Sunrise Departure
It was a perfect sunrise in Florida, reflections of waterfront buildings on glassy marina water, as I motored out to a nearby boatyard for bottom cleaning and painting.
In Germany, 8,033 kilometers away, Christl, my boat mate watched me on a webcam link from the roof of a shore-front condominium building. I snapped a memorable view off my stern and talked to her via telephone over a very long optical fiber cable link. The confluence of ancient sailboat technology and the modern Internet is truly mind boggling. Some ten years earlier we had a similar experience as she watched me from Germany tied up in the Miraflores lock during a Panama Canal transit. Amazing twenty-first century technology.
At the boatyard, the boat was hoisted onto dry land as workmen with high-pressure hoses clean pesky barnacles and other living scum off the hull in preparation for sanding and painting. It was definitely very low-tech work.
Living at the intersection of land and water heightens one’s appreciation for the source of life and its little annoyances.
On the return passage to the marina, the view over the transom included the wide expanse of Tampa Bay and an inverted pyramid at the end of a long pier. This pier was built in 1973 as an iconic symbol for the city. It replaced two earlier symbols: a 1904 railroad pier linking rail to ship commerce and a 1926 “million dollar” Pier designed to be “the place to meet, dance, socialize, and fish.”
In the first decade of the 21st Century, the city initiated what promises to be a long process mired in controversy to find a new iconic symbol for the city. Some think the inverted pyramid deserves nothing more than structural repairs, a facelift, and a life extension. Others, according to a Tampa Bay Times editorial are very much against “. . . the future of an aging, out of date pier that is an eyesore in the sparkling downtown waterfront that now bustles with restaurants, and activity. The inverted pyramid should have been torn down years ago to make way for a new pier for the future.”
A recent online public referendum ranked the seven competing designs for a new pier. Then the city’s Pier Selection Committee published their choice for the top three candidates: the public’s least popular choice became the No. 1 candidate and the public’s top choice became the No. 3 Committee choice. The controversy continues.
There are many examples of conflicts between public and government officials over community plans―Stuttgart 21 (a demonstration over a 21st century rail station over beloved trees) and Istanbul’s Taksim Gezi park (tear-gas riots over a park vs. a mall). The Stuttgart 21 demonstrations took place in my neighboring state of Baden-Württemberg. Like these conflicts, the Pier struggle lacks a clearly stated goal that embraces all the near and long-term objectives. For examples: Is the city attempting to increase its income? Is the city trying to lure more tourists and future residents? Is the city hoping to make St. Pete a must-see destination?
