Mike Connors should be removed from the St. Pete Pier Selection Committee

Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb PhD

Coauthor of: So You Want Blog .

The level of concern surrounding the St. Pete Pier Selection process continues to grow. So far Mayor Kriseman has not distanced himself from any of his hand picked Selection Committee Chairman's comments made during the last Selection Committee meeting.

His recent well crafted comments are merely a thin veil over the desired replacement of the inverted pyramid.

Process is an important factor in the selection of a new Pier design. Last time the process was hijacked by the artful, but I must admit I didn't expect this Pier selection process to be so openly hijacked by the Kriseman administration.

The Selection Committee must feel a bit estranged at this point.

It is becoming hard to take the Selection Committee process seriously since it appears that the Mayor has loaded the deck in favor of doing away with any semblance of the inverted pyramid.

With all of the Kriseman talk about being an open and inclusive process the reality has been less than the promise.

From his style to his attitude Connors can be extremely intimidating. It seems to me it will be all but impossible for the Selection Committee to function openly, fairly and effectively with Connors sitting the Chairman's seat.

Connors may use his colorful prose to try to talk his way out of the mess he created, but no one seriously following this train wreck will buy it. He is there to shill for the Mayor and shill he will.

Kriseman has a big decision to make. If he leaves Connors as Chairman of the Pier Selection Committee, and the Committee with Connor's urging ignores the public's preference ranking ALMA first, it would give the appearance that the Administration stacked the deck.

Obviously City Council can undo the Selection Committee's decision by simply not accepting the Committee's ranking, but that could lead to a restart of the whole Pier process and delay things for another year or so.

City Council could simply accept ALMA and let negotiations begin. One can rest assured if the Kriseman administration gets ALMA to the negotiation phase there will be a deal no matter how much it costs St. Petersburg.

Should the selection of ALMA become a reality, you can expect a significant public outcry. There is already one petition drive under way and it would seem likely an attempt would be made to put ALMA up for referendum consideration.

It is quite probable that a sufficient number of signatures could be obtained to put the issue on the ballot. The vote would not be as much about the Pier design as it would be about the process and a St. Pete Mayor failing to be true to his promises and failing to provide leadership based on the public's wishes.

That scenario could very likely lead St. Pete to its second one term strong Mayor.

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The Problems with ALMA (The Big Banjo)

ALMA

Opinion by: E. Eugene Webb, PhD
Coauthor of: So You Want to Blog

While the Pier Selection Committee gathers "more information" the pot boils and the plot thickens.

First, with ALMA the thing out at the end is a concrete rectangular box. That's it - a box. No matter how you look at it, it is a box. Not much imagination, even if you turn it upside down its still a rectangular box. You don't have to wonder about what the designer was thinking or what motivated him - it's a box.

Looking at the inverted pyramid you also have to wonder what was the designer thinking? Why a Pyramid, why upside down, why not right side up or on its side? You actually have to think and stretch your mind.

When you look at ALMA from above it looks like a big Banjo. Since the push here seems to be to the millennials and as far as I can tell other than Deliverance they're not than fond of banjo music. It seems to me that promotional material for something that looks like a big Banjo may not bring the millennials in the droves anticipated by the ALMA supporters.

And there is that Box thing. It's kind of like the LENS who would wear a T-shirt with that thing on it?

When you look at Destination St. Pete Pier from above there is an interesting approach and at the end this structure that kind of boggles the mind. What is it? I really need to see this for myself. And when you do your imagination can run wild.

It will also make one really neat T-shirt.

Finally I think some of the members of the Kriseman Dream Team and City staff, along with a few of the Selection Committee members have convinced themselves that the citizens of St. Pete are neither hip enough, or intelligent enough to know what works on the Pier. I believe you hold that view at your own peril. 

Last time around the issue of ignoring the public was almost as big as the total dislike of the LENS design.

You all probably already know the definition of insanity. 

E-mail Doc at: mailto:dr.gwebb@yahoo.com%20or send me a Facebook (Gene Webb) Friend request. Please comment below, and be sure to share on Facebook and Twitter. See Doc's Photo Gallery at Bay Post Photos