At long last, all is well in St. Pete Beach!

Last night, for the first time in years, Edel and I went directly on to Upham Beach from the back gate of Starlight Tower, and went for a pleasant sunset walk on sand that was freshly deposited by the County's beach renourishment program.

But we didn't get far. Only 100 steps later we encountered a crowd of tourists who were happily settling down in a large circle to watch the Fire Dancers, a small band of fire-wielding bellydancers, (sponsored by the proprietors of the local Russian restaurant St. Petersburg Nights), whose appearance on Upham Beach on the first Saturday of each month supplements the exotic and unique beauty of the sunsets of St. Pete Beach. The sun was just beginning to set, and the dancers were teaching a handful of brave beachgoers some dance moves while their assistants were dousing various props with gasoline in preparation for the show.

Then darkness came and the show began. And as I beheld the many faces, young and old, delightedly transfixed by the spectacle of beautiful dancers, whirling flaming scimitars and the glowing, crimson Upham Beach sunset, I realized that this was a perfect ending to what has been a remarkably good week for St. Pete Beach.
























As a beach preservation activist, I was very pleased to be among the many tourists who were walking, playing and enjoying a beach that has been refreshed and preserved by the beach renourishment and geotextile T-groins installed during the recently-completed county/state/federal beach preservation project. But for that hard-fought project, that wonderful place would have had no sand, no beautiful dancers, and no tourists to enjoy them.



The week
also brought the excellent news that funding has been approved for the Pinellas Bayway project, which will replace the old, decaying drawbridge with a shining new bridge that will greatly ease congestion and improve traffic-flow on the south end of our island.
We also learned that Commissioner Bev Garnett was cleared of the last of the many ethics complaints filed against her by her rival/nemesis Harry Metz.

The City also recently filed a motion to dismiss the appeal currently pending with regards to the seemingly endless litigation regarding the City's redevelopment initiatives.

And, finally, we learned this week that the City of Yankeetown has filed a lawsuit to overturn the legislation that was recently passed that bans putting comprehensive plans to a vote.  Imagine that, litigation involving land use regulation and comprehensive plans, and St. Pete Beach isn't involved!


 The past few years have been very rough on the people of St. Pete Beach, but I think the events of this week are a wonderful sign of how far we have come, and how well the efforts of the city have been rewarded.
Because  of the efforts of our Mayors and Commissioners, our beaches are larger and more stable than they were just a few years ago, which draws more tourists and preserves and grows our local economy. Our new comprehensive plan has finally been freed from the shackles and constraints of litigation, so the redevelopment of our city can finally begin to take shape. The divisiveness and contention that once roiled our City Commission has been mercifully replaced with respectful, thoughtful, and responsible deliberation.


And, for the first time since I can remember, the headlines about strife, lawsuits and Comprehensive Plans are not featuring our city.

I never thought I'd have the pleasure of saying this, but if this week is any indication of the times to come, then, at long last, it may be safe to say aloud that all is well in St. Pete Beach.

Red Light Cameras: The Next Lawsuit Nightmare for St. Pete Beach

Like many St. Pete Beach residents, I am pleased and relieved that our city has enjoyed a few months respite from the caustic and divisive rhetoric about condo canyons and the Right to Vote.  We deserve a break.  We need a break.  And with any luck, the present state of relative tranquility will become the New Normal in St. Pete Beach.


The staggering legal costs of the St. Pete Beach development war has taken a huge toll on our city's resources.  The last thing we need is a whole new issue that will cost the city even more legal fees.


That's why I was more than a little disturbed when I saw this morning's May 22, 2011 St. Pete Times Story about the rising number of successful and costly legal challenges to Red Light cameras.  This story reveals that clever lawyers are successfully challenging Red Light Camera fines/tickets, and are causing cities that have installed those cameras to incur substantial legal fees defending those fines/tickets.  As a result, city legal fees relating to red light cameras are increasing, cities are being forced to hire additional personnel to review the camera videos, and the increased number of legal challenges is taxing city resources and causing a backlog of unprocessed tickets, which leads to more tickets subject to legal challenge, which leads to more lawyers and lawsuits, which leads to more legal fees....


It is my understanding that Red light cameras have been marketed to the St. Pete Beach Commission as not only a means to reduce accidents, but also as a source of revenue from the traffic fines the cameras generate, and that the last city commission approved an ordinance allowing the installation of red light cameras in our city.


I was not able to attend the commission meeting when this ordinance was debated.  However, I'd bet my fiddle that the commission wasn't aware of the alarming trend of increased legal challenges and legal costs associated with the implementation of Red Light Cameras.


