Don't Get Cute

Excuse me if I profess to being a little confused about what it is that the commission and the Key Club are doing these days.

For the past eighteen months we have been told repeatedly by the commissioners that they are hard at work developing tourism and retail business on Longboat Key. So far their efforts have not produced a single improvement in either sector of the island's economy. To the contrary, the commissioners have been unable to have a positive affect on declining home sales and prices, as well as more and more shuttered businesses. I am reminded of a billboard along the freeway in Seattle in the early 70's that read "Will the last person leaving Seattle please turn off the lights". I am sure that the commissioners are as aware as anyone else of the passing months and years of economic decline on the island. I do not believe that long-range plans and projections will have a positive impact on our current dilemma.

Perhaps their efforts might be better spent promoting Longboat Key today and not some commercial Shangri-La that might or might not materialize in a decade or two. I am afraid that most of us will not be here to see any possible benefits from their tourism expansion plans.

I have read one commissioner's comments that the commission is merely trying to restore tourism to the level that existed on Longboat twenty years ago. I am afraid that will be insufficient in today's tourism market. Building a dozen ten story hotels on the north end of the island, with retail shops on the ground floor, will not transform our elite residential retirement-home community into any sort of viable tourism destination for more than a few months a year. And that is if anyone in this country still has any money. I believe many taxpayers need to sell their homes now, not fifteen years from now.

For the past twenty-two months the commission has dedicated itself to transforming our comprehensive plan and building codes to conform to a blueprint submitted by the Key Club in the form of ordinances 2009-25 and 2010-16 . One commissioner has stated that the Key Club application illuminated the inability of our comprehensive plan and codes to accommodate increased density, and that is why it has become the duty of the commission to change the town's regulations. The commissioner failed to mention that caps on density were put there intentionally by the wise architects of a community development plan that has created one of the premier second-home retirement communities in the world. At the same time the commission and town attorney contend that all the time and money being spent by the town and taxpayers has nothing to do with the Key Club, and therefore the Key Club does not have to reimburse the town for costs associated with altering and litigating numerous alterations to the comp plan and codes, that in fact were first defined by the Key Club as being required to make the club expansion street legal. I am confused when public officials say two things at the same time that are exclusionary.

The Key Club management and their legal minions represent another enigma for me. I was on the original commission that initially listened to many paid lobbyists for the Key Club expansion proposal, including Mr. Lesser, who assured us that the Loeb Group was a friendly neighbor in our community. Reading the most recent Key Club forum article in the LBK News, the Loeb Group and their lawyers now sound like shrill petulant three-year-olds in a candy store, who have just been told they will just have to wait until all the court suits have been completed before they may be able to increase their raw land value, with the willing help of a professed developer-friendly commission. I am saddened by the harsh hard-line legal threats currently being used by the Key Club. Whatever became of the warm and friendly Key Club? I wonder if Mr. Lesser realizes the folks he is threatening can easily purchase the Key Club, but are smart enough to avoid investments with diminishing returns. Perhaps the Loeb Group is experiencing cash-flow problems and needs to speed up the whole process of gutting our land use codes. Unfortunately the Loeb Group chose to use politics instead of government to try to achieve unwarranted density increases at Island Side. Now they are reaping their own rewards. To his credit the town attorney tried to persuade Mr. Lesser to use a less problematic approach.

More and more of those people in favor of turning our idyllic tropical paradise into Reddington Beach are using insults and intimidation to try to achieve their ends. Perhaps the time has come for the silent majority to come forward and become part of the democratic process. If you are not willing to participate then you have no right to complain no matter how you feel about tourism on Longboat Key. 

Reduced Standard of Living

World Consumption of Resources by Per-capita Income



We in the United States consume roughly 24% of the world's natural resources while we represent less than 8% of the world's population. We can do this because we are the richest society. Until recently our economy could afford to purchase these resources on the world market. Before the 21st century a majority of the earth's people lived in 3rd world countries lacking the industrial base to even make use of resources, much less be able to afford things such as automobiles, air conditioning, running water, super markets, etc. Prior to this decade American's consumption of over a quarter of the earth's resources had little impact on unindustrialized nations since their economies were stagnant and

demand for additional resources remained fairly low.

Everything has changed. We now live in a global society. Many countries and regions are rapidly emerging into industrial economies. I read a UN study that calculated that when a country creates an industrial economy, its consumption of resources increases six fold.

Crude oil prices reflect the new global supply and demand economy, where we pay between $65 to $90 to refuel our large automobiles. Likewise the cost of building supplies and even basic foods are quickly being enveloped by the world economy. Poorer countries are already paying the price of the world's inability to grow enough food. Food prices have nowhere to go but up. As more and more people become members of industrialized economies they will have more money to spend, which will inevitably drive up prices.

