St. Pete Beach Florida - Citizens For Responsible Growth

St. Pete Beach Florida News

"Treasure Island, which has seen the greatest loss of hotel rooms to condos because of a ban on tall buildings, lost about 259 hotel rooms in 2004"
St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 15, 2006

Our opinion of local affairs.
By
Gary Becker

Updated 11-24-07

There is an old saying, "If the shoe fits" basically meaning if two people act the same then both can wear the same shoe.

In St. Pete Beach there are now two groups who oppose each other in their approach to the future of that community. The, in our opinion, anti-developer/development group, Citizens for Responsible Growth (CRG) and the pro-progress group Save Our Little Village (SOLV).

CRG fought a long and hard battle against the pro-progress faction which at the time was in power at City Hall and CRG used, in our opinion, very questionable tactics to:

1. CRG created and gathered signatures for a petition to place their own, in our opinion, short sighted comprehensive development plan on a ballot.

2. CRG fought with the City of St. Pete Beach and the pro-progress faction to have the petitions validated.

3. CRG fought with the City of St. Pete Beach and the pro-progress faction to have the issue placed on the ballot.

4. CRG went to court to have the issues placed on the ballot.

5. CRG claimed they were the voice of the people and the people should be allowed to decide the future of the City.

CRG won those battles and had several of, in our opinion, their political puppets elected to the City Commission promising to be the voice and government of the people.

Recently SOLV has revisited the issue challenging CRG and their elected allies by:

1. SOLV created and gathered signatures for a petition to place a more progressive comprehensive development plan on a ballot.

2. SOLV is now fighting with the City of St. Pete Beach and CRG to have the petitions validated.

3. SOLV is now fighting with the City of St. Pete Beach and CRG to have the issue placed on the ballot.

4. SOLV may have to go to court to have the issues placed on the ballot because the City of St. Pete Beach and, in our opinion, CRG are balking at letting the people decide.

5. SOLV is now claiming they are the voice of the people and the people should be allowed to decide the future of the City.

See a trend? The "new" St. Pete Beach Commission is acting a lot like the one they replaced. CRG, in our opinion, are now the ones trying to deny the people their right to vote on this issue.

Like I said," If the shoe fits".

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