuant to s. <a href="http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2012/553.73" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 13.142857551574707px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">553.73</a>. 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.</span>
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<span style="color: #073763;"><span class="Text Intro Justify" style="border: 0px; display: inline; font-size: 13.142857551574707px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.1em; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:space="preserve"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Text Intro Justify" style="border: 0px; display: inline; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0.1em; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;" xml:space="preserve"><b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Getting outdated and inaccurate information from our </span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"><span style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 20px;">current</span></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> engineers may be impeding rather than assisting the town's efforts.</span></span></b></span></div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-79310871073139591682012-09-13T16:06:00.001-04:002012-09-13T18:53:59.644-04:00Born into a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Family<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcOK0s20xfaKCIfO3aFo45Z9dkcF8B7V2-wzj2aNJObXXuJOwGkVVmUeX4pE2NKKMe-33g1rsqWzUQJTC3N4hPDeafT38KZ67s5rYjltQ-UsU7_uOdeT3ZHSYiN04QUP8CzuzfF10pzR8B/s1600/WASP1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcOK0s20xfaKCIfO3aFo45Z9dkcF8B7V2-wzj2aNJObXXuJOwGkVVmUeX4pE2NKKMe-33g1rsqWzUQJTC3N4hPDeafT38KZ67s5rYjltQ-UsU7_uOdeT3ZHSYiN04QUP8CzuzfF10pzR8B/s1600/WASP1.jpg" /></a></div>
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First, let's get one thing straight - I do not believe that any politician has my best interests at heart. </div>
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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. </div>
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I do not particularly like our current President. But then that is true about how I feel about most politicians.</div>
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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?</div>
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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?</div>
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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.</div>
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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. </div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-60455448263636477582012-08-30T09:56:00.000-04:002012-09-01T10:59:19.760-04:00Fool Me Once<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMGpgcMYb_SNIv4U9aE1-3QQdC-5b7hlwOUwK8kgmZxGYY-btyBGVUqAa6-yCQahYK4Ko1tP08mqIEegBiW_n1Y4NVvmKlEhLv1IOSUrfF9sCKNixCRT3g1PyDB1_Ka4p0PDkbSrr9_gR/s1600/Judge1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilMGpgcMYb_SNIv4U9aE1-3QQdC-5b7hlwOUwK8kgmZxGYY-btyBGVUqAa6-yCQahYK4Ko1tP08mqIEegBiW_n1Y4NVvmKlEhLv1IOSUrfF9sCKNixCRT3g1PyDB1_Ka4p0PDkbSrr9_gR/s320/Judge1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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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. </div>
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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. </div>
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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. </div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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. </div>
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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.</div>
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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. </div>
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This commission, and sadly Longboat Key, will now be immortalized in the law journals and legal precedents citations as a <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=goat%20rodeo" target="_blank">Goat Rodeo</a>. We can do better than that. We need some changes and we need them before more damage is done.</div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-15961530827804419162012-08-14T16:47:00.000-04:002020-06-26T09:22:38.663-04:00The Power Of Community In Marketing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBiHocGxwciHV5J2hyphenhyphenZtDZVOogXw-OJrzO-mWwxXst8Atvfklbg5ptjDBqk0-dFk3h2TjtMlNILE89I5YqtrgDUH93bTO7EERyb3Z9ehbJrYHBS8s8I1E0fPsalu9d-xOC147Y1JYIKx0p/s1600/Pyramid3DSimple.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBiHocGxwciHV5J2hyphenhyphenZtDZVOogXw-OJrzO-mWwxXst8Atvfklbg5ptjDBqk0-dFk3h2TjtMlNILE89I5YqtrgDUH93bTO7EERyb3Z9ehbJrYHBS8s8I1E0fPsalu9d-xOC147Y1JYIKx0p/s320/Pyramid3DSimple.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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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. </div>
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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.</div>
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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. </div>
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<strong>There are two ways we can grow. One is tasteful the other is not.</strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMLihyphenhyphenav8AdQmADUl-0RghvpNrya7oGfDeWwIqrnYjlZR3CBAtrgnBce7UMLdUKGIH8wo-zgQswaDFQ999qhWY8lT7w3vdans-2qjV5-OexW_Uan3HWJFxATlFiIX53IQbzGgzFoKPyQYx/s1600/PanamaCityBeachHotel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMLihyphenhyphenav8AdQmADUl-0RghvpNrya7oGfDeWwIqrnYjlZR3CBAtrgnBce7UMLdUKGIH8wo-zgQswaDFQ999qhWY8lT7w3vdans-2qjV5-OexW_Uan3HWJFxATlFiIX53IQbzGgzFoKPyQYx/s1600/PanamaCityBeachHotel.jpg" /></a></div>
