Monday night's Water Front Master Plan visioning meeting was well attended. Estimates place the crowd between 250 and 300 people.
It was a directed tabletop visioning session and
it was very well done. The City staff, lead by Dave Goodwin, has developed a
very effective format for these meetings that efficiently solicits a large
amount of very useful information.
It also helps that there were a number of people
there who had participated in this type of visioning meeting before and that
helps the process run very smoothly.
What is impressive about these meetings, and you
can see it in the photos I have attached, is the level of concentration
of the participants. They really go to work and work hard.
Over the next week or so, City staff will spend
many hours accumulating, categorizing and analyzing the information collected
Monday night. The process will be very objective and much of it posted on line.
Check the City's web site
The next steps will be an assessment by an outside
planning firm, followed by the hiring of a planning consultant to develop the
draft master plan. All of this being driven by a Charter Amendment passed in
2011 that mandates the Waterfront Master Plan be completed by July1, 2015.
The crowd at Monday's meeting was interesting.
Virtually all age groups were represented, the baby boomers, the gen-X folks
and the new millennials.
What was missing in my observation was diversity.
While the age diversity was exceptional, the ethnic diversity was sparse.
Missing were the Asians, Hispanics and African Americans in anything close to
numbers that represent their percentage of the local population.
In speaking with a couple of City officials, they
noted the problem and then asked "how do we address that problem?" Interesting question.
It is probably a good bet that the Water Front is
not the highest priority on the minority community's agenda. It is more likely
crime, jobs, and the deteriorating school system in St. Pete.
Candidates might want to take note.
Bringing the
minority communities into the Water Front Master Plan development process, is
going to be a challenge, but the City should make a good faith effort.
Be sure to comment below or you can e-mail
Doc at: dr.webb@verizon.net, or send me a Facebook Friend request.
Campaign Disclosures: Contributor to
Kathleen Ford Campaign, Darden Rice Campaign, Concern Citizens of St.
Petersburg, Rick Kriseman for Mayor
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