Published by former Mayor George Gardner July 4 2012
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George Gardner 57 Fullerwood Drive St. Augustine FL 32084 |
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PZB rejects Flagler project | |
4-3 vote recommends denying classrooms in HP-3
The city's Planning and Zoning Board (PZB) Tuesday denied an amendment to a Planned Unit Development (PUD) for Flagler College to develop a 20,000 square foot communications facility in Historic Preservation District 3 (HP3) at Cordova and Cuna Street.
Board members Jerry Dixon, an architect, and John Valdes, a contractor specializing in historic properties, led the attack on the project, Dixon saying the PUD was being used to "get around the intent" of the historic preservation district, and Valdes saying he had not considered the safety factor for students traveling to and from the 400-student complex.
A dozen neighborhood opponents cheered the vote, which came after 1 ˝ hours of hearing and debate at the end of a 5 ˝ hour board session.
Since announcing its plan last January, the college won City Commission approval for the PUD - which allows projects to develop outside of code restrictions - and preliminary approvals from both PZB and the city Historic Architectural Review Board (HARB). In April, with mounting neighborhood pressure, commissioners voted to return the plan to HARB, which again approved it after some modifications. PZB was next to consider those modifications.
Both actions are recommendations to the City Commission, which will now have the final say in the battle between modern college and historic neighborhood.
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July 4 2012
July Fourth festivities begin at 6 pm with The All Star Orchestra's traditional patriotic favorites along with Big Band and Swing in the Plaza de la Constitución's Gazebo until 8 pm.
The highlight of St. Augustine's traditional July 4th, Fireworks over the Matanzas, begins at 9:30, the 20-minute display choreographed to great popular music over a sound system along the Bayfront.
Vilano and St. Augustine Beach are partners in the festivities:
The waterfront along the Vilano Town center will offer prime viewing.
St. Augustine Beach's Music by the Sea Concert Series continue, with Panama Hatties offering dinner in the beach pavilion for $10 or less from 6 pm and Those Guys with classic rock 'n roll until the fireworks begin. |
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'Period-correct' 7-Eleven promised on San Marco |
The city's Planning and Zoning Board (PZB) Tuesday approved removal of preserved trees to allow plans for a 7-Eleven convenience store and gas station to go forward at the San Marco Avenue - May Street intersection, after being given assurances the store design will fit an earlier period design dictated by the city's entry corridor guidelines.
"We'll be happy to meet with the neighbors at any time to discuss other concerns they may have," project attorney George McClure told the board as residents of neighboring Nelmar Terrace stood to protest the plan. Among those concerns: an already congested intersection and all-night hours and lighting.
The corner once anchored by the Manatee Café was cleared in the early 2000s by developer Wally Devlin, with plans to redevelop the site with sidewalk frontage businesses similar to what had existed, before the economy soured. |
'What really represents
St. Augustine' on display | |
Combine 16 display cases prepared for an anticipated Picasso exhibit with a selection from the city's more than one million artifacts and the result is a display of St. Augustine history at the Visitor Information Center (VIC) that visitors are poring over even as the finishing touches are being applied.
City staff developed the idea after surveying the redesigned main hall into an open exhibit space - with no exhibits.
"We wanted to display what really represents St. Augustine," City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt says .
His selection is 18th century St. Augustine with four elements: civilian, military, religious, and presidio life. "The 1700s had more diversity," he says. "It was a more cosmopolitan period."
The VIC gift shop, open daily 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, offers reproductions of many of the artifacts, as well as a growing stock of 450th commemoration items. |
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For the fashion-conscious, 1513 was not |
The Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse courtyard was filled last Thursday with reenactors, wannabes and maybes as the Historic Florida Militia trotted out finery of Ponce de Leon's day - hand-sewn eyelets rather than grommets, civilian clothes overlaid with armor rather than uniforms, and natural fibers rather than - Lord forbid - the synthetics of today.
"You don't want to be in polyester around black (gun)powder," reenactor John Powell cautioned. "Forget grommets," Brian Bowman added. "They made do sewing eyelets."
Michelle Reyna and Elaine Fraser organized the session. "With 2013 the 500th anniversary of Ponce de Leon's landing, we need to be correct," said Michelle.
The garb was everyday - for the day. To be a soldier, you donned what you could afford for protection and armament.
More will be presented Saturday, July 21, from 9 to 5 at the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park in a School of 1513, offering patterns of clothing for men and women of the period, and instruction in and demonstrations of arms and equipment.