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<strong>Panama City Beach tourist hotel</strong></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib2s0ZNIvvvONt2wIyvBn5eNrVIlNgOKtE1oS7eSKo3hxpyOebTW0d9iZ-hG8nT0v6t4HLXhLyK24jzPcjgeGBv8Out2MqTgS-1joSVzHYDazMqCCoc4vi7sv9U_wRzwhKxt-DbHhxR5v8/s1600/MarthasVineyardHotel1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib2s0ZNIvvvONt2wIyvBn5eNrVIlNgOKtE1oS7eSKo3hxpyOebTW0d9iZ-hG8nT0v6t4HLXhLyK24jzPcjgeGBv8Out2MqTgS-1joSVzHYDazMqCCoc4vi7sv9U_wRzwhKxt-DbHhxR5v8/s1600/MarthasVineyardHotel1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<strong>tourist hotel on Martha's Vineyard</strong></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #073763;">Which would you prefer for our community?</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #073763;">Which one will attract desirable visitors?</span></strong></div>
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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.</div>
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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. </div>
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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.</div>
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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?</div>
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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?</div>
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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. </div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-61713653980565032852012-08-01T13:29:00.000-04:002012-08-01T18:51:43.349-04:00Of Time and Technology<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh188v1owkOJ-dX3eY-eVcIoDtXHIy_VJSCXDZ0e4cM0gffSYNIGUY0pGDcW7Dg4IgmUUbGqauyTncBAItPYBkDRzpv23JK0bRQo1lOoSc1cNBEOU5NcWwnqFjCrMnQnbj5O2KTOSUkWGm3/s1600/Man_Machine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh188v1owkOJ-dX3eY-eVcIoDtXHIy_VJSCXDZ0e4cM0gffSYNIGUY0pGDcW7Dg4IgmUUbGqauyTncBAItPYBkDRzpv23JK0bRQo1lOoSc1cNBEOU5NcWwnqFjCrMnQnbj5O2KTOSUkWGm3/s1600/Man_Machine.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-size: large;">Despite much-hyped fears of low wage workers around the world taking American jobs, the real culprit is increasingly intelligent machinery.</span></strong></span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: white;"></span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: #073763;"><span style="background-color: white;">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 </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Shock" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white;">Toffler</span></a><span style="background-color: white;"> 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 </span><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/01/us-foxconn-robots-idUSTRE77016B20110801" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white;">1 million robots</span></a><span style="background-color: white;"> in the next 3 years.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #073763;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #073763;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #073763;">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?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: Arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">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 </span><a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white;">KickStarter</span></a><span style="background-color: white;">, why do I need a career that may soon be cannibalized by a robot? </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: Arial;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #073763; font-family: Arial;">As a famous person once said, "looking into the future, I think I know if you do not ask me to explain".</span><br />
<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;" /></div>Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-68680043134078355292012-07-16T12:46:00.000-04:002012-07-31T20:11:00.310-04:00Ballad of the Lost Hotel<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">"Down at the lost hotel</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Where there’s battles to be won</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">But the silence overwhelms you</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Whoa and you come undone</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">You lose all your good sense</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">You go way over the edge</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">There’s no turning back</span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">Once you’ve checked into the lost hotel"</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">I</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">f 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.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">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. </span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">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.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #545559; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 13px/18px verdana; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #545559; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #545559; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #545559; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Town government has become bare-knuckled power-brokering and fractured public interests. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #545559; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">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.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #545559; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">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.</span></div>
