St. Petersburg Times (December 8, 2009)
"It's a notion members of the city's Pier Advisory Task Force said all their friends urged them to forget. But an informal consensus last week said it's willing to risk touching this third rail of St. Petersburg politics.
" 'Virtually every option we are looking at requires tearing down the Pier,' said Leslie Curran, a City Council member...."
This is the sort of thing that makes me glad I'm not involved directly in running a city.
The St. Petersburg Times makes it clear that it's the pier that needs replacement - or radical repair. That building in the photo is in fine shape:
"St. Petersburg Pier’s iconic inverted pyramid building remains rock-solid, but the 83-year-old half-mile roadway leading from the mainland is on its last legs and will have to be replaced...."
(St. Petersburg Times)
I think I can understand the sentiments involved. There was a big old tree on Sinclair Lewis Avenue, here in Sauk Centre, that had to be removed in a major street widening and infrastructure upgrade we went through a few years ago. The homeowner who owned the land - and the tree - didn't like the situation a bit. I wasn't too happy myself.
But the street needed to be wider. We've grown since that tree was planted.
In St. Petersburg, I suppose there are people with happy childhood memories involving that pier: and that they don't like the idea of that part of their past being removed.
Even if it's replaced with something better.
Looks like one of the few other options is to wait until a hurricane does the demolition work, and go from there.
Maybe it'd be best to tear down the pier under more controlled conditions.
Vaguely-related posts:
- "Light-Hearted Exhibition at the Guggenheim"
(February 20, 2010) - "Architects, City Planning, Le Corbusier, Pulp Fiction, The Masses, The City of the Future, and Me"
(December 16, 2009) - "Geodesic Domes are Back: In Hollywood Trees"
(November 19, 2009)
- "Elements of Urbanism: St. Petersburg"
Metro Jacksonville
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