I think the new commission needs to thoroughly examine the potential for increased legal fees and expenses before taking any action to install and implement Red Light Cameras on St. Pete Beach.  Otherwise, we may be adding Ted Hollander to the list of lawyers who make their living suing our beautiful city.

'Tis the Season: Scenes from the St. Pete Beach Holiday Parade

Hazy clouds didn't dampen anyone's spirits in St. Pete Beach today as the city celebrated the Season with its 2010 Holiday Parade.  Here are a few pics from today's festivities:

Upham Beach Geotube Repair Project has Begun!

Upham beach is once again humming with the sound of tractors and backhoes.  Now that the Upham beach renourishment project is completed, workers have now begun working on repairing the damage to the two northernmost Getotube T-Groins on Upham Beach.  I'll post more photos as the work progresses.

2010 Upham Beach Renourishmment Project is Complete!

After a brief, restful hiatus from the blog, I'm back....and very pleased to report that the 2010 Upham Beach Renourishment Project is complete!  Many, many thanks to the Pinellas County Board of Commissioners (especially our own Commissioner John Morroni) for their unanimous approval of the county's share of the funding for this very important project.  Thanks also to St. Pete Beach's Mayor Mike Finnerty and St. Pete Beach's Commissioners Jim Parent, Al Halpern, Bev Garnett and former commissioners Chris Leonard, Harry Metz and Linda Chaney for their support of the project on the local level.  Special thanks as well to former Pinellas County Coastal Coordinator Dr. Nicole Elko and current Pinellas County Assistant Director Andy Squires for their critical expertise and assistance in facilitating this project and all of the County's beach preservation projects!

Here is a brief visual chronology of the Project from beginning to end:

 

Upham Beach Geotube T-Groin Update: The Sand is Still Here!

Here is another status update photograph from the roof of Starlight Tower showing that the Upham Beach Geotube T-Groins are still doing a great job of holding sand on Upham Beach.

Without the T-Groins, most of the sand you see here on Upham Beach would have been gone two years ago.

Thankfully, the 2010 Sand Key beach renourishment project is underway, and will soon be coming to Upham Beach to bring more precious sand and provide a big, wide, sandy beach for the enjoyment of residents and tourists alike!

More Proof that Geotubes Prevent Erosion on Upham Beach

Well, it's the week of July 4 in St. Pete Beach, Florida, and that can mean only one thing (and NO, it doesn't mean fireworks--this year heavy rain soaked our city's fireworks display and they wouldn't light!!!) -- the annual Photographs of the Upham Beach Geotubes!!!

In 2006, Pinellas County installed five temporary geotextile T-Groin structures on Upham Beach in St. Pete Beach as a test to prove that the permanent structures scheduled for 2012 will be effective in preventing St. Pete Beach's chronic erosion.


Despite the fact that the success and effectiveness of the Upham Beach geotubes erosion control program has been well-documented,  the ability of the geotubes to effectively prevent sand erosion has been repeatedly challenged by members of the surfing community, including the Suncoast Chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.  
Pinellas County's engineers have monitored the project continuously since the project began in 2006 and have repeatedly concluded that the project has performed as it was designed to perform.

However, as a resident of Starlight Tower (which has a front row view of the whole Upham Beach erosion drama) I have conducted my own project to document the effectiveness of the Upham geotubes.  Every year during the July 4th week I photograph Upham Beach and the Upham geotubes from the roof of the Starlight Tower building to provide a standardized, annual comparison of the rate of beach erosion on Upham Beach.

As a starting point for comparison, this is what Upham Beach usually looks like (without geotubes) 24 months after a beach renourishment project has put sand on the beach:

And this is what Upham Beach looked like this year, 46 months after the 2006 beach renourishment and after installation of the Upham Geotubes:

Not bad!  And here are the prior years....July 4, 2009....

and July 4, 2008, 22 months after the 2006 beach renourishment and installation of the Upham geotubes:

And, again for comparison, this is what the beach looks like after only 24 or so months after a beach renourishment if there are NO geotubes in place:

The Surfriders seem to be arguing that St. Pete Beach is better off without having the geotubes (or any form of temporary or permanent erosion control structure) on Upham Beach because the there isn't sufficient evidence that the geotubes can effectively hold sand on the beach.

Well, I'll just keep taking my photos from the roof of Starlight Tower on the 4th of July.  It seems pretty clear to me from those photos that the Upham Beach geotubes are working like a champ, but take a look and decide for yourself.