</div>Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-3946230510048638442012-07-08T14:03:00.001-04:002012-07-08T14:04:08.228-04:00The tragedy of commons<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMj1yJH4yaFt2Q_mKlRvBjnV2k9oBMUYruyWkx7MuUnk-FJa9t6bXYnHXruAqZC1hGvEepXpQ6wyg4ioHTBYW74h7pyn2WbClq_PzDEVoL2UVcfa4h6UfeFlHd2mjFSBFbbUhtW-CyG20/s1600/tragedy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMj1yJH4yaFt2Q_mKlRvBjnV2k9oBMUYruyWkx7MuUnk-FJa9t6bXYnHXruAqZC1hGvEepXpQ6wyg4ioHTBYW74h7pyn2WbClq_PzDEVoL2UVcfa4h6UfeFlHd2mjFSBFbbUhtW-CyG20/s320/tragedy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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"The <strong><u>tragedy of commons</u></strong> 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."<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<a href="http://www.blackpt.com/portfolio_LongboatKeyClub.html">http://www.blackpt.com/portfolio_LongboatKeyClub.html</a><br />
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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. <br />
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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.<br />
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Perhaps a community leader or property-owner group will emerge to become the new and truly representative PIC on Longboat Key.</div>Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-12600510918269480272012-07-07T13:19:00.001-04:002012-07-07T13:19:36.535-04:00We Need a Global Currency<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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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. <u>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.</u></div>
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<span style="color: blue;">Here is just one example how global currency trading impacts your wallet on a daily basis.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">In 1987, Andy Krieger, a 32-year-old currency trader at Bankers Trust, was carefully watching the currencies that were<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_901492296" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: black;">rallying</span></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>against the dollar following the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_901492296" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: black;">Black Monday</span></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_901492296" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: black;">overvalued</span></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_901492296" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: black;">creating a good opportunity for arbitrage</span></a><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black;">. The currency Krieger targeted was the New Zealand dollar, also known as the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span><span style="color: black;">kiwi</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">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<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/moneysupply.asp" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc; color: black;">money supply</span></a><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><span style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>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...</span><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">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. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><span style="background-color: #fff2cc;">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.</span> </span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">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. </span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">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. </span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space" style="background-color: #fff2cc;">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.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Verdana;">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? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: Verdana;">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.</span></div>
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</div>Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-10056343531123531162012-06-10T17:27:00.002-04:002012-06-16T18:15:05.769-04:00A Nice Place to Shop and Live<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<strong><span style="color: #0c343d;">Village in the Park</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="color: #0c343d;">Located on north end commercial property</span></strong></div>
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Last Monday night, at the commission meeting, a few north end residents presented Longboat Key with a concept proposal for a beautiful, low-density, park-like, mixed-use development, at the north gateway to the island, called <strong>Village in the Park</strong>. The concept incorporates many features from the successful Pine Avenue project in the town of Anna Maria, but <u>in a more park-like setting</u>. </div>