America has paid a price for its high lifestyle. I have read that if you combine the national debt, private debt and decades long trade deficit debt, the figure exceeds 60 trillion dollars. The US has most likely stretched its credit to the point where our nation may be forced to devalue its currency and restructure both governmental and private debt. It is doubtful we will continue to be able to afford our luxurious lifestyle in a global market where more and more millions of people are gaining affluence and will be able to compete for the limited resources that are the direct result of the growing global population.

What will life be like when Americans have to live within their means? I try to imagine existing on less than 1/3rd of what I presently consume. Most residents on Longboat are at the top of the economic food-chain and are old enough that we will avoid the inevitable changes brought on by the emerging global economy. Still if we do not begin to tighten our belts we may discover that the party is already over and that like Argentina and Greece we are faced with immediate and harsh economic realities.

Let Them Eat Cake

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Great Indoor Cell Phone Service All Over Longboat Key

Line2 Cell Phone App for IPhone, Android and Blackberry Phones

Anyone who wants to save money, whether it be on their monthly land-line bill or their cell phone bill or both, might want to look into the highly reviewed Line2 cell phone service being offered on IPhone/IPad/IPod, Android and Blackberry wifi enabled phones for $10 a month. Here are a few good reasons for having Line2 service on your cell phone.

1. Great cell phone reception inside your home with fast data. Longboat already has good in-car cell phone service except when driving past Avenue of the Flowers. I have never dropped a call in my car for many years except near Publix.

2. Line2 users get unlimited local and continental long distance voice and data for $10 a month. Calls can be placed and received on your cell phone anywhere that wifi is available.

3. Line2 will port your current home phone number over to Line2 at no charge. Or you can get a new phone number or port any phone number. Verizon charges $29 a month for their basic Verizon Freedom^® Value land-line service. Comcast charges about $30 monthly for their VOIP phone service, which is what I was using before I switched to Line2. Now I get local and long distance for $10 a month with my same home phone number on my cell phone. I have cut the wire!

4. Using the Line2 service will enable you to reduce your monthly minutes on your cell phone contract for both voice and data, since all the calls you make and receive at home on your cell phone using Line2 will  not count against your cell phone plan. This will also save you lots of money.

5. While traveling you can make and receive calls on your cell phone from family and friends at no charge from your hotel room or public wifi hot-spots around the world. If there is no available wifi then you can always use your normal cell phone service.

6. Line2 service includes unlimited messaging with the added convenience of voice-to-messaging so you won't even have to type. Thank goodness this feature probably won't work while you are driving.

The Line2 app looks and functions just like the regular phone app on your cell phone.

If you are renting your home then the renters need not worry about being from a foreign country or having a cell service provider that has no coverage in this part of the country. Simply have them download the Line2 app for free for 30 days. It couldn't be more simple.

The term "convergence" is fast becoming part of the mainstream cell phone conversation, as carriers try to off-load traffic from their beleaguered networks, and wifi is the way they are all headed. Already T-Mobil offers service exactly like Line2 to their customers. All new cell phones are wifi enabled and automatic wifi calling from cell phones will soon be an integral part of cell phone service.

If you are one of the Longboat Key residents who wants, but does not have, good indoor cell phone coverage, then Line2 may solve your problem while saving you money. You can try Line2 for free for a month to see if Line2 fulfills your in-home cell phone needs.

I am quite happy with Line2. It is transparent to use, looks and works just like the existing phone app. I figure I am saving $50 a month since I was able to terminate my land-line service with Comcast and reduce my voice and data plans. I no longer worry about long phone calls on my cell phone while I am at home. I find I use my cell phone more since I placed the Line2 app on my IPhone.

A Legal Fee by Any Other Name

The town's attorney fees may become a thorny problem. Not only are Longboat town government legal costs 30% higher since the Key Club filed for permission to expand its facilities and increase density, there now appears to be a question as to what the taxpayers are paying for, and what is being charged to the Key Club. Let me explain.

