On eve of key City Council vote, new poll indicates overwhelming opposition to Lens, closing current Pier

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On the eve of a critical decision before the Saint Petersburg City Council, a new poll indicates overwhelming opposition by city residents to ‘The Lens’ design for a new Pier, while also showing clear support to keep the current Pier open, even if it costs additional tax dollars to do so, while the future of the structure is decided.

Sixty-seven percent of registered voters in St. Petersburg say they would vote to terminate ‘The Lens’, while just 28% said they would vote to continue with the project, according to the St. Pete Polls survey.

A similar number — 68% —  agree that the current inverted pyramid pier should be kept open until a vote on the future of the pier can be held, even if it costs extra money to do so.

The City Council will vote on Thursday whether to put the brakes on ‘The Lens.’ At issue is whether to spend $1.5 million on the next phase of the Lens design or to delay the project until after an expected referendum on the project.

The group protesting the Lens, called “Stop the Lens,” said they’ve just verified enough petition signatures, by cross-checking the names with the Pinellas County Supervisor of Elections’ records, to put the issue to a referendum in St. Pete’s next primary. 
 
“We crossed the 17,000 mark.  We needed 15,000,” said Bud Risser with Stop the Lens.  “In August, they will have a chance to express themselves at the voting booth, and that’s really what we’ve been after.”

Opposition to continuing with ‘The Lens’ runs strong across every cohort and demographic. For example, 76% of Republicans, 60% of African-Americans, and 62% of those 30 to 49 years-old say they would terminate the project.

The poll was conducted on May 1st, includes 1653 respondents, and has a margin of error of 2.4%.

Peter Schorsch is the President of Extensive Enterprises and is the publisher of some of Florida’s most influential new media websites, including SaintPetersBlog.com, FloridaPolitics.com, ContextFlorida.com, and Sunburn, the morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics. SaintPetersBlog has for three years running been ranked by the Washington Post as the best state-based blog in Florida. In addition to his publishing efforts, Peter is a political consultant to several of the state’s largest governmental affairs and public relations firms. Peter lives in St. Petersburg with his wife, Michelle, and their daughter, Ella.