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The idea behind the Village in the Park is to give residents, visitors and shoppers a unique and compelling experience that will promote a sense of community "with benefits". Our town has a unique opportunity to develop nearly ten acres of underutilized commercial property into a social and commercial center at the north end. There are over five hundred residences within a five minute walk from this location, so it is likely to be a convenient social center for the surrounding community.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8T4BonxmAUSCMmI148j197gaOC5Hcam-QRWe0Q4RkFolHw7uS23pS_MprmuPJkfIZqrtBdTI2Zb8Q88uOPsmVGTdhgX7Wio0ZsDC8iQf4ROfRb8-qk0rYodC2UrILC6MI-uRnSDmXKOKJ/s1600/Whitney+Plaza+Concept+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8T4BonxmAUSCMmI148j197gaOC5Hcam-QRWe0Q4RkFolHw7uS23pS_MprmuPJkfIZqrtBdTI2Zb8Q88uOPsmVGTdhgX7Wio0ZsDC8iQf4ROfRb8-qk0rYodC2UrILC6MI-uRnSDmXKOKJ/s320/Whitney+Plaza+Concept+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #073763;">Low density, individual, two story, green structures</span></strong></div>
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The concept of extending the north end village, out to Gulf of Mexico Drive, creates an opportunity to maintain current densities while enhancing the ambiance of the entire island. Unlike Pine Avenue on Anna Maria Island, this project presents fewer obstacles to achieving an Old Florida park-like atmosphere, and at the same time restoring retail amenities that have not been available to the north end community for several years.</div>
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<strong><span style="color: #073763;">Foot bridge connecting Center for the Arts with the mixed-use development</span></strong></div>
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The concept of a neighborhood-centric mixed-used development offers Longboat Key the opportunity to create a signature accommodation on the island that will promote both business and residential activity. Several residents have advanced the idea of a public/private undertaking that includes "value capture" where surrounding residential properties benefit from being close to a beautiful park with light business and outdoor activities. The Village in the Park can be a relaxed social center for Longboat Key residents unlike existing parks that do not offer cafes or restaurants.</div>
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<strong><span style="color: #073763;">Village on the Park - a nice place to meet friends</span></strong></div>
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<span style="color: black;">Longboat Key has no other land where such a wonderful design concept can be created. For local residents, the Village in the Park will offer beach access and social amenities at one beautiful location in a natural setting.</span></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #073763;">Towles Court in Sarasota</span></strong></div>
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The people promoting the Village in the Park point to the commercial success at Pine Avenue. It is their belief that combining public participation, along with beautiful design elements, will attract shoppers and develop a local following akin to the success of the Lazy Lobster and other retail -operations on the island, that do well on a year-round basis. They believe that if it is beautiful, and the amenities and businesses are attractive, the people will support the area.</div>
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Ed Chiles spoke at the same commission meeting about the goals of the Pine Avenue project as a means of maintaining and promoting an Old Florida town center and revitalizing an area of the community that had begun to deteriorate. Village in the Park is a concept that could accomplish the same ends and augment a unique area of Longboat Key - the village. Old Florida will remain attractive to home buyers and visitors for many decades to come. <br />
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Bishop's Bayou concept at Village in the Park</div>
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Above all, Village in the Park is about preserving and improving on the rare atmosphere of the village, while creating a viable retail/office/residential park setting. The proposal will protect Bishop's Bayou and expand controlled access to its beauty using mangrove walkways and intimate settings along the open water.</div>
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<strong><span style="color: #073763;">Bishop's Bayou setting concept</span></strong></div>
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Bishop's Bayou is a beautiful place on Longboat Key that is presently completely inaccessible to the community. It has been the back alley of the Whitney Plaza for over thirty years. Village in the Park will protect and enhance this natural gem, respecting property owners while enabling a serene setting for island residents. </div>
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<strong><span style="color: #073763;">Casual social setting on Longboat Key</span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="color: #073763;">Village in the Park</span></strong></div>
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<strong>Note</strong>:<br />
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<strong>Value capture</strong> refers to a type of public financing where increases in private land values generated by public investments are all or in part “captured” or recouped by the public sector. It provides a means for internalizing the positive <a class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externalities" title="Externalities">externalities</a> of public investments, allowing public agencies to tax the direct beneficiaries of their investments, and/or provide benefits to the taxpayers which fund the investments but do not necessarily enjoy them directly. The unearned increments, or <u>increases in land value</u> which otherwise profit private landowners without cost, may be captured directly by converting them into public revenue, e.g. using real estate taxes, impact fees, or other taxes levied upon landowners; or indirectly by converting them to land-related benefits, e.g. using <a class="new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Exactions&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Exactions (page does not exist)">exactions</a>, <a class="new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Public_easements&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Public easements (page does not exist)">public easements</a>, or other <a class="new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nonpossessory_interests&action=edit&redlink=1" title="Nonpossessory interests (page does not exist)">nonpossessory interests</a> granted to the public or a public agency.<br />