In response to my recent letter to Commissioner Duncan concerning legal costs, I received a lengthy and thoughtful response from the commissioner. Much of what is contained in our exchange has been printed in this paper, so I will not belabor the gist of the two letters, save for the question of who should pay for what. And on this issue there appears to be a disconnect from what was explicitly stated by the Key Club at the quasi-judicial hearings, and what is now the position of at least one commissioner.  Commissioner Duncan contends that work currently being done on the comprehensive plan by the commission, and its legal advisers, is unrelated to the Key Club application, and is not billable to the Key Club. Apparently this includes work on the FLUE - future land use element - of the comprehensive plan. I find this difficult to reconcile, given that a complete review of our comprehensive plan was conducted by the town, the planning and zoning board and the commission as recently as 2007. Several of the current commissioners were either on the planning and zoning board or on the commission at that time, and saw no need to revise the FLUE. The only thing that has changed since 2007 is the Key Club ODP application. Where were Messrs. Brown, Spoll, Samanski, Hackett and Brenner in 2007 when it came to changes in the future land use elements of the comprehensive plan. During the extensive review and revision of the comprehensive plan in 2007, it appears these gentlemen saw no need for changes in land use. What changed in fewer than 3 years?

In the past the town has revisited the comprehensive plan on a ten year cycle, which I gather is customary for communities such as ours. Now the commission has decided there is an urgent need to make major alterations and revisions to the comprehensive plan and numerous building codes only 3 years since the last commission review. Why, if not solely for the sake of the Key Club? Are there other developers who are requesting radical changes in density and building height we do not yet know about?

Looking at the town attorney's billing records, it is apparent that Mr. Persson's law firm has done and is doing considerable work on the Key Club issue. There are even direct billings from Mr. Persson's firm to the Key Club, as well as many billings to the town for work on the Key Club. Have any of Mr. Persson's invoices to the town for work on the Key Club been billed to the Key Club? It is difficult to understand the direct billings. Do they constitute a client/attorney relationship between the Key Club and Mr. Persson's firm? Is it the town attorney's place to decide what is billable to the town and what is billable to the Key Club? Could this inadvertantly create a conflict of interest?

I have not examined each and every line item in Mr. Persson's invoices to the town, but the ones I have randomly looked at are replete with references to DCA litigation and communications with Ms. Patton and Mr. Patterson, both attorneys for the Key Club ODP application. I am unable to see why the taxpayers should pay for conversations with the Key Club's legal staff. Likewise, the DCA  process the town is dealing with is the direct result of ordinances 2009-25 and 2010-16, which were written and submitted to the town by the Key Club staff for the KC ODP application. The latter was created as a  means of lowering the bar on the legal issues confronting the Key Club application. I voted against every provision of ordinance 2010-16. I felt that each element of the proposed ordinance violated the future land use element provisions of the comprehensive plan. I still do. Why are the taxpayers expected to pay for a year or more of DCA litigation for something dreamed up by the Key Club legal staff.

There may be parts of the comprehensive plan that can be visited that are unrelated to the Key Club ODP application. However, it is difficult to believe that any work being done on the FLUE does not directly affect the Key Club ODP application. Additionally, I do not believe that the current commission would be looking at the FLUE, as they did not look at it in 2007, were it not for the Key Club application. At least that is the perception I and others share at present. There are simply no other pending situations that require such a broad alteration of our future land use laws. Perhaps one could speculate that the properties at the north end, including Whitney Plaza, might like to have more relaxed land use ordinances. But then comprehensive plans are not supposed to be changed just to appease a developer. The owners of Whitney Plaza have not yet come forward with any land use proposals, so all the work being done on the comprehensive plan may be for naught.

Perhaps the town needs to define to the taxpayers the rules being applied to the sizable legal fees that are being submitted by Mr. Persson's firm and Ms. Stroud There is a need to differentiate those legal services that are being paid by the taxpayers from those services being passed along to the Key Club. I gather that work presently being done on the future land use element (FLUE) of the comprehensive plan by town and legal staff is not being considered as billable to the Key Club. I do not understand how this can be so.

De-constructing Longboat Key

I admit I am apprehensive about the flurry of activity taking place in our town government during our summer doldrums. There are more town commission appointed committees than I can keep tabs on. Each one seems to be tasked with rewriting major parts of our comprehensive plan, a plan that has created one of the most successful communities in America.

To date our energetic commission has not told us why we need so many committees making so many major revisions to the town's land use policies. Since the commission has chosen to use committees to carry out the commission's grand design, very little that is being done is recorded or tracked by the two town newspapers. It appears that the commission is operating in a stealth mode via committees and when no one is around.

Somewhere down the road, or at the end of the summer, we will see a glimmer of the commission's grand design for our island, and one suspects that the developers will be happy.