Contact John Stavely veryhoppy@gmail.com, Chad Light 1565@foyfla.com, or Chris Clark clark1833@bellsouth.net on how you, too, can be part of yesterday's army.
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CRA for Lincolnville? Let's discuss |
City Commissioner Nancy Sikes-Kline will lead a discussion Tuesday, July 10, from 7-8 pm at the Galimore Center on the whats and wherefores of a Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) proposed for Lincolnville.
The Lincolnville Neighborhood Association is hosting the session following City Commission approval last week of up to $75,000 for a consultant to study the feasibility of the plan.
Find a description of the CRA program at
http://redevelopment.net/technical-assistance/q-a-for-cras/. |
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Chicago Tribune June 20 2012 |
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla (Reuters) - With the North Star as the guiding light for runaway slaves and Canada as the Promised Land, the underground railroad that U.S. schoolchildren read about in textbooks points to freedom in just one direction - the north.
But scholars gathering this week for the National Underground Railroad Conference will head south to St. Augustine, Florida, home to the former capital of Spanish Florida and a flight-to-freedom story rooted in the 17th century that is unknown to most Americans.
The historians' focus will be on this different perspective of the Underground Railroad, said Diane Miller, program manager for the National Park Service's National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
"We have conceptually understood the Underground Railroad as assistance provided to poor, uneducated, helpless, unknowledgeable African slaves who needed the benevolence of wealthy white people, Quakers or other abolitionists to help them by taking them place to place," Miller said.
"The story going south is much more militant. You have Africans essentially becoming military people and setting up their own communities."
Florida's role in this pivotal moment in American history is one of many stories the state is hoping to tell as it prepares to celebrate its 500th anniversary next year.
Photo: Stephen Marc, Passage of the Underground Railroad
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History's Highlight | |
1st national anthem here
3 years, 2 months, 5 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
July 4, 1781, within the walls of the Castillo de San Marcos, America's first anthem was sung, by American Patriot prisoners of the British - to the tune of God Save the King!!
God save the thirteen states, Thirteen United States, God save them all.
St. Augustine was a British colony from 1763 to 1783, the result of the Treaty of Paris which transferred Florida to the British in exchange for Havana, the historic Spanish colonial seat of government which had been captured by the British. 
The loyalist colony - Britain's 14th - was its southern command center at the height of the American Revolution. Patriots captured in South Carolina and New Jersey were imprisoned here, including three signers of the Declaration of Independence.
The Patriot prisoners fared well in British custody. Dr. Andrew Turnbull loaned them his English newspapers - little consolation for them - and local businessman Jesse Fish sent oranges and lemons from his world-famous grove on Anastasia Island.
July 4, 1781, by special permission, the American captives were allowed to gather for dinner, and the bill of fare included an English plum-pudding of gigantic dimensions. It was topped by a tiny flag with thirteen stars and stripes.
Thomas Heyward, Jr., 34, a Revolutionary War officer, member of the Royal Assemblies of South Carolina, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, had been captured at Charleston after British forces seized his plantation.
Inspired by the plans for a community dinner July 4, he set to work that morning on a suitable verse, heard for the first time at this Fourth of July Patriot dinner in British St. Augustine.
Being set to the familiar tune of "God Save the King," the British guards, peeping in and deceived by the accustomed air, were impressed by what they took to be the Yankees' sudden return to loyalty to King George.
The anthem had five verses, each more stinging to their captors than the last. Two decades later, today's National Anthem was written by Francis Scott Key, during TheWar of 1812 - between the United States and Great Britain.
God save the thirteen states, Thirteen United States, God save them all. Make us victorious, Happy and glorious; No tyrants over us; God save our States!
To our famed Washington, Brave Stark at Bennington, Glory is due. Peace to Montgomery's shade, Who as he fought and bled, Drew honors round his head, Num'rous as true.
Oft did America Foresee with sad dismay Her slav'ry near. Oft did her grievance state, But Britain, falsely great, Urging her desp'rate fate, Turned a deaf ear.
We'll fear no tyrant's nod Nor stern oppression's rod, Till time's no more. Thus Liberty, when driv'n From Europe's states, is giv'n A safe retreat and hav'n On our free shore.
O Lord! Thy gifts in store, We pray on Congress pour, To guide our States. May union bless our land, While we, with heart and hand, Our mutual rights defend; God save our States ! |
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The St. Augustine Report is published weekly, with additional Reports previewing City Commission meetings as well as Special Reports. The Report is written and distributed by George Gardner, St. Augustine Mayor (2002-2006) and Commissioner (2006-2008) and a former newspaper reporter and editor. Contact the Report at gardner@aug.com |
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