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</div>Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-15061777932079261562012-05-27T10:10:00.001-04:002012-05-27T13:08:19.992-04:00Goat Rodeo<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">Goat Rodeo</span></h3>
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<strong>Goat Rodeo</strong> - A chaotic situation, often one that involves several people, each with a different agenda/vision/perception of what's going on; a situation that is very difficult, despite energy and efforts, to instill any sense or order into the process.</div>
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<strong>Goat Rodeo</strong> - A situation that has all the risks and none of the rewards. In a real rodeo, cowboys risk their necks, but they get to look cool. If the cowboys rode goats, they'd have just as much risk of injury, and wouldn't look cool. Such a situation has two possible outcomes: really bad or slightly less bad.</div>
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The last commission meeting demonstrated once again the disconnect between the commissioners and the residents. Once again the commission had unfulfilled expectations of a small town government having levels of expertise affordable only by much larger government bodies. Our commissioners appear not to realize that a two or three person department does not have the resources and capabilities of county-level agencies. By now the town manager has most likely become cognizant of the problems that arise because of a disconnect between the capabilities of the town's planning department and planning and zoning board, and the commission's blithe willingness to accept what plans are placed before them, without discussion or much consideration.</div>
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Last Monday's commission meeting was a goat rodeo when it came to the sweeping and poorly developed <a href="http://www.longboatkey.org/Departments/twn_mgr/agenda/05-07-12_TCRM/8.pdf">2012-6 ordinance</a>. As the commission meeting began, one commissioner looked out at the packed to over-capacity commission chamber, with dozens of residents backed up into the halls and anti chamber, and mused as to why all those people were attending a commission. He actually admonished the residents for wasting their time. <u>It was the 2012-6 Ordinance and the north end commercial overlay</u> that activated so many residents. After being besieged by a dozen concerned taxpayers, the commission dropped the north end overlay part of the ordinance, passing the much more drastic parts or 2012-6 <u>virtually without discussion</u>. How can they do that? This ordinance removes all land use protections and opens our community to political exploitation by any developer who can suck-up to enough commissioners to create a purely political majority.<br />
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I believe that the commissioners are hard working, dedicated residents with the best of intentions. I also know that they are hanging out there all on their own since, the town staff has no ability to give them expert guidance in some areas. In 27 years, I have never heard of the planning department coming before the commission to state that they know little to nothing about a particular area of zoning. Ordinance 2012-6 is a perfect example where the commission is unwittingly performing what should be brain surgery using a bulldozer instead of a scalpel.</div>
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The Key Club hearings were focused mainly on doing what Ordinance 2012-6 is now trying to legalize, without having to create and process any changes to the town's Comprehensive Plan. Instead the Key Club lawyers created Ordinance 2010-16. Ordinance 2010-16 was narrowly passed and then found to be illegal by a state judge. The result was a wasted two and a half years. Anyway, early on in the initial commission hearings, it became clear to me that what was being proposed by the Key Club, and tacitly supported by the town's legal staff, was a suspension of extremely important land use protections on Longboat Key. I remarked then that what was being proposed would allow my neighbor to construct a <u>nuclear reactor</u> in their back yard if four mostly unelected commissioners agreed. It got a laugh, but that is exactly what is happening. Ordinance 2012-6 does just that. Welcome to the new frontier of land use on Longboat Key. </div>
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Back to Goat Rodeos. The previous planning director, and a very small planning department, created the north end commercial overlay and presented it to a commission appointed planning and zoning board. The north end overlay looks as though it was actually created by a hotel developer. The PZB, in the view of many residents, has all the problems and challenges of a politically appointed body. <u>Both the planning department and the planning and zoning board lack the depth and resources to craft complex zoning proposals</u>. The problem appears to be that the commissioners find it easier to ignore this problem and act on the recommendations presented to them, as if the planning department and the planning and zoning board recommendations invariably best serve the community. </div>
