Published by former Mayor George Gardner June 22 2016
The Report is an independent publication serving our community
|
Not for the first time, the city's noise ordinance goes to a City Commission session tomorrow, June 23, at 9 am in the Alcazar Room at City Hall. It will be live streamed at www.CoSATV.com
Previous sessions over the past several years have focused on the city ordinance using a meter to measure sound, attorneys arguing the more popular "plainly audible" method creates liability to lawsuits.
The citizen-organized SALSA (St Augustine Livability and Sustainability Alliance) has collected data and first hand complaints to compile an extensive paper with recommendations for strengthening the code.
Find the SALSA information here.
|
Survey says ...
Congestion, parking top challenges
I think the residents are being overlooked in favor of tourists. I think that parking and congestion issues really affect us and make it difficult for us to get into Downtown and also to get out of our homes.
Resident comment in survey
 The great majority of 1,284 respondents to a recent survey list congestion and parking way above any other mobility challenges. Probably not surprisingly, 88 percent of those respondents, 1,127, are year-round residents. The balance includes 101 frequent visitors, 35 seasonal residents and 21 occasional visitors.
Respondent comments are echoes of familiar themes over the years: traffic light placement and coordination, peripheral parking and shuttles, in-town transit.
The comments are not sorted into categories yet, and Mayor Nancy Shaver says suggestions continue to come in.
|
|
|
Honored for
civic service
Jim and Jean Harden, longtime directors of the Emergency Services and Homeless Coalition of St. Johns County, were honored Tuesday by the county commission for their service, along with a breakfast of appreciation with current and former members and chairs of the coalition.
The coalition until recently was lead agency for the Continuum of Care, through which federal funds flow to a wide range of local charities.
They will continue managing the Chapin Street transitional housing program they began some 15 years ago. Said office manager Debi Redding at the breakfast, "With everything else, there never seemed to be enough time for the transitional program, which is their first love."
|
|
|
- Better placing of traffic lights and assistance from police during rush hours at lights. Jacksonville does this in high congestion areas and it makes a huge difference.
- Look at how old European cities have adapted traffic needs in historic areas. Look to Savannah and Charleston, too. Heck, even Williamsburg does it better than us.
- Traffic lights that are coordinating so there is smooth flow.
- Well thought out and placed parking. Mass transit options that take cars off the streets.
- More areas reserved for pedestrians.
- More options for transportation for locals.
- Our city has great mobility, once you've found a place to park.
- A city with plenty of parking for tourists and public transportation to move them around which in turn allows for local residents to travel through without getting stuck in constant traffic.
- Free or inexpensive public transportation, i.e. trolleys that locals will use. Parking garages or lots OUTSIDE of the historic district with trolleys providing transportation to the sites.
- Consistency with the pedestrian signs.
- This is a small town with lots of visitors and people moving in all the time. Palm Coast is an excellent example of an area that has really worked on designing bike trails and bike lanes that offer both ease of mobility and safety.
- The ability to park AWAY from the center of all the action with shuttle service into the heart like at a ski resort town. Park at the base of the mountain, shuttle takes you up to the ski village, and then back to your car at the end of the day.
- The ability to move about as a pedestrian without worrying about being run over or having to run and dash between cars that are lost, absorbed in the sights which are unfamiliar to them, and have no idea where they are going.
|
Hotelier Kanti Patel
Buys Marion Motel
Hotelier Kanti Patel has purchased the Marion Motor Lodge on the bayfront.
The 31-unit motel opposite the Municipal Marina will be operated by a nephew, says Patel, whose Jalaram Hotels here include the Hilton Historic Bayfront, Hampton, Holiday Inn, and Best Westerns Bayfront, Spanish Quarter and Historical and Best Western Seaside Inn - St. Augustine Beach.
Two years ago Flagler College bid but failed to acquire the Marion Motor Lodge, reportedly sold to Patel for $4.2 million.
Patel is nearing a start on a San Marco Hotel - a replica of the original 1800s hotel, to replace his Best Western at San Marco Avenue and West Castillo Drive.
|
|
|
|
LAMP seeks $500,000 grant
The accomplishments of the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program through a state grant ten years ago won praise from Florida's state underwater archaeologist as "the most comprehensive and complete example of a marine archaeology report that has been received by this agency (which) set a new standard for what can be accomplished by archaeologists working along Florida's waterfronts."
 Once again qualifying for a $500,000, two-year grant to survey, target and investigate shipwreck and other maritime archaeological sites, LAMP Director Chuck Meide is asking community help in support of the new application. "This grant would fund our project for two years, and allow us to expand the number of days we spend in the field and make it a lot easier to pay for things," Meide says. "The geographical scope of the project is regional, and we could test targets from previous survey areas off Jacksonville or the Matanzas Inlet, or investigate sites in surrounding counties, but the focus is always primarily on St. Augustine waters, inland and offshore."
|
|
History's Highlight
|
St. Augustine's building block
From the Florida Heritage series
In Anastasia State Park off A1A South, it's a short walk down a shaded and signed trail to view the quarries where laborers cut and lifted blocks of coquina, building stone for the Castillo de San Marcos. This site is one of several on the island; the St. Augustine Amphitheater is located in another original site.
 The Spanish soldiers in St. Augustine built their fort and homes out of the pine trees and palmetto so plentiful in the area, but their wooden settlement was destroyed more than once by storms or burned by pirates and other European raiders. On nearby Anastasia Island, the Spaniards discovered a better building material - deposits of coquina, a rock made of broken shells. The word coquina means "tiny shell" in Spanish. Coquina forms a sedimentary structure underlying much of the Atlantic shore of Florida from clam shells accumulated when the area was underwater. Later the sea level dropped and rain dissolved calcium carbonate from the shells, cementing the quartz and shells together into coquina rock.
The people of St. Augustine learned they had happened upon an amazing defensive material. As the soft stone was exposed to air, it hardened. The Spanish learned to waterproof the coquina stone walls by coating them with plaster and paint, so the coarse rock structures you see today, such as the Castillo de San Marcos, would have looked more refined.
However, when besieging ships bombarded the Castillo, the walls simply absorbed the cannon balls. The Castillo de San Marcos was never captured in battle, thanks at least in part to the coquina.
At first, hand tools were used to cut out blocks of the soft shellstone which were then pried loose along natural layers in the rock. The blocks were loaded onto ox-drawn carts, then barged across Matanzas Bay to St. Augustine.
The blocks were used to construct the Castillo de San Marcos and many other public and private buildings. Finally, in 1671, the Spanish embarked on large-scale quarrying on Anastasia Island. At this time, the island was called Cantera, Spanish for quarry.
|
|
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 a former newspaper reporter and editor. Contact the Report at gardner@aug.com or gardnerstaug@yahoo.com
|
|
|
|
|
