With 61,000 St. Petersburg municipal election ballots in the mail this week, the time has come to decide the fate of The Lens, specifically whether or not to terminate architect Michael Maltzan’s contract.
To add fuel to fire, the Tampa Bay Times published Sunday a full-page editorial entitled “Facts, lies and the Lens” with the intention of clearing up some misconceptions about the new Pier project.
If there is a lesson learned in all this, it’s this; with The Lens, nothing comes easily, especially “facts.” Even “basic” specifics about the issue can be disputed, as evidenced by the blowback over the editorial.
As reported by Pinellas Bureau Reporter Steve Nichols for My Fox 13, Stop the Lens supporters say the piece was an amazingly well timed pro-Lens article, designed to sway voters just as ballots reach mailboxes.
“The voters, immediately before receiving absentee ballots, have been misled,” wrote William Ballard, president of the Concerned Citizens of St. Petersburg, in a letter to the Times’ chairman and editors. Ballard is calling for corrections and an apology.
At issue is the “fact” that an air-conditioned dining area will be over the water at the end of the new pier. The latest architectural drawings do not show such an area.
“It’s not central air conditioning. What the architect tells us is that there would be separate air conditioning mobile units,” in an area with retractable walls, said Tim Nickens, editor of editorials for the Times.
“At this point, I consider the editorial to be factually accurate and I don’t see any facts to correct,” Nickens told FOX 13 News.
Recent polling found 52 percent of likely voters would vote “Yes” to terminate the Michael Maltzan contract; 35 percent said they would vote “No.”
Voting continues through the citywide primary election, August 27.
