|
Published by former Mayor George Gardner April 30 2014
The Report is an independent publication serving our community.
Contributions are greatly appreciated.
or mail to George Gardner 57 Fullerwood Drive St. Augustine FL 32084
|
Drug recovery center
coming to San Marco
 | |
Rehabilitation center on San Marco Avenue
|
Spencer Recovery, a Laguna Beach CA based drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility, will open a center in the former St. Johns Healthcare Center on San Marco Avenue, according to the city's Planning and Building Department.
Remodeling is under way at the center, which was sold to Brooks Home Care for $5 million in 2010 with notice it would be closed "in two to three years," Brooks Representative Linda Jewell told city commissioners at the time.
Its patients were moved to a nursing facility at Brooks' Whispering Creek Town Center.
Spencer Recovery locations include Laguna Beach and Palm Springs in California and St. Pete Beach in Florida. It's been in business more than 26 years, according to its website.
EPIC Behavioral Services recently opened a drug and alcohol recovery center on south US 1.
|
|
|
|
this weekend
The 2nd annual St. Augustine Chalk Walk Festival this weekend will bring some 70 artists to dress up the Visitor Center promenade.
A Friday Chalk Walk party during Art Walk 5-9 pm opens the festivities, with artists competing for cash prizes Saturday 10 am - 5 pm and public viewing and sidewalk washing Sunday. All events are free.
Many artists are veteran chalkers, sponsor StAR Council notes, with featured Artist and Master Carolyn Shultz, a member of the Florida Chalk Art Association who's participated in street painting at festivals across the United States and internationally.
Foul weather dampened the inaugural chalk walk March 23 last year.
Saturday forecast: Scattered thunderstorms.
Visit the website.
|
|
|
|
Children's' Museum faces
Lincolnville 'buzz saw'
|
 "The Museum folks have rented the Galimore Center on May 4 during the Farmer's Market--and if they go forward with the meeting, they can expect a buzz saw. People here are really annoyed at their persistence and arrogance in the face of a clear community 'NO.'"
Comments from Lincolnville resident Nancy Shaver, who's been tracking and analyzing efforts by the Children's Museum of St. Johns County to locate at Riberia Pointe following strong opposition at a Lincolnville Neighborhood Association meeting and a City Commission decision to put any development plans on hold.
"The Museum folks sent out a press release after that meeting saying that they still had the support of "City Leadership" for the Riberia Pointe location and then set up these other activities," Shaver says.
A Facebook page, Keep Riberia Pointe Green, has been set up, and opponents suggest, "let the CRA and the Vision Process complete their work to decide what is best for this taxpayer owned property."
Looking at demographics, Shaver suggests, "The growth of family units is in the north and northwest" of St. Johns County to support a children's museum.
|
Big names for city's
450th, er, concert
|
"A big commemorative celebration the first week of September 2015" for the city's 450th anniversary was promised by city 450 Director Dana Ste. Claire at Monday's City Commission meeting, but "we're still scheduling that out," he added.
Ste. Claire hopes to include "a festival concert that will feature name acts in the same way we did for Mumford (the 2013 concert that drew 25,000 to the city)."
Recapping 2013 events for the 450th, Ste. Claire noted the Picasso exhibit, "a wonderfully successful exhibition," the Mumford concert, "for destination awareness, helping the world understand our important story," and Spanish Wine Festival, "We have great Spanish architecture and Spanish colonial history - we don't have a great deal of Spanish culture. We now have the interest of Spain and the national wine industry."
|
|
|
|
 | |
BEGINNING AND END - The redesigned Colonial Quarter hosted the first of last Saturday free Downtown Bazaars Saturday evening, while work continues on public restrooms expansion adjacent to the Spanish Bakery on St. George Street. The expansion has brought concerns that trees and their shade canopy could be lost through root damage. The University of Florida manages the Quarter and restrooms among the 34 state-owned historic properties here.
|
|
|
We are not alone
Locals fear it's 'Bye Bye Barcelona'
|
 "Spain's second city is so effortlessly attractive that it's hard to believe anyone could fall out of love with it. A new documentary called Bye Bye Barcelona, however, shows some long-term residents wondering aloud how much longer they can stay where they are."
Theatlanticcities.com describes and includes a documentary video on a problem familiar to St. Augustine residents. Vice Mayor Nancy Sikes Kline suggested at Monday's City Commission meeting it's good reading and watching for city commissioners and staff.
"The problem?" says the website, "Tourism, specifically a local industry that has become so dominant it risks stifling ordinary, everyday life in the city's heart. Panning across street after street of pedestrian gridlock, fast food joints and souvenir shops, the film's record of locals shooed away by the constant visitor footfall offers a cautionary tale for any city that tourists love.
"What makes Bye Bye Barcelona so striking is that its subject has long been an international role model for harbor cities trying to reinvent themselves. Following the 1992 Olympics' promotional boost and a revamp of the waterfront, Catalonia's capital built a reputation as the perfect Mediterranean city for visitors.
"Europe's worst kept secret, Barcelona's visitor numbers shot up from 1.7 million visitors annually in 1990 to 7.4 million in 2012."
|
|
History's highlight
|
Spain celebrates Easter
1 year, 4 months, 3 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary
Tolomato Cemetery Preservation Association President Elizabeth Duran Gessner spent the Easter holiday in Madrid, Spain, marveling at the elaborate paseos (processions) and contemplating how Easter festivities might have been in early St. Augustine. Read her complete blog here.
 I was watching the processions that reenact or commemorate some of these (Easter) events. And as always, I thought of St. Augustine and wondered what we did back in the days when we were a Spanish colony and had the customs and practices of any Spanish colony.
Spanish customs are very formal. The 16th and 17th centuries are considered the Golden Age of Spanish sculpture, and many of the figures carried on the processional platforms (called "pasos") date to this period. They are very beautiful figures, carved of wood that was then finished with gesso (a fine layer of a plaster-like substance to give a smooth finish) and carefully painted.
Did we have these in St Augustine? We certainly had our version of them, probably not as sumptuous, but we know from an inventory done in Cuba at the end of the First Spanish Period, when all the church goods were brought from St Augustine to Havana before the arrival of the British in Florida, that we had numerous statues and small pasos, meant to be carried by 2-4 people.
Some in Madrid's pasos were carried on the shoulders of about 14 people. Big processional floats can weigh from one to three tons, and are carried by 30-40 people.
At the end of the First Spanish Period, the parish church was Nuestra Seņora de la Soledad, Our Lady of Solitude or Loneliness, which is an image of the Virgin Mary after the death of Christ. We certainly would have had a figure representing her, although probably not as magnificent as the 18th century figure pictured, being carried through the streets of Madrid by some 30 people, accompanied by penitentes (hooded penitents), drummers and a large band.
Capture 449 years of St. Augustine history with St. Augustine Bedtime Stories - Dramatic accounts of famous people and events. Details here.
|
|
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
|
|
|
|
|