Since there is little to no unused land on Longboat, one wonders how and where the developers plan to create something out of whole cloth, so to speak. If the commissioners do not have a fairly robust development effort in mind, one wonders why the long hours, during what is usually a quiet period in town government, and why all the committees?  Do they see opportunities to expand tourism and increase retail business on our island?  And if so, where do they see these opportunities?  It has been over 5 years since the 250 room referendum was approved by the voters, and not a single room has been taken.  Publix may actually reduce retail at Bay Isles, including all the shops behind Avenue of the Flowers that they now own. One doubts the owners of all the newly acquired land on the north end of the island at Whitney Beach Plaza will be using the land as any sort of retail center. They have had enough time to understand what happens on Longboat during the nine months of off-season to want to repeat the mistakes of their predecessors.

For now it appears that both tourism and retail are diminishing on Longboat, in spite of the assurances by some commissioners that they will save Longboat by promoting new tourist facilities that will in turn support a burgeoning retail renaissance on Longboat. I do not see that happening even after the commission has done serious damage to what have been an effective comprehensive plan and building codes. Have many residents have said they even want more tourists and more development?  Have residents been asked whether they want it?

If all this extra effort, and all the hours of committee meetings, and all the extra costs of  two town attorneys, is on behalf of the Key Club, I will be stunned at how the tail now wags the dog on Longboat. Hopefully all this effort is not for one developer, who says he plans to build a hotel at one of the least desirable locations one can imagine. There are already too many lovely, sparsely occupied, hotels located right on some of the most beautiful beaches around. The Key Club hotel has no Gulf beach, only a view of an ordinary and noisy bridge and the boat docks of a few nice homes on Lighthouse Point. I doubt a hotel will be built at that location. Mr. Lesser understands location, location, location.

Why then all the sound and furry and rush to recast our comprehensive plan as a testament to lax control of land use and overly permissive building codes? Do the commissioners really believe they are fashioning a panacea for our future?  The coming economic times may have a far greater impact on our futures than any machinations of a small group of like-minded individuals, well-intentioned though they might be, who have gained the power to alter what was working, without really understanding what the ramifications might be.

I do not believe our beautiful community should welcome developers. They make their money and then leave. If we are doing well, as I believe we are, there is really nothing that needs doing. Especially increases in density solely for the sake of promoting retail commerce which is what some of our commissioners are telling us.

A School on Longboat Key

Talking with friends who have children and live on Anna Maria Island, I have learned that they love Anna Maria Elementary School. The same is true for my friends with children in St. Stephen's School in Bradenton. What if Longboat Key had a small first class middle school? I know people with young children move to Anna Maria Island because of the highly regarded elementary school. I also know parents who are concerned about finding quality schools in Manatee County after their children reach 5th grade and have to leave the Anna Maria school. I have personally worked with students attending the nationally ranked Pine View public school in Sarasota County. I has greatly impressed.

Would a quality math and science magnet school on Longboat attract families to our community? Talking to friends in places such as Rye and Scarlsdale, New York, their schools attract families who purchase homes and pay high taxes to have access to some of the best public schools in the country.

There could be a captive school population comprised of students graduating from the Anna Maria school who already live in close proximity to a school located on the north end of Longboat Key. I have neighbors who willingly transport their children to Bradenton charter schools because education is important to them.

I have no idea what the new owners of Whitney Plaza have in mind for all the land they have recently acquired on the north end of Longboat Key. With the specter of a new Publix retail complex at Bay Isles, the new owners may be dissuaded from retail development on the expanded Whitney Plaza site. For years I have advocated a tasteful low-rise residential development (two stories over parking and not more than 35 feet high) on the property as the best and most appropriate use of the land, in keeping with the beachy residential flavor on the north end of Longboat. However, I also recognize there could be density issues trying to build homes on the Whitney land. The Conrad Beach development, now a decade old, still has vacant lots for sale, so selling planned unit developments on the north end appears to be challenging, especially in this depressed real estate climate. Mixed-use has not worked well at Lakewood Ranch where there are numerous condominiums over empty retail shops. This is an unattractive situation for the condominium owners who are powerless to improve their situation.

There may be an opportunity for a top-notch school to attract families to Longboat who are in search of a good educational experience for their children. Additionally, I believe that parents of students graduating form the Anna Maria Elementary School would welcome a middle school close to home for their children.  A good charter school would attract families and improve the demographic mix on Longboat Key.  Keep in mind, one year-around family of four is equal to 8 snowbird conominium units in terms of yearly on-island retail sales. 

The town and the community needs to look for new community alternatives as we look into the future. Longboat taxpayers are major supporters of the county school systems. Perhaps it is time to get something in return and help our community at the same time.

Of course people can raise all sorts of arguments about the difficulties of creating a new charter school on a barrier island. However, we need to seriously explore opportunities instead of using negativity as a rational for doing nothing.