After months of writing about all the criticism thrust at St. Pete officials regarding the Pier, the unthinkable has finally happened. The resoundingly critical “WOW the Lens SUCKS” Facebook page finally has some praise.
“Update. After checking Squaremouth’s Pier cams, they now have an FAA approved light on the remaining core column. Kudos!”
It’s perhaps the first time commenters on that site have had anything nice to say at all about the city and its Pier and represents what hopefully is a change in dialogue.
After a post criticized the city for lacking lighting to keep pilots flying into and out of Albert Whitted safe earlier this week, it appears the problem was solved the very next day.
This is how it should works. A valid problem surfaced and a solution was reached the next day. And the swift action was recognized by the same group that calls Pier Park “Potty Park” and frequently calls the mayor names.
What this hopefully represents is a detraction from the negative attitudes of a handful of residents unhappy with plans to build Pier Park to a more constructive dialogue that will yield a Pier all residents can enjoy.
In the coming months residents will have a chance to participate in public forums sharing their ideas and concerns with the city and designers to further completion of the final design.
While the design concept is already in place, ASD Architecture hired by the city to design Pier Park will still be fine tuning details. That includes things like potential permitting issues and tweaking various placement of amenities.
Many of the problems Pier Park critics have lamented since the design was chosen have been related to issues that will be addressed during the final design process already underway.
If Pier Park critics can take away anything from these two posts it is that there is a way to have a positive dialogue and get things done. Pouting and stomping feet does little to help any process, but engaging in civil conversation does.