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We expect too much from our town staff, as was demonstrated by the recent TE Connectivity communications study, that exposed the deficiencies of the previous planning director,and her small staff, in the area of modern-day communications.</div>
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The commission needs to stop blindly following the advice of our hard-working staff when we ask them to perform work beyond their expertise. We need to stop believing that a few small town staff workers can possibly be experts on everything. Yet <u>experts are exactly what is required</u>.<br />
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The cell tower issue was misguided from the beginning by the previous planning director, and staff, who repeatedly assured the commissioners that, not only was a cell tower needed badly by a majority of the residents, but that a cell tower was the only solution. Since the commissioners rightly relied on staff to give the town well-researched and complete sets of choices, the commission was left hanging in a seemingly illogical situation with the planning director telling them they must build a cell tower despite a large community dislike for inappropriate structures on Longboat Key. Fortunately, one of our commissioners, along with the new town manager, finally gave the commission a clear understanding of the technical and community impact implications of a cell tower. The previous commissions never questioned the ability of the previous planning director to present a competent and unbiased report to the commission. The current commissioners are much less apt to accept staff positions at face value. The cell tower process was a veritable Goat Rodeo that went on for years.</div>
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We need to stop playing pin the land use ordinance on the goat. We need to stop and seek professional informed advice.</div>
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Longboat Key can afford to hire specialized professionals when specialized and/or complex solutions are required. When faced with challenges beyond the reach and training of our staff, the town needs to look outside local town government. The problem seems to be that the commission sometimes lacks the knowledge to realize the need for qualified professional advice. Hopefully, this is beginning to change. </div>
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This is wonderful music. Chris Thile is a monster musician.</div>
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</div>Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-59377195814739821772012-05-13T17:09:00.001-04:002012-05-13T17:09:48.415-04:00Enough is Enough<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Jim Eatrides, owner of the Alpha Omega company located at Whitney Plaza on Longboat Key, has once again requested at least a half hour of the commission's time, including the expensive town attorney, to hear Eatrides' complaints about the recent telecommunications report to the town commission by TE Connectivity. TE Connectivity is a communications industry giant that was selected by the town to provide a comprehevsive, objective recommendation about the best way to solve Longboat Key's communications. In 2011, TE Connectivity had $14.3 Billion annual net sales. The TE report states that DAS will provide better service than the 150 foot cell tower being hawked to the town by Eatrides for the past four years or more.<br />
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Office of Jim Eatrides' company Alpha Omega at Whitney Plaza</div>
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Signs on the window of the Alpha Omega office</div>
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Note the T-Shirt shop has been closed for many months</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaNE_KyA7NYtbdLKxCxBzib5snU2uijb36bXORolYZZ1o4kYtgtPhnrMA44fdYpSdGejxZF-ywAQGjGKM-dL53-YjSQT8AXVFtEq9vucZE84BbwK3GI_xo1MpQ9hLfgxog0Ka7Ls9_XZk9/s1600/AlphaOmega5_003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaNE_KyA7NYtbdLKxCxBzib5snU2uijb36bXORolYZZ1o4kYtgtPhnrMA44fdYpSdGejxZF-ywAQGjGKM-dL53-YjSQT8AXVFtEq9vucZE84BbwK3GI_xo1MpQ9hLfgxog0Ka7Ls9_XZk9/s320/AlphaOmega5_003.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Office of Jim Eatrides' company Alpha Omega at Whitney Plaza</div>
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Jim Eatrides is being granted special status in that most any other citizen is usually allowed 3 minutes of input to the town at commission meetings. Eatrides has no licensing or certification in telecommunications. Eatrides has not submitted any sort of proposal or plan that has managed to meet the town's requirements, despite four attempts. Why is Eatrides being continually granted specific and unusual access to town government on all levels? The same can be said for a few other selected special interest efforts, where certain individuals are allowed to consume taxpayer dollars and town resources to further private agendas.</div>
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I estimate that the town has spent in the vicinity of $100,000.00 directly addressing Eatrides sales pitch, including staff and town attorney time.</div>
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It is time to charge Eatrides for town services, just like there are charges for subdividing property, remodeling a kitchen, or expanding the Key Club. </div>
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Enough is enough! We as a community can to better than this.</div>
