St. Pete Pier redevelopment

[jonknee]

Originally Posted by dpw1983

There is a port south of Albert Whitted where large coast guard and other ships dock.

If St. Pete wanted to bring cruise passengers into downtown couldn't ships just tender passengers to the pier on smaller vessels? No need for the ships themselves to approach the pier.

That's inane. Just use the existing and popular deep water port / cruise terminal that is across the bay.

[DShenise]

I have never for the life of me understood the desire of some in St.Pete to throw money away on trying to improve the port beyond reason. Its too shallow, and even tighter than Tampa's, which is pretty tight by typical port standards.

[Jasonhouse]

My favorite part is how so many residents (and especially the politicians they vote for) obsess over the kind of bullshit trophy projects a 9 yr old boy would obsess over, while neglecting to do anything but the bare minimum for fundamental issues that would boost the liveability of the city and its desirability as a place to do business. You know, like working to ensure the city provides excellent transportation, education, code enforcement, etc, etc. It's all about payola and the next election, 24/7/365.

[TampaGuy]

Originally Posted by DShenise

I have never for the life of me understood the desire of some in St.Pete to throw money away on trying to improve the port beyond reason. Its too shallow, and even tighter than Tampa's, which is pretty tight by typical port standards.

Well St. Pete's port is more for education and research.
So they've invested in order to bring R&D companies in (ie SRI).

[TampaMike]

How does the St. Petersburg residents on here feel about the Pier though? This is their money and I think their voice should matter over any of ours. Clearly, this is meant to be more of a tourist attraction than a benefit to the St. Pete people. Do they really want $50 Million or more of the city's money being spent on any of these designs? How many times a year will you visit any of these proposals? Have you personally contacted the city about your feelings on this?

Money will be spent soon after a proposal is picked and that's next month. Then the Pier begins to come down and everything happens. So you don't have much time if you feel money can be spent on more important things.

[TPAMAN]

The "Lens" was chosen by the panel. It now goes to city council for a thumbs up or down on the 26th.

[Jasonhouse]

Best option of three weak choices imo.

I will add that I'm interested to see if the plans to connect the uplands to the parks flanking it with drawbridges actually happens. As most here know, I'm highly in favor of that idea.

[DShenise]

The money would be better spent making the Southside more livable. I was in Watts the other day and felt safer and more welcomed than just about anytime in the Southside. Better transit, better sidewalks, and more street lighting would make a world of difference and might see some private investment if some improvements are made.

[Jasonhouse]

The pier is perceived to be part of the city's identity, so its redevelopment would be a top priority no matter what.

Imagine the riots that would ensue if Santa Monica's famed pier was facing the same fate, and city leaders opted to go without a pier and throw the money at the seediest parts of town instead.


Here's to hoping that the current plan ultimately serves to be a conceptual blueprint for the final product. There are some significant changes that can and should be made to make the pier more functional and cost effective.

[DShenise]

As someone who grew up there, the pier never defined St. Pete for me. The overall waterfront did. The pier was just a place to take a girl for a cheap date when I was much younger. I really don't think the pier has much of a solid constituency like Albert Whitted does.

And cities can shift priorities over time. For instance, the SM pier is supposedly being neglected (according to some vocal oldtimers) at the expense of other livability projects throughout the city. That said, the seediest parts of SM are pretty damn nice and livable.

I liked your (Jason's) idea from awhile back of just improving the general waterfront and yacht basin. Long term however, the city would be well served by improving quality of life issues in the Southside. It would lessen tension and hopefully eliminate the periodic dust-ups that seem to occur every 10-15 summers (never happens in the winter).

[TampaMike]

I still would rather have this money be spent on a couple projects or/and developments around the city than just one. Although I like the amphitheater idea for the Lens proposal.

[HARTride 2012]

City council votes in favor of "The Lens" design.

http://www.baynews9.com/article/news...f-Lens-concept

[Jasonhouse]

^of course they did. They don't have the expertise to do anything else but rubber stamp what someone tells them to rubber stamp.

[I-275westcoastfl]

I see two possible outcomes here. One they will only have enough money to build the Lens pier itself and it will get built and be dead. Another outcome they would come to the conclusion that they should have before they voted for it is that it would cost to much and we'll be back at square one. What a bunch of idiots.

[Jasonhouse]

I think public pressure to get it right will result in the budget finding itself increased by a sizable amount, and then a pier that will be markedly improved, but still not commercially viable will replace the old one. Maybe the subsidy will just be a couple hundred grand a year, not close to two mil like the current one.

The lens plan is conceptually solid. Just needs some tweaking to better suit what is needed and what the resources available are.

[DShenise]

If it comes in for a penny $82mil. I'll be amazed. The last major house I worked on in St.Pete was $2.6 and used about 1/32 the concrete going into any of the designs. $50mil. is just a joke, its bald faced lie, and it'll only inflame what is a substantial anti-tax, anti-government tea-party base in Pinellas County. At least be honest with the public. Selling it as only $50mil. guarantees that at least 35-40% of the public will start off from a NO position on any other major project. I just hate bait and switches.

[I-275westcoastfl]

So just the structure was approved for $45million. Its a nice structure don't get me wrong but with just the structure its going to be a fail. Maybe somebody with intelligence will realize they need to do something with the land around it to make it work, then again this is Tampa Bay.

[gstolze]

It looks nice on the drawings expecially as aerial but I'm afraid if it gets built it will be a weird looking concrete eyesore for people walking around at the waterfront.

[DShenise]

That's one of the reasons when I do sketchup models I try to keep 90% of the views to showing what you could actually view. Overheads are great, particularly if you're a seagull, however most people don't get to view things from 300' above the bay.

[dpw1983]

Someone previously insisted St. Pete will never get cruise lines. . . well. . .

This article focuses on a possible cruise terminal west of the Sunshine Skyway, but there is one paragraph that talks about Port of Tampa sending some small/mid/boutique lines to the new St. Pete Pier in exchange for the Rays moving to Tampa. . .

http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-ne...mma-ar-399316/