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</div>Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6777024266662099445.post-58715129464583441262012-05-08T17:51:00.000-04:002012-05-08T17:59:03.480-04:00The Final Solution at the North End<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8cssmdKi7uyOI6MOGMm74_HXDMWyCeexpLMN7muXgmDm7GLqXtj0X7_19KOQGPY4DIlNDTS8xiXgzhDMHVRLGZvIcL13MwWhJ_Pn3H3EyJaT3rVbaRfMX61hjJ_S5Q6yrgO44jf3S82YI/s1600/Whitney+Park-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8cssmdKi7uyOI6MOGMm74_HXDMWyCeexpLMN7muXgmDm7GLqXtj0X7_19KOQGPY4DIlNDTS8xiXgzhDMHVRLGZvIcL13MwWhJ_Pn3H3EyJaT3rVbaRfMX61hjJ_S5Q6yrgO44jf3S82YI/s320/Whitney+Park-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Foot bridge over Bishop's Bayou at north end park</div>
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What to do at the north end to solve the failed commercial blight that has been becoming increasingly worse over the past twenty years. The time has come for the town to work with the taxpayers to create a solution that will allow the surrounding 500 residences to coalesce as a neighborhood, free of the specter of an abandoned Whitney Plaza, gas station and bank building. The taxpaying north end residents are not able to support retail at the north end for many reasons. Longboat Key residents need to realize that there is 3 times more commercial property on Longboat Key than the 3000+ year-round residents can support. Some of this land needs to be converted to residential or public use. The north end, with its concentration of 500+ residences within a few minutes walk from Whitney Plaza, is the most advantageous place to create a community park that will have high usage by the surrounding homes while raising property values and hopefully attracting more families.</div>
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A community park at Whitney Plaza and the adjacent properties would not require parking since 1000+ residents own property within a few minutes walk of the park facility. There is existing public parking across GMD if needed. The park could provide social activities such as Pickle Ball, Bacci Ball and shaded areas for socializing. Tables and chairs tastefully located beside the bayou would provide a beautiful ambiance while respecting the fragile ecology of the waterway and adjacent residences.</div>
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Visitors to our island would be greeted by an attractively landscaped natural setting as they come onto Longboat Key from the north. A community park would have zero impact on traffic congestion. If the town reduces the speed limit to 35 MPH along the northern part of GMD, as has been done quite effectively by Bradenton Beach, residents would be able to traverse the highway in relative safety.</div>
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Whatever efforts the town might make to encourage commercial development at the north end, two things would remain unresolved and prolong the present decay brought on by the inability of the business community to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. The first is the predictable resistance by the 500+ residence owners surrounding Whitney Plaza to tourism, as it threatens their way of life. The second is the town's inability to guarantee that any developer will be willing to invest millions at a location with very low drive-by numbers, as has been pointed out by the current owners of Whitney Plaza. No one has been able to attract a successful business to Whitney Plaza in the past twenty years. </div>
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There is a fix for the commercial property blight that has existed at the north end for too many years. It is a solution that would increase the value of the surrounding 500+ homes and condominiums while not increasing density or congestion - <strong>a community park</strong>.</div>
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Given the fiscal obligations the Town currently faces, such as resolution of pension funding and the much larger and ongoing beach maintenance program, finding a way to purchase the commercial properties at the north end would be no small challenge. An ad velorum bond could be one mechanism. Another might be a privately offered tax-free instrument to the current property owners, somewhat like an owner-financed mortgage. But the projected tax base differential between the current decaying commercial land at the north end and a beautiful community park, that would augment the island's bucollic ambiance, would probably be more than enough to off-set the cost of a low interest mortgage on $6 million in land acquision costs. Please do not take issue with these estimates, they are just that, estimates. This is a discussion and open to constructive input.</div>
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There are so many pluses attached to turning the empty, decaying commercial property at the north end of Longboat into a beautiful community park, surrounded by 500+ residential properties, that a park almost looks too good to pass up. The aggregate value of residential real estate directly surrounding Whitney Plaza exceeds $200 million. Only a modest increase in assessed property values, as a result of added community amenities, would more than pay for the $6 million long-term low interest loans used to acquire the aproximately 8 acres of commercial land to be included in the community park.</div>
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The choice between taking a chance that some commercial development will occur at the north end after 25 years of nothing as the result of some sort of commercial overlay, or the assured increase in property values resulting from transforming deteriorating and non-performing commercial property into a highly desireable community park, is clear. In the long run, the taxpayers of Longboat Key would profit most from investing in their own community. All ships rise on the tide, it is said. Actually, the county should buy all the commercial property as they will profit most from increased ad velorem taxes.</div>
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</div>Gene Jaleskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10140361672588371195noreply@blogger.com3